Social Emotional Learning

How to Make a Coping Strategies Wheel

April 2, 2018 by pathway2success Leave a Comment

One of my favorite ways to sneak social emotional learning into the classroom is by doing crafts. These activities can be hands-on, engaging, fun, and creative. Meanwhile, kids are still learning the critical skills they need. In particular, a coping strategies wheel is a great tool to help teach coping strategies to help manage stress. So often, we just assume kids know how to calm themselves down when they really don’t! That’s why teaching calming activities explicitly can be so helpful.

A coping strategies wheel is a spinner craft that reveals several different coping strategies kids can choose from. Kids can even make their own individualized wheel with strategies specific to them. This helps kids to “buy in” to coping strategies, since they have control over which strategies they want to try and use. After making the craft, kids can spin and practice the strategies. Later on, when the child or young adult is upset, they can even use the wheel to remind them about which coping strategies to use to help them become calm again.

Use these directions to make your own coping strategies wheel with kids and young adults. Feel free to use this Coping Strategies Wheel activity if you want to skip the directions and get to making your own wheels right away with directions, templates, and over 30 coping strategies ready to go.

1. Draw a circle. This will be the base of the wheel. Divide the wheel into fractions. The number is up to you. I prefer to have around five coping strategies to give kids several different choices and ideas for managing emotions. Cut out the circle.

2. Add coping strategies to each fraction of the wheel. You can have students add their own individualized strategies. It might help to use this free list of coping strategies to brainstorm ideas for each student.

3. Create the top of the wheel by drawing another circle of the same size but leaving a fraction of the wheel out. This will allow the bottom piece to show one coping strategy at a time. Have students design the top of the wheel. Encourage them to color it and write “My Coping Strategies” on the top of it.

4. Cut out the top of the wheel.

5. Place the top of the wheel and the bottom of the wheel together. Make sure it aligns to show one coping strategy at a time.

6. Place a fastener through the middle so the wheel can freely spin.

7. Encourage kids to spin their wheel to practice and discuss strategies as they go. Remember that kids will need lots of time practicing their coping strategies when they are already calm to effectively use them when they are stressed. That means you will need to dedicate time to practicing those strategies. Know that it’s truly not a waste of time. Instead, it’s an investment in social emotional health and learning.

Best of all, kids can keep their coping strategies wheels in their binders, in their desks, or in a calm down area. Encourage them to use their wheel when they are upset to choose a strategy that will help calm them down.

Feel free to make your own coping strategies wheel or use this Coping Strategies Wheel activity to print and make with your students right away. It includes over 30 unique coping strategies to include in each wheel or you can add your own! I also have a Managing My Emotions Wheel activity if these are crafts your learners love!

25 Ways to Integrate Social Emotional Learning

March 15, 2018 by pathway2success 4 Comments

Kids and young adults need social-emotional skills to be successful at school, home, and for the rest of their lives. These are the skills that help kids build confidence, understand their own strengths and weaknesses, collaborate with others, navigate social situations, develop strong relationships, and make better decisions. Without a doubt, these are critical skills for all learners.

In my years as a teacher, I know there is just not enough time for everything. So often, social and emotional learning gets put on the back burner to other important skills like reading, writing, math, history, and science. While these skills are certainly important, I would argue that it’s even more important that kids develop their emotional intelligence through social emotional learning activities. Simply put, if kids are mentally and emotionally healthy, they are better equipped to face the challenges life brings. We just have to make the time to teach, discuss, and practice these skills! Best of all, there are many ways to integrate social-emotional learning into what you are already teaching.

Here are 25 ways to integrate social emotional learning into your classroom:

1. Use Journal Writing. You can use daily journal prompts to help kids think about social-emotional skills in all areas. For example, you might ask kids, “When was a time you used self-control? What was outcome?” to focus on self-management skills. After writing, it’s helpful to have students share their responses with a partner and with the class as a whole. Kids will be practicing writing, partner work, group discussion, and SEL skills all at the same time. I love this yearlong Social Emotional Learning Journal for just a few minutes of writing and discussion every day.

2. Teach Perspective-Taking with Read Alouds. This is one of my favorite strategies for integrating SEL into everyday learning because it is something educators do so often already. While reading, spend time talking about how some of the characters might think and feel. Use this time to highlight that this is perspective-taking, a skill we use to understand others’ emotions and thoughts. Best of all, it can be done with any text you are already reading.

3. Incorporate Art Activities. Art can be a powerful way to target social and emotional skills. Creating a self-collage can help kids develop better self-awareness about who they are. Painting and drawing can serve as positive coping strategies to manage stress. Having partners work together on a shared drawing can increase collaboration and relationship skills. There are lots of opportunities for learning with art!

4. Hold Class Meetings. You can choose to hold a class meeting once a day as a “morning meeting” or just once a week. The purpose of a class meeting can be to boost each other up, to help solve problems, and plan class events together. Having this space for community can help promote a positive climate for all kids.

5. Talk About Managing Emotions. No matter what age, all kids and young adults need practice managing their emotions. This is another skill that can be weaved into literature as you talk about character’s feelings and needs. You might say, “How did Theresa feel when her mom left? How did she manage her emotions? Do you think it was a healthy way to manage them?” Additionally, be open with kids about how to manage their own emotions and give strategies for what kids can do in your classroom. For example, “If you are feeling nervous about the test today, remember to use positive self-talk. Tell yourself that you’ve got this!”

6. Give Responsibilities. Giving kids responsibilities and jobs helps build their sense of self-worth and gives the message that we are all part of a larger community. It’s important that every student has some type of responsibility, whether it is a class librarian, lunch counter, or part of a “clean up crew”.

7. Practice Problem-Solving Skills. If students have an issue or challenge to overcome, avoid solving it for them right away. Encourage kids to think about how they could solve their problem and have a 10 minute policy – students can get your help but they need to think about the problem for at least 10 minutes first. Often, kids will figure out a solution on their own or with a friend during that time. You can use these free social problem solving task cards to get started! Again, this is another skill that can be strengthened through literature by discussing characters, problems, and making predictions about solutions.

