Start the New Year with Emotional Regulation Activities

As the start of a new year draws closer, back-to-school activities and fun new year crafts are the first things to get downloaded. But what about starting a new year with some Social Emotional learning lessons to help your students ease back into the classroom routine? They have big feelings and struggle with knowing how to manage them in a classroom setting. Help your students understand what they can control at school and what they just can’t change! Focusing on what they can control and understanding what they cannot help them to regulate and manage their feelings more effectively.

This interactive activity presents your students with two options; they must identify which option they can control.

Emotional Regulation Activities for Kids

• Name Emotions – Emotions are powerful, and being able to label the feelings they experience is critical. Teach your students to identify and verbalize the emotions that they are feeling, and it will help them understand the emotional state they are in. Emotions anchor charts are excellent in the classroom to help your students elaborate on their feelings.
• Drawing Emotions – Have your students draw a picture or create a collage of the feelings they experience during the day. When they finish, have them share their pictures with the class and discuss how to develop emotional coping skills.
• Write About Emotions – Journaling is a proven method for emotional regulation with kids. Provide them with a daily journaling template to record their feelings and work through their experiences to solve their problem.

Easily Prepare This Emotional Control Resource for Your Students

Use the Download button to download the Google Slides file.

Want more? Our Circle of Emotional Control is another great resource to talk about things you can control and those things you can’t control.

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