This intervention is written for a group of four children and is led by an ELSA or teaching assistant. It covers emotions, relaxation and lessons around transition either into the next class or new school. It runs for approximately 40 minutes. It is pitched at junior aged children but would work for year 2 to year 3 too.
Children will work together in a group which will give them a sense of belonging. This helps to raise self-esteem.
All my interventions follow a similar structure:
Welcome and emotional register– welcome the children to the group, go over the circle time rules and talk about how they feel today.
Warm up – children really respond better if they have had chance to warm up and feel at ease by playing a game or activity. This may or may not be related to the learning objective.
Activity – this is where the children work on the learning objective.
Relaxation/Mindfulness – Children are more ready to go back to class if they are relaxed and calm.
Review of the session – Children talk about their learning experience and perhaps fill in a pupil feedback form on the session.
The paper resources for this intervention come in booklet form. Make one up to show the children at the start of your intervention but don’t make their booklets up straight away. Some weeks has a challenge for them to take away with them. Make their booklets up for their last session so they can take them away as a reminder. You can collect any evidence you require each week up to that point.
There is a simple assessment for this intervention.
This pack includes
Planning booklet – please read this first
Emotion fans
Circle time rules
Relaxation booklet
Pupil booklet
Assessment
Certificate
Pupil feedback
20 emotions covered in this resource pack.
Simple folds make this unique and exciting for children.
Children will learn to identify the facial expression, what makes them feel that emotion, physical signs of the emotion and synonyms of the emotion.
This is a compliments game where children have to think of many things they can compliment not just appearance. Appearance is included but there are so many things they can compliment as well. This resource will help them to think of all those other things too.
Included in the pack:
A4 gameboard
A3 gameboard
60 Scenarios to help children think about other things they can compliment
Winner’s certificate
Player’s watches
Supporting worksheets (8)
This journal will address many areas of a pupils’ well-being. It is suitable for KS1 and possibly Lower KS2. The journal is a way for pupils to find the positives in their life and to discover mindfulness and relaxation.
Here are some of the areas addressed:
Positivity
Emotions
Self-esteem
Focus
Target setting
Mindfulness
Relaxation
Thinking skills
Strengths
Scaling emotions
Worries
Thoughts and feelings
Emotion tracking
Gratitude/thankfulness
Kindness
Creativity
Reflecting
Planning
Included in the pack:
One weeks worth of journal – each day has 2 pages of things to fill in, which have certain elements change.
Independent journal sheet should pupils want to continue
Worry garage
Positives Jar
2 emotion trackers – Popcorn, and Heart mosaic
End of week assessment
Bullet journal sheet for creating
Weekly review
4 front covers to choose from
Name one thing sheet
How to use the journal with lots of ideas for using in ELSA Sessions with a pupil – would also be useful to teachers, teaching assistants, learning mentors and counsellors.
This is a lovely activity to do with children to discuss separation or divorce. The chances are that the child spends time in both mum’s house and dad’s house. Included in this pack are house templates which can be printed onto A3 or A4 card and made up with the child. This is a lovely, visual and hands on activity where the child can write or draw things and put them in the relevant house.
Included in the pack:
2 House templates with bricks
2 House templates blank
30 question prompts
A variety of templates for writing or drawing.
There are:
40 different Mandalas, one to a page with a lovely quote to discuss. Print these as posters, individual worksheets or as a booklet.
20 Postcards -A5 Size – I thought doing them any smaller would make colouring in a bit too difficult.
This journal will address many areas of a pupils’ well-being. It is suitable for KS2 upwards and even useful for adults! The journal is a way for pupils to find the positives in their life and to discover mindfulness and relaxation.
Here are some of the areas addressed:
Positivity
Emotions
Self-esteem
Focus
Target setting
Mindfulness
Relaxation
Thinking skills
Affirmations
Scaling emotions
Worries
Thoughts and feelings
Emotion tracking
Gratitude/thankfulness
Kindness
Creativity
Reflecting
Planning
Included in the pack:
One weeks worth of journal – each day has 2 pages of things to fill in
Independent journal sheet should pupils want to continue
Worry garage
Positives Jar
2 emotion trackers – dream catcher and mosaic
End of week assessment
Bullet journal sheet for creating
Weekly review
8 front covers to choose from
Doodles, drawings and scribbles sheet
How to use the journal with lots of ideas for using in ELSA Sessions with a pupil – would also be useful to teachers, teaching assistants, learning mentors and counsellors.
