Stress This resource is about stress and coping strategies. Some stress can be good because it can actually encourage and motivate you to work harder. When you get too much stress it can make you feel overwhelmed. Finding a balance is key to managing stress. Stress bucket The bucket is a metaphor for the body and the water is a metaphor for stress and coping strategies. This resource will lead the child through making a stress bucket and learning how to use it. Levels of stress Depending on the person, the level of water in the bucket may already be high due to past experiences. Stress entering the body isn’t necessarily filling up an empty bucket. It is adding to what is already there. Every day stressors can soon overflow the bucket. There are always people and children who blow up over the slightest thing and this is probably because their stress is quite high all of the time. Turning on the tap Turning the tap on is a metaphor for letting out the stress and the best way to do this is through coping strategies. Coping strategies can be anything that the calms the person down from ‘calming breathing’ to ‘having a run’. It might also be things they enjoy doing, something that makes them feel happy. It can be individual to the person on what works for them. What relieves their stress? Included in the pack Stress scales. These could be used as bookmarks and taken away. A4 poster that could be stuck to the wall as a reminder 24 additional supporting worksheets An A4 bucket and pocket – pupils can put their stress INTO the bucket by using the pocket Cloud and water for the craft Different sizes of water droplets Information sheets including examples of stressors, de-stressing ideas, physical body signs, and how it affects emotions and behaviour

There are 40 brightly coloured cards showing ways to be a good friend. Perfect for KS1 and Lower KS2. Use these as discussion or teaching points on how to be a good friend.

This resource will help children understand the basics of CBT. Our thoughts affect our feelings, our feelings affect our behaviour or actions and those behaviours or actions reinforce our thoughts. Included in the pack: A poster to display as a reminder A 24 page workbook Flash cards of thoughts. feelings and actions Credit card sized cards to take way from sessions as a reminder

These are our unwind the mind activity mats. These mats are a combination of working on the particular topic – e.g. be brave and mighty and relaxation activities through refocusing attention. There are puzzles, mindful colouring, drawing, creating patterns and a little writing. You can print them A4 but also if you want them bigger, use your printer settings and print them on A3 paper. These are suitable for KS2 and most of them for secondary too. These unwind the mind activity mats are perfect for Before or after SATs or tests Ending your session Beginning your session Morning routine whole class activity When things are winding down at the end of term Calming corners Homework Transition times Any stressful situations We have the following 10 mats along with answer sheets where needed Be joyful Be mindful Be calm Be positive Be brave and mighty Be kind Be caring to yourself Be determined Be friendly Be proud Benefits of unwind the mind mats Both puzzles and mindful colouring are calming activities that can help children relax and unwind after a busy day or during stressful times. Engaging in these activities encourages deep breathing and fosters a sense of peace and tranquillity. Solving puzzles and colouring mindfully can act as effective stress-relief techniques for children. By focusing their attention on the task at hand, children can temporarily shift their focus away from worries and anxieties, promoting a sense of calmness and emotional well-being. Puzzles and mindful colouring require children to concentrate and pay attention to details, which can help improve their concentration and focus over time. These activities encourage children to stay engaged in the present moment, enhancing their ability to sustain attention and ignore distractions. Puzzles can provide children with opportunities to exercise their problem-solving skills and critical thinking abilities. By deciphering clues, finding patterns, and making logical deductions, children can develop important cognitive skills that are essential for academic success. Mindful colouring allows children to express themselves creatively and explore their imagination through colours and designs. It provides a non-verbal outlet for self-expression, allowing children to convey their emotions and feelings in a safe and therapeutic manner. Successfully completing puzzles and creating beautiful artwork through mindful colouring can boost children’s self-esteem and confidence. Accomplishing challenging tasks and seeing tangible results can instil a sense of pride and accomplishment in children, reinforcing their belief in their abilities. There are lots more benefits to these activity mats.

This feel the feels worksheet set contains a worksheet for 20 different feelings/emotions. Suitable for Key stage 2, 3 and 4.

Brain Break cards and fans. Great for children who need a break. 8 cards and 4 fans included

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.

