School Counselor: Piccolo Group Date: 11-7-18

Activity: Coping Skills

Grade(s): 2nd and 3rd

ASCA Mindsets and Behaviors (Domain/Standard):

Learning Objectives:
1. SWBAT understand what stress is and how it impacts their lives.
2. SWBAT identify techniques and strategies to cope with stress.
3. SWBAT communicate with adult or peers appropriately when stressed.

Materials:
 Poster or Chalk/White Board
 Markers
 Coping with Emotions Book
 Stapler
 Coloring utensils

Pre-Delivery:
Before classroom lesson begins, counselor and/or teacher can set up the word “Stress” on the
board or poster. It would be beneficial to have the “Coping with Emotions Book” ready for each
student by folding and stapling three pieces of computer paper together to create a booklet.

Procedure:
Do Now (5 minutes): Pass out pre-assessment to all students and direct them to answer the
questions, then collect. Ask students to raise their hand if they have ever had a bad day, or a day
when they felt like things just kept getting worse and worse and nothing went right. Then ask
students if they have ever heard of stress or can explain in their own words what stress means.
After hearing a few student responses, explain that stress is when a person feels worried about
things in his or her life or is uncomfortable with a situation. Tell students that stress and worry
are emotions that can have both physical and mental effects on a person. A physical effect is
when a person’s body feels sick or bad, and a mental effect is when a person feels sad, angry, or
upset in his or her mind.

Physical Practice (10 minutes): Ask students to stand up and to follow your instructions
carefully. Instruct students to breathe slowly in through their noses and out through their mouths.
Demonstrate this technique dramatically to students so they can see how you take time with each
breath and are intentional in how you breathe. Do this five times as a class. Tell students they did
great and that you want to do one more activity with them standing next to their seat. Tell
students to make their bodies very rigid and tight, as if their whole body is one big, straight
board. Demonstrate. After the class holds this position for a few moments, instruct students to
make their bodies very loose, like wet noodles. Demonstrate by loosening your body and
wiggling all around, letting your arms jiggle. Tell students to make their bodies tight again, and
loosen and jiggle. Do this a few times. After this is complete, ask students to return to their seats.

Ask students how they feel after this breathing and body movement activity. One or two students
should suggest that they feel relaxed, but if they do not, prompt the class toward this response.
Explain to the class that those two body activities are examples of ways to cope with our
emotions, calm down, and relax.

Guided Practice (10 minutes): Say to students, “It is important to manage and handle the stress
in your life. In order to do this, we must examine the things that cause stress to see if there are
healthy ways to handle them. We are going to create a list of skills and strategies that can help all
of us cope with the things that cause stress in our lives.” Ask for volunteers to give an example
of something that worries them or might cause stress in their lives (Grades, Friends, Sports, etc).
As students give examples of stressors, write them on the board or on chart paper. Next to the list
of stressors the students suggested, create a new list on the board of stress relievers and coping
skills. Ask students to help think of ideas. If students have trouble, suggest the following:
 Play outside or exercise
 Stretch
 Take a drink of water
 Read a book
 Doodle/draw/start an art project
 Talk to someone about how you feel
 Practice slow-breathing techniques (like the one you led in “I Do”)
 Practice body-relaxing techniques (like the one you led in “I Do”)
 Play music and dance
 Squeeze a stress ball
 Spend time with a pet
 Take a nap
 Take a bath or shower
 Count backward from 10 slowly
 Journal or write down your feelings
 Close your eyes and visualize a safe, calm place

Explain that sometimes people may need to use more than one strategy to help them, or
sometimes a strategy that works for one person will not work for another. Also, explain that a
person might still feel stress even after using the strategy, but it might not be as strong as it was
before. Stress how important it is that people learn strategies that help when dealing with these
emotions.
Guide the students through creating a “Coping with Emotions” book. Pass out three pieces of
paper to each student and have them fold the pages into a book, unless already made by
counselor and teacher. Tell the students that they will pick an emotion for each page in the book
and write the name of the emotion at the top of the page. Underneath the emotion, the students
will write the strategies they can use to cope with this emotion. Walk the students through the
activity by having them all do the same emotion for the first page. Have the students write
“anger” at the top of the first page in their book and then, as a class, discuss strategies they could
use to help them cope with this emotion. Direct students to write down the strategies they
discussed. (They do not need to be exactly the same.) Stress the importance of using
communication as a strategy to help them cope with the emotion of anger.

Student Independent Practice (20 minutes): Have the students complete a few more pages in
the book independently or in small groups. Encourage the students to pick emotions they feel
that they experience often and for which they may need better strategies to help them cope
(Anxious, Sad, Embarrassed). Walk around the room and monitor the students as they are
working. Let students use their coloring supplies to create art and designs in their books.

Closure (5 minutes): After the students have been given enough time to complete their books,
allow students to share an emotion they experience and the strategies they identified to help cope
with this emotion with their peers. After a few students have shared, recap the lesson by stressing
the importance of communicating how one is feeling. Hand out and collect post-assessment.

Plan for Evaluation: Process data will be taken from the number of assessments collected in the
classrooms. Perception data will be taken from the completed assessment from each student.
Outcome data will be collected by using data about the number of students removed from class
which will be taken from Piccolo Continuous Improvement Plan.

Process Data: At least 85% of each grade will complete the coping skills lesson which will be
taken from attendance data.

Perception Data: At least 75% of students who completed lesson, will indicate a knowledge of
the types of coping skills and an effort of 3 to 4, to begin using coping strategies at school.

Outcome Data: The number of students removed from class will decrease by 8% for each grade
that completed the lesson plan.

Follow up: Any students who continue to have removals from class for maladaptive behaviors
will be able to join a small group for anger management, speak one-on-one with counselor, or
may need a further discussion parents.