Calm Down Stations

Students and teachers alike can get stressed, upset, angry, and sad. We all need to learn how to calm ourselves and have learn what to do with these intense feelings. With the older grades, students read Julia Cook's The Anti-Test Anxiety Society. Younger grades read How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight?or Sometimes I'm Bombaloo. 

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To start the lesson, I ask the students if it is okay to get angry. The students move to one side of the room if they thing yes and the other side of the room if they say no. The students on the no side often say that it's not okay to get made because you _______ (hit someone, do something you don't mean to do). We then discuss that there's two parts to their statement: 1) getting mad  2) doing something (hitting, kicking, cursing). They are asked again if they get in trouble for 1) getting mad or 2) hitting/kicking/cursing. The students switch to the side that says it is okay to get mad or upset. All feelings are okay: feeling stressed, angry, sad, upset. It's important to know what to do when we feel these intense negative feelings. 

Various sized red circles are hanging from the ceiling and to represent the intensity of our feelings. I have different pictures of intense situations (taking a test and not understanding, losing a soccer game, getting tripped on purpose, feeling lonely, frustrated with reading). As I hold these up, the students move under the circle that shows how upset that would make them. In the example below I asked the students "How upset would you be if you lost your soccer game?" The students in the following picture would be really upset. Another student might not be that upset in that situation. I ask the student's, "Is it okay to be different?" They all answer "yes". (We have a lot of lessons on accepting our differences). We talk about how everyone has different feelings too. The idea of this lesson is a spin-off from a title I saw on www.kidlutions.com. 

I model each of the following stations and let them know it's important to practice how to calm down so when you do get upset it will be familiar to them. As they practice each station, I emphasize breathing in and breathing out slow. It's a joy to watch them learn a skill they can use for the rest of their life. Students are encouraged to use these strategies when they are angry, upset, nervous, or stressed. The students think of times when they could use their calm down strategies (a death in the family, in trouble at home/school, taking a test, someone makes them mad).

CALM DOWN STATIONS

Smell the Flower (breathe in) Blow Out the Candle

Color a Picture: Students colored patterns on various mandalas. 

Shake It and Relax: Students shake sensory bottles and watch the contents settle. 

Pinwheels: Take a slow deep breath

·Draw a Picture

Scribble: Sometimes you are just too angry to color or draw a picture. Let it out!

Calm Down

Squeeze It: squeeze for 3, let go for 3, switch hands

Count and Calm: Count the fuzzies slowly. Are you still upset? Count them as you put them back in the box.  

Five Deep Breaths: Breathe in... breathe out (remove a square). That's one.