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.
This is a memory wheel for transition and can be used for any age group.
Pupils can draw their memories of the past year. This offers a multitude of benefits for their personal and emotional development. This creative exercise allows children to visually express their experiences, enhancing their ability to recall and articulate important moments. By drawing their memories, pupils engage in a reflective practice that fosters self-awareness and helps them appreciate their achievements and growth over the year.
Artistic expression through drawing can also be therapeutic, providing a safe outlet for pupils to process and communicate their emotions. This can be particularly beneficial for those who might find it difficult to express their feelings verbally. Additionally, the memory wheel serves as a visual diary, capturing a snapshot of their year that they can look back on, reinforcing positive experiences and milestones.
Sharing their memory wheel for transition with peers and teachers can strengthen social connections and build a sense of community. It encourages pupils to listen to others’ experiences, fostering empathy and understanding. The activity can boost confidence as children take pride in their artwork and the memories they’ve chosen to highlight.
Overall, the memory wheel activity is a powerful tool for promoting emotional well-being, enhancing memory retention, and encouraging a positive outlook on personal growth and achievements.
This resource will help to develop children's growth mindset as well as help them risk assess a situation. Children need to look at their mistakes, find out what they learnt by that mistake, understand the consequences and have another go or don't have another go depending on what has been learnt. Equally children do need to assess the risks of an activity they are doing to make sure they do not hurt themselves and to give a bit more thought into what they are doing. They need to understand the consequences of their mistake.
Included in the resource:
A game board
18 mistake scenario cards
10 ideas for using the mistake cards
worksheets to go with those ideas
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.
There is everything you need to create an ‘Emotion Potion Display’. You can print the potion bottles on A4 or A3 depending on how big you want them to be. There is lettering or a banner depending on how you like to do your displays. The droplets come in different colours and black and white.
Included in the pack:
20 emotions on coloured potion bottles – fordisplay
20 emotion potion worksheets in colour – for children
20 emotion potion worksheets in black and white – for children
A range of droplets to cut out – for display
A banner – for display
Display lettering – for display
Ideas on how to use this display
Have an emotion of the week. Print and cut out the appropriate potion bottle and put that on the wall. Sit the children in a circle and give them a prompt such as:
What triggers this emotion? So you are looking for anything that causes this emotion. For anger it might be ‘someone calling you a name’ for jealousy it might be ‘someone getting a new pair of trainers’, and so on.
What physical effects does this emotion cause? So you are looking for any physical effects linking to that emotion. For anger it might be ‘fast heartbeat’, for anxiety it might be ‘trembling or shaking’ and so on.
What might you be thinking when you feel this emotion? So you are looking for thoughts associated with this emotion. So for anger it might be ‘He is looking at me in a funny way!’ and for sadness it might be ‘I have no friends’. And so on.
What coping strategies do you have when you feel this emotion? So you are looking for anything that helps a child cope with this emotion. Obviously this is more linked to the negative emotions. For anger it might be ‘Do my breathing exercises’, for sadness it might be ‘go and talk to an adult’.
What other words do you know that mean the same or similar to this emotion? So for anger you are looking for words such as ‘mad, irate, furious, livid’, and so on.
When you have discussed this in detail during circle time you can then give them the worksheet to match the one on display. Use their ideas to create your display on the wall. Cut out the appropriate sized droplet and write in black marker. Stick this above the potion bottle to look like it is falling into the bottle or you could have them going the other way to show they are coming out of the bottle. Entirely your choice. Repeat this in the next session with another emotion.
You can obviously use this pack anyway you like and the ideas are endless. You could print out all the emotion potion bottles and make a display with all of them.
This is a pack of ways for pupils to feedback on how their sessions went. Brilliant to show evidence of impact for any impending OFSTED visits. These will also help you inform future planning and find out what your pupil has learnt.
It is so important to assess your work constantly to ensure you are doing the absolute best for your pupils.
Included in the pack
8 different ways to feedback from worksheets, to speech bubbles to rolling a die. Girl version and boy version available where relevant.
This is such an important social skill. This covers reasons why we might need to say sorry and looks at physical hurt, non verbal hurt, verbal hurt and hurt caused by our actions. It also looks at the 4 part apology.
The powerpoint makes this available to whole classes or groups.
This resource pack contains the following:
Powerpoint show – you can use this for individual, group or whole class. When used for individual, you can act as the partner.
PDF of the show – so you can print it out if you need to or if you don’t have a computer or Whiteboard to work on.
A poster and worksheet pack – please see the example images.
This is a huge pack of resources for children to learn how to rid themselves of negative thoughts through mindfulness type exercises. There are 3 zipped files included in the download due to the size of the resource.
