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What works for you? 

Coping Skills/Strategies: 
​ Ways to work through uncomfortable feelings/situations.  
​
Self- Talk:  can be used to alert ourselves and others to how we are feeling.  This can be done by using a whisper voice or with an internal "thought bubble".  We are acknowledging our current emotion.  May also be used to affirm positive feelings/situations (i.e. "I feel happy when I ride my bike with a friend.")
  • Anger =  "I feel angry, I need to calm down."
  • Sadness = "I feel sad, I will work to feel better."​

Visualizing:
  1. Close your eyes and think about a favorite memory or place you love. 
  2. Encourage students to think about how this memory/place feels, smells and sounds. 
  3. Open your eyes once you begin to feel more calm/content. 
  4. Repeat as needed.

Deep Breathing:  
Squeezing an Orange:
  1. ​​Students will visualize an orange in their upward facing palm.  
  2. They will squeeze their hand into a fist while breathing in deeply through their nose. 
  3. They will release the squeeze and breath out deeply from their mouth.
  4. Repeat as needed.  
Flowers and Candles:
  1. Students will visualize smelling a bouquet of flowers, breathing in deeply through their nose.
  2. Students will release this breath through their mouth by visualizing blowing out birthday candles.
Students will listen to a short video reading of the story ​Cool Down and Work Through Anger by Cheri J. Meiner.  
Students will have the opportunity to discuss why we might use coping skills, coping skills we might already use and a few examples of some others.  We will talk about the importance of finding coping skills that work for them.   One that we will practice as a group is called Lazy 8 breathing.