Since the Pandemic, living through lockdown, time away from school, family and friends, some of you may have experienced a whole array of feelings at different times! This, on top of all the other things we have going on in our lives, sometimes might make you feel a bit worried or anxious. All of these feelings are perfectly normal and it is ok to be feeling them.
This part of the website is designed to give you some ideas on activities you could do to help you understand these feelings or to help you to regain control of them if you are feeling a bit overwhelmed. This selection of stories from a wealth of well-known authors and illustrators is a great place to start as a place of hope.
New resources
You may be excited about coming back to school, or you may be worried or anxious. You may be a mixture of lots of different emotions! Here are some resources to help you process this next change.
A story from ELSA all about coming back to school after this pandemic.
A fictional book developed by and for children aims to help families understand and cope with COVID-19.
Something to look forward to when our world opens up: https://www.zsl.org/zsl-london-zoo/virtual-london-zoo
Express Yourself - Children's Mental Health Week
This is a great pack, put together by ‘Priority 1-54’ who are a group of young people working with the Mental Health Support Teams (MHST). Included are a few activities to get you thinking about how you can look after your mental health and wellbeing during lockdown. For example, Five Ways to Wellbeing, What Makes Me, Me, My One Day in Lockdown diary and 10 original pieces of graffiti artwork.
Express Yourself – Art Graffiti Pack – Children’s Mental Health Week – Jan 2021
Stormbreak
Stormbreak has a variety of different challenges, videos, and advice to support children and young people’s mental health. Their interactive website allows children and young people to choose what they want to work on. Click here to go directly to their website.
Other resources
The BBC (Newsround) have produced a helpful video promoting self-care during these times, and here are some top tips support children and young people with their worries and anxiety.
Charlie Waller Wellbeing challenge for primary school age children, adapted for home learning – https://charliewaller.org/resources/wellbeing-challenge-activity-pack-primary
Books and Stories
The Book of Hopes
This extraordinary collection of short stories, poems, essays and pictures has contributions from more than 110 children’s writers and illustrators, including Lauren Child, Anthony Horowitz, Greg James and Chris Smith, Michael Morpurgo, Liz Pichon, Axel Scheffler, Francesca Simon and Jacqueline Wilson.
The collection, published by Bloomsbury, is dedicated to the doctors, nurses, carers, porters, cleaners and everyone working in hospitals.
Vaccine Story
This is a useful story explaining about the vaccine, what it will mean in time for us all and why children won’t be vaccinated – Vaccine-story
Book of Hopes
This extraordinary collection of short stories, poems, essays and pictures has contributions from more than 110 children’s writers and illustrators, including Lauren Child, Anthony Horowitz, Greg James and Chris Smith, Michael Morpurgo, Liz Pichon, Axel Scheffler, Francesca Simon and Jacqueline Wilson. Click here to be taken to the online book resource.
Rain before Rainbows story
The Colour Monster – By Anna Llenas
Activities
All About Me – Rainbow Activity
I Am An Amazing Person – Activity Sheet
This helpful resource from Save the Children could come in handy at those stressful moments!
