Coping Skills
GRADES K-2

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Learning Goal

Students will learn the value of coping skills and practice some.

Learning Objectives

By the end of the lessons, students will be able to:

  • Identify what a coping skill is
  • Understand when to use coping skills
  • Use a new coping skill in the classroom
Learning Summary

We all have ways we blow off steam, decompress, relax, or deal with life’s difficulties, but we aren’t born knowing how to cope!

This lesson starts with a discussion on when we use coping skills. Next, a Munchy and Jumpy story in which the twins struggle through a rainy day stuck at home. The rabbits learn how and when to use coping skills to have a better day. Students come up with their own coping skills. The class then learns two coping skills that can be used in the classroom. Students draw their new coping skills in their journals.

computer icon Online Teaching Tips for Coping Skills

If children are at home in a stressful situation, a lesson on coping skills can hit the spot. 

Students are more likely to have coping skills for using in their home than in class, so ask students to share what makes them feel calm in their home. When choosing coping skills to teach them, choose ones that require no or minimal supplies, such as breathing, lying down with a stuffed animal, taking a bath, etc.  

See lesson one on Mindfulness for our remote teaching recommendations about doing live or recorded mindful moments, Munchy and Jumpy read alouds, and journaling.

Students likely have something in their home they associate with calming down. Ask them to bring it and show to the camera.

Give students options of things they can do in their home as a coping skill and give them the assignment of doing at least one. If parents can upload a picture of their student doing their coping skill, create and share back a document showing everyone in the class.

CASEL Competencies

Self-awareness: The abilities to understand one’s own emotions, thoughts, and values and how they influence behavior across contexts. This includes capacities to recognize one’s strengths and limitations with a well-grounded sense of confidence and purpose.

Self-management: The abilities to manage one’s emotions, thoughts, and behaviors effectively in different situations and to achieve goals and aspirations. This includes the capacities to delay gratification, manage stress, and feel motivation & agency to accomplish personal/collective goals.