Your mood is always somewhere. When you can recognize and label where your mood is, you get better at responding to it in healthy, helpful ways.
(Psst! This page is filled with fun tools for you to explore, but don't miss the FAQs at the bottom.)
The Mood Meter was created by the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence (YCEI) and a scientist named Dr. Marc Brackett.
It organizes our emotions in terms of both:
How much ENERGY is behind them πͺ«π
How good they feelβPLEASANTNESS ππ
Love the Mood Meter as much as we do? Consider donating to YCEI or implementing the full RULER program in your school.
Our most popular resource β these fun GIFs are a perfect light-hearted check-in ritual for all ages!
The app is FREE, and it was made in collaboration with the scientists at Yale.
We built this interactive tool in Google Slides, and it can be used as a nonverbal choral response.
Prints on legal sized paper (8.5"x14") with space for students to add their own tools.
Students get laminated copies that they can mark with dry erase markers. A great OTR!
A miscellaneous collection. Often used in small spaces/groups or as handouts.
Just a little frustrated or about to explode? These complement the Mood Meter.
These are perfect for working with agitated students in the moment.
A visual communication system with picture symbols. Printed on legal sized paper.
A visual communication system with picture symbols. Watch a video π₯ demo (0:55).
Use it to track your mood over the course of the year. Perfect for a ritual in small groups.
Posters, plushies, cards, activity mats, and more.
Used during mood check-in rituals, story time discussions, etc.
Used during mood check-in rituals, story time discussions, etc.
Used during mood check-in rituals, story time discussions, etc.
These can be affixed to a laptop with tape, and it's a great reminder to check in with yourself.
A set of fill-in-the-blank worksheets to help students learn about how emotion words fit in the four areas of the Mood Meter.
Created by the University of New Hampshire, this sheet includes reflection questions to help you check-in on yourself.
Created by the Mood Meter developers at Yale University, this brochure offers suggested self-regulation strategies.
Click to learn more about π₯ how Mood Meter looks in preschool (3:25)!
Click to check out examples, including this one from Saline, Michigan!
Click to check out examples, including this one from Brooklyn Center, Minnesota!
Click to check out examples, including this one from C.E. Jacobson in Rush City, Minnesota!
Make a copy of one of these and then add your own emojis, other pictures, or words on top!
If you visit the Be Good People curriculum pages of this website, under the 'Mood Monitoring' category (K-3 example), there is a "Mood Meter 101" heading. There, you'll find a handful of short activities that will help you to orient students to Yale's Mood Meter tool. Example: "What is the Mood Meter?" (K-3)
We encourage you to research Yale University's RULER program for schools (PreK-12). RULER is an acronym for five emotional intelligence skills:
Recognizing emotions in oneself and others
Understanding the causes and consequences of emotions
Labeling emotions with a nuanced vocabulary
Expressing emotions in accordance with cultural norms and social context
Regulating emotions with helpful strategies
RULER is a school-wide program that includes curriculum materials. Besides the Mood Meter, it introduces students and adults to three other anchoring tools: the Charter (classroom agreements), Meta-Moment (6-step self-regulation sequence), and Blueprint (problem solving/reflection steps).Β
The "Incredible 5 Point Scale" was created in 2003 by Kari Dunn Buron and Mitzi Curtis. Kari taught in the K-12 Minnesota public school system with students on the autism spectrum for 30+ years and was a founding member of the MN Autism Project.Β
The 5 Point Scale is basically a thermometer β it's a simple, flexible tool for communicating how intense/strong something is. You can make a 5 point scale for voice tone, the size of a problem, degrees of embarrassment and shame, etc. etc.
The 5 Point Scale works perfectly in tandem with the Mood Meter. You can essentially grab a slice of the Mood Meter and make a thermometer out of it using the 5 Point Scale. For example, this lanyard badge slices out a chunk of the Mood Meter from π’ calm-to-π frustrated-to-π΄ enraged.
While they both use the same colors, Mood Meter and Zones are very different.Β
The Mood Meter was created by Dr. Marc Brackett and the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence (YCEI), beginning in 2005. It's part of Yale's RULER program and was designed to maximize EQ for everyone β all students, (PreK-12) and adults as well.
The Zones of Regulation was developed by Occupational Therapist Leah Kuypers, originally published in 2011, and designed to support individuals with neurobiological disorders (e.g., ASD, ADHD).
Zones is a simple 4-point scale of energy/alertness, from blue (lowest energy) to red (highest energy). Unlike Mood Meter, it doesn't matter how pleasant the emotions feel β so, for example, "elated" and "terrified" are both in the "red zone" because they are both high-energy emotions.
Mood Meter is a complete map of human feeling, much more than a thermometer... Because Zones is a 4-degree energy thermometer, you can sort hundreds of emotions into those four buckets, but there are still only 4 points of meaning and only 2 directions you can go, up or down. In contrast, every single spot on the Mood Meter has special meaning, and your mood can walk across that map in any direction. Whether you're using a Mood Meter with 4 feelings on it or 140, the position of each mood tells you the amount of energy behind it and also how good it feels.
...but, Mood Meter can also be that thermometer. In the midst of a high-intensity behavioral outburst that you're trying to de-escalate, a "simple thermometer" sounds pretty darn good. Mood Meter is comprehensive, but it's also easy to grab a slice of the Mood Meter and make a simple, complementary 3-point or 5-point scale that aligns to Mood Meter colors (ex. π’ calm-to-π frustrated-to-π΄ enraged).
Mood Meter was designed, from the ground up, to build EQ in all students. Mood Meter was created to enrich Tier 1 instruction and supports (including for students with disabilities). Yale knew that teachers would need Mood Meter to be useful during academic discussions, to help build students' emotional vocabulary, etc. Students can tell a lot about what a word means just by where it sits on the Mood Meter, and that's just not the same when "elated" and "terrified" are both in the same Zone.
NOTES: (A) This example Mood Meter is intended for high schoolers/adults. (B) The Zones image has been annotated. This includes flipping it on its side, adding numbers 1-4 (to underscore its design as an energy scale), and adding colors next to the specific emotions to show where they fit on the Mood Meter.
The Zones of Regulation is just 4 levels of energy, and when you stretch that concept across the full Mood Meter β the complete map of human feeling which also considers how pleasant the emotions feel β it warps. However, there are simple "thermometer" scales that are very compatible with the Mood Meter (see example β "Upset Scale Jr.").