8. Build Community with Teamwork. For class projects and assignments, have students work in larger teams to complete a task. Teach students to assign different jobs when working in a team, so that all students have important responsibilities.

9. Encourage Positive Self-Talk. Self-talk is voice in our minds that reassures and encourages us. It also helps us control our emotions so we can deal with problems appropriately. Today, kids hear a lot of negative, so teaching positive self-talk explicitly is really important. Model this and encourage this every day.

10. Celebrate Diversity. Spend time discussing and learning about people from diverse cultures, backgrounds, and ability levels. Kids need to hear, see, discuss, and understand that we are part of a larger community within our countries and world. Early discussions about diversity can help promote tolerance, acceptance, and inclusion for everyone.

11. Incorporate Hands-on Crafts. If your students need a craft break or activity before a holiday, use that time to promote social and emotional skills. The craft below is a Positive Self-Talk Flower Craft. Kids can add their own positive self-talk statements, color the craft, cut it out, and then keep it to help remind them how to use this helpful strategy. This is just one small example that can help to maximize your learning time by incorporating SEL into activities like crafts.

12. Encourage Reflection. After students complete a task, assessment, project, or assignment, encourage them to reflect about their own progress. This is a critical SEL skill that can be used across all curriculum, such as math, reading, writing, science, history, and more.

13. Practice Mindfulness. Using mindfulness in the classroom can help teach kids how to calm down before a big test, manage their emotions when they are upset, and just feel happier in the moment. Sometimes, kids don’t really know how to calm down on their own. Teaching mindfulness can help kids learn breathing strategies, how to focus on just one thing at a time, and relaxing our bodies. You can use these Mindfulness Activities to teach kids these strategies right away.

14. Create a Calm Down Area. Not all kids will use this area, but there are some students who truly need it. Set up a small area in your classroom with a bean bag, a few books, a calm down jar, a few fidgets, and anything else you have that is calming. Students who need this space can sit, use coping strategies, and return back to class when they are calm again.

15. Promote a Growth Mindset. Embracing a growth mindset helps kids and young adults learn that we can accomplish our goals with hard work, good strategies, and persistence over time. Sometimes kids feel they are just as smart as they’ll ever be (i.e. “I’m just never good at math, so there’s no use in trying). This mindset can be detrimental to student growth, so it is worth investing time into teaching kids to embrace a growth mindset and instead say, “Math is tough but I’m going to study, work hard, and ask for help so I can accomplish what I want to.” Use these free Growth Mindset Task Cards to get yourself started!

16. Encourage Kindness. One of my favorite ways to promote kindness is encouraging random acts of kindness. Set up a bin where students can write and add a note when they notice someone else doing something kind or helpful. Once a month, draw from the bin to award a small reward. You can also post the random acts up on a bulletin board so that everyone can see.

17. Play Games. It’s helpful to have an assortment of games that focus on social-emotional skills, such as communication, empathy, and problem-solving. You can also read my blog post about games you can use to strengthen executive functioning skills, such as self-control, planning, attention, and more.

18. Provide a Daily Check-in. You can do this either through a morning meeting, or just a quick check-in for specific students in need. Have students identify how they are feeling and consider what they might need to improve their emotions in the moment.

19. Discuss Empathy. To me, empathy is one of the most critical skills for kids to develop. It is the foundation for considering about how others think and feel so that we can respond in socially appropriate and compassionate ways. You can practice empathy on its own or through literature by discussing characters and how they might feel in a variety of situations.

20. Create SMART Goals. SMART goals are another way to help kids have control over what they want to accomplish in life. You can have students write SMART goals for an academic area that they need to improve or a social area that needs work. Make sure to check-in on these goals periodically so that students can identify if their strategies are working or not, and make decisions about how to change their approaches to make their goals a success.

21. Teach Coping Skills to Manage Stress. All kids and young adults experience stress even when we don’t see it. It is so important to teach them actual strategies they can use when they are feeling overwhelmed. It’s critical that kids practice these strategies when they are actually calm and don’t need them. That’s so they can effectively use those skills in the moment when they are struggling with emotions. I love this Coping Strategies Wheel to teach and practice some of these skills in a hands-on way.

22. Highlight Skills Throughout the Day. Just teaching or addressing some of these social-emotional skills isn’t enough. When you see them in action in the classroom, highlight and encourage the skill! For example, you might say privately to a student, “I noticed you were frustrated when you couldn’t work with the group you wanted and you did a great job using your self-control and flexibility to go with the flow and choose another group. Thank you.” You can highlight the skills to the whole class, too. You might say, “Before this test, I want everyone to just stop and use some positive self-talk. Give yourself a compliment.”

23. Teach Active Listening Skills. All kids need to learn strong active listening skills for success at school, with friends, and at their future jobs. Kids will use them in your classroom when you are teaching, when they are working with a partner on an assignment, and when they are just chatting with a friend.

24. Teach Group Ground Rules. Group work is an important part of learning in the classroom, but it is not a strength for all learners. Have your kids develop “Group Ground Rules” for what is important when working in a group. Some examples might be: Do your fair share of the work, stay with the group, and give everyone a chance to speak up. Continually remind students of these rules when working in groups or partners.

25. Practice Respectfully Disagreeing. People are going to disagree sometimes, so learning how to disagree respectfully is a critical skill (especially in our digital world). Have students discuss and debate topics, making sure that they actively listen to the other person and respect that opinion even when they don’t agree. You can use these Free Communication Skills Lessons to practice!

Remember that a social-emotional learning isn’t just one thing. It’s an approach that brings all of these aspects into your classroom and supporting your learners every day. These are just some ways you can incorporate social-emotional learning into your already-busy classroom. If you have more ideas about SEL, please share!

15 Tips for Leading a Social Skills Group

March 5, 2018 by pathway2success Leave a Comment

As a middle school special educator, social skills have been one of my favorite areas to teach. These skills are so important but often get left behind, especially in the upper grades. These are a number of roadblocks to teaching social skills to kids and young adults, including now having enough time, difficulty scheduling a group, or just not having the right resources to get started. That’s why as a curriculum specialist now, I feel it’s so important to help educators find a way to teach these important skills. So many kids struggle with understanding others’ perspective, engaging in peer conversations, making friends, managing their emotions, dealing with conflicts, and much more. These are all critical skills that help kids have success in school, with friends, and for the rest of their lives.

