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This is a great article about anxiety, particularly anxiety caused by the pandemic. It gives some general anxiety symptoms in kids  such as seeking reassurance, reluctance to separate from parents, physical symptoms such as headaches and stomach aches, moodiness and irritability, tantrums and meltdowns, and trouble sleeping. It also offers some tips on helping with anxiety such as structure their day, avoid giving too much reassurance, model calm yourself, and look for the positive.

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We're all on edge because of the coronavirus. Our daily lives have been disrupted, we aren't sure what tomorrow may bring, and for many of us the nonstop news and social media coverage isn't helping.

Our experts say that dealing with your own anxiety can be the most powerful way to make sure your kids feel secure. If you or your children are feeling worried, learning how to deal with that anxiety in a healthy way can help the whole family be more resilient, both now and when the pandemic is finally over.

"The treatment for anxiety isn't to make the fear go away, it's to manage the fear and tolerate uncertainty," explains Jerry Bubrick, PhD, a clinical psychologist at the Child Mind Institute. "So for the kids who've been in treatment for this, it's almost like they have an immune response or they're vaccinated against uncertainty. They've been training for this and now they're able to put their skills in place and for many of them the coronavirus is not affecting them as much as those of us who aren't used to dealing with uncertainty on a daily level."

Many parents are having a harder time dealing with COVID-19 than their children, and some of the anxiety that kids are experiencing may be inadvertently passed on by worried parents.

As parents, we need to be modeling for our kids how to react to stressful times by coping with anxiety in healthy ways. "I think we have to be mindful of the present and stay focused on what is actually happening and not let ourselves go to worst case scenarios," Dr. Bubrick recommends. "If we're showing our kids catastrophic thinking and head-in-your-hands worry, and crying and fear, then they're going to learn that's the way to handle the times now."

Be smart about what you're reading. While we should make sure we are informed about how best to keep our families safe, we should also be thoughtful about what we are reading online to make sure it's actually helpful. It is easy to inadvertently get sucked into reading every update as it comes in, or clicking on, in Dr. Bubrick's words, "the doomsday apocalypse kind of stories, which I would consider to be 'mental health fake news.'"

Consider putting a limit on the number of articles you read, or for how long you will read about the coronavirus each day. If you're consuming media that is making you anxious - take a break. Being informed is one thing; being overexposed is another.

Focus on what you're doing right now. Though we're getting more information about the virus daily, we don't know what will happen, something that's a massive anxiety trigger for almost everyone. It can be tempting to get caught up in imagining what the future might look like, but Dr. Bubrick recommends trying to stay focused on what's happening now rather that what might happen later on. "Focus on making sure you're in the moment, and dealing with things in the present."

Stop yourself if notice that you are getting carried away with "what ifs." It will help if you can set aside time to regularly practice mindfulness, which is a tool to help people stay grounded and calm. Parents can practice mindfulness alone or with children. You can't control the future, but you can take charge of the present.

Rely on routines. Establishing a routine that involves exercise, regular meals and healthy amounts of sleep is also crucial to regulating our moods and our worries. It can be hard to accept that our old routines are no longer possible because of COVID-19 precautions, but looking for ways to be flexible and start a new routine can help you feel less anxious and more productive. Remind yourself that life is still continuing, and ground yourself by doing things like making agendas and setting goals.

When kids are feeling anxious, it may or may not be clear to parents. "We shouldn't be looking for just one thing," says Dr. Bubrick. "We should be ready to handle a variety of different expressions of anxiety." Anxiety could look like:

Kids may not always be able to express how they are feeling. For younger children, Dr. Bubrick suggests using a feelings chart instead of saying "Tell me how anxious you are." With a feelings chart, which you can find on the internet, you can ask kids to point to the feeling they are having now. Parents can also use a traffic light chart to help kids share how intense their feeling is - a red light means they feel overwhelmed, a yellow light is medium and a green light is okay.

For kids who are more able to articulate how they are feeling, Dr. Bubrick says it is better to ask what psychologists call "forced choice questions." "If you ask a vague question you're going to get a vague answer," he says. "So instead of asking 'How was your day?' which is pretty vague, maybe ask, "Did your anxiety get in the way of you having a good day today?" he suggests.

If you're wondering about a teenager, Dr. Bubrick recommends talking about yourself first. "You can say something like, "I saw this article today and it made me wonder about this and that. Did you see something like that? What's your reaction to it?'"

Structure their day. As parents we often think that setting boundaries for a child is a way to make our lives easier, but in fact kids thrive on them, too. It is easy for children to get bored or fretful if they are facing a day without structure, and anxiety can thrive under those circumstances.