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 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

Included in the Thankful Tree pack is *Giant tree with sky background *72 leaves with vocabulary *Banner *Black and white leaves for writing *Leaves in a variety of shapes and colours for display. The tree is in PDF format and if you use Adobe to open it, then you can choose any size you like and piece together the pieces. I have included one in the Thankful Tree pack that is ready to print on A4 pieces. This will promote a positive attitude and help increase happiness. Gratefulness or thankfulness is a fabulous habit to get into and helps to change that mindset.

This EBSA workbook School difficulties has been created with valuable help from the members of the ELSA Support Facebook Group who provided some of the difficulties their pupils face. It relies on real life situations that pupils have found difficult about coming to school. ELSAs are often on the front line trying to help pupils back into school and to work on their difficulties. The booklet is aimed from Year 3 to Year 6 but could also be used with Year 2 with support. We also have EBSA workbook school thoughts and feelings and EBSA Workbook Coping with school worries on the website. EBSA is Emotionally based school avoidance. Pupils who struggle to come to school or are non attenders. This might have an emotional cause or a mental health cause. The activity consists of a sorting board, cards with suggestions, cards for pupils to write their own, an exploration board, a feelings board with scales and changes and what they want to happen to make things feel ok. This activity will help pupils to identify what is bothering them at school and how to reduce that feeling by changing the situation. Start by printing out the base board and cutting up the cards. Print out a blank sheet so the pupil can add their own if they want to. Help the pupil sort the cards between things that are ok, things they are unsure of and things that are not ok. Once you have done that choose one of the things that are not ok and look at it further. Help the pupil break it down to see if you can find out what the actual issue is. Example might be ‘seating plan’ that is not ok. What is it about the seating plan that is not ok? Is it that they are sitting next to someone they don’t like? Perhaps they can’t hear the teacher? Perhaps they are uncomfortable and there might be a draft or a bright light bothering them. They might prefer to be sitting with a friend. Perhaps someone copies off them or talks to them and they don’t like that. Try and help the pupil to break down the difficulty. Once they have the root cause of their difficulty, help them to identify how it makes them feel. Can they put a name to that feeling? How big is that feeling? There is a sheet for pupil voice to say what changes need to happen for them to be ok. They can write it or you can write it for them and they can tell you what needs to change. There is also a daily sheet for pupils to write down anything that they think of or that crops up for them. There are also some additional supporting resources included in the pack This is the first workbook in the EBSA Workbook Range.

This is a set of 56 anxiety cards with lots of helpful tips on how to manage anxiety. These can be used with children from KS2 upwards. There are 8 cards to an A4 sheet of paper. Use them as a focus for your sessions or just to read through and discuss with your pupils.

This self-care potion activity is a fun and engaging for pupils to look at all the things that help with their self-care. There are two potion bottles to choose from. Print out a bottle and print out the pocket. Cut them out carefully and stick the pocket to the bottle. Print out and cut out some of the droplets of potion. Firstly go through the list with the pupil and get them to write their ideas on one of the sheets. They can add any others not on the list here too. When they have a decent amount they can then fill in their droplets and add them to the pocket of the potion bottle. If they aren’t too keen on all the writing they can go straight to filling in the droplets with prompting from you, using the self-care list. You know your pupils so do what you think is best. Suitable for practically all age groups. Included in the pack: 2 different potion bottles Pocket label for the bottles List of self-care ideas 3 different sheets for pupils to record ideas first 8 coloured potion droplets All available in black and white too This is their recipe for self-care.

This is a set of emotional development ELSA Session Plans for pupils to learn about new Emotional vocabulary. These plans are useful for KS2 upwards. They could possibly used for Year 2 with extra support. Included in the pack is a 18 page file with 5 sessions, some of them can be repeated with different emotions. All the supporting paper resources are included too. The sessions are split into: Learning objective What you need Activity Challenge and further work I think these plans will be useful for new ELSAs and those who just don’t have time allocated for planning. Pupils being able to identify and say how they are feeling can massively reduce the emotion they are feeling. Pupils emotional development is key to good Emotional literacy.

