The Sioux City Community School District Counseling Department is always working to support students and families. This page offers resources and tips to help manage social, emotional, and mental wellness.
Resources for Understanding and Coping with Anxiety
The goal of treatment for anxiety is to help children learn to manage their emotional responses to their triggers. All children are different and what works well for one child might not work for another. Learning to manage symptoms of anxiety and cope with triggers takes time and practice. Students can try some of these strategies at home.
Behavior Charts and Anxiety Worksheets
Behavior charts and anxiety worksheets can help children understand their anxiety. Anxiety can be debilitating for children and stressful for families. Children can use printable journal pages to write about their anxiety. Anxiety behavior charts, worksheets, and daily affirmations are also helpful tools not only for children but for parents, teachers, and counselors.
Visit https://www.freeprintablebehaviorcharts.com/anxiety_charts.htm for more information.
Focus on Breathing
One coping skill that works well for anxiety is having the ability to get our minds back in focus through breathing. Parents can model for their child(ren) and show them what practiced breathing looks like.
Visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hSkmmNU7PM to view a deep breathing exercise for children.
Cope with Emotions
When we feel big emotions our brains naturally respond with either the fight, flight, or freeze mode. This Youtube video explains what happens and what we can do about big feelings.
Yoga
Yoga is a fun way to breathe, move, and relax! Yoga makes you calm when you’re too excited and makes you feel energetic when you feel tired. It helps you bring your mind back into your body when it wants to wander. Using this printable pack, you can make three yoga flipbooks: dragon breathing, tiger pose, and tree pose.
Parent Resources for Children Coping with Anxiety
Read this article by Harvard Health Publishing to learn more about the following:
- Common symptoms of anxiety in children
- Types of anxiety common in children
- What makes some children more vulnerable to anxiety
- Treating anxiety in children
- Ways parents can help children learn to manage anxiety
Read this article by Karen Young to learn more about what to say to children when they are anxious.
Resources for Understanding and Coping with Stress
This Youtube video explains a simple technique that reduces stress, anxiety, and depression and improves focus and behavior.
7 Tips for Helping your Child Manage Stress
The key to helping kids manage stress is teaching them to problem-solve, plan and know when to say yes and no to activities and commitments. Visit this website for 7 tips for helping your child manage stress.
30 Things you can do for your Emotional Health
Click here to download a 30-day calendar of things you can do for your emotional health.
Resources for Focusing on a Growth Mindset
The goal of a growth mindset is to develop intelligence. A growth mindset allows students to focus on learning, see effort as the key to success, and thrive in the face of challenges.
What is the Growth Mindset?
This Miniclip explores the characteristics of a fixed mindset and a growth mindset. It busts the myth of perfection and teaches students to appreciate their mistakes and failures. It explains that fear is a natural universal emotion, how challenges help students grow, and provides students with tips on how to switch on their growth mindset.
Growth Mindset Activities for Elementary Students
Growth mindset activities are vital to elementary students’ social-emotional learning. This means they have both the intellectual and emotional skills needed to succeed in life. A growth mindset helps students achieve difficult skills, helping them persevere despite difficulties.
Visit https://proudtobeprimary.com/growth-mindset-activities/ for growth mindset activities for elementary students.
Mindful Breathing with Mojo
You’ve probably heard “just breathe” a million times, and maybe noticed that actually taking the time to take deep breaths helps you feel more centered and calm—but did you ever think about why? Deep breaths send oxygen to the brain, soothing the amygdala, a small area in the middle of each hemisphere that acts as the brain’s alarm system.
When the amygdala is activated, it responds with the primal reactions of fight, flight, or freeze and blocks the prefrontal cortex’s ability to think clearly. This is great when we’re in actual danger, but in most cases of stress, the amygdala hijacks our ability to respond mindfully under pressure.
Deep breathing can help tremendously. But the main challenge is remembering to do it. That’s why it’s helpful to know specific (and fun) breathing techniques that are great for students!
Visit https://ideas.classdojo.com/f/mindfulness-breathing/ to practice mindful breathing with Mojo.