Don’t Let the Feelings Volcano Explode!

As adults, we know what it’s like to feel completely overcome by an emotion. We might feel an overpowering sense of love for a child, partner or pet; a sense of complete devastation at the loss of a loved one or missed opportunity; or even a raging storm of anger when we feel we have been treated in an unjust manner.

So too do our students experience these strong emotional responses. To a young child, these responses can be very overwhelming! Left unmanaged, there’s a very real possibility that these overwhelming emotions could cause our students to react in an unhealthy or inappropriate way. The answer: we must teach our children to calm their “feelings volcano” before it explodes!

The metaphor of the feelings volcano can be a very effective one when it comes to teaching our students to manage overwhelming emotions in a healthy way. This worksheet has been designed by our passionate teacher team to help your students identify healthy strategies they can use to prevent a feelings volcano eruption! The students are required to colour the three strategies they like best, then write about another strategy they like the use when they need to calm down. 

This resource downloads as a black-and-white PDF or an editable Google Slides file.

By engaging with this resource, your students will learn how to keep their feelings volcano under control by using healthy calming strategies to prevent any unnecessary eruptions!

Healthy vs Unhealthy Coping Skills

This resource has been designed to educate students about healthy coping skills, as opposed to unhealthy coping skills. Healthy coping skills are those that enable us to deal with our emotions while maintaining positive relationships with others. The healthy coping skills featured on this worksheet are:

• Do some brisk exercise
• Take slow breaths
• Count slowly to ten
• Squeeze your muscles
• Talk to a friend or adult
• Do a fun activity

Be sure to check that the coping strategies added to the worksheet by the students are healthy coping skills, not unhealthy ones!

Download This Printable Feelings Volcano

Use the dropdown menu next to the Download button above to access either the easy-print PDF or the editable Google Slides version of this resource. (Note: You will be prompted to make a copy of the Google Slides template before accessing it).

This resource was created by Lisamarie Del Valle, a teacher in Florida and a Teach Starter collaborator.

More Teacher-Made Resources to Explore Healthy Coping Skills

Click below for a sample of Teach Starter’s extensive collection of resources for teaching your students about healthy coping skills

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My Emotional Triggers Worksheet

Help your elementary students explore the situations that trigger them to experience certain emotional responses with this 2-page emotional triggers worksheet.

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Calming Strategies Fortune Teller Template

Help your students choose and apply strategies when they need to calm down with this handy fortune teller template.

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Managing Emotions Mini-Book

Help your elementary students explore and manage their emotional responses with this printable mini-book.