Launching My New Book: 101 Games for Better Behaviour

I’m delighted to share some exciting news — my new book, 101 Games for Better Behaviour: Supporting Feelings and Building Emotional Understanding, co-authored with the wonderful Helen Sonnet, is now published by Routledge!

Over the years, I’ve seen how powerful play can be in helping children understand their emotions, build empathy, and manage their behaviour. This book brings together 101 engaging, low-prep games and activities designed to support emotional literacy, self-awareness, and cooperation.

Whether you’re a teacher, SEN specialist, counsellor, or parent-educator, you’ll find ideas to help children thrive emotionally and socially. Each game is simple to run, fun to play, and full of opportunities for meaningful connection.

Inside you’ll find:

Games that build empathy, teamwork, and calm reflection
Activities for circle time, group work, and one-to-one sessions
Fresh links to current educational frameworks
Downloadable resources to support each section

In a world where children face so many pressures, helping them to understand and manage their feelings is one of the most valuable gifts we can offer.

Explore the book here:
Routledge: 101 Games for Better Behaviour

Thank you to everyone who has supported this project — from colleagues and schools to the inspiring children who remind us daily of the importance of emotional connection and play.

Let’s keep building classrooms where kindness, understanding, and fun go hand in hand.

Foreword for the book…

Jenny Mosley is quite simply a legend, whose work has inspired countless teachers and support staff to create the kinds of classrooms and playgrounds in which children can truly thrive. Her best-selling series of ‘Games’ books, written with the equally brilliant Helen Sonnet, has only become more relevant in recent years, as schools across the UK grapple with the many challenges facing children today.

Games promote a sense of belonging in a class or group. And belonging (or lack of it) is emerging as a key issue affecting children’s learning, behaviour and attendance. When we experience feelings of belonging to a group, our body produces a hormone soup that makes us feel calm and able to focus. Conversely, if we are unsure whether we belong, we are anxious, constantly monitoring the environment for cues as to whether or how we can fit in. Creating a cohesive class, where there is a sense of group identity, avoids this and frees children to concentrate on learning.

The games in this book also build essential social and emotional skills, like self-awareness, self-regulation, empathy and the social skills of cooperation and conflict resolution. Research shows us that teaching these skills can make a significant contribution to attainment, as well as to a range of other important outcomes, from mental health to employability.

Flexible in their use – from playground to start and end of day, PE warm-ups or circle time – the game ideas that Jenny and Helen share here should play a part in every child’s day. Some people might argue that this is a waste of learning time. The evidence, however, suggests otherwise. I cannot recommend these books strongly enough.

Jean Gross CBE

Best-selling author and former government Communication Champion for children