Make sure that you are structuring their days when they are cooped up at home. Alternate chores or schoolwork with more fun activities and periods of free time. As restrictions lift and summer sets in, be sure to incorporate safe, socially distant outdoor activities as well. Make sure kids are still getting the chance to exercise and socialize with friends via video chats and social media if they are on it.

Avoid giving too much reassurance. For kids of all ages, Dr. Bubrick recommends avoiding getting into a cycle of providing too much reassurance. Kids can come to rely on the reassurance and want to hear it more and more often - and when a parent isn't able to give them complete reassurance their anxiety can worsen.

Instead, remind kids of the things they are doing to take care of themselves (like washing their hands and staying indoors) and encourage them to focus on being in the moment. They can practice mindfulness activities alone or with you.

Model calm yourself. Don't share your worries with your children, and if you are feeling anxious, find a way to ground yourself. "After this crisis is over, your kids are going to walk away from this having learned things," says Dr. Bubrick. "What will they have learned from you in the way you handled this? Will they look back and say 'Wow, I'm really impressed with how Mom and Dad held it together?' Or are they going to walk away and think the world is a scary place?"

Look for the positive. Finally, Dr. Bubrick recommends looking for the silver linings. "I spoke to a family this morning on Skype and they said, 'You know, our kids are all together for the first time in months and they're playing games together and they're laughing together and we're spending time together.' So there are silver linings, you just have to look for them."

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Anxiety and Coping With the Coronavirus - Child Mind Institute

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Tips to help parents cope with anxiety during coronavirus.

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How to Teach Kids about the Brain and Emotional Intelligence

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How to Teach Kids about the Brain and Emotional Intelligence

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This article explains how to explain emotions to kids using brain science. The article references the upstairs brain or  neocortex which is our thinking brain, and the downstairs brain or  limbic system which is our feeling brain. The people who live upstairs are Calming Carl, Problem Solving Pete, Creative Craig and Flexible Felix. The people who live downstairs are  Alerting Allie, Frightened Fred, and Big Boss Bootsy. This teaches children about the purposes of their brains. The upstairs is for thinking and the downstairs is for survival. When we are downstairs in our survival brains, we can’t think. It refers to the downstairs  taking over as “flipping our lids” The article suggests things such as:

1.Draw the brain house and all the characters

2. Draw a picture of what it looks like in the house when the downstairs flips their lid

3. Find a comic, cut out and stick characters into the downstairs and the upstairs

4. Write stories about the adventures of the characters in the brain house

5. Use a doll’s house or make one and fill it with the downstairs and upstairs characters.

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by Karen Young

Knowledge is power. When children understand what's happening in the brain, it can be the first step to having the power to make choices. Knowledge can be equally powerful to parents too. Knowing how the brain works means we can also understand how to respond when our children need our help.

Sometimes our brains can become overwhelmed with feelings of fear, sadness or anger, and when this happens, it's confusing - especially to children. So giving children ways to make sense of what's happening in their brain is important. It's also helpful for children to have a vocabulary for their emotional experiences that others can understand. Think of it like a foreign language; if the other people in your family speak that language too, then it's easier to communicate with them.

So how do you start these conversations with your children, make it playful enough to keep them engaged, and simple enough for them to understand?

Here is how I teach children (and parents) how to understand the brain.

Introducing the brain house: the upstairs and the downstairs

I tell children that their brains are like a house, with an upstairs and a downstairs. This idea comes from Dr Dan Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson's book 'The Whole Brain Child', and it's a really simple way to help kids to think about what's going on inside their head. I've taken this analogy one step further by talking about who lives in the house. I tell them stories about the characters who live upstairs, and the ones who live downstairs. Really, what I'm talking about are the functions of the neocortex (our thinking brain - the upstairs), and the limbic system (our feeling brain - the downstairs).

Who lives upstairs and who lives downstairs.

Typically, the upstairs characters are thinkers, problem solvers, planners, emotion regulators, creatives, flexible and empathic types. I give them names like Calming Carl, Problem Solving Pete, Creative Craig and Flexible Felix

The downstairs folk are the feelers. They are very focused on keeping us safe and making sure our needs are met. Our instinct for survival originates here. These characters look out for danger, sound the alarm and make sure we are ready to fight, run or hide when we are faced with a threat. Downstairs we've got characters like Alerting Allie, Frightened Fred, and Big Boss Bootsy.

It doesn't really matter what you call them, as long as you and your child know who (and what) you are talking about. You could have a go at coming up with your own names: try boys/girls names, animal names, cartoon names or completely make-up names. You might like to find characters from films or books they love, to find your unique shared language for these brain functions.

