Inside ME! - My Emotion Characters - Children's Mental Health Week 2025 - FREE

Looking for fun and FREE Children's Mental Health Week resources? Perfect for classrooms, therapy settings and more? Well look no further! Inside ME! is our exciting new series of resources designed to celebrate and support Children’s Mental Health Week 2025 and all year round. This engaging series helps children explore their emotions and uncover more about themselves through creativity and self-expression. Featuring a mix of fun, free and members-only resources, Inside ME! is perfect for schools, families and professionals seeking meaningful ways to support emotional growth. Stay tuned for more resources coming soon!

Children’s Mental Health Week 2025

This year’s Children’s Mental Health Week is all about helping children "Know Yourself to Grow Yourself." Inspired by Place2Be’s focus on self-awareness and emotional growth, this theme encourages children to learn more about their inner world so they can thrive. Our Inside ME! series, based on the Disney film Inside Out, includes our first, free resource Inside ME! - My Emotion Characters. This creative printable aligns perfectly with the theme by inviting children to explore their feelings and individuality in a fun, creative way and which relates to a popular film they know and love!

This Year's Theme

Inspired by the beloved film Inside Out, Place2Be is using the film’s imaginative approach to emotions to teach children about self-awareness and emotional intelligence. Similarly, our Inside ME! resources will help children to explore themselves and their emotions using relatable media and characters.

About the Resource: Inside ME! - My Emotion Characters

In Inside ME! - My Emotion Characters, we challenge children to draw their own unique character for each of their emotions. Whether they take inspiration from the film Inside Out or invent characters entirely from scratch, this activity allows children to express their emotions creatively and develop a better understanding of what each feeling means to them.

How This Resource Aligns with Children’s Mental Health Week

By focusing on emotional awareness and self-expression, Inside ME! supports this year’s goal of helping children "know themselves to grow themselves." Through drawing, children can connect with their emotions, build emotional literacy and start a dialogue about feelings in a supportive environment.

Suggested Uses

• Classrooms: Use during art or PSHE lessons to engage children in emotional exploration.
• Therapy Sessions: Help children visualise and communicate their feelings.
• Home Activities: Strengthen emotional awareness and connection as a family.
• Group Discussions: Compare and share emotion characters to encourage empathy and understanding among peers.

Benefits of Inside ME! - My Emotion Characters

• Supports Emotional Literacy: Encourages children to identify and label their emotions.
• Boosts Creativity: Provides a fun and imaginative outlet for self-expression.
• Promotes Self-Awareness: Helps children explore what each emotion looks and feels like to them.
• Encourages Communication: Opens the door for meaningful discussions about feelings in a relatable way.
• Builds Empathy: Sharing emotion characters helps children recognise and appreciate others' feelings.

Tips for Using This Resource

1. Set the Stage: Share clips from Inside Out or discuss how emotions can have personalities and unique traits.
2. Provide Materials: Offer a variety of art supplies so children can bring their characters to life.
3. Create a Story: Encourage children to imagine scenarios for their emotion characters, like what they’d do when that feeling takes over.
4. Follow Up: Use the characters as a reference point in future conversations about emotions.

Inside ME! - My Emotion Characters is a creative, engaging resource that helps children explore their emotions while supporting the theme of "Know Yourself to Grow Yourself" for Children’s Mental Health Week 2025. By allowing children to bring their emotions to life through art, this resource encourages emotional literacy, self-awareness and meaningful conversations all year round. Download for free now!