There is also space for children to write about their feelings monster. Invite children to write about how their monster is feeling and make links to their own feelings and emotions. Have they ever felt the same way as their feelings monster?

These pebbles can become a permanent feature whenever you feed the worry monster. 4. Scavenger Hunt – What Can We Feed It In my worry management group, students create their own “worry monster” to represent the worries they have. They draw and name their worry monsters and verbalize the times at which the worry monster tends to come out. For example, a student might say, “My worry monster Harry comes out at night when it’s dark and there are noises outside my window.” So when I saw this amazing art activity from Liska at Adventure in a Box,I knew it would be great for worry group to teach students helpful strategies to manage worries. Lisa uses watercolors to make monsters, and I thought it would be perfect to make these while practicing controlled breathing. Worry Group Activity: Worry Monsters Teach Deep Breathing Worry and anxiety has a big negative impact on sleep, and so helping children to relax slightly before bedtime is important. It is probably the most crucial time of the day to alleviate worry.

How Does a Feelings Box Work?

Imagine there is something that you are worried about. It might be something that makes you sad, or that you are scared of. A good activity, then, is to take the children on a scavenger hunt with one of the purposes being to find ‘food’ for the worry monster. Another great idea for ownership is for the children to make the worry monsters themselves. This is very achievable.

Then you can ceremonially place the pictures into the mouth of the worry monster, maybe talking them through as you do so. This activity helps students to develop self talk for dealing with their worries and recognize times and places that tend to bring out the worry monster. From here, we practice talking to their worry monsters and paying attention to time when he or she might come out. This activity really helps students to recognize worry triggers and employ that self talk that helps them to combat their worries! Then secure them at the end with a rubber band or similar. You could draw faces onto the stress-balls with pens.A child with perfectionist tendencies starts to feel anxious over making a mistake. The child says to the worry, “Mr. Perfect, I know you are trying to tell me mistakes are bad but I know that it is ok to make a mistake. I am not going to listen to you.” As a parent, you might say, “Mr. Perfect, I see that you are trying to tell [child’s name] that he has to be perfect, but we all know that nobody is perfect and that is ok.” The Worry Monsters are part of a holistic approach we have to upholding school values around supporting and feeling supported.” Worry monsters are so simple to make, and have such a wide range of benefits. Of course there is no way to completely eliminate worry, but there has been research into the impact of strategies used in early life. ( Source) After reviewing the physiological experiences of worry (pounding heart, racing thoughts, etc.), talk to your students about how controlled breathing or diaphragmaticbreathing can help to calm their bodies and minds. Practice controlled breathing with your preferred method. I usually start by simply teaching students to breathe in through their noses for a count of 5 and breathe out through their mouths for a count of 7. Or you may have come across slight variations that use different types of containers like jars. Those would be your Worry Jars, Feelings Jars, or Anxiety Jars.

Park feelings or emotions that they may not be able to cope with at the present moment until they are ready to deal with them.There are a few worry monster picture books around, but definitely my favorite that I’ve seen is The Very Hungry Worry Monsters, by Rosie Greening. Natural objects are also a good choice, as they have calming textures in the hands. Things like leaves or conkers would work well, as would many other types of loose parts materials. 3. Emotion Pebbles Each of them has its own pros and cons, they may require certain skill sets and work in different contexts. A child with separation anxiety starts to worry about leaving to go to school. As a parent, you can say, “It sure looks like Bossy Pants is trying to scare you. I know Bossy Pants is loud and scary but you are brave and know that I will see you as soon as school is finished. Be brave and don’t listen to mean old Bossy Pants.” A child may say, “Bossy Pants is scaring me about school right now. I am telling her that she is just a bully and even though I feel scared, I know I will see you after school.”

Why not create a display of the children's feelings monsters? You could use these Emotions and Feelings Photo Display Cards to support the children as they complete the sheet and display alongside the feelings monsters to further prompt discussion. Often children might repeat worries they have mentioned previously. Repetition like this is really positive, and helps to process things more clearly. And then start a story. The way to include worry in the story, is to get the children to visualise something their worried about, and somehow trap the worry. Personifying worry is a powerful way to help kids deal with anxious feelings. An activity that students always seem to get a lot out of is creating their own depiction of what their worry would look like if it were alive. Students come up with things like monsters, dragons, annoying mosquitos, and so much more. In my worry counseling group, I help students make a worry monster to examine what their worry is telling them and how they can deal with it! Make A Worry Monster Introducing the Activity This is perhaps best done as a group activity, first thinking about what each of them is worried about, talking it through a bit, and then drawing what that looks like to them. It doesn’t have to look like a masterpiece of art – the emphasis is on the psychological benefits of this experience.Worry Worm, Buddy Worm, Happy Worm - for worry, anxiety, sensory, fidget, comfort, stress relief, ADHD, ASD - handmade crochet.