Flipping our lids: When 'downstairs' takes over.

Our brains work best when the upstairs and the downstairs work together. Imagine that the stairs connecting upstairs and downstairs are very busy with characters carrying messages up and down to each other. This is what helps us make good choices, make friends and get along with other people, come up with exciting games to play, calm ourselves down and get ourselves out of sticky situations.

Sometimes, in the downstairs brain, Alerting Allie spots some danger, Frightened Fred panics and before we know where we are, Big Boss Bootsy has sounded the alarm telling your body to be prepared for danger. Big Boss Bootsy is a bossy fellow, and he shouts 'the downstairs brain is taking over now. Upstairs gang can work properly again when we are out of danger'. The downstairs brain "flips the lid" (to borrow Dan Siegel's phrase) on the upstairs brain. This means that the stairs that normally allow the upstairs and downstairs to work together are no longer connected.

Sometimes, flipping our lids is the safest thing to do.

When everybody in the brain house is making noise, it's hard for anyone to be heard. Bootsy is keeping the upstairs brain quiet so the downstairs folk can get our body ready for the danger. Boots can signal other parts of our body that need to switch on (or off). He can make our heart beat faster so we are ready to run very fast, or our muscles ready to fight as hard as we can. He can also tell parts of our body to stay very very still so we can hide from the danger. Bootsy is doing this to keep us safe.

Try asking your child to imagine when these reactions would be safest. I often try to use examples that wouldn't actually happen (again so that children can imagine these ideas in a playful way without becoming too frightened by them). For example, what would your downstairs brain do if you met a dinosaur in the playground?

Everyone flips their lids.

Think of some examples to share with your child about how we can all flip our lids. Choose examples that aren't too stressful because if you make your kids feel too anxious they may flip their lids then and there!

Here's an example I might use: Remember when Mummy couldn't find the car keys and we were already late for school. Remember how I kept looking in the same place over and over again. That's because the downstairs brain had taken over, I had flipped my lid and the upstairs, thinking part of my brain, wasn't working properly.

When the downstairs brain gets it wrong.

There might be times when we flips our lids but really we still need the upstairs gang like Problem Solving Pete, and Calming Carl to help us.

We all flip our lids, but often children flip their lids more than adults. In children's brains, Big Boss Bootsy can get a bit over excited and press the panic button to trigger meltdowns and tantrums over very small things and that's because the upstairs part of your child's brain is still being built. In fact, it won't be finished being built until the mid twenties. Sometimes, when I want to emphasise this point, I ask kids this question:

Have you ever seen your Dad or Mum lay on the floor in the supermarket screaming that they want chocolate buttons?

They often giggle, and giggling is good because it means it's still playful, so they are still engaged and learning. I tell them parents actually like chocolate just as much as children, but adults have practiced getting Calming Carl and Problem Solving Pete to work with Big Boss Bootsy and can (sometimes) stop him from sounding the danger alarm when he doesn't need to. It does take practice and I remind children that their brains are still building and learning from experience.

From a shared language to emotional regulation

Once you've got all the characters in the brain house, you have a shared language that you can use to help your child learn how to regulate (manage) their emotions. For example, 'it looks like Big Boss Bootsy might be getting ready to sound the alarm, how about seeing if Calming Carl can send a message saying 'take some deep breaths' '' .

The language of the brain house also allows kids to talk more freely about their own mistakes, it's non judgemental, playful and can be talked about as being separate (psychologists also call this 'externalised') from them. Imagine how hard it might be to say 'I hit Jenny today at school' versus 'Big Boss Bootsy really flipped the lid today'. When I say this to parents, some worry that I'm giving children a 'get out clause' - 'can't they just blame Bootsy for their misbehaviour?'. Ultimately what this is about is enabling children to learn functional ways to manage big feelings, and some of that will happen from conversations about the things that went wrong. If children feel able to talk about their mistakes with you, then you have an opportunity to join your upstairs brain folk with theirs, and problem solve together. It doesn't mean they escape consequences or shirk responsibility. It means you can ask questions like 'do you think there is anything you could do to help Bootsy keep the lid on?'.

Knowing about the brain house also helps parents to think about how to respond when their child is flooded with fear, anger or sadness. Have you ever told you child to 'calm down' when they have flipped their lid? I have. Yet what we know about the brain house is Calming Carl lives upstairs and when Bootsy's flipped the lid, Calming Carl can't do much to help until the lid is back on. Your child may have gone beyond the point where they can help themselves to calm down. Sometimes, parents (teachers or carers) have to help kids to get their lids back on, and we can do this with empathy, patience and often taking a great deal of deep breaths ourselves!

Where to go from here?

