Year 5/6

Session 1

Topic 5: Stress Management

Learning Intention: I can identify the various contexts and situations in people’s lives that can cause stress

Explain that the focus of this activity will be on understanding the sorts of things that make people feel stressed, and the way in which different places or contexts provide different kinds of stressors.

Ask students to brainstorm and then write a definition of the word stress.

Collect and discuss their definitions. Share the definition below.

Stress is what a person feels when they are worried or feeling uncomfortable about something challenging in their environment. Stress can be positive. People can be excited and engaged by challenging situations.

But we more commonly use the word stress to refer to the negative feelings we have about the challenges we experience. Stress can be a response to one single challenging experience, or it can be the build up over time of lots of smaller or long lasting challenges.

Divide students into groups of four and give a Locations card to each of the groups (home, classroom, playground, sports ground, neighbourhood).

In their group the students brainstorm the types of situations that could happen in that location to make a person feel stressed.

Ask for a volunteer representing each location to share five items from their brainstorm. Write the stressors on the board.

As a writing exercise, ask students to choose one of the locations and stressors from any of the lists and write a paragraph which shows how a fictional character experiences that stressful event. Ask students to write in the first person to make the writing powerful.

Catch:

This activity helps to build empathy as students describe how others may be affected. Listening to the reporting back of the causal scenarios provides a form of peer support as students hear their peers recognise what might be an upsetting experience. The activity also builds a richer language through which to describe and understand more intensely felt emotions.

Invite some volunteers to read their stress stories to the class. Before the ‘readings’, ask students to practice ‘reading with feeling’ so as to make a dramatized reading to the class.

For dramatic effect, bring six students at a time to the front to present their dramatised readings in sequence.

Session 2

Topic 5: Stress Management - Understanding differences

Learning Intention: I can use collaborative play to lift the mood and build a sense of social support

To play the Anyone who... game, seat students on chairs arranged in a circle (remove any spare chairs). The teacher stands in the centre of the circle. S/he does not have a chair. The teacher calls out, ‘Anyone who....’ and adds some information (for example: ‘Anyone who likes ice cream’). When s/he calls the category, all players of that category must move to a different chair (all those who like ice cream must leave their chairs and find a different chair). At this time the teacher will rush to a chair and the last person left without a chair will make the next call in the game. The next person will then make a new call (for example, s/he might say: ‘Anyone who came here on a bicycle’). Then all those who came on a bicycle must swap to new seats. Play a few rounds of the game. By this time the class will be sitting in a mixed arrangement and some differences and similarities will have been noted.

Catch:

Ask students what key messages they see in this game that might be relevant to the lesson focus on personal strengths and dealing with differences in opinion.

Session 3

Learning Intention: I can recognise that I may need ways to calm my body when I feel intense emotions

I can identify a range of ways to calm and relax my body

I can practise some calming strategies

Explain that the next activity will provide a chance to practise a relaxation technique.

When we experience intense emotions, these feelings are embodied. That means they are felt in our bodies, not just in our minds. Our responses to intense or long lasting negative emotions might include reactions like: difficulty sleeping, crying, palpitations (rapid heartbeat), sweating, goose bumps, nausea, trembling, shivering, headaches, stammering, difficulty speaking, lump in the throat, loss of voice, difficulty concentrating, difficulty remembering, having nightmares, being short-tempered, having tantrums. To manage these reactions, we often need a way to physically calm ourselves. A guided relaxation is one way to do this. Read the Pegasus Adventure

Resilience, rights and Respectful Relationships_51-51.pdf

Catch:

Stress is a normal part of life, especially as children get older. Children who cope better with life’s stressors develop good mental health and wellbeing. Assisting students recognise their personal signs and symptoms of stress to develop strategies that will help them to deal with those effectively, will help them cope with challenges in the future.

Conclude the lesson by sharing and selecting several examples to discuss

Session 4

Topic 5: Stress Management - Keeping Calm

Learning Intention: I can create my own mindful meditation story

Brainstorm:

What should a guided meditation be about? What should it include? What sort of language should it have?

Is a story like The Pegasus Adventure fulfilling the criteria?

Can you do better?

Children develop their own meditation script. It must last a minimum of 3 minutes.

Catch:

Children may share what they have come up with.

Teacher may play soft music in the background.

Session 5

Learning intention: I can develop my own Stressful Day story, highlighting the experiences that the central character found challenging.

What should a stress story include?

Why?

What sort of solutions should it include?

Children write their own story, it may be based on an experience that they have or someone they know about.

Make sure everyone has a chance to share their story.

Page updated

Report abuse