middle SCHOOL LESSON
BLITZ THOSE STRESSFUL FEELINGS Struggling with stress
OBJECTIVES:
1. What is stress and how does it make you feel?
2. What causes stress
3. Good stress vs. bad stress
4. Dealing with stressful situations
INDIANA STANDARDS
(Grades 6-8).1.2 Identify the interrelationships of
emotional and social health in adolescence.
(Grades 6-8).4.4. Choose how to ask for assistance
to enhance the health of self.
TEACHER TALKING POINTS
What is stress & how does it make you feel?
• Stress is what you feel when you are worried, anxious or uncomfortable about something.
• Stress can affect your body physically by causing headaches or stomach aches, affecting your appetite (either not eating or over eating) or affecting your ability to sleep.
• Stress can affect your emotions by making you feel angry, frustrated, scared or afraid.
• Stress experienced by children can seem insignificant to adults because of life experience. The stress children feel is very real to them.
What causes stress
So many things can cause stress in a child’s life.
• KidsHealth recently took a poll and found that the top five things kids said they worried about were:
1. Grades, school and homework — 36%
2. Family — 32%
3. Friends — 21%
4.Brothers and sisters — 20%
5. Mean or annoying people — 20%
• As middle school students continue to mature, this is also the time when they are developing their own identity and figuring out who they are and this can be a major cause of stress.
• Developing opinions and thoughts different from their parents can also be stressful for young children.
Good stress vs. bad stress
• Students should be aware that there is good stress and bad stress.
• Good stress might occur when a student is called on in class or when they have to give a report. Good stress can sometimes help you get things done or help you perform well.
• Bad stress happens if the stressful feelings don’t serve a good purpose or can continue over time so that they cause harmful emotional or physical reactions.
Dealing with stressful situations
One of the best ways to deal with stressful situations is to teach students about good coping
skills. Developing these skills can at an early age can lead to a life-long skill. Here are some
steps you can take when dealing with stressful situations.
1. Understand the current situation
This step is crucial in helping people feel more prepared to deal with the situation at hand. You can accomplish this in two ways:
• Describe your situation in one to two sentences. What’s stressful about this situation right now? It can help to write down your thoughts. For example: My family just moved and I changed to a new school in the middle of the year. The stressful parts are not knowing anyone, missing my old friends, and dealing with all new schoolwork.
• Identify the feelings you have about the situation. Accept your feelings and recognize that however you are feeling is OK. Again, write down your feelings. For example: I feel lonely and sad because of missing old friends and my old school. I’m mad that we had to move. I’m worried about keeping up in math class. I feel left out because I’m the
new kid.
• Learn all you can about the situation. This might include reading, talking to others, or finding out what others in your situation have done and what to expect. Learning helps you feel more confident and prepared, and reminds you that you’re not the only one who has gone through this.
2. Maintain a Positive Attitude
A positive attitude helps keep you from being dragged down by unhappy feelings and can actually boost the problem solving that a stressful situation requires. Research has shown that a positive attitude helps us see the possibilities within a situation, while
negative thinking narrows our view.
• Don’t dwell on the negative. Don’t get stuck focusing on the bad parts of your situation for too long. While you do need to recognize those parts, you don’t want to ruminate on them too long. Replace negative thoughts (such as “I can’t do this”) with more encouraging words. For example: Others have switched schools before and everything was fine. I know I can handle this.
• Be appreciative. Take note of the positive things in your life. It can be helpful, every day, to think of a few things you’re grateful for.
3. Do Something
• Decide what you can do. Decide which parts of the situation you have the power to change and let go of the parts you cannot change. For example: I can talk to the
person who sits next to me in social studies class and ask if they’d like to sit together at lunch. That could help me make a new friend.
• Get support. Find someone to talk to about your situation. Ask for help or advice. It helps you know that someone understands and cares about what you’re going through.
• Take care of yourself. When you are under a lot of stress, it’s very important to remember to take care of yourself. You can do this by eating healthy foods, exercising and getting enough sleep. Aim to do something every day that helps you relax —
whether it’s yoga, a soothing bath, cooking, playing with your pet, taking a walk,
listening to music, or participating in a hobby.
