The Resilience Backpack - Teachers Manual.

The resilience Backpack Teacher resource

By Kate Walker

The Resilience Backpack Original story by Kate Walker Thank you for choosing my book, The Resilience Backpack!

I have had the honor of teaching many children in my years of being a teacher, and through this, my passion for helping children build their resilience has grown! Through completing my Masters of Education with a focus on mental health and well-being in children, I learnt how important it is to support our children build and develop skills when faced with every day life challenges. This book was developed through years of working with children, discussions with other educators and families, and more importantly, chatting with children about what challenges they face and how they can learn from it in the process.

This book is a great resource for any classroom or home and can be read time and time again.

It was written to remind children (and adults!) that they have the tools inside them to overcome whatever challenge life throws them. This teachers manual is to be used alongside The Resilience Backpack to support your teaching.

Please check out my website www.edukatewellness.com and follow me on Facebook: @edukatewellnessforchildren Email me on: edukator@edukatewellness.com Here you will find resources to help at home and in the classroom.

Want to implement a well-being program into your classroom?

Purchase my 'The Resilience Backpack - Teachers manual' that works alongside this book with a daily program, printables, worksheets, activities and more.

Thank you!

EduKate

The Resilience Backpack Original story by Kate Walker First published April 2020 Wellington, New Zealand.

All rights reserved.

EduKate retains copyright of this material. To use this material, or any part thereof, in any publication or website, please obtain written permission from the Director of EduKate - wellness for children. In order to use or adapt these materials, or any part thereof, for the purposes of running for profit educational programs led by other organisations other than EduKate, please consult with EduKate.

The Resilience Backpack - Teachers workbook The Resilience Backpack picture book -The term ‘resilience’ has been a buzz word in many classrooms as of late, however it can be difficult for teachers to fit more in the already jam packed day. Therefore, ‘The Resilience Backpack - At School’, a simple and easy to use picture book was created with the help of a range of children! The vision was to help teachers open the floor for discussions on children's coping strategies, alongside help give children other ways of managing everyday stress. Resilience, as described by many New Zealand and Australian teachers, is where a person has the ability to move forward through obstacles, self-manages, self-regulates, problem solves and sees challenges as an opportunity for growth. In order for students to learn and become ‘lifelong learners’ like so many schools aim for, we need to support them in building the skills such as resilience that will support every aspect of their lives. Learning to fail, embracing challenges, understanding ourselves and others, having a positive attitude and problem solving are important for our learners. In order to help our children succeed academically, we must first help them feel successful in their own heads and hearts. This book aims to provide those ‘teachable moments’ for the everyday classroom, and in turn, help foster resilience in an easy to implement manner.

How to use this book - alongside The Resilience Backpack - At School.

First, read The Resilience Backpack picture book to your class as you would any other picture book. If discussions come up throughout the book e.g. the children talk about similar experiences - go with it :) If you think of other ways to use this book - go with it! I would love to know how you use it !If you choose to use this book as a way to actively teach resilience strategies to children, this manual helps support your classroom teaching. There are activity sheets that children of all ages can complete that will give you (and them!) an insight into their own minds and help support mindfulness and resilience building.

There are also teaching lessons that can help set up discussions in the classroom. The worksheets have been created and used with children aged from 5 years old right through to 12 years and each and everyone of them have come away with a different positive experience on it all.

It is helpful to have a large scrapbook for children to glue in their activity sheets or write down anything that comes to mind in these sessions - I like to call these our ‘Wellness books’ and they are about $1!To further support the concepts of The Resilience Backpack and the Teachers Manual, The ‘Mindset Daily 10’ has also been developed as a quick daily activity for teachers to incorporate into their everyday routine.

Give it a go!I hope you and your children enjoy using this resource, that you finish each day with a full bucket, and you know how great you all really are!

Kate

Contents Pg. 1 - Problems! Lesson suggestion. (Problem Solver activity sheet) Pg. 2 - Worries and how to deal with them! Lesson suggestion. (Worries - can be blown up larger for class or printed for individuals).

Pg. 3 - Relationships and friendships: Lesson suggestion. (Clipped on a clothesline activity sheet). (Whole class activity) Pg. 4- Knowing what keeps our own buckets full. Lesson suggestion. (Bucket Filler activity sheet. ) Pg. 5 - What makes you sparkle? What sparks you? Lesson suggestion. (What Sparks You? Activity sheet).

Pg. 6 - Being a Master of Mindfulness. Lesson suggestion. (Master of Mindfulness! Activity sheet).

Pg. 7 - MindSet: Daily 10. A Brief overview and supporting documents.

Pg. 8 - Using my power: Lesson suggestion. (Using my power activity and example).