Express yourself Art Doodling is a series of prompts for drawing. Children get so much from drawing. It is a way of self expression and self exploration. Children relax when drawing and are much more open to talking about their feelings.
This booklet can be printed as A4 and stapled together or as A3 to give children more room for drawing. You could also just dip into the sheets and print the one you want to use. You could use the same sheet for the whole group or whole class of children. The booklet has purposely been created in black and white so as not to distract from the child’s drawings and of course to save printing costs.
There are 40 activities in the booklet covering so many aspects of emotional literacy.
I am sure children will get a lot out of the booklet and it will give you valuable information about their thoughts and feelings. It can also be used as a ready made lesson plan for one to one work or group work.
Please ensure you use ADOBE to open PDFs because this will give you great options for printing.
Here are a set of 20 Christmas/Winter themed Mindful Mandalas with some lovely quotes to discuss. Pupils can enjoy the mindfulness of colouring along with chat about the quote.
Print as a booklet or just print what you need. You could also blow them up quite large due to the excellent image quality so if you want to do a group colouring you could do.
Wally Worry the worry monster is for helping children to offload their worries.
Included in the pack: *Wally Worry banner, *Wally Worry Monster(with writing, without writing and with a white label for writing with a whiteboard pen), *Wally Worry slips for children to fill in *Pocket template for catching the worries(2 colours).
Although the monster can be used with the pocket another way would be to laminate and cut along the curved line on his tummy. Stick something at the back of him to catch the worries.
Wally Worry is meant for printing on A3 paper but you could make it bigger or smaller depending on your needs. We recommend Adobe Reader for opening our PDFs as this gives you some lovely print options. You can print as a poster and make him pretty huge if you want to and alternatively for one child you could just print him on A4 paper.
The Control your Thunder – ELSA Anger intervention is an ANGER management intervention for KS2 upwards.
Included in the pack is:
Planning booklet
Pupil booklet
Circletime rules
Relaxation cube
Emotion fans
ANGER posters
Supporting resources
Certificate of completion
There are five lessons which are based on a letter from the word ANGER
A is AWARENESS
N is NEGATIVE thoughts
G is GAUGING
E is EXPRESSING
R is RELAXATION
Create a display in a natural design with this Natural resilience display pack. Natural displays are calming for some pupils. Sometimes bright colours can overstimulate a child.
Included in the pack: *80 vocabulary words *Banner *A-Z bunting *writing and drawing paper
Reveal an emotion is a great warm up activity or just a fun introduction to discussion on emotions. It is a PowerPoint game so you do need to have PowerPoint installed on your computer. It is also editable in PowerPoint. This resource will work on IPAD with the PowerPoint app installed, however you will not be able to edit it on IPAD. The animations will not work in Google slides.
Pupils choose a ‘favourites’ question and answer it. Once answered they can click the square to reveal part of the picture. The aim of the game is to label the emotion that is hidden. There is a face, body and word attached to 8 different emotions.
Emotions covered are:
happy
sad
angry
scared
worried
confused
surprised
disgusted
There are 12 ‘favourites’ questions for each emotion which are all fully editable so you can use completely different questions should you wish. That makes a total of 96 questions provided to start you off!
Using as a PRINTABLE GAME
Should you want to print this and use it as a printable game.
Insert a blank slide into your PowerPoint.
Select all the squares from your chosen slide and click CUT.
Paste them into the blank slide.
Save as a PDF and print as normal onto A4 paper or card.
Cut up the squares and place over the image. The child would choose a card, answer it and remove it from the image.
This intervention is for a group of six girls and is led by an ELSA or teaching assistant. It covers emotions, relaxation, calming down techniques and learning objectives around assertiveness for girls. It runs for approximately 40-60 minutes, weekly for six weeks. Children will learn about emotions during each session and will also learn relaxation and calming techniques through the ‘relaxation time’. This knowledge and these skills will help them to become more emotionally literate. The warm-up games teach a variety of skills such as co-operation, team work, taking turns, communication skills, friendship, self-esteem and confidence. The coming together of a group fosters a sense of belonging and therefore raises self-esteem. Every opportunity should be taken to promote belonging and friendship.
