Trick or Treating Guidelines

Dressing up to go trick or treating is very exciting for children and it creates lasting memories for both children and parents. Help children prepare for trick or treating with these five strategies.

1. Select a Costume – Help children select a costume that fits properly and is safe. Children may be uncomfortable with anything on their face especially make up. Some children may not like masks because of sensory issues or limited vision. Keep these factors in mind when selecting an outfit. For children who have difficulties with masks, holding a mask rather than wearing it or not using one at all may make the evening more enjoyable.

2. Set Costume Guidelines – Children often want to wear their costume other times than trick or treating. Let them know if/when they can wear it besides trick or treating. Be sure to tell them this before they buy the costume and after it is purchased. Explain why they can wear the costume only at certain times. For example, “You can put it on in the evening for a few minutes to see how you look, but you can only wear it for a little while so it doesn’t get dirty before Halloween.”

3. Practice Going to People’s Doors – Role play going to someone’s door, saying “Trick or treat,” holding a bag out, and saying “Thank you.” Remind children to be polite, wait their turn, and take only one sweet when they are asked to select something. It is tempting to rush to a door and take a handful of things when offered a basket or bowl to select from so multiple opportunities for review are important. Be sure to practice other things that may happen such as someone not being home or someone complimenting them on their costume.

4. Establish Guidelines in Advance – Prepare children for factors such as: What time trick or treating starts and ends; How they know when it ends; Where they can trick or treat (e.g. only houses with lights on, only people the child knows etc.); and What the rules are such as staying with a sibling or parent. Be sure to review these guidelines days in advance with a story, visual cards, or written rules. Before trick or treating, review them again so children clearly understand expectations.


5. Set Sweets Guidelines– Children become very excited about getting sweets and other treats while trick or treating. Set rules in advance about eating sweets. Let children know before trick or treating that they need to bring all of the sweets back for you to check before they can eat it. Make sure children have dinner before trick or treating so they are not hungry. Have guidelines about the number of pieces they can eat per day and create a routine/timetable for when they can eat their sweets. Display the sweets plan where they can easily look if they have questions.

Learning to Understand Facial Expressions

Learning to read facial expressions is important for social interactions. When children are able to identify how a friend, classmate, sibling, parent, or person in the community feels, they can respond appropriately. This post includes ways to help children practice identifying feelings based on facial expressions.

1. Role Play – Role play is a fun way to practice identifying feelings. Role play can be a group activity or a one on one game. Write down a list of feelings or use pictures or drawings of people showing different feelings. Take turns picking a card and acting out the feeling paying special attention to facial expressions. Ask questions like, “How do your eyes look when you are angry?” “How is this different from what your eyes look like when you are surprised?” Discuss each feeling by asking questions like: “When have you felt angry?” “What do you do if a friend is angry?” “How do you calm down when you are angry?”

2. Use a Mirror – Make a game of identifying feelings by letting children practice facial expressions in a mirror. Name a facial expression and get the child to look in a mirror and make the expression. Point out how their eyes, eyebrows, nose, and mouth change shapes as they practice different facial expressions. Change roles and let them pick the emotions while you make the expressions. While making the facial expressions, change different facial features and ask questions like, “If I am making a surprised face should my eyes be large and round or should I squint?”

3. Use Natural Opportunities – Children see a variety of emotions at school, home, and in the community. These natural opportunities are invaluable learning experiences. Take time to talk to children about what is happening around them. For example, if a child is smiling as they go down a slide, ask how they feel and what facial clues your student or child noticed that led them to that conclusion. If you see an emotion like sadness or fear ask the child what they can do to help the other person and then offer assistance. Another natural opportunity is when watching television or movies. Pause the program or film and discuss the character’s feelings and facial expressions.

4. Bring Out Their Creativity – Art is a fun way to learn about facial expressions. Children can draw or paint a picture showing people with different feelings. Another project is a collage of emotions. Assign each child or group a different feeling. Have children work in small groups or independently to find pictures of the emotion in magazines or print images from online. After the collages are finished let each child or group talk about the feeling and what facial cues they used to identify it.

5. Make a Game of Feelings – Cut out sets of eyes, eyebrows, mouths, and noses of people showing different emotions. Show only one feature at a time and discuss how this part of the face gives us clues about the feeling. After identifying different feelings based on individual parts of the face, put the face together and discuss times when people feel a specific emotion.

Exploring Feelings

Children often struggle not only with understanding their feelings, but also relating to other people’s feelings. These skills are critical for personal well being and building relationships. This article includes steps for teaching children to understand and manage their feelings as well as identify and respond to other people’s feelings.

