Interact is a game about communication. It is aimed at non-verbal communication skills. The game will teach children about gestures (some by touch), expressions, eye contact and voice (expressions, pitch and volume). It does not cover space and personal space although that could be addressed by the person leading the game. The game could be played on a one to one basis or a group basis. My suggestion is no more than four children. The game consists of: Say it cards Expressions cards Eye contact cards Gesture cards A game board Bingo type boards You will also need counters and a die to play. How to play Choose the person to go first by each throwing the die and the highest number thrown goes first. Go clockwise from that person. The first person throws the die and moves their counter that number of spaces. They will land on either ‘say it’ ‘gestures’ ‘eye contact’ or ‘expressions’. They must pick that card and do what is on the card. They may need help with the gestures as you may need to model to them what it means but they will soon begin to learn them. When they have done this they get a counter to put on their bingo board. The first person to fill their bingo board is the winner. If someone has reached the finish star but still hasn’t filled in their bingo board then they must start again.

Activities consist of: Creating a superpower to help people Creating a superhero name Designing your superhero How it makes you feel to use your superpowers to help someone Comparing your favourite superhero to yourself – same and different The Superhero emotion characters have all been drawn by myself.

Make a signpost for your reading area or for your library. Print out the post and make it as big as you like by either printing A3 or A4 and piecing the bits together. Print out as many signs as you like. There are 21 different ones to choose from.

Included in the pack: Banner 15 Posters Speech bubbles with and without lines 68 Display words

he crafts are very simple. It is the process that is important. Children relax when they are working on a craft and to be honest I do not know of a child who does not enjoy crafts especially when it is with someone who is interested in them and interested in what they say. They will open up to you and talk freely whilst enjoying themselves. These activities are also perfect for an ELSA or Teaching assistant who has to do a one off session with a child or who has to work reactively to a situation. When children succeed in an activity then their self efficacy increases. They begin to believe in themselves. Along with your encouragement and praise they will begin to have a ‘can do’ attitude. It takes time but if anyone ever says to you that what you are doing is just ‘crafting and having fun’ WHAT are they learning? You can tell them. The resource includes: Card crafts (20 activities) Templates (13 templates or resources) Front cover, contents sheet

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.

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.

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 can be used in many different ways. Laminate the ‘face sheet’ and then laminate all the expression and vocabulary cards. Cut out the expression and vocabulary cards. Use a blob of bluetac to stick items onto the face. Add a whiteboard pen, a mirror and some playdough to extend the use of this resource. All images have been drawn by myself. I have also included different skin colours.

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

Jigsaw Resource Pack Includes: 5 banners an example lesson plan 10 plain coloured jigsaw pieces 10 coloured jigsaw pieces with vocabulary 15 jigsaw templates and suggestions list on how to use them

The crafts are very simple. It is the process that is important. Children relax when they are working on a craft and to be honest I do not know of a child who does not enjoy crafts especially when it is with someone who is interested in them and interested in what they say. They will open up to you and talk freely whilst enjoying themselves. These activities are also perfect for an ELSA or Teaching assistant who has to do a one off session with a child or who has to work reactively to a situation. Also can be used for whole class activities at Christmas time. When children succeed in an activity then their self efficacy increases. They begin to believe in themselves. Along with your encouragement and praise they will begin to have a ‘can do’ attitude. It takes time but if anyone ever says to you that what you are doing is just ‘crafting and having fun’ WHAT are they learning? You can tell them. The resource includes: Card crafts (20 activities) Templates (17 templates or resources) Front cover, contents sheet

These separation cards are perfect for touching base with your ELSA children. Once an intervention is finished it is important to keep contact with your children. Great relationships occur during ELSA interventions. Some children do build a strong bond with the adult that they work with and these little cards will ensure that they know they are still being thought about and are not forgotten. Of course these were created for the ELSA/Child relationship. These would also work well for Teacher/Child, TA/Child, Learning Mentor/Child or anyone who works either on a one to one basis or small group basis with children. Parent’s may even find them useful to pop in their child’s lunch box for example, or put one under their pillow to remind them about how amazing they are. There are 22 different cards altogether These cards can be printed on A4 card and there are 4 to each A4 sheet. Have a stack of them printed and ready to give out to your children. There is a mixture of ‘thinking of you’ type cards, ‘inspirational cards’ and even Birthday, Christmas cards.

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.

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.

The Cool it game - is a game about managing anger. The game will promote discussion on anger management and the recognition of anger. Anger affirmations are used along with cool it cards which give lots of ideas for calming down. The game could be played on a one to one basis or a group basis. My suggestion is no more than four children. To make the game Photocopy or print the game board onto A3 paper then laminate Print all the cards, laminate and cut into separate cards Print the ‘my choices board with either the 3 boxes or 6 boxes’ depending on the children you are working with (one for each child) The game consists of: 40 Affirmation cards 40 Cool it cards 2 types My choices board A game board You will also need counters, dry wipe pens and a die to play. How to play Choose the person to go first by each throwing the die and the highest number thrown goes first. Go clockwise from that person. The first person throws the die and moves their counter that number of spaces. They must answer the question they land on; however, if they land on affirmation then they must read this out to the rest of the group. Ask the child if they agree with the statement. They may or may not. If they land on a ‘cool it ’ they must read it out and explain what it means. If they cannot explain it then ask if anyone else can help? If they think they would like to try this ‘cool it’ they can write it on their ‘My choices board’. The aim is for each child to have either 3 or 6 choices to try when they start to become angry. Continue going round the board until each child has filled their board with ideas. There isn’t a winner as such with this game as the aim is for the children to learn about their anger You can photocopy the ‘My choices’ card at the end of the session for the child to take away.

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

This car emotions pack will appeal to younger children. It covers the basic six emotions of: happy sad angry scared surprised disgust There are a huge bundle of resources in this pack. There are: 6 Full page emotion posters Emotion cards with and without the words Dominoes with and without the words Emotion spinners with the emotion cars with and without words Emotion spinners with questions on each emotion Emotion fans with and without words An emotion game with and without words Park your emotion with and without words Scale your emotion with and without words

This resource is a fun way of working with emotions. Each emoji represents a letter of the alphabet and pupils need to break the code and work out what all the words are. The words in this pack are all emotion/feeling words. Their are 16 base emotions/feelings with synonyms of that emotion or feelings. This is perfect for year 6s who are returning to school in June. Also great for KS2 children who are still at home. The puzzles are enjoyable to do. Pupils will feel a sense of achievement breaking the codes which will help raise self esteem. Getting involved with puzzles is great for relaxation and mindfulness. You can work on synonyms of emotions by using these puzzles. Pupils will learn new vocabulary for expressing their feelings. Brilliant for home learning. The pack contains: 16 code breaker sheets The alphabetic code A sheet for making their own code A sheet for making their own messages Answer sheets

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.