As you may know, we’re very much into the good karma that comes with sharing resources. Feel free to take away and try any of these trusty favourites.

Resources linked to ‘100 Days of Mindfulness’ YouTube Series:

Here’s an A4 copy of the Feelings Scale, which children can use to score their mood before and after mindfulness activities. This is so simple, but really effective in building up self-awareness. Here’s a Pocket-sized Feelings Scale, which is great to print, laminate and carry around if needed.

Here’s the body template which is handy for drawing-related activities, primarily drawing our feelings/weather alongside a Body Scan meditation. Great for younger and older kids alike this one!

Trying to ‘name it to tame it?’ Here’s the table of emotions that we use in day 47 of the challenge, when we follow up a Body Scan meditation by considering what emotions we are actually experiencing. This is a great resource to have up on the fridge or somewhere nearby so that emotional awareness/intelligence seeps into the everyday family practice. In fact, the more you use this, the more you might find children wanting to add more words as their emotional vocabulary expands.

Here’s the Life Balance Wheel from week 16, a great tool for reviewing the different aspects of your life and considering how balanced they are (or aren’t!) As shown in the video for day 76, children are invited to label 8 different areas of their lives and shade sections in based on how much energy they’re devoted to this aspect of their lives. If it’s an area that’s been a little neglected, there’ll be less colour. If it’s something they’ve been really focused on, the section may be full or almost full. Please remind children that life will rarely, if ever, be completely balanced – when we focus on one place, we naturally take from elsewhere. However, if we reflect on our lives like this, we can decide on how to spread the colour more evenly.

You might also like to download the Habit Monitoring sheet from day 77, in which children are invited to notice how daily actions make them feel, initially and later on. It’s useful to incorporate the feelings scale (above) to support this and remember that in essence, we’re trying to notice which things leave us feeling better/energised or worse/deflated (… so that we can do more of the former!)

Mindfulness/CBT:

The circle of control is a great little activity, for adults and children. Whether you’re approaching this with a specific situation in mind or life in general, you’re invited to consider what you can and cannot control. See the specific blog relating to this here. 

One thing that you cannot control is your thoughts… but you can take charge of your relationship with these thoughts and how they effect you. Take a step back by trying a ‘Thought-Cloud’ meditation (instructions here) and use this Thoughts Log to record brain chatter like an objective observer.

If you prefer a more edible approach, here’s a Mindful Eating Script to with or without your kids. Either way, it’s a delicious.

Terrific Teamwork:

Before I was known as ‘the Mindfulness lady’ in schools, I was ‘the Teamwork lady’ instead. Nowadays, I encourage a mindful approach to teamwork, for students and staff, in which we teach collaborative and social skills in the same way that we might teach semi-colons or column addition. See my article in Optimus Special Children magazine for more on this, including ‘Dos and Don’ts’, games, standalone lessons and teamwork tips.

Aside from that, this Teamwork Observer sheet has helped countless students to reflect on their classmates’ specific team skills during projects, just as team roles like the ones here have ensured that every person has a job to do.

Check out the blog for more freebies, links, meditation scripts and more!