Clear Sky is a Children's Charity which delivers Play and Creative Arts therapeutic services to children in schools who have experienced trauma or who are suffering from life difficulties. 

"Hi everyone, I'm Sunny, the Clear Sky mascot. I'm here to share a bit about this next resource with you... Us children love to play and what's great is that play has lots of benefits to our social & emotional development AND it can support our learning. I won't go on too much, but there are a few bullet points below about why play is so important...

Play.....

develops problem solving skills releases feel good chemicals that help to improve behaviour Helps us to develop language and reasoning skills Teaches us about consequences and risk which helps with decision making Helps us to regulate difficult feelings supports the development of empathy, giving children an opportunity to see things from others perspectives Builds our self-esteem... and that's just the start of the list!

The following playful activities can be used to encourage the use of imagination and creative thinking skills. Use them before a creative writing exercise, or, if sitting down to do school work feels difficult today, have a go at these games instead.

One last thing, when we are playing together, it's important to let us lead and come up with our own ideas, as this encourages our creativity. Let's go and have some fun!"