Sometimes it might feel like there is not enough time in the day for social skills instruction due to scheduling, academics, and other needs throughout the day. Still, there are ways to fit it in. If a middle or high school student still needs social instruction, it’s critical they get it right away! Consider pulling a group out of study hall once a week for instruction, having a lunch group every day for a week, or structuring time for a morning meeting. It’s important to think outside the box to find a time that works. Once you figure out the timing, here are some tips and strategies for making social skills groups work for you and your students:

Identify social needs ahead of time. Consider the students you are thinking of and what specific social skills they need the most. Start with the most important skills first and work your way through. For example, if a young adult is getting into trouble for acting out in aggressive ways, focus on managing emotions first. If you have a student who is constantly arguing with peers because they only see things one way, focus on perspective-taking. The term “social skills” is really a huge umbrella, so work to be purposeful about what specific skills you are teaching.

Involve peer role models. This can’t be stressed enough! Inviting peer role models into a group can help kids feel more excited for the activities. Of course, it’s no secret that kids learn best from other kids. Peer role models are perfect supports to help give appropriate social responses throughout activities. You really need these learners around to help support the other students who need the social skills the most.

Communicate with other educators and professionals. Let the students’ teachers and other professionals know what skills the students will be working on. Encourage them to reinforce certain behaviors to help kids generalize the skills they are learning. I always found this extremely helpful because if I wanted to work on conversations with a group, the speech language pathologist could use strategies to help highlight the same skills. Communication and collaboration is key.

Give time to get to know each other. If students in your group aren’t already friends, it’s important to give time for them to develop relationships. Some students might feel nervous to meet in a small group with other kids they don’t know well. Use your first session to give kids time to just get to know each other and start to feel more comfortable. Let students share important facts about themselves through activities or games. My favorite is “Two Truths and a Dream”. In this activity, kids write down 3 things about themselves: two that are true and one that isn’t true yet but is a dream for the future. Have students read their three statements and see if others in the group can guess what is true and what is a dream. Whatever icebreaker activities you choose, it’s important to give that time so that all students can feel comfortable and open in the group.

Incorporate interests. Find out some interests for each student in your group. Work to incorporate those interests into your lessons. For example, if a few students love basketball, you can use references of playing on a team to teach about friendship skills and sportsmanship. If students are into art, you can teach acceptance by painting a picture and discussing how each of ours are different and unique. Adding those interests into the group will help kids feel more invested in the group, which of course leads to increased learning over time.

Teach social skills explicitly. Once you know exactly what skills you want to target, spend the time to explicitly teach those skills. Note that it’s most helpful to really define your group to focus on the skills your students need. “Social skills” is a huge umbrella, so it helps to narrow down what social skills really need to be targeted explicitly. Some of my favorite social skills units to teach include perspective-taking, communication skills, and managing emotions. If you are struggling with where to start, consider this complete set of social skills lessons with activities and more. Let students know what skill you are working on, why it matters, and give practice with each skill in action. Kids and young adults need to know exactly what skills they need to improve and how to get there.

Use role-play. One of the most fun and effective way to learn some of these social skills is acting them out! Students can work in partners or small groups to act out a variety of situations. Have students role-play having a group conversation at lunch. Encourage kids to act out how to solve a disagreement with a friend. Those are just a few small examples! The options are really endless. Best of all, with the added practice, this strategy can really help the skills stick over time.

Encourage real-life connections. Give time for kids to relate their new skills to what is going on in their real lives. You can ask questions to prompt these connections, such as, “When have you seen someone use this skill in your life?” or “When do you think you might need this?”

Incorporate hands-on activities. Middle and high school kids need something active to keep them focused and engaged in social skills groups! Have students create interactive crafts, color, act out situations, and just get up and move. Kids will always remember more when they are doing something!

Add incentives (and make them learning activities, too). Let your students know that they will get 10 minutes of activity time at the end of the group if you get through what you need to. Then, of course, plan that activity to be centered around critical skills! Give time to play basketball, but discuss and encourage turn-taking as kids play. Watch a funny (but appropriate) YouTube video and see if kids can use their self-control to not laugh right away. In the small amount of time educators get to support kids with social skills, we really need to make every minute count.

Discuss real-life scenarios. Real-life situations can help kids understand social skills in a meaningful way. My favorite way to do that is to give a scenario and pose a question. For example, “You notice your partner in math has their head down. How might they feel? What can you do?” In this situation, kids can work on learning social cues, building empathy, and developing social problem-solving skills all from one scenario. You can make your own or use sets already created for you.

Give encouragement. I can’t stress enough that learning new social skills will often take lots of practice, discussion, encourage, and repetition. Learning these skills is often challenging, especially for the kids who struggle socially. Know that it will take time, so provide lots of encouragement and positive reinforcement along the way.

Play games. Social skill learning can be tough for kids who struggle in this area. Sometimes kids even avoid participating because they are embarrassed or nervous to work on the skills head on. A perfect strategy for this is to play games. Blurt is one of my favorites to practice self control, while games like Pictionary can help encourage teamwork. I’ve even developed some games to specifically target skills like building empathy, improving social communication skills, or working on social problem-solving.

Provide follow-up. A few weeks after the group, check in with the students to see how they feel about what they’ve learned. Learning social skills is often an on-going and evolving process.

Get in the classroom. If possible, spend time in the students’ classrooms to see those social skills in action! This is the best place to provide extra encouragement and reinforcement to make sure our learners are following through with what we’ve taught them. This can also be a great way to provide support to the classroom teacher, too.

Teaching social skills can be lots of fun and extremely rewarding when you see kids making social gains. If you are teaching older kids, give this complete set of Social Skills Lessons and Activities for Older Kids a try! It includes units and activities teach about basic interactions, managing emotions, conversations, empathy, and perspective-taking. Just some of the lessons and activities target being respectful, following directions, accepting criticism, working with others, understanding emotions, dealing with anger, understanding perspectives, accepting different perspectives, flexible thinking, understanding social cues, developing empathy, using perspectives to resolve conflicts, and more.

