Identifying Helpful and Unhelpful Strategies for Managing Stress

Along with your class, join Amber, who identifiably is experiencing some common stressors as a young person. Help Amber and her friends cope with stressful situations for kids by determining if their chosen strategy will be helpful or unhelpful.

To play, students will practise identifying which stress management coping strategies to use when by completing ten interactive story prompts. 

Through this activity, students will show their ability to apply strategies to manage emotions and analyse how emotional responses influence interactions with others.

Tips for Differentiation + Scaffolding 

A team of dedicated, experienced educators created this resource and understand that each student is on their own social and emotional learning journey. 

To assist students who are struggling with identifying which are helpful strategies, work in a small group and demonstrate through nonverbal communication or through acting how each response might look in real life. 

Easily Prepare This Interactive Activity 

Use the dropdown icon on the Download button to choose between the PowerPoint or Google Slides versions of this resource. 

Assign this interactive activity in Google Classroom or Microsoft PowerPoint. Please be sure to open in Presentation mode, as this will enable students working independently to continue through the slides with feedback on their answers. Students click to submit their answer. 

Alternatively, use this activity as a whole-group learning activity and ask students to help the kids in the stories to solve their stress management problems using effective strategies!

This Health resource was created by Lindsey Phillips, a teacher and Teach Starter Collaborator. 

For more curriculum-aligned resources for your Health lessons, take a look at these:

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Responding to Stress: Small Group Skit Project

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Stress Management Toolkit for Kids

Practice stress management techniques with your students with this set of 4 worksheets, which form a stress management toolkit for reference.