1. Identifying Feelings – Teach children to recognise when they have a specific feeling. Whether happy, sad, or angry the first step in coping with a feeling is identifying it. Help children identify feelings by discussing emotions when they occur. If a child is angry say, “I see you are angry. You have your arms crossed and are stomping your feet.” Another tool is to role play times when specific emotions surface. Use novel examples as well as recent experiences for the child. Discuss and write about different feelings in a feelings diary. Use the diary to write about events and the emotions, responses, and consequences the events elicited.

2. Planning for Strong Feelings – Help children cope with intense feelings by creating coping strategies. Have a quiet place for children to take a break when angry or sad. Give children tools and teach them how and when to use them such as a stress ball or a trampoline. These tools help children release energy in a positive way. Encourage children to use words or write about their feelings. Establish a phrase the child can use to remove themselves from stressful or upsetting situations. The phrase gives children a way to politely excuse themselves, regain control, and then return to the situation. Select a short phrase that can be used in a variety of situations such as, “Excuse me. I need a minute to think.”


3. Recognising Other People’s Feelings – Learning to empathise with other people and respond appropriately to another person’s feelings, is an important skill for building relationships. Show pictures and drawings or role play situations to discuss the words, body language, and experiences that indicate a person’s feelings. When discussing a child’s own feelings, incorporate the concept that peers and adults have similar feelings in the same situation. This helps children develop empathy. Read stories where characters experience events that are happy, sad, surprising, or frustrating. Discuss why the characters felt the way they did and what they said or did to indicate their feelings.

4. Responding to Other People’s Feelings – Not only do children have to identify other people’s feelings, but they also need to learn how to respond when someone is angry, sad, or excited. Teach children appropriate responses through role play and reviewing past events. Discuss how different people in the role play feel, how their body language and words show their feelings, and the best response for the situation. Also discuss how the child would feel if this happened to them and how they would like other people to respond. This helps children learn to empathise with other people.

Six Strategies for Making the Start of School Less Stressful: back to school 2

The beginning of the school year is an exciting time, but for many children and getting back into the swing of things can be difficult. Becoming familiar with new classrooms, classmates, rules, and teachers can be a difficult transition. Below are ideas for starting the new school year well.

1. Return to a School Sleep Schedule - Help children make the transition easier by getting them ready physically for early mornings. A gradual change is often more difficult than an immediate change. The first few days of getting up early and going to bed early may be difficult, but this will be helpful in the long run. Make getting up in the mornings easier by doing fun activities such as going on a walk, making breakfast together, or taking an early bicycle ride.

2. Introduce a New Environment or Re-Introduce a Familiar One: Six weeks go by quickly, but children often forget many important things about school. Make a book with your child to remind them of their classmates’ names, teachers’ names, school layout (dining hall, art room, music room, etc.), bus rules, classroom rules, and school rules. Children can help by drawing pictures or writing the text. For children starting a new classroom or school, hopefully the teacher will send information home that can be used to write a book.

3. Take Opportunities to walk past the School and point out key areas such as the bus stop, hall, playground,and sportsfield (anything you can see).

4. Involve children in preparation - Shopping for a book bag, new shoes, pencil case, and other school necessities can be a fun activity for many families. Help your child write a list of items they need for school. Take the list to the shops and let them pick out their own equipment. The list is a great way to practice reading and writing as well as planning. Give older children a budget to practice their numeracy skills and to learn about decision making and shopping.

5. Plan Ahead - Parents have many things to remember before the school year starts. Make a list and check things off so your stress does not become your child’s stress. Organising medical appointments, buying school equipment and working out the bus schedule in advance will make the days leading up to school more relaxed and less hectic.

6. Create Summer souvenirs – The end of summer can be very sad for many children. To remind them of the summer, get children to create a collage of pictures, objects (e.g. ticket stubs or magazine advertisements of films or places they attended), or drawings. They also can make something for people they will miss. Get them to write letters or make cards for people they will not see regularly during the school year such as relatives and friends from different areas.

End of Summer Activities to Prepare for the School Year

The start of the school year is an exciting time but the transition back to school can be stressful for many children. Help children prepare for the new school year with these useful strategies.

1. Review Skills and Goals – Review school reports and goals and document progress towards goals. If teachers and support staff provided activities or ideas to address skills, take the time to focus on these prior to school starting. Even small reminders about skills can help prepare children for addressing these in the classroom.

