15_coping skills 6-8

You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf. —John Kabat-Zinn COPING SKILLS At-Home Resources Level: Middle School (6-8) Concepts: • Cool Down Strategies • Coping Skills Big Ideas For This LessonIn our lives, there will be things that upset us, throw us off track, and can make us feel angry, sad, orany number of other emotions. Coping skills are a tool we can use to handle our difficult emotions, andwhat works for each individual person varies. Some people like to take a walk, and others prefer tobreathe deeply. Be mindful if you identify a coping skill that might be an unhealthy behavior for you.Helpful coping strategies contribute to our long- term health and happiness. Harmful coping strate-gies may offer short-term relief but detract from our long-term health and happiness. Essential VocabularyCoping Skills: ways to calm down when upset. (Also known as cool down strategies).Cool down Strategies: Any skill, strategy, or behavior used to deal with difficult emotions (also knownas coping skills).Difficult emotion: Any emotion that is unwanted, undesirable, and causes stress and suffering.Helpful coping skills: An adaptive strategy to deal with difficult emotions that contributes to longterm health and happiness.Harmful coping skills: A maladaptive strategy to deal with difficult emotions that detracts from long-term health and happiness (may offer short-term relief).© 2017 Empowering Education, Inc. PAGE 1 of 2 All rights reserved.

COPING SKILLS | GRADES 6-8 PracticeAll coping skills can be both helpful and harmful depending on how they are used.For instance, while exercising isusually a healthy coping strategy, people who exercise obsessively may be harming their bodies.Another example: reading or playing a video game might be a great way to cool down, but if you are using it toavoid dealing with your problems then it might be harmful.Working with your student, think of a coping skill they use often that might be both helpful and harmful dependingon how it is used. Use descriptive details and sensory language to describe the emotions that trigger the copingskill, how the skill is used, and how it can be helpful or harmful in the short-term and long-term.Coping Skill:Emotion(s) that triggers use of coping skill:How is the skill used?How is the skill helpful in the short-term? In the long-term?How is the skill harmful in the short-term? In the long-term? Student Resources• After Eli by Rebecca Rupp (Grades 5 – 8)• Alice is Still Here by Ida Vos (Grades 4 – 7)• Bird Springs by Carolyn Marsden (Grades 3 – 6)• Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper (Grades 4 – 6)• Rain Reign by Ann M. Martin (Grades 4 – 6)• Strike Three! Take Your Base by Frosty Woolkridge (Grades 5 – 9)• The Liberation of Gabriel King by L.L. Going (Grades 4 – 7)• Coping Skills for Kids - Brain Works Project• How to Take the Grrrr Out of Anger by Elizabeth Verdick and Margorie Lisovskis (Grades 3 – 8)• What to Do When Your Temper Flares: A Kid’s Guide to Overcoming Problems With Anger by Dawn Huebner (Grades 3 – 6)• What to Do When You’re Scared and Worried: A Guide for Kids by James J. Crist (Grades 5 – 8) Adult Resources• 8 Tips to Help Your Child Gain Control of His/Her Emotions (Blog) by Katie Sadowski• Medicine of the Mind – Coping Strategies (Book) by Olivia Celine Gieg© 2017 Empowering Education, Inc. PAGE 2 of 2 All rights reserved.