Corresponding Activity Sheets in order Problem Solver Worries and Strategy cards for worries Building Relationships Me, Myself and I What sparks you Master of Mindfulness MindSet Daily 10 and corresponding activities EduKate daily organiser EduKate Posters EduKate Resilience Badges My Resilience Strategies I am resilient certificate There are also some posters in the back of the manual you can use in your classroom space if desired that reinforce some of the strategies used. Children could even use these to put into their own Wellness books as motivators! Whatever works for you and your class!

EduKate Resilience Badges - As your students begin to learn some of the strategies necessary to be resilient, it is important to highlight to them what exactly they are doing that will help them remain resilient in the future. Children (and adults!) love physical representations of their achievements. Simply print, laminate and hot glue a safety pin to the back of these badges and hand them out as your children develop their resilience strategies. They could also be added into their goal book using the My Resilience Strategies worksheet. You could also use the I am Resilient certificates alongside these badges to reinforce the learning.

Problems!

(To go alongside Problem Solver activity sheet).

In life we are going to be faced with problems - this unfortunately is inevitable! What is in our power however is how we respond to these problems and take control of how we respond to different situations.

The Problem Solver activity can be done independently and if students feel comfortable, they can share some of their problems in small groups or with the class. Remind students that this is a safe place and nothing is to be repeated outside of the room. he problem solving part of the activity is where they can start to figure out how they can take charge of their own problems and become responsive rather than reactive. If students feel comfortable, this can be done in small groups as often other people’s perspectives can offer a different insight and support. A problem shared is often a problem halved!

1

Worries (To go alongside Worries activity sheet)

Worries and how to deal with them!

Worries are normal - we all deal with them! What worries us may seem silly to other people, but if they worry us, they are very real!

Understanding our worries and taking power of them is what helps us calm the mind and body so that we can reflect on how to best handle things in life that stress us.

The ‘Worries’ activity sheet can be done as a whole class activity and/or individually. When doing activities such as this one, it is important to discuss with the students that when you are participating in a wellness activity (or whatever you like to call it, another version is ME Time, short for Mental Health Education) that it is a safe place to share and a place of no judgement. It is really important as a teacher to participate in all of the activities so students know how normal worries are!

The activity sheet can be blown up into a larger size and children or teachers can either write their worries directly on, or they can be glued on. If done individually, they can then be glued into your Wellness Workbooks. After you have discussed your worries as a class, think about what you already do when you are worried or stressed - what helps calm you?

Running? Reading a book? As a class, make a ‘Strategies for our worries’ poster to write/draw your strategies. Next time you are worried, you can come to your worry wall to find one of the strategies!

There are also ‘worry strategy cards’ that the students can decorate and add to so that you have a class set of strategies you can refer back to. You can also make your own ‘strategy’ cards as a class, laminate them, and have them in a special place in the class for students to go to when they need them. These can be added to over the year!

2

Friendships and relationships (To go alongside Clothesline activity sheet)

Building relationships and making friends is important throughout all ages of a child's life.

Understanding one another, interactions and friendships can be constant issues for many children and therefore parents and teachers. This activity sheet is done by everyone in the class. If done with younger children who are not yet confident with their writing, it can be done with the teachers assistance. It is important when doing this activity that children are reminded of how to write positive messages and comments to one another e.g. I like how you always come to school with a smile on your face and you help me with my work in class. Children are given one sheet each. They write their name up the top of the paper. With children sitting around the classroom, the pieces of paper are passed round the class so that every student has an opportunity to write a positive comment on everyone else's sheet. Children can choose to sign their name after their comment or keep it anonymous.

Once complete, children are handed their own sheet back and can sit and reflect on what their peers have said about them.

This is a great way to connect or reconnect the class. It’s really important that the teacher writes a comment on each student's page also. I like to make a photocopy of these and give the students their hard-copy to glue in either our well-being books, in their school diary, or in a special place. At the end of the year, I laminate my copy for the students with another special message from myself as their teacher. You could even send it home and get their families to fill it in too!

3

Bucket Filling (To go alongside Me Myself and I - what makes me happy, sheet).

This is a great reflection activity that gets children to really think about what they enjoy doing, who they enjoy doing it with and what makes them feel happy, calm and awesome!

In the bottom third, children are encouraged to draw a picture of themselves in the centre and then draw or write things around it that that they like about themselves. E.g I like that I am a fast runner, I like that I am a kind friend.

In the centre third, children write/draw people who make them happy and fill their bucket, e.g. their amazing teacher, family etc!

In the top third, children write/draw things that make them happy e.g. the sun, being outside, eating, reading a book. This is good to have somewhere accessible (e.g. a Wellness book) so they can go to it when they are feeling low or just to reflect on.

