Managing Anxiety and Worrying
Teaching Coping Skills and Strategies
We will be going into the classrooms this month to talk about Anxiety and what to do when you worry. Students will be learning different coping skills and strategies to help manage anxiety.
Grades K, 1, 2 and 3
Students will be learning the language and skills represented in the book "What to do when you worry too much?"
We will be talking about what do do when you worry too much. Students will brainstorm worries that they experience every day. We will also explain how worries tend to grow and what strategies you can use to help stop worrying.
One of the strategies that we will discuss is "talking back to your worries". Students will learn how to talk back to the "Worry Bully" on their shoulders.
We will also introduce our Worry Monsters so that they can eat any remaining worries that students have. Students will write worries on a piece of paper and feed it to the worry monster. The worry monster is very hungry and holds onto the worries so the students don't have to.
Grades 4 and 5
4th and 5th grade students will be listening to the story "What to do with a Problem?"
After reading the story, we will talk about anxiety and how it can effect you. We will talk about how anxiety isn't always a bad thing and how it can be an opportunity. We will then brainstorm different strategies as a group on how to help manage anxiety.
Each classroom will get a cup of "Coping Strategies" to keep in their classroom to use when they become anxious or are worrying about something.
We will finish our lesson with a role playing activity and students will have a chance to practice different strategies to help them feel more comfortable and will be able to carry them over.