If you’re needing resources for younger kids, try this set of Social Skills Activities for Younger Kids. It includes social skills task cards, lessons, worksheets, and social stories for teaching positive social behaviors. Skills targeted include basic interactions, conversations, empathy, friendships, dealing with conflicts, and more.

Teaching Kids Self-Love in the Classroom

February 12, 2018 by pathway2success 5 Comments

Today’s kids and young adults have too much negative energy all around them. Whether it is negative comments on social media, means texts going back and forth, or just overhearing the daily news, kids are drowning in negativity. With all of that considered, it can’t be said enough how much kids NEED positivity in their lives. Having a more positive mindset increases our abilities to overcome adversity, deal with challenges, and ultimately meet our personal goals in life. The good news is that kids can be taught these skills for positivity and self-love.

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Here are some ways you can teach kids and young adults self-love in the classroom:

1. Teach positive self-talk. Positive self-talk is the internal voice that encourages us, comforts us when we feel down, and pushes us to keep going. We can teach kids to use positive self-talk by practicing statements like, “I can do this,” and “I am enough just the way I am.” The more we say and practice these positive thoughts, the more we will truly believe them. It’s a healthy coping strategy that every child and young adult should have in their toolbox for managing emotions.

2. Model and teach gratitude. Practicing gratitude just means stopping and reflecting about what you are thankful for. Benefits of gratitude include improved happiness, improved relationships, developing stronger emotional skills, and much more. Take just a few minutes each morning to reflect about what you are grateful for. Teach kids to recognize when they are thankful for seeing the sunrise in the morning, having basketball practice after school, having a supportive family member, or just having a great lunch packed for the day. Whether big or small, each situation you are thankful for helps you develop your skills of gratitude overtime.

3. Encourage a growth mindset. A growth mindset teaches us that skills can be developed over time with hard work and practice. By encouraging kids to adopt a growth mindset, we help them learn they can accomplish their goals by working hard, learning from our mistakes, and pushing our way through challenges that pop up. Rather than feeling bad about themselves when they encounter a challenge or make a mistake, help kids learn that mistakes actually teach us valuable lessons. One of my favorite ways to do this is to study successful people who failed at fist but got back up. Some famous people include Michael Jordan, Walt Disney, Oprah Winfrey, J.K. Rowling, and Steve Jobs, to just name a few. I always want kids to realize they can do anything the want if they put their mind to it.

4. Promote kindness. I love teaching kids that when they are kind to others, it actually makes them feel good, too. Once kids begin to realize this, it helps create a positive learning environment all around. Still, it takes practice! Use Random Acts of Kindness slips to have kids record when someone else is kind to them. Post these up on a special kindness bulletin board so that the kindness-giver can be recognized.

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10 Mindfulness Activities You Can Try Today

January 4, 2018 by pathway2success 2 Comments

All kids benefit from practicing mindfulness. Who wouldn’t love the kids and young adults we work with to become more focused, calm, in control, and self-aware? Mindfulness is a technique that can help teach and strengthen those abilities over time. By practicing mindfulness, people can learn to become more aware of their own thoughts, feeling, sensations, and the environment around us. It helps us to refocus and recenter on the present, rather than the past or the future.

If you’ve heard of mindfulness but aren’t sure exactly how to implement it with your learners, I’ve put together a few simple strategies you can try. Whether you are a regular education teacher, special education teacher, counselor, or parent, know that you have the power to teach mindfulness practices. You don’t need to be an expert. In fact, no one ever really “masters” mindfulness. Instead, we are all improving our practice the more we do it. Give the techniques a try and see what works for you! If you want to get started right away, consider these Mindfulness Activities or Mindfulness Activities for Little Learners.

Here are six simple strategies for practicing mindfulness with kids and young adults:

1. Mindful Coloring. You can use any coloring pages for this activity. I love to gather assorted coloring books with different themes and levels. Let kids choose their own coloring page, whether it is a page with dragons, cats, or just patterns. Give access to the coloring materials that best suit your needs. Colored pencils, flair pens, and gel pens are some of my favorites. Encourage kids to quietly color on their own. Tell them that if they’ve made a mistake, just to breathe and move on. Mindfulness is about just letting the experiences pass us by without making judgements about them.

2. Connect with Nature. Take a ten minute nature walk to help kids breathe in fresh air and experience the outdoors for a change. While you are out there, encourage kids to look around and take in the environment with their senses.

3. Dragon Breathing. A huge component of mindfulness is learning how to control our own breathing. A way to get younger kids to buy in to this is making it fun. With dragon breathing, kids will sit up straight, breathe in, stick their tongue out, and breathe out like a dragon. It might feel super silly at first, but it helps to bring the idea of deep breathing down to their level! This is a great activity to do before tests or after recess.

4. Smell the Flowers Breathing Activity. This activity combines mindful coloring and deep breathing. Introduce scented markers and explain that this is a special activity you can only do with those markers. This is an important point so that students don’t smell other markers that aren’t safe. Have students color and breathe in through their noses to smell as they go.

5. Practice Yoga. Spend ten minutes practicing some simple yoga postures, like tree, warrior, and half moon pose. If you’re not sure about how to teach the postures, you can always search for a video and play it while you practice together. I always love to end yoga practice with a relaxing pose of laying on our backs. It’s a great way to incorporate meditation, too!

6. Mindfulness 5-4-3-2-1. Use this technique to ground kids and young adults. This is an especially great activity to help kids manage anxiety or anger. Have students look around their current surroundings and find five things they can see, four things they can tough, three things they can hear, two things they can smell, and one thing they can taste. By the time they get through listing all of those, they will be more present and calm.

7. Recite Positive Affirmations. I’m a huge advocate for teaching kids and young adults positive self-talk. Not only is it uplifting, but it provides a sense of calm when students read their positive affirmations to themselves. You can use this free list of positive affirmations to have students read from.

