The word affirm means to ‘state something that is true’. Affirmation cards have simple but positive messages that help to develop a child’s sense of self. When used regularly it is hoped that the children will absorb the positive message and become more positive in their outlook in life. They will really begin to believe the statement that they are working on. The message needs to be realistic and very simple. Having unrealistic affirmations may make a child feel worse about themselves and your aim with these is to increase their self-esteem.
All these cards begin with the words ‘I am’ and are very simple but achievable statements for all children.
Included in the pack:
25 Affirmation cards – 4 to an A4 page
25 Affirmation cards – 2 to an A4 page
25 Affirmation cards – 1 to an A4 page
Blank Affirmation cards – 4 to an A4 page
Tips booklet
this ‘What are they thinking?’ resource has 72 cards with a character or characters and a thinking bubble. The idea is that the child must come up with something that the character is thinking. Look at where the thinking bubble is pointing for those pictures with several characters. You can of course ask what they think the other characters are thinking, feeling or why they are behaving in that way.
There is a whole range of emotions, body language, positive and negative behaviour cards included.
This is a great inference tool for children to look carefully at what is happening in the picture or to look carefully at the facial expression or body language. Great for speech and language activities as well as social and emotional. Children will learn how to really look at something and analyse what they can see. They will learn to infer what is happening. This will help them with reading different situations in their everyday life and of course for reading comprehension activities.
This is a ‘talking’ activity rather than a writing one but you could print the cards bigger, on A3 rather than A4, laminate them and they could be used with a dry wipe pen.
They could be used for one to one working, small groups or circle-time. This is also a great ice-breaker resource to help warm up the child before working with them.
14 foldables for emotions work. Instructions on how to make up are in the files. Girl or Boy provided where necessary. Make emotions work more interesting. Perfect for ELSAS, Teaching Assistants, Learning Mentors or working one to one with children with social or emotional problems.
This resource consists of:
104 cards
1 game board
5 worksheets
Children will learn that it is ok to say what they like or what they dislike. They will also understand that everyone has different likes and dislikes. Teach diversity.
17 feelings thermometers showing different children - light skinned, dark skinns, girls, boys.
Emotions - happy to upset, happy to angry, happy to scared, happy to worried.
Print as A4 for individual use but can be blown up using the ‘POSTER’ setting on your computer.
This is a matching game using emotions from different nationalities. Of course it has the underlying message that we all feel emotions no matter who you are, where you live or whatever your skin colour is.
Included in the pack:
A game board
A feelings mat in colour and black and white
worksheets covering all the emotions shown in boy version and girl version
Each child throws a die and moves that number of places. If they land on a ‘child’ they must match that emotion to their mat. They can circle it on their mat with a dry wipe pen. Encourage them to name the emotion. This could be extended to ‘Tell me a time when you felt like that’. If they land on an instruction then they must move that number of places either forwards or backwards.
The winner is the person who has circled the most emotions on their mat when everyone has reached the end of the game board.
The feelings mat could also be used as an emotional register or a prompt for including emotions in their writing.
There is a set of worksheets for each emotion (boy and girl version) to explore the child’s emotion in more detail. It is simply drawing a picture and writing a sentence or two.
This intervention is written for a group of six children and is led by an ELSA or teaching assistant. It covers recognising, labelling and expressing the six basic emotions. It is written for children from 4-7 but could also be useful for children with autism or special needs. The sessions last for approximately 40 to 60 minutes.
The intervention covers the six basic emotions of happy, sad, angry, scared, surprised and disgusted.
A pre and post assessment is filled in by the class teacher at the beginning and end of the intervention. The assessments we use are enclosed with this pack. These assessments cover other areas of emotional literacy and social skills but are a good indicator of any other problems that the child may have. Please choose which ones you want to use. You may have other generic assessments that you use but it is important to try and track progress however you choose to do it. Often when a child takes part in this type of intervention other skills are developed too. For example social skills, sharing, co-operating, teamwork and self-esteem to name a few. It is a good idea to keep a book, like a learning journey to stick the children’s work in. This is a brilliant way of sharing with parents and teachers things that the children are doing with you.
All the paper resources are included in this pack. You will need a large sheet of paper for week 6 and a cuddly teddy and hoops for week 2.
Learning objectives are as follows:
I can recognise and name the six basic emotions
I can understand the reasons why I might feel different emotions
I can give examples of when I felt happy and sad
I can give examples of when I felt angry and scared
I can give examples of when I felt surprised and disgusted
I can tell you about some of the physical sensations I get when I feel an emotion
The pack includes:
10 different stories – which can be personalised with a photo and a name. These are available in a girl version and boy version where needed.
Prompt cards – these take the key points from the story which can be put on a keyring and used often to remind children of what they are trying to achieve
Target sheet – Children colour a star and number each time they hit their target.
Certificate – Children get to take a certificate home when they have filled in the 5 stars on the target sheet.
This pack of resources will help children with common social skill problems. There are 10 stories included in this pack.
The pack includes:
10 different stories – which can be personalised with a photo and a name. These are available in a girl version and boy version where needed.
Prompt cards – these take the key points from the story which can be put on a keyring and used often to remind children of what they are trying to achieve
Target sheet – Children colour a star and number each time they hit their target.
Certificate – Children get to take a certificate home when they have filled in the 5 stars on the target sheet.