2. Take Advantage of Natural Learning Opportunities - Use natural opportunities to address a wide range of skills such as asking a child to help count silverware while setting the table (counting skills) or asking them to read directions while cooking (reading skills). By keeping a child’s goals top of mind, natural learning opportunities can be easily identified.

3. Use a Calendar for Visual Reminders – Many children benefit from visuals. Mark important events leading up to the start of school on the calendar. Examples of activities to put on the calendar are the first day of school, shopping for school clothes, and buying school materials. Discuss how many days are left until each event and have children participate in planning by helping write shopping lists and decide where to shop.

4. Return to a routine – Summer breaks often are not very structured. Start getting back into a routine so children are more prepared for the school year routine. Sleeping, eating, brushing teeth, bathing, and bedtime rituals are examples of activities typically scheduled at set times in a child’s routine. Work on a consistent timetable to help transition back to school.

5. Use Art and Literature - Get children to draw, make collages, or paint things they remember about the previous school year. Encourage them to write about or discuss what things they like about school and what they are looking forward to in the new school year. Use these memories as visuals to discuss returning to school.

6. Play with Friends from School – Some children regularly see school friends over the summer while others only see school friends during the school year. Organise play dates or have a classroom party to help children become re-acquainted with each other.

7. Enjoy the Rest of the Break – Although planning for the school year is important, make the most of the last few days of summer. Create lasting memories by going on picnics, attending community events, and taking advantage of extra family time. Take pictures to remind children of summer experiences and create a ‘Summer Memory’ book to encourage communication and language. This is a perfect item for show and tell type communication activities at the start of the school year.

Using Visual Interventions to Help Your Child at Home

Independence is a goal all parents have for their child. This post addresses ways to help children independently organise items, help around the house, and follow a routine by using visual interventions.

1. Use Defined Containers - Toothbrush holders, toy boxes, and laundry baskets are examples of containers designed for a specific purpose. These containers allow for broad organisation concepts such as knowing dirty clothes belong in a laundry basket. Some items such as cutlery trays can be purchased with additional details. Select models that clearly define where materials belong. For example, cutlery trays with locations for spoons, forks, and knives help children sort cutlery correctly.

2. Give Containers a Purpose – Baskets, plastic containers, and decorative fabric bags can be used to hold a variety of objects. Place containers in a specific location for a specific purpose. This will remind children to complete tasks. For example, a basket in the hall can remind children to take off their shoes and put them in a specific location.

3. Use templates – If containers are not clearly defining a space, or children are having trouble recognising what goes in a location, create an outline/template of the object. Put the template in the location where the item should go. For example, use outlines of a plate, knife and fork on placemats so children learn to lay the table.

4. Use Photographs, Drawings, or Words - Another way to clarify where objects belong is to use photographs, drawings, or words depending on the child’s abilities. Use digital photographs, online images, or drawings to create visuals. For example, use drawings of food and water to indicate where a pet’s food and water bowls belong and to help children complete tasks independently.

5. Set Timers - Timers are a simple way for children to understand how long they have before they finish an activity and start a new one. Whether using a timer with sand, a dial, or digital numbers, children have a clear understanding of how much time is left. Dial and digital timers may also have bells which serve as an auditory reminder for children.

6. Create timetables – Understanding the sequence of steps for after school, bed time, and other routines can be difficult for many children. A photograph, drawing, or word timetable showing the steps is a helpful way to indicate expectations and maintain a consistent routine. Timetables help children become more independent through decreased verbal prompts.

7. Use Colours or Drawings on Items – For children who are working on skills, but have trouble with specific aspects of a task, use guides such as colour coding or drawn visuals to help them complete the skill independently. For example, a laminated circle with red on one side and green on the other that can be blue tacked to the dishwasher to show children if the dishes are dirty or clean. Another example is an arrow on a clear watering can to indicate how high to fill it.

Turning Stones for Madeleine

Dear Friends and Colleagues,
As you may know, People First Education have been proud to support the continuing search for Madeleine McCann.

I have recently received the following update from the team at Find Madeleine outlining ways in which we can all help with the search:

* Going on holiday? You can download a holiday pack of resoures specifically designed to help with the search for Madeleine.
* Are you or your friends attending London during the Olympics? Turning Stones for Madeleine are targeting people in and around London or anyone travelling to London for the Olympics and asking them to get shops/taxi’s anyone to display Madeleine posters so that overseas visitors can be made aware that she is still missing.

If you would like a holiday pack, or to access Turning Stones for Madeleine please click on the images on the right hand side of the web version of this page.