8. Practice Guided Meditations. Have kids find a spot on a rug or yoga mat and lie down. Have them close they eyes and just breathe in and out. Read a guided meditation to help kids visualize a soothing beach or a calm walk through the forest. You can find one online or make up your own! Within a few minutes, kids will find themselves more calm and relaxed.

9. Use Breathing Visuals. Some kids and young adults need a more concrete and visual method for practicing breathing. A “breathe board” is just a set of shapes or lines that kids can follow with their fingers as they breathe in and out. Different shapes will work differently for different kids, so it’s helpful to try a few!

10. Listen to music. Play your choice of nature sounds, classical, or any acoustic music. You can play the music while kids are doing something independently or allow kids to just sit down and relax while mindfully listening to the music.

I hope you are as excited about practicing mindfulness with kids and young adults as I am! It’s a quick and simple activity you can add to your routine to help kids improve focus, develop self-control, become more self-aware, and just feel better about themselves. I have developed these activities and several more to practice mindfulness with kids and young adults. If you are interested, consider checking out my Mindfulness and Coping Strategies Mega Bundle filled with mindfulness and coping strategies resources for all ages. Feel free to share what other ways you practice mindfulness with your learners!

Why Positive Self-Talk is Worth It

December 2, 2017 by pathway2success Leave a Comment

Positive thinking is a powerful tool that can improve your health, help you manage stress, overcome challenges, and make better choices. The idea is that by changing your thinking, you can control your emotions and your actions. Positive thinking starts with positive self-talk. Self-talk is the voice in our head that goes on throughout the day. A child or young adult might think to himself, “I need to study tonight so I do well on the quiz” or “I should raise my hand and try to answer this question”. In those instances, the voice is positive and encouraging. Self-talk can be negative, too. With negative self-talk one might say, “I’m always horrible at math, so there’s no reason to even study”. Best of all, kids and young adults can actually train their brains to use more positive self-talk. Relying on positive self-talk can help in every aspect of life, including school, home, friends, sports, and everything else.

Use Positive Thinking Task Cards to help teach positive self-talk skills

Some strategies for teaching and encouraging positive self-talk include modeling it, having open groups discussions, and providing explicit practice with real life situations that come up. Try teaching positive self-talk with these Positive Thinking Task Cards. The task cards cover positive thinking, self-esteem building statements, goal setting, and identifying strengths and positive memories. One very simple activity includes turning a negative statement into a more positive one. This provides real practice in helping kids and young adults to train their brains to think more positively. Check out my blog post on how to teach positive self-talk if you’re interested on more strategies and ideas.

Let’s consider a few reasons why positive self-talk can be so critically important to kids and young adults:

1. Increases self-esteem. Positive self-talk helps kids and young adults to recognize their personal strengths and all the great things they are truly capable of. This boost in self-esteem is so critical at a young age. Kids and young adults should feel that they can are capable of anything.

2. Improves motivation. If you feel better about yourself, you’re more likely to accomplish the tasks you need to. Positive self-talk like “I can do this” and “This might be tough but I can do anything I put my mind to” are strategies that kids and young adults can use to motivate themselves even during difficult times.

3. Curbs negative emotions. By using positive self-talk, it drives the negative self-talk away. Negative comments, such as “you can’t do this” and “you are just terrible at math” really don’t help at all. Instead, positive self-talk helps refocus our thinking to make positive changes.

4. Helps with physical health. When mental health is in a positive place, your physical health often follows. Those who use positive self-talk frequently have healthier immune systems, improved sleep, and even increase life expectancy.

5. Develops resilience. All kids will make mistakes. They need to learn to get back up again after they fall! Positive self-talk promotes this type of resilience, as kids learn to refocus their thinking in times of failure. After making a mistake or confronted with a failure, kids who use positive self-talk are more likely to say, “Here’s what you’ll do better next time” instead of focusing on the negative.

6. Reduces stress. Kids and young adults need to learn how to handle stress. Positive self-talk is a strategy that they can take with them wherever they go. When confronted with stressful situations, it can be extremely important to use positive thoughts to direct your thinking and actions.

7. Encourages taking risks. When a mistake is made, kids who use positive self-talk are able to bounce back more easily. This actually encourages risk-taking and not being afraid to step outside their comfort zone.

8. Serves as a life-long coping strategy. Kids will eventually grow into adults who need to have positive coping strategies for challenging situations. Positive self-talk is a life-long strategy that can be used anywhere and anytime. It will help with friends, in relationships, and in the work place.

9. Helps kids achieve their true potential. Kids and young adults believe what they hear and think about themselves. If they are only saying negative comments to themselves, this is the reality they will become. By teaching kids to use positive self-talk, it allows them to realize their own individual greatness. This opens the door for opportunities of growth and success down the road.

Overall, positive thinking can help you reframe your thoughts in a more positive way. This helps you control your emotions and manage the challenges you are facing. Sometimes it’s helpful to use positive self-talk right before a difficult situation, like a test or tryouts for a sport. It’s also helpful just to use positive self-talk any time, like at the start of the day to begin on a positive note. Positive self-talk is strategy for success that can be used anywhere and anytime. On any given day, kids and young adults hear a lot of negativity. They truly need reminders about positive self-talk so they can start to believe in themselves and achieve their true potential. Check out my store for more ideas and resources on teaching positive thinking skills!

Helping Kids with Social Emotional Needs

November 1, 2017 by pathway2success 2 Comments

As a special education teacher, you would think the bulk of my job would be to pre-teach and re-teach academic content, provide educational supports, assess student growth, monitor academic goals, and provide direction instruction in a number of areas. While it’s true that special educators do all of those things (and way more), we need to spend a great deal of time supporting kids and young adults with their social and emotional needs. That helped me to realize that all educators are truly critical in supporting counseling needs to the students we work with every single day. Educators are often the first adults to develop a strong relationship with kids, mentor them, listen to their dreams and fears, and help them through challenging social, emotional, personal, and academic challenges. It’s clear that all of these added responsibilities make us not only teachers, but part emotional support teachers, too.

Over my years in the classroom, the school counselors and social workers have always been some of my best allies in helping kids with social-emotional needs. Working with them and following their guidance is critical. Still, we need to be prepared to provide social-emotional supports, too.

