December is here! And Christmas can be an incredibly stressful and triggering time of year for some of us. Take a look at what calming and confidence-boosting resources we have for your little ones this week.
This week we've been focusing on bringing you fun and engaging Christmas and winter themed resources, but we also have two new activities covering jealousy and swearing. Read on to find out more.
New to the Hub
The Green Eyed Monster - Exploring Jealousy Resource for Kids - This monster-themed resource explores the feeling of jealousy with your children. Children can feel this emotion a lot during the Christmas period as they see other children celebrating in different ways to them or receiving different gifts. Help children to explore this emotion, how it makes them feel and what they can do when it rears its ugly head!
Bad Word Boggle - New Swearing Resource for Kids - We've had a few requests for swearing resources recently. Unless living in a cave - and we certainly don't recommend that - your children will hear swearing, whether it's in the playground or from you (we've all been there!) Children can pick up 'bad words' absolutely anywhere. We've created this activity to help children replace the bad words in their head with silly words instead. Have them think of 16 letters to place in the grid, then ask them to come up with as many of the silliest sounding words they can. You can even replace your every day swear words with some funny words your children made up too! This activity helps them learn that some words can upset others, but some can make people laugh - and what would they rather say?
Mental Elf on the Shelf
Our Mental Elf is here to give your elf a break from being naughty and bring a calming and mental focus to a morning or too! Have a look at some of our Mental Elf resources below.
Mental Elf on the Shelf - 'Elf Esteem' Activity - Have your visiting elf leave this confidence-boosting activity for your little one to fill in! Feel-good vibes guaranteed.
Mental Elf on the Shelf - 'Elf Care' Activity - When elves take time for self care, it's called 'elf care' - fact! Help children learn about self care and explore what kind of things they can do to help give a boost to their mental health in this activity. Have your elf take some time for elf care and teach children all about the importance of looking after ourselves!
Mental Elf on the Shelf - How Do You Feel Today Emotion Mat - There are so many ways you can use our Elf on the Shelf emotions mats - your children can draw on their emotions using pen, or you can use play-doh - or you could laminate and use a washable marker. A fun way to ask your children how they feel each day.
Mental Elf on the Shelf - 'Believe in Your Elf' Print - Display this feel-good print with your elf to give your child a confidence-boosting start to their day.
Mental Elf on the Shelf - Candy Cane Breathing - When all that toy welding and mischief making gets too much, what do elves do to feel calm and relax? Candy Cane breathing of course! If it helps our stressed out elves, it can certainly bring some calm to your children. Breathe in slowly whilst tracing the candy cane on the left with your finger, then breathe out tracing the candy cane on the right.
Mental Elf on the Shelf - Make an Elf Bauble - This fun calming craft can act as a reminder to practise calming techniques and focus on our mental 'elf throughout the Christmas season. Hang your calm elf on your tree in a visible spot and ask your child to complete a calming activity whenever they see or walk past it. Perhaps it's a deep breath, or counting to 3, this is the perfect visible cue to remind your children to find their calm and they go about their day.
WinterFest Resources
WinterFest is a new section in our Hub focusing on winter-themed mental health and emotional literacy resources for children. We know that not everyone celebrates Christmas and for lots of children, this can be a particularly tough and triggering time of year. This section focuses on bringing you fun and engaging non-Christmas related activities to take you through the next few weeks.
Emotion Penguins - Emotional Literacy Resource for Kids - Draw some emotion faces on our penguins and label each emotion. Bonus points for thinking of fun and imaginative stories as to why each penguin is feeling that way!
My Proud Cloud - Self Esteem / Confidence Boosting Activity for Kids - During the winter months the clouds are full of snow or rain and the gloomy weather can take its toll. We've turned those snow clouds into a fun and feel-good activity, asking your children to draw a time when they felt proud in our cloud.
New Christmas Resources
The Mindful Christmas Tree - Calming, Mindful Colouring Activity and Breathing Exercise for Kids - Our Mindful Christmas tree combines some calming colouring with a fun breathing exercise, ask your child to colour in and decorate their tree, then when they've finished, have them follow the stars around the tree breathing in and out.
My Proud Cloud - Self Esteem / Confidence Boosting Activity for Kids - It's the time of year where we naturally become thankful for all the things we have, but also for some of us, we can become very aware of the things we don't have too. Help children to think of all the nice and wonderful things in their lives in this activity. What are you grateful for at Christmas?
Draw How You Feel at Christmas - Emotional Literacy Activity for Children - Ask your child to draw how they feel on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day - we purposefully chose these three days because of the wide and wonderful range of emotions your children will feel as the festivities take hold. Take a moment to think and recognise those feelings throughout the festive season.
Have you signed up to our Secret Santa? - Get Free Mental Health Resources to your Inbox now!
Our first secret resource was sent out on Friday evening to our Secret Santa members - have you signed up? You can still download last week's activity and sign up to receive our next three activities here.
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