Bounce Back! Resilience Teaching Materials

Bounce Back! includes 10 curriculum units with teaching strategies and practical resources covering:

• Core values
• Social values
• People bounce back
• Courage
• Looking on the bright side
• Emotions
• Relationships
• Humour
• Being safe
• Success.

Each curriculum unit uses children’s literature, videos, songs, thinking tools and cooperative learning strategies plus a variety of cross-curricular classroom activities to engage and help students:

• develop positive and prosocial values
• develop self-awareness, social awareness and social skills
• develop self-management strategies
• think optimistically
• boost positive emotions and manage negative emotions
• find courage in everyday life and difficult circumstances
• develop skills for countering bullying
• use humour as a coping tool
• develop strengths, skills and attitudes for being successful.

Each level includes print plus eBook. The eBooks are also available for standalone purchase. The eBooks include a wealth of digital and downloadable content, including: 

• tools for measuring wellbeing and resilience 
• an extra Science and Maths curriculum unit 
• curriculum correlation and scope and sequence charts 
• resource lists for each curriculum unit 
• interactive tools, games and activities 
• blackline masters, interactive tools, games and activities
• information for families. 

This pack is ideal for schools looking for a whole school program with eBook access for all teachers on the school network. It includes:  

• a whole school, single campus digital licence for all 3 titles 
• 4 copies of Bounce Back! Years F to 2 
• 3 copies of Bounce Back! Years 3 to 4 
• 3 copies of Bounce Back! Years 5 to 6 

This in-depth professional development workshop explores the Bounce Back! program.

The workshop is: 

• available as a live online webinar or private school event. 
• ideal if you’re an educator or allied health professional new to Bounce Back!  

All you need to bring is your Bounce Back! resource. If you don't have one yet, please let us know! 

The workshop helps participants develop: 

• a general understanding of the psychological principles, pedagogy and research that underpin the program 
• a strong understanding of the program’s core structure and curriculum units. 

It also helps participants: 

• use Bounce Back! to effectively develop and foster student wellbeing and resilience 
• incorporate children’s literature into taught wellbeing and resilience concepts 

• implement, embed, and sustain the Bounce Back! program within the classroom and across the school. 

These free videos from Sprout Wellbeing are aimed at middle to upper primary students. They can be used to generate general discussions around wellbeing and resilience, setting the scene for the curriculum units, and also include activities for resilient skill development.

The videos support you to: 

• introduce and teach the BOUNCE BACK acronym of coping statements 
• build students’ resilience and coping skills 
• generate safe classroom discussions 
• develop shared class language and understanding about resilience. 

It is recommended that you pause the videos where indicated, or as often as needed to generate robust classroom discussions. 

Bad times don’t last. Things always get better. Stay optimistic. 

This video explores how to bounce back from a difficult situation by working at being hopeful. 

Key vocabulary: hope/ful/, hope/less, negative, optimism/optimistic, pessimism/pessimistic, positive, un/realistic 

Other people can help if you talk to them. Get a reality check. 

This video is about the importance of tapping into different people for help and how to give your worries a reality check. 

Key vocabulary: evidence, expertise, fact/reality check, opinion, perception, source, worries 

Unhelpful thinking makes you feel more upset. Think again. 

This video explores the differences between helpful and unhelpful thinking when tackling problems or difficult situations. 

Key vocabulary: choice, exaggerating, generalising, helpful, negative, optimism, over simplifying, pessimistic, positive, un/helpful 

Nobody is perfect – not you and not others. 

This video explores how no-one is perfect – even if it might look like it from the outside. 

Key vocabulary: anxious, critical, myth, perfect/ion, perfection/ist/ism, pressure, setback, un/realistic 

Concentrate on the positives (no matter how small) and use laughter. 

This video is about finding something positive or even funny in difficult situations, rather than focusing on the negatives. 

Key vocabulary: concentrate, critical, difficult, hope/ful, laugh/laughter, negative/s, perspective, positive/s, positive tracker 

Concentrate on the positives (no matter how small) and use laughter. 

This video is about finding something positive or even funny in difficult situations, rather than focusing on the negatives. 

Key vocabulary: concentrate, critical, difficult, hope/ful, laugh/laughter, negative/s, perspective, positive/s, positive tracker 

The following articles, written by Bounce Back! author Dr Toni Noble, provide parents and teachers with wellbeing tools, tips and activities for primary school-aged children to build resilience and wellbeing during challenging times.

Positive emotions help reverse the negative effects of stress. While it’s normal to experience challenging emotions when stressed, this article suggests ideas to boost children’s positive emotions. 

Social distancing is about physical separation, not social disconnection. The activities in this article encourage primary school-aged children to have a fun, interesting and purposeful conversation with a friend or classmate via phone or video.

Practising kindness and feeling gratitude for others’ kindness not only builds stronger relationships with those around us – it improves our sense of wellbeing and happiness. 

We can usually find something good in a bad situation if we try. This article explores how looking for small, good things can help children become more hopeful.