Often teachers feel that they are not trained enough to “act as a counselor”. I hear this come up when teachers have to teach advisory periods or morning meetings. While it’s true that all educators could use lots more training in this area, we must face the facts that we are going to be around these kids much more than a counselor or social worker will be. So, even when students are receiving counseling or social work support once or twice a week, we still need to be prepared to help these students throughout their day.

Whether you are a tenured teacher with years of experience or a new educator ready to start your career, here are some strategies for helping kids through social, emotional, personal, or academic challenges in the classroom:

Share photos of yourself with students and tell them about your personal life adventures.

1. Share about your own life. My students always love hearing about the silly things my dog did, the details of my latest vacation, what foods gross me out, and the challenges I’ve overcome to get where I am. Sharing bits about your life can help kids learn to trust you and build a lasting relationship. Bring in pictures, share experiences, and just really open up about yourself. This really is the foundation to being able to open up and make positive life changes. Of course, it’s critical to keep boundaries, but kids will understand you as a mentor and teacher more when they know about you as a human being.

2. Just listen. When a student talks to you about a challenge they are dealing with, it’s important not to give advice right away or act judgemental. Just listen, nod, and validate their thoughts. You can ask things like, “What do you think you should do?” and “What are some strategies you use to deal with that?”. At the right times, it is important to give support and advice, too. But listening always comes first.

3. Get to know kids. That seems obvious, but getting to really know and understand each student as a whole child can go a long way. That means taking the time to understand their background, where they have come from, their interests outside of school, fears, dreams, strengths, and struggles. Since time in the classroom can be filled with academics, it can be helpful to start the morning with a social or getting to know you routine, sitting with kids at lunch time, and even just being visible before and after class. If you sincerely make an effort, kids will notice.

Use reflection binders to help students see their growth.

4. Help kids see their growth over time. It’s important to remind kids that you can’t reach your goals over night. I love to use student reflection binders to help show students their own progress and growth. Whether the student is working on increasing grades in an academic subject, reducing times they get in trouble, or just getting to school on time more, students love to be able to track their growth over time. This also can lead to developing specific goals that the student work on throughout the course of the semester or year. It leads to lots of deep conversation about making positive changes and how goals can be accomplished.

5. Hide your frustrations. We all get frustrated with students sometimes! When that happens, take a breath and walk away. Kids really need more positivity in their lives. By showing our frustrations, we are just making kids feel poorly about themselves instead of helping them reach their individual potentials.

6. Collaborate with specialists. If you’re having continued issues in your class with a specific student or set of behaviors, reach out to the school counselor, social worker, psychologist, behaviorist, or anyone else who might have ideas. Chances are that a colleague will have specific strategies that you can implement in your classroom right away to work on whatever you are dealing with. Also, if a counselor or social worker needs to work with your student during your time, try to be understanding of this. You are both working on the same goals together.

7. Avoid power struggles. Growing kids and young adults often use power struggles as a way to test their limits. Some kids will use them more than others, though. For example, it’s the time when you tell a student to sit down and they cross their arms and look at you. So how can you avoid these power struggles? The first way is just to give directions politely! For students with behavioral or emotional challenges, a simple, “Let’s get ready to sit down in a minute,” goes a long way. Similarly, explaining your reasoning can help, too. You might say, “Can you sit down in a minute? I’m going to teach the rest of the lesson and it helps me if everyone is seated”. If you do happen to get in a power struggle, here is a winning phrase that can stop the battle right away: “Let’s talk about that later”. If you’re needing more ideas, get a list of over 50 free de-escalation strategies you can use today.

8. Provide structure and consistency. Many kids and young adults who struggle with social emotional challenges truly thrive on a great deal of structure. That structure might look different in every classroom or setting. It’s important to be fair and maintain high expectations for everyone. Most critically, just be there in the child’s life every day. Never give up on even your most difficult student, no matter how challenging any given day, week, or year might be. Your constant belief in them is what they need to survive and thrive.

9. Research topics. If you’re feeling uncomfortable or unsure about how to approach or discuss certain topics, feel free to research and learn from experts in the area. Don’t be ashamed that you don’t understand a diagnosis or challenge a child is dealing with. Instead, use that question to help you learn and grow! As educators, we are always learning. In an ever-changing world, it’s more important now than ever to have the best research in front of us.

For more strategies and ready-to-use ideas, check out my social-emotional learning materials. Remember that as educators, we must support not only academic, but social and emotional needs, too. Most of all, know that educators have such an important role in helping to shape the lives of kids and young adults. The words we say and the actions we take impact students in such powerful ways.

50+ De-escalation Strategies

October 15, 2017 by pathway2success 9 Comments

Being able to de-escalate and defuse situations with kids and young adults is an extremely helpful skill. Kids and young adults who become emotionally overwhelmed or irritated in a situation may begin to express their emotions in aggressive or violent ways. Some examples of these behaviors might include aggressive posturing, yelling, throwing items, swearing, and making threats. Quite often, without training, these situations become a power struggle between the young adult and the teacher. These power struggles only make the situation worse, though.

The best way to handle these types of behaviors is to de-escalate the situation as soon as possible. It’s very important to recognize that this does not mean letting the student get away with the behavior. Instead, de-escalation focuses on helping the student return their emotions back to a normal level. It is critical that the student is calm for a period of time before behavior and expectations are discussed again.

Kids and young adults with oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), anxiety, and trauma are just some examples of those who need these strategies utilized to be successful.

If you need further training and support in this area, consider the De-Escalation Strategies Guide that includes extensive training materials, information on Oppositional Defiant Disorder, proactive strategies, reference lists, and a quick-guide to store in a spot for use on the fly.

Also, remember to download the free printable list of over 50 de-escalation strategies. They are ideal to keep on a board by your desk, in the team room, or in a binder to bring to student support meetings. Let me add that they are not only for teachers. Parents, counselors, and administrators could use them, too!

