Classroom Wellbeing Kit

In the communities where World Vision works in the United States, poverty levels are so high that 70 percent or more of the children qualify for free or reduced school lunches. Children in poverty can experience high levels of stress and anxiety that can negatively impact brain development and be detrimental to mental health and overall well-being. This often manifests in disruptive classroom behavior that hinders learning and impacts long-term outcomes.

Adding to these challenges, teachers in impoverished schools often lack access and training to help students struggling with behavioral issues, self-management, and relationship skills. These vital skills are necessary for helping students develop into knowledgeable, confident, responsible, and caring young people.

Classroom Wellbeing Kits support teachers and students by providing critical educational tools, supplies, and materials that focus on improving students’ positive classroom behaviors and increasing learning outcomes.

Each $100 Classroom Wellbeing Kit contains a World Vision teacher’s handbook that provides fun, user-friendly classroom activities, access to an online library of 400+ age-appropriate books (in multiple languages) from Worldreader, and items to encourage students to self-regulate their emotions and focus on their studies, such as:

• Pop-it bracelets
• Conversation cubes
• Slinky balls
• Pipe cleaners
• Resistance bands
• Plastic beads

By helping students that  struggle with behavioral issues and reducing the amount of time spent on classroom management these kits help create more time for teaching and learning, while strengthening students’ relationships in the classroom.

Mary Willoughby began teaching prior to the COVID-19 pandemic but realized additional training in social and emotional learning would help her better serve her students. So, she took a break from teaching to return for her master’s degree and learn more about those tools that would help her reach her students at a deeper level.

Mary, who returned to teaching in autumn 2022, received one of World Vision’s Social and Emotional Classroom Kits and said, “using the tools for the kids, they were just so engaged and so excited to be at school to know that it’s a safe place,” she says.

Mary thanks the donors who’ve helped equip teachers and students with the Social and Emotional Learning Classroom Kits. “These tools are going to be very special for our students, especially [those] who are dealing with anxiety,” she says. “They’re greatly needed. They’re greatly welcomed into the classrooms.”