4

Spark me up!

(To go alongside Spark me up, activity sheet).

This sheet can be done as a whole class or can be done independently.

Encourage children to close their eyes and think about times when they are enjoying whatever they are doing individually so much that they lose track of time.

This is when we are being mindful without even realising! For example - reading a good book, singing in the shower, running, art.

As they think of these, remind them that these types of activities are when we are being mindful - we are living in the moment and being present. Not letting the past affect how we are feeling, not allowing future worries to cloud our thoughts. These types of activities are important to help us strengthen our brain and set aside our worries.

Whenever we are feeling stressed or worried, we can do some of these activities to help calm the mind and body until we are ready to problem solve.

Encourage children to write or draw what ‘sparks’ them, what type of things get them in their own ‘zone’ or in their own ‘flow’.

5

Being a Master of Mindfulness (To go alongside the Master of Mindfulness! Activity sheet.)

Being a Master of Mindfulness is very similar to thinking about what sparks you and these can be done alongside one another or separately.

Again think of times when time flies past - maybe you love to go fishing in the weekends with your family and this allows you to think freely and without a worry in the world. Or maybe it’s drawing, and when you’re creating a new masterpiece you don’t notice the time fly by.

Using the activity sheet, children can draw themselves in the oval. In the thought bubbles, they can draw and label their top three (or they can add more!) things that they feel they are mindful in - where they notice every little thing around them. The breeze, the smells in the air, the sounds around them. It could even just be walking through the park!

6

MindSet - Daily 10 The MindSet - Daily 10 program was developed as an easy to use, stress free resource to promote mental health and well-being in the classroom.

Those who have given The MindSet - Daily 10 program into their already busy days said that it helped to calm their students, recentre, and start the day on a positive note.

The MindSet - Daily 10 can be done first thing in the morning, after morning tea, or at the very end of the day - whenever suits! It was designed to suit the busy classroom, the busy teacher, and to give students a chance to practise some of their resilience strategies on a daily basis.

7

Using my power To support Using my power activity

The Using my power activity sheet and example is all about showing children how much they are in control of, alongside highlighting that there are some things we simply cannot control in life. This activity helps teachers support their students with challenges as in life we will always be faced with different problems, however it is how we respond to these challenges that is always in our control.

I like to do this one as a whole class first and then send children off to do theirs individually.

If children become stuck, it is quite helpful to get them together into small groups to offer various perspectives on different issues.

8

Resources

Home

School

Problem Solver Identify the problems

Friends

Other

Problem Solver Who can help? How could you solve this problem?

My worries

When I am worried I can...

When I am worried I can...

When I am worried I can...

When I am worried I can...

Building relationships

What I like about myself

People that make me happy

Things that make me happy

Me, Myself and I - what makes me happy

_______________________________

What Sparks you?

WE ARE

MindSet MASTERS!

Daily 10

WEDNESDAY Work it Wednesday Time to get that body moving!

Invite children to find a space in the classroom where they can move without touching anyone or anything.

Stretch your body as wide as it can go like a star fish.

Stretch your arms high over your head breathing in, as you breathe out, make big rainbows with your arms. Repeat 5x.

Mountain climbers! Start off slow, focus on breathing in, and out as each leg changes it's movement.

Speed up to 60% Now go 100% for the count of 20!

Sit on your bottom, close your eyes, put your hand on your heart. Feel your heart pounding in your chest. Feel it start to slow down. Focus on the beat in your chest until it is back to it's normal pace. Open your eyes when you are ready.

When students are ready, finish off by all saying one part of your body you are grateful and why - e.g I am grateful for my arms because they help me swing on the monkey bars.

MONDAY

TUESDAY

MindSet Matters Monday

Talk about it Tuesday

Invite children to find a comfy spot and position in the room.

Guide children through mindful belly breathing children can use soul stones on their bellys if desired.

Encourage children to think about how they want this week to be - picture it, use your senses.

Is there one word that sums up that goal? e.g Friendly.

If children feel comfortable - invite them to share their goal word with a buddy (could even be a class teddy!) The word can be repeated over the term - it is their own personal goal.

If you have a MindSet Map - allow children to place their word on the wall for the week.

Throughout the week and through MindSet mini breaks, remind children to think about what their goal word is and how they have the power as MindSet Masters to be in charge of how they respond to situations.

Arrange children in a circle facing inwards - ensure you are part of the circle.

Remind children to think about their word - together close your eyes and reflect on how you are going to achieve your goal word.

In the group, share 3 things that have gone well for you so far in working towards that word (or maybe not so well, maybe you need help with your goal!). e.g. goal word is friendly - I smiled at a new person in the playground, I encouraged a new friend to play my game, I helped a friend with his laces.