The children are asked to think about an animal, then to stop thinking about the animal. This will demonstrate how it is difficult to stop thinking about something just by telling yourself not to think about it. They are then asked to do an exercise to demonstrate how that will rid them of the animal. If the animal comes back they do the exercise again.
There are:
24 A5 cards to print
24 Powerpoint shows for each exercise
24 PDFs of the Powerpoint shows
Supporting worksheets – 3 main sheets but offered with colour, black and white, with and without lines.
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.
This is a body sensations resource pack containing lots of ways to explore body sensations linked to emotion.
Included in this resource pack:
4 different skin coloured body shapes (A3 size) and 1 in black and white, each showing a blank box for writing a feeling word and a scale to scale how big the feeling is.
48 image cards
96 sensation describing word cards
48 parts of the body cards
36 colour cards for describing what colour your emotions are
Condensed A4 mat for discussion about feelings, sensations , sensation words and colours.
A blank sheet for adding any other sensations, body parts, colours that might be needed.
Visual representation of sizes for younger children.
Purpose of the resource
To identify body feelings and sensations.
How do we feel in our bodies when we are anxious, angry, worried, happy, scared etc?
Do we feel tingly, numb, wobbly, trembly, hot, empty and so on?
This resource is a way for children to tell you how they are feeling in their bodies. The image cards can be used for children to place on the body shape where they are feeling this sensation.
The words could be used instead of the images in the same way. They could also be used together.
This resource is set up for A3 printing. Laminate all of the pieces so you can use it over and over for different children. This is suitable for children of all ages.
If laminated the child could also use a dry wipe pen to draw facial expressions associated with the feeling they have. They can mark off on the scale how big their feeling is. There are some cards at the end of this pack with some visual representations of big, medium and small for very young children.
If the child is unsure of body parts spend a little time going through the cards and placing them where they go on the body. You could make this a bit of a game. ‘Where is the scalp?’ The child can put the word where they think the scalp should be. What feelings do you get in your scalp if you are angry? They might pick the fire or pick hot. They might pick prickly or a picture of a brush. There are so many ways to use this resource with children to talk about their feelings.
You could even use it as an interactive display. It is A3 size so you could have the body on the wall with the cards around the body so pupils could pick one of the picture or word cards and place it with a bit of bluetak onto the body where they feel that emotion.
This is such a versatile resource and I think you will use it a lot.
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.
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 word affirm means to ‘state something that is true’. Affirmation cards have simple but positive messages that help to develop a person’s sense of self. When used regularly it is hoped that the positive message will be absorbed and a person will 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.
Although I have called these ‘ADULT’ they really are for anyone. My other cards have characters on them and these are character free.
All these cards begin with the words ‘I am’ and are very simple but achievable statements for all.
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
These Flipbooks are brilliant for working with children. Each flipbook concentrates on different areas.
Included in the pack
18 emotion books which use our senses to describe each emotion
An ‘About me’ book
3 books dealing with negative feelings such as anger, anxiety and sadness
A book dealing with ‘Restorative Practice’
A book on increasing happiness
24 flipbooks all together.
Included in the pack
A banner - use your Adobe printer setting to print it as large as you like
A Poster - set for A3 printing
A star and a rainbow
Star and rainbow cards for the children to write on.
The ‘Feel the Feels’ range of resources are aimed at older pupils and therefore are suitable for secondary children. They use a range of clipart of teens/preteens.
This is a bingo set which can be used for emotions work. This set contains the following emotions/feelings/conditions –
annoyed, furious, hyper, proud, depressed, stressed, shocked, excited, silly,
This bingo game is great for boosting self-esteem. Every child has strengths and talents but sometimes they find it hard to see that. This game will help them to understand some positive character traits. They will learn new vocabulary and will explore each strength and talent.
Strengths covered are:
sociable
energetic
focused
patient
co-operative
calm
funny
positive
respectful
Included in the pack:
9 bingo boards
calling cards
strength sheet
9 comic strip strengths worksheets
There are 21 different emotions in the pack. One set with ‘I feel’ and just the face and another set with ‘I feel’, the face and a suggested emotion/feeling.
A great way to learn about emotions.
What it looks like, synonyms, what you might say, what you might think, what causes it and how to cope with it.
20 Emotions covered and a blank template to use as a worksheet so you can write and draw other emotions.
‘Today I heard this’ is a simple worksheet for children to write down things they hear that they don’t understand.
Children hear things on the news, in newspapers, parents or other adults talking, social media or their friends and classmates. What they hear might not be true and they get themselves worried and upset for no good reason. Leave a stack of these out in the classroom so any misconceptions can be addressed quickly. Encourage children to ask a trusted adult about what they have heard.
This resource has been inspired by the current Russia/Ukraine conflict.