managing
lesson 19:
managing emotions
Lesson Summary
In this lesson, students develop their understanding and strategies for healthy emotional regulation. Students identify different emotions and gain an increased awareness that all of their feelings are valid but they cannot act in a way that hurts someone or something as a result. By teaching students a range of emotional tools, they will be better equipped to self-manage the big emotions they may experience.
Purpose
Purpose: To help students to identify different emotions, as both facial expressions and as feelings in their body. Students then learn strategies they can use to manage emotions they may be feeling to develop their self regulation skills.
Process
Time Needed: 30 - 35 minutes.
Activity: Video (5-10 mins)
Intro (5 mins)
Optional Activity: Emotion Body Scan
Activity: Calm Tools (10 mins)
Activity: Emotional Toolkit (10 mins)
Debrief and Reflection (2 mins)
Materials & downloads
For this lesson, you will need the following:
Optional: Student workbook/notebook.
Activity: Video (5 mins)
To begin the lesson, watch the video of Elmo.
Video Debrief: This video reminds us that we need to identify the emotion we are feeling and how it feels in our body and then decide what we are going to do to help us manage the emotion. Being able to manage your emotions helps you stay calm and make better choices, even when things feel difficult. When you can handle your feelings, it is easier to speak kindly, listen to others, and solve problems. This helps your friendships stay strong and makes you feel more in control of yourself.
intro (5 mins)
Welcome back to Friendship Fitness! Today, we are going to learn about the different emotions we may feel and what we can do to manage those feelings.
Begin by asking students to name different emotions they may feel and write them on the board.
Once the students have finished sharing, share that our emotions show up in our body - so it is important we notice our body is feeling! Being aware of how our body feels can help us to identify which emotion we are feeling.
Go through each emotion and ask students to share how their body might feel when experiencing that emotion. Write their answers on the board, next to each emotion.
Examples may include (and not be limited to):
Angry: tight / clenched jaw, hot face, clenched fists
Nervous: butterflies in tummy, shaky/ restless legs
Excited: heart beating fast, lots of energy
Sad: heavy body, slow movements
Calm: relaxed muscles, steady breathing, steady heart beat
Whilst we may feel a range of different emotions, we need to know that our feelings do not give us permission to act in a way that hurts or upsets the people or things around us. It is okay to feel all of our emotions, but it is not okay to react or behave in any way we like!
optional Activity: Guided Body Scan
Instructions:
Depending on the space available, students can either sit comfortably or lie on the floor.
Read out the following script to guide students in their body scan. Students do not need to say anything as you guide them. Use a calm, slow voice and give a brief pause between prompts.
Optional: Play calming music to help students relax.
Teacher tip: some students may find it hard to focus during this activity and that is normal. Guide these students to bring their focus back to their chest as they breathe.
Teacher Script:
“Get comfortable (either sitting or lying down). Let your feet rest on the floor or the mat.”
“Start by taking 2 or 3 big gentle breaths to get you paying attention to your body”
“Notice your feet. Do they feel still or wiggly, heavy, or light?”
“Move your attention to your legs. Are they tight or relaxed?”
“Now notice your tummy. Is it relaxed or tense, or moving as you breathe?”
“Notice your chest. Is your breathing fast, slow, or in between?”
“Now give your attention to your shoulders. Are they lifted or relaxed?”
“Notice your hands. Are they clenched or open, warm, or cool?”
“Finally, notice your face and jaw. Does it feel tight or relaxed?
“Now take 2 or 3 big gentle breaths again and sit up with your eyes open when you are ready”.
Debrief:
Our bodies are always sending us messages! By knowing what we are feeling in our bodies, we can have a better understanding of the emotions we are feeling. When we know which emotion we are feeling, we can do things that help us to manage it and feel calm again.
Activity: Calming Tools
It is completely normal to feel a range of emotions, especially when we are dealing with friction in our friendships. We need to know how to express these emotions without hurting anyone or anything, even if we are feeling really big emotions.
Go through each of the strategies and practice them 1-3 times so students know how they can practically use each tool.
Teacher Tip: Feel free to add in additional strategies or tools to the ones listed below that students may be familiar with.
Breathing Tools
Box Breathing: Students can breathe in for 3 seconds, hold their breath for 3 seconds and then slowly breathe out for 3 seconds.
Slow breathing: Students can try and breathe in and out as slowly as they can
Teacher tip: Students may also want to close their eyes to help them focus on their breathing.
Movement Tools
Stretching your arms high above your head
Shaking it out by shaking your hands or legs
Give yourself a hug by wrapping your arms round your body
Squeeze a stress ball or sensory toy
Pausing and Thinking Tools
Name 3 things you can see, 2 you can hear, 1 you can feel
Use positive statements such as: “This feeling will pass.”
“I can handle this.”
Counting slowly (either in their head or out loud) to 10
Support Tools
Asking for help
Teacher Tip: Some students may struggle asking for help, either by not knowing what to say or by feeling embarrassed. To normalise and encourage students to ask for help, they can practice saying the following sentence: “I need help because I am feeling ……. and I am not sure what to do. Please can you share a tool I can use to help?”
Talking to a teacher
Talking to a friend
Sitting near a friend or trusted adult
Debrief:
Being able to manage our emotions does not mean we stop ourselves from feeling specific emotions, it means that we have tools to be able to cope with emotions that we might find tricky to deal with.
Activity: Emotional Tool Kit (10 mins)
We have learnt about the different tools we can use to help us manage our emotions, so now it’s time to make our emotional tool kit. Our toolkit is a range of different actions we can do to help our body and brain settle down when we are feeling big emotions. Just like a real toolkit, we don’t use every tool at once, instead we choose the one that is going to help us the most, based on how we are feeling at the time.
When I feel angry or frustrated I can……
When I feel worried or nervous I can…….
When I feel sad or overwhelmed I can…….
Students write down or draw their answers.
Debrief:
Great job creating your toolkit! No one tool is the “best” and we need to use different tools from our toolkit at different times, depending on how we are feeling. Remember: all feelings are valid but this does not mean we can hurt or upset the people around us. Our emotional toolkit shows us what we can do and how we can behave to help us to manage our feelings.
Lesson Debrief:
In this lesson we learned that all feelings are okay, even big or tricky ones. Emotions also show up in our bodies and noticing these body signals helps us understand how we are feeling. We have learned there are things we can do to help us feel better when we are feeling different or difficult emotions and we have these strategies in our emotional toolkit. Being able to positively manage our emotions is important for our friendships because sometimes it can be harder to listen, be kind or problem solve when our feelings feel out of control. Being able to understand our own emotions and notice the emotions of our friends, we can respond in ways that keep friendships safe, respectful, and strong.