Here are over 50 strategies and phrases you can use when de-escalating a situation:

Act calm even if you’re not.
Say, “Let’s talk about this later”.
Use humor to lighten to mood.
Lower your voice.
Give a choice.
Walk away.
Ask, “What would help you right now?”
Change the subject to a positive one.
Give personal space.
Say, “I see where you are coming from.”
Distract with a positive photo of something they like.
Show that you are listening.
Remove the audience.
Say, “I want to help you.”
Talk about something they like.
Make a joke.
Encourage the person.
Remind them of something amazing they did.
Say, “You can do this.”
Call another adult for help.
Say, “Let’s call… I think they can help.”
Be willing to find a solution.
Offer to change the way you are doing something.
Re-state what the person is saying.
Validate their thoughts.
Avoid over-reacting.
Use active listening.
Offer a solution.
Let the person talk without interrupting.
Say, “I see your point.”
Offer to take a walk with the person.
Clarify expectations.
Remind them of something they love.
Apologize for something you did wrong or the way it was taken.
Invite them to do a preferred activity.
Ask if they can explain more about how they’re feeling.
Try to understand the person’s perspective.
Slow yourself down to avoid getting worked up.
Say, “So, you’re upset because… right?”
Don’t say “calm down”.
Show empathy.
Encourage the person to use a coping strategy.
Don’t take items or personal property away from them.
Encourage the person to take a walk or get a drink.
Give the person an “out” (i.e. letting them go to another room or walking away).
Ask, “Would it help if… ?”
Keep escape routes open to the door.
Coach the person with positive remarks.
Acknowledge where you agree with the person.
Remind the person, “You’re not in trouble”.
Tell the person, “I’m here for you.”
Say, “Talk to me,” and listen.
Tell the person to take a minute to themselves.
Ignore the behavior if it’s minor.
Distract by saying, “Hey, let’s go…”
Be respectful in your tone.
“Do what works” in the moment.
Spend time debriefing after the incident to identify ways to improve.
Ask them to draw a picture of what happened.
Avoid needing to get the last word.
Just give wait time.

If you love this topic, read my post on 13 ways to avoid power struggles with kids and young adults!

Games to Improve Executive Functioning Skills

October 1, 2017 by pathway2success 9 Comments

Kids and young adults need extensive practice in strengthening their executive functioning skills. Executive functions are the processes in our brains that help us accomplish all tasks from beginning to end. We use them when we plan our day, organize our materials, begin a chore, focus on important information, use our time wisely, and work through challenges until we accomplish a goal. The specific skills include: planning, organization, time management, task initiation, working memory, self-control, metacognition, attention, flexibility, and perseverance. While all kids could use extra practice with executive functioning skills, the ones who need it the most are often disorganized, struggle to finish assignments, lose items, have difficulty paying attention over periods of time, and give up on tasks that are difficult. These are the kids who could benefit the most from executive functioning skills instruction and practice.

If you’re looking for an executive functioning review game you can download and use right away, check out this Executive Functioning Challenge! It can be played as a board game with partners and small groups, or as a whole-class challenge. The game includes over 200 executive functioning cards so you can play again and again!

Simply put, executive functions are often critical to the success of kids and young adults. So, it makes sense to make practicing them fun and engaging! Games are a great way to weave executive functioning practice into your routine. You can choose to play a game on a Friday afternoon, after a big test, or as a class reward.

Here are ten games for practicing executive functioning skills:

#1 – BLURT

Skills: self-control, metacognition

How to Play: In this game, the teacher reads a definition of a word and kids have to figure out the word itself. For example, a question might be, “What is a partially dried grape?” When the student answers “raisin”, they win that turn. I like to play “around the world” style. All students will sit at desks or chairs around the room. Select two kids to play against each other and have them stand next to one another. Read the card and whoever “blurts” the answer first, wins and gets to move on to the next person. The idea is that only the kids playing can blurt out, and everyone else must have self-control, even if they know the answer. This game can also be played with your own content area questions too, which is great for a review before a test!

#2 – SCRABBLE

Skills: planning, organization

How to Play: In scrabble, kids use random letters to build words and keep score as they go. You can have students play in small groups and even partner kids together who may need extra support with spelling or language. Planning and organization is required because kids need to build off of each others’ words as the game progresses. As an extension, have kids look up definitions to the words they create or use the word in a sentence before points are scored.

#3 – PICTIONARY

Skills: flexibility, time management

How to Play: This game has students drawing phrases on paper or a whiteboard that others must guess correctly. Kids need to use time management to best draw their phrase before the time is up. This is such a fun game! I even love taking pictures of some of the drawings that are both hilarious and amazing.

#4 – DISTRACTION

Skills: working memory, attention

How to Play: In this card game, kids work on remembering numbers given to them while encountering distractions, including questions they have to answer. It is a great activity to teach about distractions that can throw us off!

#5 – 5 SECOND RULE

Skills: time management, task initiation

How to Play: Kids must name 3 things that fit a given topic. For example, kids might need to name 3 professional basketball teams or 3 pieces of jewelry. The categories differ greatly so kids have to be on their toes. As an accommodation, I sometimes play as a “10 second rule” to give kids enough time to process the question.

#6 – FREEZE

Skills: self-control, attention

How to Play: Freeze is a game where you play music and allow kids to be silly and dance. Then, at any moment, say “Freeze!” and kids need to stand completely still. It takes a lot of self-control to stop dancing to a song you’re into! This can be fun to let kids take the role to freeze the class, too.

#7 – JENGA

Skills: self-control, flexibility, planning

How to Play: In this game, kids pull blocks from a tower carefully. They must plan and be careful so they are not the one who causes the tower to fall over. This is a fun game because everyone likes to see towers get knocked down sometimes!

#8 – BRAINTEASERS

Skills: perseverance, flexibility

How to Play: Brainteasers are drawings and words that have a special meaning that kids must figure out. For example, when “man” is written on top of “board”, it means “man overboard”. These type of brainteasers are a great feat in perseverance and flexibility to figure out. They are great for a morning meeting or “do now” when kids walk in the door to start their brains off strong.