This resource is ideal for working one to one with a child. The red light is the negative emotion such as anger, frustration, fear, worry, sad and upset. The green light is the positive emotion such as happy, chilled, content, ok, calm, and confident. The amber/yellow light is all the things the child can do to help get from the red light to the green light. These are the tools. Make sure you go through the resource with the child and decide which ‘tools’ they need to use or try. Print and laminate this resource, Cut out the cards and keep in a little zip folder, Use either velcro or blu tak to stick the cards onto the base board. If you need the cards to be bigger just print all of it onto A3 paper and laminate.

This is a ‘Falling out with friends pupil leaflet’ (conflict) which was an ELSA request. It is written in a child friendly way so pupils will understand. Included in the ‘falling out with friends pupil leaflet’: Understanding Conflict – Explanation of what conflict means and the emotions around conflict. Causes of conflict – examples of situations that lead to conflict. Win win – What is a win win situation? Compromise – What it means to compromise along with traffic light reminder. Test yourself – Questions to check understanding. There is an editable part for you to put your contact details or just your name. Simply type in the blue box. Don’t worry the blue box doesn’t show when you print. You can of course just print it and handwrite your details. There is also a BLACK AND WHITE version included in the pack. Important information This leaflet is meant to be used as part of ELSA Sessions or some other therapeutic session and shouldn’t just be given out to children without some input. Please DO NOT just give these out without that important input. They are purely reminders for the pupil to take away and for parents to get involved. It is your responsibility to decide whether the information in this leaflet will be helpful to your pupils. Under our terms and conditions these leaflets must not be put onto school websites. They are for printing and giving to pupils at the end of a session or you could use them as a basis for your session. Work through each part with the pupil.

This is a shyness resource pack requested by one of you lovely ELSAs. It is aimed at KS2 upwards. This resource pack is to help children who want to be more confident and brave. They want to overcome their shyness because they are perhaps missing out on things in life. Being braver and less socially awkward may help them have more friends, face their fears and open up new opportunities. There are a whole range of emotions that can come from being shy such as nervousness, anxiety, fear, panic, and embarrassment. Children need to be able to deal with these emotions with coping strategies. Included in the pack: One of our TAB booklets in colour and black and white 3 worksheets in colour and black and white Learning objectives you could use for this pack: To understand what being shy means To identify body signs for feeling shy To understand that other emotions might be triggered by being shy To set a small achievable target for overcoming being shy To be able to scale a situation on the shyness scale To identify thoughts linked to shyness and reframe them To identify and use coping strategies for shyness To understand feelings after overcoming shyness

This gratitude jar will help children look for the positives in their lives. Gratitude according to Positive psychology is strongly linked to being happy. I have done lots of jar activities but think that gratitude is such an important one so deserves its own post. This resources has a jar with and without lines. It also has a long list of suggestions/prompts to encourage children to reflect on things they are grateful or thankful for. The jar without lines can be decorated with pictures, photographs and words. Make it colourful. It could also be used each day and the child adds just one thing for that day they are grateful or thankful for. Of course you could make an actual jar with a lovely label and ask the child to fill it each day with things they are grateful for.

This is a 5 day challenge on being kind to yourself. This is suitable for anyone to do whether you are 5 years old or 15 years old.

This is our Transition Mixed Feelings pack. Transitioning to a new school, class, or group brings a mix of excitement, anxiety, and sadness. Excitement stems from the prospect of new beginnings, learning opportunities, and potential friendships. The idea of a fresh start can be exhilarating. Anxiety, however, often accompanies this excitement. The fear of the unknown, concerns about fitting in, and pressures to perform academically and socially can be daunting. Sadness is another common feeling, arising from leaving behind familiar faces, routines, and environments. The sense of loss and nostalgia for past experiences can be emotionally challenging. Missing old friends and known comforts adds to the difficulty of the transition. To manage these mixed feelings, it’s good to recognise them. This resource will help your pupils do just that. It’s important to acknowledge and validate all emotions. The transition mixed feelings pack has a visual ‘face’ version and a ‘word’ version so you can adapt to the capabilities of the pupil. Despite the challenges, with time and support, pupils can navigate these emotions and successfully adapt to their new environments. This activity is fun and engaging. Pupils will enjoy cutting out and sticking their emotions onto the jar.