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.

These are just image files with a transparent background so you can basically use just like you would an image. The beauty of these is the transparent background so you can overlay them over basically anything. There are 11 image files in the pack. You can insert them into anything where you can insert a photo or graphic. You could add to some work you are marking for a child You could add as an attachment to a child you are emailing You could add to a photograph, there are lots of apps out there that you can do this with but will show you a simple way with PowerPoint. I think most people have that! You could add it to a little note you are sending to a child in word You could even make a sheet of real stickers if you want to by pasting into a word document and then printing on ‘sticker paper’. You can resize them from small to HUGE. The image quality is 300dpi so perfect for enlarging too.

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 ‘My voice matters pupil leaflet’. It is written in a child friendly way so pupils will understand. This is a special leaflet for children’s mental health week. Focus on expressing yourself and how their voices matter. We have lots of other Pupil Leaflets on our website. Our leaflet comes with its own holder for displaying on the wall. Included in the ‘My voice matters pupil leaflet’: Mental wellbeing? – How talking about thoughts and feelings can help your brain feel better and is the first step to a healthy mind. Emotions matter? – How emotions are normal but sometimes need to be talked about. Boost confidence – How expressing yourself in different ways can boost confidence. Whether that is writing, drawing, body language or talking. Community – How belonging to a community with help boost self esteem and create safety. Respecting everyone’s opinions and ideas and having yours respected too. Strength- How communication makes a difference and makes the world a better place. 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.

Here are some jigsaw templates for a huge display. The pieces fit together horizontally and vertically. You can do one for each member of your class or group. This is a lovely class, group or one to one activity for the return to school. It is suitable for all age groups to do.

This is a ‘Building confidence pupil leaflet’. It is written in a child friendly way so pupils will understand. Included in the ‘Building confidence pupil leaflet’: What is confidence? – A description of what confidence is and how you can cross the bridge from self doubt to self confidence What is self doubt? – Description with examples and a chance for the pupil to write down what their little voice might be saying. Confidence knockers – What sort of things knock confidence and a chance for pupils to write down what knocks their confidence. Confidence boosters – Ways to build confidence. Setting yourself a goal – Steps to set a goal – success breeds confidence. 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.

The child can have fun with this by colouring a section of the rainbow each day. I wonder what it will look like when finished. Which mood will be the most popular mood? Great for home learning

This is a ‘Looking after my mental health’ tab booklet for world mental health day on the 10th October 2023 This resource is to help remove the stigma of mental health and help children to understand what they might need for good mental health. This booklet is here to show that it’s okay to talk about feelings and to help children  know what they can do to have happy and healthy minds. It is aimed at primary and lower secondary. This resource is to support World mental health day. Included in the pack How important are feelings? Who can I talk to? How can I relax? What makes me happy? How can I look after me?

This leaflet gives a general idea of what an ELSA works on with children. It shows how a lesson may be run which includes and emotional check in, main activity, relaxation and a review. It looks at the aims of the ELSA programme such as building your child’s emotional development and to help them cope with life’s challenges. Also helping children to find solutions to any problems they may have. It covers the areas an ELSA may help with such as loss and bereavement, emotional literacy, self esteem, social skills, friendship issues, relationships, managing strong feelings, anxiety, bullying, conflict, emotional regulation, growth mindset and social stories. It is helpful to give one of these leaflets out to parents when you first start working with them.

This is an interactive ‘Would you rather’ PowerPoint game for teaching on a computer/IPAD, through zoom or google classroom. Pupils pick a card and the card will flip over to reveal a ‘Would you rather?’ Question.

A free self esteem poster for teens and young people.

This self esteem booster wheel will help children to reflect on their Strengths, talents and personal characteristics. There are so many things they are good at. A star stands out and shines brightly in the dark sky so thought I would use this for the centre of the wheel. There are two coloured versions and a black and white version. Pupils of any age can draw or write their strengths, talents or personal characteristics.

