Finding My Magic is an animated series of 4 short stories featuring three young friends – Catherine, Tom and Kate – who attend the same school. The local store-keeper, a wise man named Mench, offers practical advice and teaches Catherine the power of a ‘magic box’ and ‘me messages’. Catherine teaches others so when they each face challenges, they use the power of self-talk to develop confidence and persistence to overcome obstacles.

This series provides a language and a device (the magic box) to assist children in developing essential skills for their emotional well-being. Each child will make or be given a small white box to personalise and use as their “Magic box” for “me messages”.

Finding My Magic has 4 short episodes with identifiable engaging characters and stories, offer a springboard for discussions about recognising negative self-talk and changing it. The success of positive self-talk is demonstrated clearly as we see Catherine, Kate and Tom overcome obstacles and achieve goals.

Development of ‘me messages’ (positive self-talk) is vital for the growth of strong self-esteem in students. Each program reinforces the use of ‘me messages’ and deals with the specific issues of the three friends. 

Finding My Magic is designed to build success skills in young children to assist them to reach their potential. It will assist children in learning about their rights and responsibilities by first learning about communication and positive thinking. Specifically this series is designed to encourage children to:

• Find and develop their inner strength, self-esteem, assertiveness, confidence and persistence
• Handle failure, upset, disappointment, and give them courage and motivation to try again
• Make healthy eating decisions and enjoy basic exercise
• Develop skills to overcome shyness and speak in front of a group
• Have pride in their own ideas
• Develop skills to overcome bullying and prejudice
• Improve communication skills
• Develop positive and caring relationships
• Step in and assist others
• Apologise when they have said or done something inappropriate or wrong.

To buy the WHOLE SERIES, click on the shopping cart above (no need to add individual titles to your cart). This series contains the following titles

DVD with 4 episodes, trailer and  PDF Guide for Teachers on disk.

The Finding My Magic episodes have been designed to be used most effectively as sequential viewings and provide engaging viewing for a wide age group. Repeat viewings of individual programs can be used for exploration of specific issues and group needs. There are a range of activities that can be selected for use with different episodes. Masters (M1-M23) of handouts and resources are provided in this guide. There are a wide variety of uses of the program, depending on development needs, desired learning outcomes and available time, including:

• Whole class lessons
• Individual self-reflection and goal setting
• Lectures
• Mentoring sessions
• Coaching one-on-one or in small groups
• Induction programs for teaching and support staff
• Training sessions for peer mentors and coaches

• Silver Award, Questar Awards, USA (2010)
• Silver Screen Award Winner, Nevada Film Festival (2010)
• Award of Excellence, Accolade USA (2010)
• Best Animation, GIAA Festival of Short Films & Videos, NY, USA (2010)
• Bronze Plaque, Chris Awards, 58th Columbus International Film Festival (2010)
• Winner, Animation, Home Planet Film Festival NY, USA (2010)
• Official Best of Fest Award, USA (2010)
• Certificate of Merit, Animation, Chicago International Film Festival (2010)
• Honorable Mention, Animated Short Film Competition, Bayou City Inspirational Film Festival, USA (2010)
• Semi-finalist, Feel Good Festival USA (2010)
• Finalist, Australian Effects & Animation Festival (2010)
• Nomination for Best Animation, International Filmmaker Festival, UK (2010)

OFFICIAL SELECTION AT 2010 FILM FESTIVALS:

• San Diego Children’s Festival USA
• International Youth Festival UK
• Heart of England International Festival UK
• TriMedia Film Festival USA
• Independent Television Festival LA, USA
• Eugene International Film Festival Oregon, USA
• Williamsburg International Film Festival, NY, USA
• International Filmmaker Festival, UK
• Orlando Film Festival, USA
• Utopia Film Festival, USA
• Best of Intercom, Chicago, USA

From teachers who trialled the series in their classes:

• Theyre engaging, create discussion and offer strategies
• DVDs are engaging, message is strong
• Clear message to students that is reinforced by activities and each episode
• They are positive. There are changes that appear of the characters personalities/ behaviours from the beginning to the end
• Great, diverse backgrounds, relatable
• I liked the multi cultural and gender perspectives
• Really relevant
• Havent seen anything like this
• Fantastic. Nothing as up to date and focused
• A brilliant program. Very needed from an early age
• An excellent resource with a huge scope of incorporating it into most areas of the curriculum
• The children picked up on the characters very easily
• Highly relevant to commonly shared values and beliefs

• Community
• Students 5 -12
• Young Children

• DVD Educational

• English

Video Recording

• Animation

Yes