The age range for this intervention would be approximately year 3 upwards and should be aimed at quiet, shy girls who lack confidence and self-esteem.
The pack contains the following:
Planning booklet with 6 fully planned sessions
Circle time rules posters
Shout out reflection sheet
Feelings wheel
Certificate
Assertiveness list
Passive list
Aggressive list
Assertiveness comic strip
Passive comic strip
Aggressive comic strip
Assertive communication poster
Strengths shield
Strength cards
Problem cards
Target setting sheet
Visuals for mindfulness
This is ELSA Support’s Twinkle with respect intervention. It is written for children from approximately KS2 to KS3.
The Respect intervention is for a group of 6 children and is led by an ELSA or a teaching assistant. It covers emotions, relaxation, calming down techniques and learning objectives around respect. It runs for approximately 30-40 minutes, weekly for six weeks. There are lots of visuals, circle times and group activities along with lots of expression through drawing and writing.
Pupils will learn about emotions along with relaxation and coping skills each session. This knowledge and these skills will help them to become more emotionally literate. The coming together of a group fosters a sense of belonging and contributes towards higher self-esteem. Every opportunity should be taken to promote belonging and friendship.
This ‘Twinkle with respect intervention’ follows this structure
Welcome and emotional register– welcome the pupils to the group, go over the group rules and talk about how they feel today.
Warm up – This is an unrelated activity to warm the pupils up and break the ice.
Activity – this is where the pupils work on the learning objective.
Relaxation/Mindfulness – Teaches valuable relaxation and mindfulness skills.
Review of the session – pupils talk about their learning experience.
Resources – ready to print and go!
Group rules
Planning for 6 sessions
Certificate on completion
Feelings wheels
5 things you can see visual
I showed respect comic strip
Reach the sky visual
I showed disrespect comic strip
Fill your mind with colour visual
Respect and disrespect cards
Respect and disrespect examples worksheet
Scenario sort
List of characteristics
Passing through visual
Personal characteristic comic strip
Count those breaths visual
Design a poster task
Scenario consequences
Stand like a mountain visual
What I did or said
All the printable resources are included. You will also need a few other things such as colouring pens, pencils, a set of dominoes, and whiteboards and pens.
The lessons cover the following:
Learning objectives
Lesson 1
What is respect?
Lesson 2
What is disrespect?
Lesson 3
I can tell the difference between respect and disrespect
Lesson 4
What is self respect
Lesson 5
What is respect for our environment?
Lesson 6
What is respect for others?
This is ELSA Support’s Twinkle and shine self esteem intervention for young children. It is written for children from approx. 4 to 6 but could be used with 7 year olds too.
The Self-esteem intervention is for a group of 4 children and is led by an ELSA or a teaching assistant. It covers emotions, relaxation, calming down techniques and learning objectives around self-esteem. It runs for approximately 30-40 minutes, weekly for six weeks. There are also tips for areas of provision to continue or reinforce the learning done in the intervention group. There are lots of visuals, circle times and group activities along with lots of expression through drawing.
Children will learn about emotions during each session and will also learn relaxation and calming techniques through the ‘relaxation time’. This knowledge and these skills will help them to become more emotionally literate. The coming together of a group fosters a sense of belonging and contributes towards higher self-esteem. Every opportunity should be taken to promote belonging and friendship.
This Twinkle and shine self esteem intervention follows this structure
Welcome and emotional register– welcome the pupils to the group, go over the circle time rules and talk about how they feel today.
Warm up – This is a song they will sing right through every session to help them Twinkle and shine!
Activity – this is where the pupils work on the learning objective.
Relaxation/Mindfulness – pupils are more ready to go back to class if they are relaxed and calm. This also teaches them valuable coping/relaxation skills.
Areas of provision – these are suggestions to continue learning in class
Review of the session – pupils talk about their learning experience and fill in their star on the building block.
