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
‘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.
This is a set of 6 mats for using with playdough and emotions and feelings. Although my thoughts were that these would be fab for younger children, I am sure older children would enjoy using them too. Lots of open ended fun where children can be creative and think about colours.
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 families display pack which looks at different families and how we belong with our families. A great conversation starter for children to understand that all families are different.
Included in the pack:
5 different banners
14 display words – mum, dad, step mum, step dad, foster mum, foster dad, younger brother, younger sister, older brother, older sister, baby brother, baby sister, grandma and grandad
14 A4 posters showing different families
Strength cards for older pupils. This is a huge set of cards displaying over 100 different strengths and talents. Perfect for work on self esteem. There is also a list of 30 ways on how to use them along with some useful questions on the cards and on the back of the cards. Choose one or two questions to ask the pupil.
Strength cards are an amazing tool for self esteem. You don’t have to use all of the cards but I would suggest you get them all printed, laminated and use a handful you think are relevant to the pupil(s) you are working with.
Being a good sport social skills workbook will help pupils to understand sportsmanship.
This looks at skill, luck, feelings around winning and losing, cheating, poor sport and will cumulate to make a ‘Losing plan’ This will enable pupils to think about how they will act if faced with a situation where they haven’t won a game, competition or sport.
There are 20 pages in the workbook, the second sheet being blank if you want to print duplex.
This workbook is suitable for KS2 upwards.
Growth mindset natural and calming posters- This is a set of posters to inspire children to try hard and understand that it is ok to make mistakes. Mistakes help us learn. These have nature backgrounds.
These print beautifully on A3 paper so are great to display.
Use each quote as a lesson plan and display one each week in the classroom.
There are 19 different quotes altogether.
These are useful in so many ways:
Use them during circle-time to open up discussion.
Display one each week in your classroom and discuss. Refer to the poster often to reinforce how important it is to try your best.
Create lesson plans around one of the posters.
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 Autumn wellbeing pack of worksheets will be perfect for the Autumn term.
Included in the pack is a PDF with 28 activities/worksheets with a social and emotional theme from mindful colouring to poetry writing. There is also a PowerPoint for introducing whole class work. Basically you can show the activity on the whiteboard with this PowerPoint. I know many of you are working with large groups or classes right now. This is suitable for many age groups.
The focus of this ‘Natural and calming Autumn display pack’ is on being happy or feeling BLISS. Use Autumn as the topic focus. What makes them feel happy about Autumn? What makes them feel relaxed? Calm? Serene? Radiant? Lots of lovely discussion on different positive emotions.
There are lots of resources in this pack I recommend a calming background colour or hessian.
Included in the pack:
1 banner
8 calming idea posters
The poem by Emily Bronte
20 Circles with happy/calming words
Writing and drawing paper in portrait
Writing and drawing circles
Leaves for cutting out
Printing the banner
You can print the banner as large as you like by using Adobe to open the PDF and then choosing poster. You can then make the banner fit over as many pages as you like. You can then piece it together on the wall.
This is the Building Brick lettering for display pack.
This resource contains:
Capital letters
Small letters
Numbers to 10
basic punctuation
5 emotion faces – cut out and stick up around your lettering
This wooden effect bunting would look fabulous on a calming and natural display. They would look good on a display with a hessian background. I think natural displays are so calming. Anything that is easy on the eye and makes you feel you are in nature is fabulous.
Included in the pack are:
Full alphabet (CAPITALS) with leaves for decoration
Full alphabet (CAPITALS) left blank
Numbers 0-9 with leaves for decoration
Numbers 0-9 left blank
Editable display word cards – you need PowerPoint for these. It is a little extra I have put in to increase the use and value of the pack for you.
This teen emotions pack are all hand drawn by me. I get so many people wanting things for older students and the clipart available is very limited. I have drawn 12 different emotions and used colourful teen characters. They are bright and cheerful and will hopefully be appealing to use.
Included in the pack are
12 Teen boy emotion face cards with a suggested emotion word
12 Teen boy emotion face cards without any words
12 Teen girl emotion face cards with a suggested emotion word
12 Teen girl emotion face cards without any words
1 x Teen boy emotion wheel with suggested emotion words
1 x Teen boy emotion wheel without any words
1 x Teen girl emotion wheel with suggested emotion words
1 x Teen girl emotion wheel without any words
12 Teen boy comic strip worksheets
12 Teen girl comic strip worksheets
1 x Teen girl blank for drawing facial expressions/colouring
1 x Teen boy blank for drawing facial expressions/colouring
12 x Teen boy face colouring sheets
12 x Teen girl face colouring sheets
Emotional register girl in colour and black and white
Emotional register boy in colour and black and white
Using the teen emotions pack you can begin to explore the facial expressions and bring in other vocabulary when using the emotion cards without words. For example the ‘angry boy’ could be livid, furious, mad, annoyed, frustrated, raging, irritated or outraged. There are so many wonderful words out there that can really help a pupil’s emotional literacy so do explore them. The more words they know they better they will be able to explain themselves.
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 ‘Consequences of actions or words’ resource is for helping pupils to understand that their words or actions can cause hurt and upset to other pupils.
If a pupil says something mean to another pupil then that can cause lots of strong feelings and behaviours. If that mean comment is changed to something more positive it can result in more positive feelings and behaviours.
Included in the pack are:
20 A4 cards with difference scenarios
An editable file for you to create more scenarios. (The speech bubble is editable in PowerPoint)
One flip book that goes into more detail and can be used to talk through situations that have occurred for the pupil
The cards work through:
The comment or action
The thoughts of the person who was harmed
The feelings of the person who was harmed
The feelings of the person who made the comment or action
What could have been done or said differently
How would the person harmed feel now.
There are 48 Friends cards in this pack. Each showing a positive aspect of friendship. These are great for reading through with older pupils to discuss and work on.
They print 8 to an A4 page.
Help your pupils to make more friends by using these bright and colourful cards often.
These mindset conversation cards will help pupils to learn what a growth mindset is. You could use these during circle times to discuss or use them one to one with a child who needs a bit of help with growth mindset.
Turn one over and discuss, you could even focus your lesson on one of the cards. You could give them a card to take away if you feel they need a reminder or perhaps even build a keyring of cards to take away for pupils to read often to remind themselves.
These are suitable for practically all age groups. There is a set with the image of the brain and a set without any clipart.
There are 48 cards in the pack.
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 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?