#9 – CHESS

Skills: planning, flexibility, working memory

How to Play: Chess requires kids to learn specific rules for different pieces and then use those skills to take out their opponent. This game requires a tremendous amount of planning, flexibility, and working memory to think through your moves ahead of time. It is also a great option when you need a quiet game.

#10 – SODUKU

Skills: perseverance, working memory

How to Play: Sodoku is a math puzzle game that allows kids to use critical thinking skills. Each grid has the numbers 1-9. Each row and column must add up to 9 separately, so the numbers need to be arranged correctly. Incorporate this activity for kids to work on in small groups or just for a fun challenge.

I have always loved using games to teach and support critical skills in the classroom, so I put together some games for social emotional learning skills! This set consists of five games focusing on executive functioning skills, social problem solving skills, empathy, social language, and more. You can really maximize learning time in your classroom by making “break time” skill-focused, too!

If you find yourself needing lessons and materials for direct instruction of executive functioning skills, consider this Executive Functioning Bundle. It teaches all ten executive functioning skills, study strategies, and SMART goals with enough materials for the entire year. You really cannot teach or practice EF skills enough!

50+ Free Counseling and SEL Resources

September 1, 2017 by pathway2success 16 Comments

Use this list of free resources to use in counseling and social emotional learning activities to help you work with kids and young adults. As a special educator for 10 years, I can say without a doubt that we need more counseling and social emotional learning supports for kids and young adults. Some of my best days in the classroom involved collaborating with the school counselor, social worker, and school psychologist to create lessons and activities for our kids. Whether you are a school counselor, outside therapist, psychologist, social worker, or special educator, many of these resources might be able to help you as you work with kids. Free resources include printable materials, websites, Pinterest boards to follow, apps, and videos.

– Free Printable Resources –

1. 100 Free Coping Strategies List – A 2-page printable with 100 coping strategies.

2. Social Scenario Problem Solving Task Cards – Task cards that highlight social scenarios and situations for kids to solve.

3. Growth Mindset Task Cards – Task cards that help teach hard work, persistence, grit, dedication, and a positive mindset.

4. 101 Free Positive Affirmations List – A 2-page printable list with 101 positive statements for kids to read.

5. Mindfulness Breathe Boards – Two free printable breathe boards to help focus on deep breathing techniques.

6. Think Feel Act Worksheets – Free worksheets to help explain the relationship between thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.

7. Power of Yet Posters – Three simple posters that encourage hard work and dedication.

8. Free Overcoming Adversity Activities – Worksheets and lessons to help kids and young adults overcome challenges and adversity.

9. Free Coping Strategies Notebook – Use this resource to help kids set up their own individualized coping strategies binders.

10. Mindfulness Coloring Pages – Free mindfulness coloring pages with positive sayings.

11. Daily Planner Page – A few simple pages to help keep you on track for the day.

12. Middle School Keys to Success – Worksheet and activity to help kids succeed at middle school.

13. Conversation Starter Cards – Mix of questions regarding self, home, friends, school, family, and more to get to know kids.

14. All About Me – Free 1-page worksheet for kids to share interesting facts about themselves.

15. Free Divorce Worksheets – Information explaining what divorce means for kids and families.

16. What Pushes Your Buttons: Anger Triggers – Checklist of possible triggers for anger.

17. Anger Management Worksheets – Printables including anger trigger worksheets and an anger log.

18. Free Positive Posters – Set of 8 simple posters to help encourage, calm, and soothe kids.

19. Break Cards – Three sets of break cards that encourage kids to take breaks in positive ways.

20. How Big Is My Problem? Task Cards – Task cards that help kids determine how “big” each problem is in a variety of scenarios.

21. Life-Skills Discussion Checklist – Checklist to survey young adults and help determine areas to talk about for support.

22. Free Executive Functioning Workbook – Guide and workbook to help teach kids executive functioning and study skills.

23. Self Esteem Bookmarks – Bookmarks for kids to color while helping them learn positive self-talk and a growth mindset.

24. Counseling Planning Forms – Free worksheets to help you organize and plan counseling sessions.

25. Gratitude Activities – Worksheets and activities to help focus on gratitude and positive thinking.

– Free Apps –

26. Headspace: Guided Meditation & Mindfulness – This app provides meditation exercises with a coach that helps you learn as you go.

27. The Mindfulness App – A mindfulness app that helps you become more present in your daily life with guided and silent meditation sessions.

28. Aware – This app leads you through daily mindfulness meditation techniques, including energizing activities and breathing practice.

29. Stop Breathe & Think: Meditate – Tailored to your specific emotions, this app helps you take a break and reduce stress through meditation.

30. MyCalmBeat – This app provides training and practice in slow, deep breathing for stress reduction.

31. Breathe – An app that assists in controlling your breathing.

32. Gratitude Journal – This app helps you focus on the positive by identifying what you are thankful for each day.

33. Pacifica – Stress & Anxiety – Tools for mindfulness, meditation, relaxation, and health/mood tracking.

34. Affirmation Reminder – Select from a list of positive affirmations or make your own to add as reminders.

35. ColorMe – Free coloring app to help reduce stress.

36. Relax Melodies – Free app with white noise and calming sounds for sleeping and meditation.

Free Websites

37. The Calm Clinic – Website with articles specifically focused on anxiety.

38. National Institute on Drug Abuse for Teens – Lots of free resources and information for parents, educators, counselors, and teens themselves.

39. Love Is Respect – Website that teaches young adults about health relationships.

40. PsychCentral – Detailed information, resources, and articles on a number of mental health disorders and disabilities.

41. American Psychological Association – Large assortment of free information on topics and latest research.

42. College Board – Website to help young adults, parents, and counselors navigate through college decisions.

– Free Videos –

43. Creating a Coping Strategies Notebook

44. School Counselor Office Must Haves

45. Developing a School Counseling Program

46. Clipboard Progress Monitoring

– Pinterest Boards –

47. Counseling & Mental Health for Young Adults

48. Child Anxiety

49. Guidance, Counseling, & Social Work

50. Therapist Community Board

51. Coping Strategies

52. School Counseling

I hope these free resources and materials are helpful to you and the kids you are working with! If you are looking for even more resources, consider checking out all of my free and paid resources in my store here.

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