Children's Mental Health - Express Yourself

From 1-7 February 2021, whether in school or at home accessing our remote learning, we are taking part in Place2Be’s Children’s Mental Health Week. This year’s theme is Express Yourself.

Expressing yourself is about finding ways to share feelings, thoughts, or ideas, through creativity. This could be through art, music, writing and poetry, dance and drama, photography and film, and doing activities that make you feel good.

It’s important to remember that being able to express yourself is not about being the best at something or putting on a performance for others. It is about finding a way to show who you are, and how you see the world, that can help you feel good about yourself.

For Children's Mental Health Week 2021 we will be encouraging children (and adults) to explore the different ways we can express ourselves, and the creative ways that we can share our feelings, our thoughts and our ideas.

Follow the link below for some ideas and activities you can try at home

https://www.childrensmentalhealthweek.org.uk/parents-and-carers/

Here are the titles of some books you might want to explore with your children at home.  All the titles can be found as read aloud books on youtube.  Some of them will be being used in classes during our Express Yourself week and beyond.

All the ways to be Smart - Davina Bell

Elmer – David McKee

Remarkably You - Pat Zietow

Super Duper You - Sophie Henn

Layla’s Happiness – Mariahadessa Ekere Tallie (asks the question what happiness is for you?)

Bunnybear – Andrea J Loney

Exclamation Mark – Amy Krouse Rosenthal  (fitting in, standing out and finding your place)

Perfectly Norman – Tom Percival

Hands Up – Breanna J McDaniel

Petra – Marianne Coppo (You can decide who you want to be. Don’t let other people’s opinions define you)

If you want to explore a particular way in which you can encourage your child to express themselves, or to show them that other children express themselves in a certain way too, have a look at  these...

Art

Beautiful Oops! - Barney Saltzberg

The Dot - Peter Reynolds

The Art Garden - Penny Harrison.

Bob The Artist – Marion Deuchars

I Don't Draw, I Color - Adam Lehrhaupt

I Ain't Gonna Paint No More - Karen Beaumon

Dance

I will Dance - Nancy Blo Flood

Giraffes Can’t Dance.

Building/Modelling

The Most Magnificent Thing - Ashley Spires

Music

Music is for Everyone. - Jill Barber

Mr Big – Ed Vere

Through Words

The Word Collector - Peter Reynolds

Through the way we dress – gender non-conforming

Sparkle Boy - Leslea Newman

Julian is a mermaid - Jessica Love

The boy and the bindi – Vivek Shreya 

Morris Mickelwhite and the Tangerine Dress – Christine Baldacchino

Mary Wears What She Wants – Keith Negley

Beautiful – Stacy McAnulty (the text says one thing, the illustrations tell a different story)

The Boy In the Dress – David Walliams

At the bottom of this page you can find Well-being toolkits for children up to the age of 7 and up to the age of 11.  These have some super ways of helping children discover different ways of expressing themselves and helping them manage their mental health.  For those of you with older children the toolkit for children up to the age of 16 is also available.

Our main Well-Being page has information about where you can go to seek any advice or support with children's mental health issues.

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