The pack contains the following:
Twinkle and shine planning – six sessions of fully resources planning with suggestions on what to say
Building blocks to self esteem – children will colour one star in at a time until they build their self esteem
Circle time song – Twinkle and shine sung to the tune of ‘Frere Jacque’
Certificate for the end of the sessions
I am special because I am different worksheet
Butterfly visual
My house
Paintpot visual
Family and friends game
Family and friends tree
Turtle shell visual
Things I am good at
Snowman visual
Proud cloud
Superhero pose visual
Grow happy feelings
Floating on a cloud visual
Circle time rules
Feelings wheel
Shout outs
Resources
This pack contains all the printable resources you will need for each lesson. There are other easy to find items needed and each lesson plan has a list of items you will need. These things are simple such as a mirror, and colouring pencils/pens.
This is a HUGE ‘Feelings Diary or journal’ pack so you can put together the PERFECT diary or journal for each pupil you work with.
There are over 65 different templates to use. Pupils can write or draw or do a bit of both. This resource is suitable for children as young as 5 or 6 to teens.
Pupils can track their feelings, talk about their feelings, explore thoughts, look at body sensations, be mindful of the 5 a day for wellbeing, use brain dumping and scale emotions along with many other things like mindful colouring.
This is a huge set of feelings cards and definitions. There are 171 cards in the pack which print 8 to an A4 page. There is also a page of ideas included which are listed below.
There is a feeling word and a very simple definition. You can use these for introducing vocabulary to children. They are suitable for KS2 to Secondary.
I have included some little cards that you can fold so you can hide the definition if you wish and get the child to guess what it might mean.
They are in alphabetical order and there are at least 4 feeling words for each letter except for x y and z
Ideas:
Find the letters of your name and decide if you have felt those feelings
Pick a bundle of the cards and arrange into alphabetical order
Pick out some positive feelings
Pick out some difficult feelings
Find a feeling word beginning with a certain letter and write a sentence using it
Hide the definition and ask the child to guess what it might mean
Find all the feelings that would be synonyms of happy, sad, angry or scared
Think about your day and pick out all the feelings you have felt in that day.
Make a collage of….angry words., happy words, scared words, sad words
Start a feelings diary and pick out your main feeling for that day. Write it down and explain why you felt that way.
Pick a card and draw…. the facial expression, a picture of a time when you felt like that, a comic strip of what happened when you felt like that
Use speech bubbles and thinking bubbles to show what you were thinking or saying
Make your own feeling’s dictionary by picking out all the emotion words you have heard of, writing them down in alphabetical order and write a brief description of what it means.
Pick an ‘angry’ word. How could you calm yourself down if you felt like that?
Pick a word and think about the physical feelings you get when you have this emotion.
Pick a feeling and… make the face, use a mirror to practise, act it out with a friend, make up a scenario that would make you feel like that.
Make up a scenario for a child and get them to choose the feeling they would feel in those circumstances.
Pick a positive feeling and try and use the word as many times as you can in one day.
Pick a feeling card and write or talk about how someone might behave when they feel that feeling. What might they do?
Pick a feeling word and think about who could help you if you felt like that or how could you help yourself if you felt like that?
Pick a feeling card and see if you can find the opposite feeling. An example would be that happy is the opposite of sad.
Pick a difficult feeling word and think about how you could change that feeling to a more positive feeling. What could you do?
This is a Christmas compliments cup activity.
Pupils can send a cup to someone special to give them a compliment. You could also use the cup without the poem for pupils to write their own little poem or message. Just delete the text if want to do that. You could also use it to put on the front of a Christmas card. They could also collect compliments using a plain heart. You could make a different message. This would work well for a group circle time activity.
All the text is editable in PowerPoint. Great for our Welsh ELSAs to translate if they want to.
To edit just click on the text and type. This font has been embedded in the file.
Once you have edited the resource, save it and then save it again as a PDF file. You can now print your cups.
There are 7 different Christmas mindful backgrounds and 1 cup that is blank so pupils could decorate themselves. This one could mean that you could use this at any time of the year, not just Christmas. Pupils will enjoy the mindfulness of colouring their cups.
You will receive a PDF file if you just want to use it as it is and a PowerPoint file if you want to change the text.
The poem is my poem and copyright to me so please do not alter or change this in anyway. You can obviously write your own poem or message if you want to edit it.
Benefits of this activity:
Mindfulness and being absorbed in the present moment
Thinking of others
Giving to others
Thinking of nice things to say to others