STUDENT ACTIVITY – Dealing with Feelings: Head to Toe
This activity can be done to remind students that you can deal with stressful or angry feelings
in a positive manner rather than getting to upset or sick to your stomach. You can learn from
your feelings and release them from your mind and body while doing this special exercise.
Lead students in this visualization activity:
Imagine that you are very angry. Your head and face feel angry. Your mouth and teeth feel
angry. Your eyes, cheeks and nose feel angry. Your shoulders, arms and hands feel angry.
Your stomach feels angry. Your legs and feet are angry. Your toes feel angry.
Now you’re going to relax your body, part by part.
Start at your head and face and feel the anger and
tension there. Now relax your head and face and
feel peace and calm there. Next, feel the anger
and tension in your mouth and teeth. Relax your
mouth and teeth and feel peace and calm there.
(Continue going through the rest of the body
parts, tensing and relaxing each area).
When your students are completely relaxed,
suggest that this is a technique they can use to
calm themselves down when they feel themselves
getting angry.
They don’t always need to go through the entire body but could focus on a specific part of
their body if they feel that part taking on a lot of tension.
FAMILY INFORMATION
Stress can manifest itself both emotionally or physically in children. In terms of emotional
reactions to stress you may notice the following behaviors in your child: new fears (strangers,
dark), being very clingy, aggressive behaviors, or withdrawal from activities. Physically, you
may notice headache, decreased appetite, upset stomach, or regression in developmental
milestones (bedwetting, thumb sucking).
Unfortunately, no family is immune from stress. In order to help manage the amount of
stress your family has to handle, here are a few tips on how you can help your children manage
stress successfully.
1. Scheduling
One of the biggest stressors for children is being overscheduled – they have to pay attention in school for most of the day, come home and finish their homework, do
chores, participate in extracurricular activities and go to bed just to wake up and repeat
everything again the next day. Parents need to recognize that children need some
downtime in order to help their brains and bodies rest. If you notice that around
mealtimes, everyone is eating on the run or in the car that may be a sign to cut back on
the number of activities for your family.
2. Make sleep a priority.
Sleep is important for everything from reducing stress to boosting mood to improving
school performance. If your child isn’t getting enough sleep, it can make them lethargic
throughout the day causing them even more stress because they’re too tired to learn.
On average, children need at least 8-10 hours of sleep per night.
3. Teach your children to pay attention to their own bodies.
Encourage them to listen to how their bodies are feeling as a result of stress. While it’s
normal for a child to have a stomach ache or butterflies on the first day of school,
constantly heading to the nurse office because their stomach hurts or waking up over and
over with a headache is a sign that there may be too much stress.
4. Keep your own stress in check.
Serve as a good role model for your child by allowing him or her to see how you handle
stress. You may choose to share with them what is stressful to you and let them know a
few ways how you deal with the problem.
5. Organize!
Having an organized home can take away a lot of stressful circumstances. Having lunches
packed, clothes laid out and alarms set the night before can help mornings run a lot
smoother. Starting the day on a calm note, helps lay out the tone for the rest of the day.
6. Accept mistakes.
For some children, a lot of stress comes from being afraid of making mistakes. Remind
them that they’re not perfect and they don’t need to know how to do everything correctly.
Encourage them to see mistakes as an opportunity to learn something new.
7. Be Active.
It doesn’t matter how old you are – physical activity has been shown to help decrease
stress. Try a walk through a park, a bike ride, or a family dance party to incorporate playful
movement into the weekly routine. Your kids will learn from you to use regular, fun
exercise to dial down the tension in their days.
LESSON PLAN EVALUATION
1. Stress does not affect a person’s physical health. ___True ___False
2.There is such a thing as good stress. ___True ___False
3.A positive attitude can help alleviate stress. ___True ___False
4.Talking to an adult or a friend does not help when you are stressed about something.
___True ___False
5.Doing something you enjoy every day can help reduce stress. ___True ___False