Calm-Down Desk Plates for Kids

Let’s face it… life likes to throw our students curveballs from time to time! And just as we need tools to fix our cars, our bikes or our homes, so do we need tools for fixing our feelings in the times they get a little out of alignment!

Coping skills are handy little tools that can help us “fix up” our emotions when times get tough. This desk plate is a mini coping skills plan that students can readily access whenever they need it. Students choose five strategies from those provided in the resource to paste into the desk plate template. The strategies that students can choose from are:

• Count slowly to ten.
• Find a quiet place to sit.
• Talk to a trusted friend or adult.
• Draw a picture or color in.
• Do a puzzle.
• Name things around me I can see.
• Do deep, mindful breaths.
• Blow bubbles.
• Scrunch up a piece of paper.
• Have a cool drink of water.
• Squeeze a stress ball.
• Use positive self-talk.

The beauty of this resource is that can be individualized for each student in your class. After all, a calming strategy that may work wonders for one student may not work at all for another student! 

If our students find themselves in a tricky situation, or if they find themselves feeling overwhelmed, they can draw upon the strategies listed on their desk plate to help them calm down, then respond to the challenge with a greater sense of empowerment and control. 

Download the full-color PDF, or if color printing isn’t an option, we have a black-and-white PDF available too! And if you’re looking to do some personal modifications, we have an editable Google Slides file available that contains both the full-color and black-and-white versions.

With childhood anxiety on the rise, it is vital that our students develop emotional awareness coupled with emotional self-regulation. Coping skills are skills for life that will help our students to thrive both now and in the future!

Explore Healthy Coping Skills

Before using this resource with your students, we recommend you take some time to explain each of the strategies to your class. This gives them the opportunity to reflect on the coping skills they feel will work best for them.

If your students would like to include a coping skill not included in the resource, why not have them draw their own picture to represent this strategy directly into the box on the desk plate? After all, the best strategies are the ones that resonate with and work for the individual!

Download and Print This Coping Skills Desk Plate

Use the dropdown menu next to the Download button to access the PDF or Google Slides versions of this resource.

When your students have finished pasting their chosen strategies into the desk plate, have them cut them out and then secure them to their desks. 

We recommend printing this resource on cardstock for increased longevity and durability.

Explore Other Healthy Coping Skills

Looking for more activities to explore healthy coping skills with your students? Click below for more teacher-created resources!

teaching resource

Calming Down Mini-Book

Help your students to keep calm when they are experiencing heightened emotions with this social story mini-book.

teaching resource

Mindful Breathing Exercises – Task Cards

Use these mindfulness breathing exercises to help students calm themselves down when they are feeling upset or anxious.

teaching resource

Calm-Down Strategy Cards

Help your students choose and apply strategies when they need to calm down with this comprehensive set of calm-down strategy cards.