Turn to a buddy and tell them one thing you like about their personality.

Close the discussion with thinking about one thing we like about ourselves - repeat it in your head three times e.g. My name is Kate and I am a hard worker - this could also be written in their Wellness books.

THURSDAY Thinking Thursday Invite children to find a space in the class where they can peacefully begin their own MindSet Matters belly breathing. Guide the children through 5 minutes of mindful belly breathing, focusing on their breath, clearing thoughts and noticing how the body is feeling.

Encourage students to think about their goal word/words for the week. How is this going?

What have they done so far this week to enable this to happen? What do they need to stop/keep doing? How does this make them feel? E.g. focusing on being a hard worker reminds me to stay focused on my work, this helps me get more done, I feel proud, I help others etc.

Reflect on something that has been a challenge this week - invite children to work in (mindfulness) pairs to share their challenges and how they are feeling with them as well as dealing with them. Remind students this is a safe place to share.

Discuss what has gone well this week - how did this make you feel? What did you do for this to happen?

Finish off by doing 5 mindful belly breaths.

FRIDAY Feeln it Friday Feeling it Friday is all about noticing the good things in not only ourselves, but those around us.

Invite children to begin with 5 mindful belly breathes - focusing on clearing the mind, being present and calming the body.

Look around the class, notice those around you, your friends and those who you don't spend a lot of time with. Everyone is different, but we also have similarities! Encourage students to have a think about these similarities and differences and why they make life interesting.

Giving students strips of paper, allow them to write a positive comment about another student in the class e.g. You always come to school with a smile on your face.

Students can write them names on it but it is also fun to keep it anonymous! Encourage students to do a different person/s each week. (Keep an eye out for children who may not receive one as teachers are encouraged to write messages too).

These can be passed in to the teacher and handed out as a whole class or put into students 'Buckets' to be read individually.

Discuss how it felt this week to look for the positive in other people and situations.

Finish off thinking about and discussing 3 things that went well for you this week.

Daily 10

MONDAY

TUESDAY

MindSet Matters Monday

Talk about it Tuesday

Comfy spaces in class and/or cushions for children. You could also have blankets for extra comfort!

Soul stones (these can be purchased from Bunnings - they are simply just smooth rocks that children can decorate however they wish e.g. their names, important words etc.

Relaxing music (if desired) MindSet Map (if using - you could have a class one or children could have one in their own Wellness books to add to throughout the year.)

Wellness books (if desired) - children could write their three things that have gone well this week, as well as a compliment from a peer and a self affirmation down to reflect on.

Resources and suggestions

WEDNESDAY Work it Wednesday Room to move! This can be done inside or outside - fresh air is always great for the mind, body and soul!

THURSDAY Thinking Thursday Soul stones to go with Belly Breathing (if desired).

Children could also write/draw in their reflections of their week so far in their Wellness workbooks.

FRIDAY Feeln it Friday Soul stones for belly breathing (if desired).

Strips of paper (coloured always makes it fun!)

Pens/something to write or draw with.

Individual 'Buckets' (these can be actual buckets, again these can be purchased from Bunnings or the $2 shop. The Bucket Filling cards can also be glued into Wellness books using the Bucket filling template or feel free to get creative!)

Believe you can and the rest will follow

Talk about it Tuesday

MindSet Matters Monday

Talk about it Tuesday

Work it Wednesday Work it Wednesday

Thinking Thursday Thinking Thursday

Feeln it Friday Feeln it Friday

Daily Organizers - use either or both!

MindSet Matters Monday

I AM RESILIENT CONGRATULATIONS TO

FOR DEMONSTRATING THE RESILIENCE STRATEGY OF:

SIGNED:

DATE:

I am resilient

I am resilient

I am resilient

I am resilient

I am resilient

I am resilient

I am resilient

I am resilient

I am resilient

Simply print these off for your students, encourage them to write/draw what strategies they use when faced with challenges and stick on to card or laminate. You could have a class set that you add to as you develop new strategies as well as individual sets!

My Resilience Backpack BADGES

The next Resilience Backpack Badge I am working towards is:

The magic is inside you, you just need to believe!

The power of...

Yet

Using my power

Things I can control...

Things I cannot control...

Using my power Example things th at happen in the world other peo ples attit udes how hard other people work

Things I can control... itude my att What w ords

How hard I wo rk

I use

eact r I How

how much effort I put in s s e r d How I

what other people like

Wha t th ing sIl ike

what people do

Wh at I

do

Friends I spend time with

how other people respond

Things I cannot control... what people think about me

what other people say

how other people feel unless I have co ntributed to this