This is a pupil anger trifold leaflet with information on the emotion of anger. An ELSA contacted me asking if I had any leaflets for pupils so I created this. If you like this and think it would be useful do let me know and I will look at creating leaflets for other emotions. The leaflet takes the pupil through what anger is, triggers, body feelings, labelling the feeling, scaling, and coping skills. I would suggest you give this leaflet out at the end of your sessions on anger or if you are just talking through anger with a pupil you go through the leaflet and explain everything in more detail with them. You will find instructions for printing and folding the pupil anger trifold leaflet within the download. You can add your contact details to the leaflet by typing in the BLUE box. The font is set to the same as the leaflet and the text auto adjusts so you can write a bit more than just your name. You might want to write where the pupil can find you. The blue box does not show when you print.

This is an anger scale poster or visual for display or for showing pupils who struggle with anger. It could also be put up in classrooms or work areas.

The four basic emotions are covered – happy, sad, angry and scared You will find that most other emotions have a base here. For example worried can come under scared, excited can come under happy, upset can come under sad and furious can come under angry. Learning these 4 first can help develop other emotions in time. Print out a copy for each day. Ask your child how they are feeling today? Ask them to colour the relevant picture, chances are it will be ‘happy’ most of the time initially and this is fine. You are helping them get into the habit of talking about feelings. Ask them to draw their face showing that emotion, use a mirror to help them see their face and have fun making different expressions. Then ask them to talk about it and draw a picture if they want to. If they don’t then just jot down what they have said. You want them to articulate their feelings and talking about it is a great way to do that! In time you will find your child becoming more open and talking more about their feelings. Please make sure you model this too e.g. ‘I feel sad today because it’s raining outside’. ‘I feel happy today because I talked to my friend’. Also make sure you verbalise their emotions too and give a reason. ‘I see you are feeling sad today because…’ ‘I see you are feeling angry today because…’ and so on. Great for home learning

These breathing exercise wheels are great as a prompt for trying different breathing techniques when feeling anxious. Pupils can use their favourite or try different ones.

This is an idea for an ELSA Christmas advent calendar and would be a fab activity for groups of children or your one to one children. Each child can colour one or two of the booklets. Some of them require faces drawing on first. They can just colour the image or they can colour the image and background. Depends how much time you have. There are 24 little foldable books. The child can colour the front of one of the books and then write or draw something inside. The pupil needs to understand that what they write or draw could be seen by anyone so they are writing for an audience. What could they write? The purpose of this advent calendar is some quiet mindful time and of course positivity. This activity is ideal for that last week in November, preparing for the 1st of December. Ideas for what you could work on: A Christmas memory Something you are grateful for An act of kindness Positive quotes about Christmas Self care and ways to look after yourself Positive characteristics Relaxing moments Positive affirmations A gift to give someone A joke or something to make you smile Compliments Once all the pieces have been coloured you can use the enclosed A3 sheet to stick the numbers on at random and close each book with a bit of bluetak. You can then use it as an advent calendar. Everyone has been involved and pupils are writing things for others to see so they need to think carefully what message they want to convey. Of course if you want to make it very simple, they could just draw a Christmas picture inside if they want to.

This is a completely free resource that can be used to get to know children who will be starting school in September. Of course that all depends on the current situation. It is a booklet that was asked for from a Learning mentor who needed something to send home to parents to find out as much as possible about their child. With the current situation home visits won’t be possible. That may change in the next few months but at least you have something you can use. Obviously the parent and child would do this together. There are simple assessments such as colouring in, drawing themselves, drawing an emotion face, writing letters and numbers. Use as many or as few of the sheets as you want to. Parents if you are reading this then make sure there is no pressure on your child to write, draw etc but let them have a go or scribe what they say.

This is an anxiety scale that would be great displayed in your area or used as a talking point with your pupils. There is a scale with suggested vocabulary and some questions they can ask themselves to help cope with those feelings.

This is a poem I wrote in our ELSA Groups and it is copyright to me and should not be altered in anyway. Put the poem near the worry monster so children are reminded what to do. Hopefully they will feel relieved once their worry is eaten by the monster. You can put this with any worry monster or even a monster that you have made out of an old tissue box.