Being With Our Feelings - A Mindful Approach to Wellbeing for Children: A Teaching Toolkit

To get the full Being With Our Feelings experience, this book can be purchased alongside the storybooks. All books can be purchased together as a set, Being With Our Feelings: Guidebook and Four Storybooks Set, 978-0-367-77231-4.

A vital resource, full of practical advice for developing and nurturing children’s emotional, mental and physical wellbeing, this toolkit offers a range of easily implementable, creative options to teach young people how to be with their feelings, themselves and each other with acceptance, kindness and compassion. Using storytelling, movement, drama, art, spoken word, guided meditations and providing plenty of photocopiable and visual aids, the Being With Our Feelings toolkit is a must-have resource for ensuring a mindful, embodied approach to wellbeing.

Centred around the teaching of seven key principles carefully designed to develop healthy relationships with our feelings, this toolkit provides a comprehensive and progressive framework (suggested for Years 3-6), as well as the flexibility to suit the needs of any school, group or individual, Each key is unpacked through a main teaching activity with clear teaching points, followed by mindful reflections, creative explorations and opportunities to apply learning using the accompanying storybooks. With opportunities for assessing understanding and progression throughout, this toolkit follows a TEARS structure – teaching and exploring, applying, reviewing and self-evaluating.

Being With Our Feelings encourages:

increased emotional, mental, and physical wellbeing

more conscious behaviour, reduced bullying and healthier relationships

greater compassion, empathy and kindness

an understanding of integrity and values

a diverse feelings culture

an established feelings language

a space for freedom and creativity of expression including using imagery, sound and movement

all-inclusive wellbeing rituals and routines that embody the energy and sensation of feelings

Whether you are a teacher or school leader looking to develop your wellbeing curriculum or a caring adult looking to help children to be with all their feelings in a healthy way, this accessible book will enable you to support children’s enhanced development through a greater sense of self-worth and acceptance.

Author Biography

Anita Kate Garai is a teacher, poet and mindfulness wellbeing consultant and facilitator, with a BEd Hons from Cambridge University and an Advanced Diploma in the Therapeutic and Educational Application of the Arts. She has been a primary school classroom teacher for over 25 years, leading on personal, social and emotional development, and has worked with local authorities as a specialist in behaviour, emotional wellbeing and creativity, developing programmes for pupils and delivering training to school communities. Anita can be found on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at @AnitaKateG.