Begin by telling students, “Today, I want to talk to you about your emotions. Emotions are feelings we have when good and bad things happen. Good things cause feelings that are easy and make us happy, while bad things cause feelings that are hard for us and make us sad.

“Both types of feelings are important because they keep us aware of our world. Easy feelings help us learn and work better. Hard feelings, like anger and fear, warn us of dangers and threats and help us protect ourselves. But having too much of a feeling or emotion can sometimes be a problem if we do not handle it correctly.

“We need to recognize what feelings we are having and learn the best way to handle them. Usually, hard feelings are the most difficult to handle. So today, we are going to talk about some ways to handle hard feelings. While we cannot stop our feelings or emotions, we can control how we handle them. It is important that we do so in a positive way.”

Direct students’ attention to the board or chart. Tell students, “First, I am going to think about some emotions, identify and name them, and sort them into two lists: ‘easy’ and ‘hard.’” Make two lists titled “Easy” and “Hard.” Then, tell students, “Now, I am going to talk about some things I do to help me handle my hard emotions. Notice how I try to be careful to only use positive actions that do not cause hurt to myself or anyone else.” Discuss each hard emotion (sorrow, fear, anger, etc.) and model considering a strategy for each. Create a list of possible coping strategies for hard emotions while explaining each one of your actions.

Possible coping strategies:

• Identify your emotions by asking yourself, "How do I feel?"
• Take five deep breaths.
• Think of things that make you happy.
• Exercise, move around, and stretch.
• Focus on your five senses—count sounds, sights, tastes, smells, and textures around you.
• Talk to a friend.
• Distract yourself with TV, music, a book, a chore, or something fun that you like to do.
• Ask for help.

Direct the class to turn and talk to the student sitting next to them and to discuss which coping strategies they think would work best for them and why.

Give each student a sheet of folded drawing paper. Tell them to draw and write a situation that would cause them to experience a hard emotion on one half of the paper. On the other half of the paper, tell them to draw and write a coping strategy they would use to control the emotion.

Have students share their illustrations. Then say, “Bad things sometimes happen. We cannot change that. But we can change how we feel, and we can control what we say and how we behave.”