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Kitbag for Schools helps children grow up calm and confident. Designed by health professionals, it can be used from the age of three to adulthood, but is best suited to children aged five to twelve.
Getting started
Take the calming oil and let everyone get a chance to roll some onto their wrists. Encourage them to take a gentle whiff and then breathe out.
Presence Cards
Take a Presence Card and ask the children to follow what it says for one minute. You can join in too, but will need to keep an eye on the one minute timer as well. For pre-school children, there is no need for a card. Just say you are going to be quiet for a minute and watch the egg timer together.
Feelings
Show everyone the one minute timer and explain that they will all get their turn to talk about how they feel. Open up the Feelings Card and show to the children and ask them to describe which colour they are feeling like and why. They take turns by passing round the timer, each one having a minute. If they are too shy to talk about themselves, they can imagine what colour the rabbit puppet is feeling and explain why. If you prefer, you can manage the time yourself and let the children work in small groups. This allows the exercise to take less time.
Animal Cards
Let each child take a card and look at the animal. Explain that each animal is giving us help in different ways. Encourage the children to feel the quality of the animal that it is trying to give them. Let them talk about this if they like. Older children can explore the word on the card as well. An alternative is to use one card and discuss the qualities the animal is sending with the whole class.
Wonder Journey
Wonder journey is a relaxing story told to music which helps children become calm. Use it for creating a quiet time. Begin by putting on the music. This starts with noises from the streets then gradually becomes calmer and more meditative.
The children can use the roller oil for calming at the start. Then slowly narrate the story. The puppets can be held by one or two children. If there are other teddies in the classroom, they too can be held. If there is space to lie down, this is also good. Read the Wonder Journey story slowly. Let the rhythm of the music help you take your time over the words.
For children under five, just using the oil and music should be sufficient to create a calm time.
Finger Puppets
 The finger puppets help children who are shy about talking of their own feelings. They can be used in pairs with children taking the part of the different animals and describing their feelings. They may want to give the animals qualities and strengths that they can share with the class. Alternatively, they can be held for comfort during the Wonder Journey or just used for play.
These are just a few suggestions to get you started. You can use your imagination to play with any parts of Kitbag for Schools as you like. It is helpful to have pens and paper near to hand and build a scrapbook of pictures and drawings that you create together.
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