The Fun Friends programme is a series of 12 lessons taught in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2.  The objective of the programme is to teach children emotional resilience.  The lessons are play based and incorporate discussion and practical activities.

 

TED Talk about resilience by Dr Paula Barrett.

The contents overview are: 

Session 1 - Hip Hip Hooray It's Fun Friends Today!

The way families are the same and different and happy times and scary times and how to be brave.  We look at different countries where people live but how we all love, cry and laugh the same way.  How do we look after ourselves and pay attention to the things that make us feel happy.

Session 2 - Understanding feelings in ourselves.

All feelings are okay.  Are all our feelings helpful ?  It is what we do we our feelings that are either helpful (thumbs up) or unhelpful(thumbs down) choices. We discuss 4 basic feelings - happy, angry, sad and worried.

Session 3 - Understanding feelings in others.

Understanding other peoples feelings and how to help other people.  Practice being brave - eye contact, smile, give it a go !

Session 4 - Understanding body clues and 5 senses.

Pay attention to how your body feeling and relax.  We teach mindfulness bubble breathing.  What can we do to relax and stay healthy. ( Eat well, sleep well, time away from screens, exercise and games)

Session 5 and 6 - Red(unhelpful) and green (helpful) thoughts

We teach how green thoughts let us fun and be strong and red thoughts stop us from being brave.

Session 7 - Goal setting and trying new things

Exploring being brave and how we can break things down into small steps.  Reward yourself for being brave.

Session 8 - How to kind and make new friends.

What does a good friend do ?  How do they make you feel ? Sometimes others don't feel like playing and that is okay.  Find others that do feel like it.

Session 9 - How to reward yourself.

What ways can you reward yourself for trying your best ?  Play a game with a family member, have a nice meal with your family, have a picnic, do some cooking etc

Session 10 - Talking about someone we look up to in our lives.

What are the positive things we look for in someone we look up to?  What do we like about these people ? e.g. care for animals, kind, sharing.  Do they support you and show you how to do things ?

Session 11 - Talking about your support network.

Who is there to help us ? e.g. parents, grandparents, teachers, siblings, babysitters etc

Session 12 - Talk about being happy with our efforts.

Be happy when we try something new.  Being brave.  Have fun with the friends we have made