Feel Brave Teaching Guide

Avril McDonald, Tatiana Minina

• Verlag: Crown House Publishing
• Jahr: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781785831201
• Thema: Education
• Thema: Education General

The books help children deal with anxiety, confidence issues, bullying, fears, change, loss and grief. These little stories about big feelings will help children develop the resilience they need to cope effectively with these important issues as they grow up. The teaching guide is split into five sections, covering the themes addressed in the individual books and provides activities and guidance on how to explore these issues in the classroom. Activities include guided visualisations, physical exercises, drama games, mindfulness exercises, craft activities and card games. The teaching guide includes the text from the five books meaning they can be read aloud in class. The illustrations from them are available as free downloads so that they can be projected onto a screen or whiteboard.

The Feel Brave series was a finalist in the 2017 Education Resources Awards in the Educational Book Award category.

21

CHAPTER 2

ANXIETY AND FEARS

Too much stress and pressure can limit the ability of our minds to engage in learning. When we are anxious or fearful, our brains become closed and inflexible. Developing strategies to cope with negative emotions helps with all-round emotional and cognitive development.

WHY TEACH HOW TO MANAGE ANXIETY AND FEARS?

Stress forces the brain to revert to more primitive survival needs and this blocks learning.

When children feel calm they behave in positive ways, they learn and remember and they make better decisions.

The earlier we can learn to self-regulate our emotions during stressful situations, the better our health and energy will be as adults.

KEY LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1. I am aware of my own feelings (e.g. sad, happy, cross, scared, worried, excited, happy).
2. I know how to get help when I have a bad feeling.
3. I know some ways to manage a bad feeling.

THE WOLF AND THE SHADOW MONSTER

This story can be used to open up conversations around anxiety and fears, with follow-up activities based around whatever your school’s focus might be at the time (e.g. celebrating being brave) or a particular value which is relevant (e.g. courage).

Page 5:		Up in the tree house one beautiful day
		Wolfgang invited his friends for a play.
		This play date was going to be special all right –
		For this time his friends could stay the whole night!
Page 6:		Catreen arrived first with her favourite bear.
		Montgomery made sure he brought clean underwear.
		Along came the monkeys with cookies to eat
		And then Daisy Pig … with high heels on her feet.
Page 8:		Wild games began as they danced and threw balls
		And jumped on the chairs and climbed up the walls.
		They laughed and they squealed – what fun they all had!
		But when the lights were turned off,
		the play date turned bad.
Page 10:		In the dark poor Wolfgang felt nervous and scared –
		He had a big problem that hadn’t ...