Here are the stories included in the pack
Saying sorry – Story
Prompt cards, Target sheet, Certificate
Using my kind hands – Story
Prompt cards, Target sheet, Certificate
Using my kind feet – Story
Prompt cards, Target sheet, Certificate
Not ok to hit or hurt others – Story
Prompt cards, Target sheet, Certificate
Shouting out in class – Story
Prompt cards, Target sheet, Certificate
Someone doesn’t want to play with me – Story
Prompt cards, Target sheet, Certificate
Someone doesn’t agree with me – Story
Prompt cards, Target sheet, Certificate
Personal space – Story
Prompt cards, Target sheet, Certificate
Showing I care – Story
Prompt cards, Target sheet, Certificate
Being a good sport – Story
Prompt cards, Target sheet, Certificate
Strength cards are a brilliant way of raising self-esteem in children. Please see below for lots of ideas on how to use them.
There are lots of ways of using them to help boost a child’s self esteem. They help children to name and recognise their inner strengths. Great for the child who is shy or doesn’t want to speak out in front of others.
Lay all the strength cards out and ask the child to pick five strengths that represent them.
In a group situation, ask one child to sit in the centre of the circle and the rest of the children have to pick five strengths that represent that child.
In a group situation, give each child a white board and pen and go through the strength cards. The children can write five on their whiteboards.
Pick one of your strength cards and decide how you are going to use that strength – today, tomorrow, next week, next year?
Pick one of the strengths that you want to be. For example if you decide you want to be a good team player. How can you achieve that? Make a plan.
Pick someone you admire, it might be a footballer, a singer, a film star, a family member or a friend, what strengths do they have?
Put the cards face down, ask a child to pick one. Discuss the card. Does he/she know anyone with that strength? Do they have that strength? Would they want that strength?
Ask the child to design their own strength card. What image would it have? What would the strength be?
Use the strength cards as affirmations. Use the five cards the child has chosen and get them to say ‘I am strong, I am thoughtful, I am wise, I am musical, I am kind’. Put them in a little box and the child must look at them daily and repeat the affirmations.
Pick one strength card such as ‘affectionate���. Who do they know who is Affectionate? Discuss. This could also be a group discussion.
Each child is given a Bingo base board and a set of counters. Cut up the word cards and read out the ‘I can’ statement. The child looks for that statement on their board and covers it with a counter. Continue until someone has a straight line horizontally, vertically or diagonally.
There is also a board for children to choose 3 ideas that they will try to help them relax and be more mindful. There is a set of image cards, image cards plus I can statement to print off and the child can stick them to their base board to take away at the end of the session.
Other ideas to use this game:
Matching pairs game with pictures
Matching pairs game with pictures and ‘I can’ statement
Print out the cards and put on a keyring as a reminder
As a stimulus for discussion
Set 1 is available from my shop
Each child is given a Bingo base board and a set of counters. Cut up the word cards and read out the ‘I can’ statement. The child looks for that statement on their board and covers it with a counter. Continue until someone has a straight line horizontally, vertically or diagonally.
There is also a board for children to choose 3 ideas that they will try to help them relax and be more mindful. There is a set of image cards, image cards plus I can statement to print off and the child can stick them to their base board to take away at the end of the session.
Other ideas to use this game:
Matching pairs game with pictures
Matching pairs game with pictures and ‘I can’ statement
Print out the cards and put on a keyring as a reminder
As a stimulus for discussion
Set 2 is available from my Shop
To be mindful of children of ALL ages who would benefit from an emotions check in I have created this resource. It is suitable for children as young as 3 or 4 and as old as 16 or even older.
The resources consists of:
14 base boards with different backgrounds
light skinned emotion faces
darker skinned emotion faces
emoji faces
small girl emotion character
small boy emotion character
These Social and Emotional Support EXCEL assessments are perfect for an ELSA or anyone else who needs to track progress and impact of intervention.
It includes an excel file for tracking emotional skills, anxiety, social skills, growth mindset, independence, friendships and relationships, and self esteem.
There is also a pupil questionnaire.
These are so quick and easy to fill in. No calculating to do as it is all done for you. It is a matter of clicking a number for each statement.
They will work on a computer or laptop but NOT on an IPAD or phone and you must have EXCEL installed on your computer.
This download gives your school a licence to use these assessments. This means you only need to buy one for your school and everyone in your school can use it. The price listed is the price that needs to be paid for the school licence. Please do not add the TES school licence.
This is ideal to play with groups of up to 8 children. Children will learn about good listening skills through playing this game and it will constantly reinforce those essential skills.
Included in the pack:
One poster for display in the classroom/ELSA area
8 bingo boards with the images in different places
1 set of calling cards
This workbook can be made up to suit the child. Work on families can be very useful as it helps children to understand their identity and helping them to see the support network around them.
I have added sheets for different family members such as:
mum
dad
stepmum
stepdad
grandma
grandad
auntie
uncle
pet
sister
brother
stepsister
stepbrother
There are 23 sheets altogether in the pack.
If you require any more family members then please comment below and I can add them to the pack.
The resource consists of:
a game board
42 scenario cards
8 worksheets
Explanation cards on being ‘RUDE’, ‘MEAN’ and ‘BULLYING’.
So many children and parents use the term ‘bullying’ incorrectly. This resource aims to teach the difference between being rude, mean or actual bullying.
Being rude is doing something unintentionally and doing it once. Being mean is doing something intentionally and doing it once or twice. Being a bully is doing something intentionally and doing it over and over again even when told to stop.
The scenario cards are a mixture of rude, mean and bullying situations. The cards can be used with the game board or with the worksheets. They will prompt lots of discussion on what bullying really means.
Children will explore intentional or unintentional behaviour, controlling behaviour, the victims feelings, and remorse or sorrow for the behaviour.
There is also a poster added as a free extra.