Trick Box

Bringing Positive Well-being to Pupils

Building happy life habits and managing the tricky bits

What is Trick Box?

Trick Box (4-11 yrs) is an evidence-based, whole school programme which helps to develop a full range of empowering personal habits in 4 key areas:

How does Trick Box help children, staff and families?

Trick Box transforms lives by giving children the knowledge and skills to effectively manage life’s everyday challenges whilst building a bank of positive life habits for the future.

Trick Box strategies help children to get the best from themselves, others, school life and the wider world. The programme also provides opportunities for staff and parents/carers to brush up on their own skills so that everyone’s on the same page.

The intention of Trick Box is to help children to develop happy and healthy habits early in their lives. These habits include to:

Recognise and self-manage emotions

Develop mindful awareness around body and mind connections

Build awareness and choices

Create confident, mindful decision making

Set and achieve positive goals

Develop communication skills to enhance interpersonal relationships

Problem solve and create solution thinking

Build confidence to try new things in new ways

Develop positive mindset building long-term resilience

The model that Trick Box uses teaches children the following:

It consists of 24 simple visual tricks which children are introduced to throughout their time at Holy Trinity.  Each trick is developed further, revisited and applied as they move up through school. 

Reception

Autumn 1

Mirror Mirror

Autumn 2:

Stand Tall

Spring 1:

Breathing Colour

It is important that we are on our own side and get used to saying nice things to ourselves.

Well done

You’re doing your best

You can do it

Keep going

Our body language tells others how we are feeling inside.

I’m thinking -

I feel good today, I feel strong inside like I’m doing well, I feel confident. I am standing tall.

Put your hands on your chest and tummy. Breathe slowly through your nose into your tummy not your chest. Feel your tummy come up. Now breathe out slowly through your nose until your tummy goes down again. Well done! It makes you feel nice and relaxed. Do this 3 times.

We can relate colours to feelings. Which is your angry colour? Which is your calm colour?

Breathe in your calm colour and breathe out your angry colour.

Spring 2:

Floating Cloud

Summer 1:

Win Win

Summer 2:

Free Flow

Imagine you are floating on a big, thick, soft, fluffy cloud….that feels nice doesn’t it!

Clench your feet and toes and now relax them. Good. Move through the whole body like this from the toes to the head, tensing and relaxing each part.

We don’t always think the same way as someone else or want to do the same things but we can often find a way to make sure both people are happy and both people feel like they have won.

Learn to negotiate!

Allow time to explore a variety of possible interests. Practice the ones you enjoy and explore new ones…you might find something you love and excel at!

We can all enjoy practising doing the things we already like and doing new things too.

Year 1

Children will also revisit the tricks from Year R.

Autumn:

Big Voice

Spring:

Sunny Side

Summer:

Light Bulb

Sometimes we can feel like giving up if something is hard or we don’t really like doing it. What can you do when you feel like that to help yourself?

I like to say to myself in a big voice inside my head, “Come on, you can do it.” It makes me feel better then I can have another go.

Life doesn’t always go according to plan and when things change, expectedly or not, we need a mental strategy to deal with this. We can develop some positive thinking patterns where the brain becomes more flexible at finding solutions by learning to reframe how we perceive events.

Do I have to feel like that or could I choose to think about it in another way?

Sometimes we get worried because we can’t find an answer to a problem. Sometimes we need to talk to grown up but sometimes we can find the answer ourselves.

First relax…You could use Breathing Colour or Floating Cloud. Then think about something else or do something else for a bit or think about it in a different way and let our clever brains and let our clever brains come up with the answer!

Year 2

Children will also revisit the tricks from Year R and Year 1.

Autumn:

Magic Circle

Spring:

Big No

Summer:

Big Yes

Pick something that makes you feel strong insider and confident when you do it.

Make a magic circle with your thumb and middle finger.

Now close your eyes, breathe through your nose into your tummy and think about doing that thing which makes you feel strong and confident inside.

Think about how you feel and squeeze your thumb and middle finger together. Brilliant. Now open your eyes and unsqueeze your fingers. Now repeat step 3 twice more.

Do this whenever you experience a new confident moment.

When you need confidence, make a magic circle.

Setting our own personal boundaries helps us feel secure. It is OK to say no if someone is asking you to do something that might hurt you or someone else; like doing things that are unkind, hurt feelings or hurt bodies.

Make sure that your body language matches your voice and intention when setting boundaries so you are not open to manipulation from others.

Saying “yes” means not to be afraid to stretch our comfort zones but also being mindful of our personal choices and boundaries.

Think first… is this a good idea for me? Listen to what your gut tells you. If it is, you could use tricks to help you.