Don't expect to move all the characters into the brain house and unpack on the same day; moving house takes time, and so does learning about brains. Start the conversation and revisit it. You might want to find creative ways to explore the brain house with your child. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

1. draw the brain house and all the characters

2. draw a picture of what it looks like in the house when the downstairs flips their lid

3. find a comic, cut out and stick characters into the downstairs and the upstairs

4. write stories about the adventures of the characters in the brain house

5. use a doll's house (or if you don't have a dolls house, two shoe boxes, one on top of the other works just as well) and fill it with the downstairs and upstairs characters.

If you find other creative ways to explore the brain house, I would love to hear about them. Make it fun, make it lively and kids won't even realise they are learning the foundations of emotional intelligence.

About the Author: Dr Hazel Harrison

Dr Hazel Harrison works as a clinical psychologist in the United Kingdom. She founded ThinkAvellana to bring psychology out of the clinic and into everyday life. Her website is www.thinkavellana.com and you can also follow her on Twitter at @thinkavellana and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/thinkavellana

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How to Teach Kids About the Brain: Laying Strong Foundations for Emotional Intelligence (by Dr Hazel Harrison) - Hey Sigmund

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When children understand what's happening in the brain, it can be the first step to having the power to make choices and build their emotional intelligence.

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Project zero offers these thinking routines to people of all ages (into adulthood). They offer courses and PDS. The thinking routine “tool box” allows a person to explore many different topics. One program “Seek to See” teaches empathy and understanding thought a socio-emotional learning model.

https://pz.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/Seek%20to%20See.pdf

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PZ's Thinking Routines Toolbox | Project Zero

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The Toolbox organizes the Thinking Routines into categories that describe the types of thinking the routines help to facilitate. Some routines appear in more than one category, and some routines have different versions that offer modifications for specific age groups or more specific conceptual challenges.

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CASEL-Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning

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CASEL-Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning

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The CASEL 5 addresses five areas of competence.  They are self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. The CASEL 5 can be taught and applied at various developmental stages, all the way up to adulthood. CASEL offers some free PDS and webinars.

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At the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning, we envision all children and adults as self-aware, caring, responsible, engaged, and lifelong learners who work together to achieve their goals and create a more inclusive, just world. How? Through a commitment to SEL.

What We Do

The "C" in CASEL stands for "Collaborative": It's both who we are and how we work. We've formed a community-spanning classrooms to statehouses-to make social and emotional learning (SEL) part of a high-quality and equitable education for all.

The "Together for SEL" pledge

How We Started

From the seed of an idea in 1994, we have brought together a multidisciplinary network that includes researchers, educators, practitioners, and child advocates across the country who are passionately committed to SEL for all students.

Join the Team

Are you driven by CASEL's mission to make SEL part of all students' education? We're always looking for talented people to join our team.

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At the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning, we envision all children and adults as self-aware, caring, responsible, engaged, and lifelong learners who work together to achieve their goals and create a more inclusive, just world. How? Through a commitment to SEL.

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Inside Out and SEL: Movie Guide and Lesson Plan

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Inside Out and SEL: Movie Guide and Lesson Plan

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This is a lesson plan for teaching children howe to identify their emotions using the film Inside Out. There are 16 clips with dicussion questions, or students can watch the movie as a whole. The Casel 5 Competencies for social and emotional learning Thinking Routines from the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Project Zero (both are linked in padlet) to teach socioemotional skills.

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Pixar's is a movie that's all about feelings, and this makes it perfect for sparking discussions with kids about social and emotional learning. Since the central characters all embody a different emotion, students learn to see parts of themselves or their experiences in each character.

Refreshingly, the movie doesn't make learning about emotions such a heavy-handed endeavor. By getting to know and love each character, students naturally come to understand that emotions are complex, and that we need the entire range of feelings to fully capture the meaning of life experiences.

Things to Know Before You Show Pixar's Inside Out to Your Students

This guide offers two different approaches to teaching Inside Out:

1. Show a few specific clips along with discussion questions.

2. Show the entire film with a more in-depth lesson plan and handout.

Feel free to use either approach, or even combine the two into one lesson (or an entire unit) based around the movie. If you only have a single class period, showing just a few key clips below might be perfect. If you decide to help students delve deeper into the topic, you might show the entire film and have more extensive discussions over multiple days. Of course, you could also use some combination of the two, adapting the lesson to best suit your class's needs.

Lesson Objectives

This lesson is designed to align with the CASEL 5 competencies for social and emotional learning as well as various t hinking routines from the Harvard Graduate School of Education's Project Zero.

With this lesson, you can help your students:

Identify their own feelings.

Think through what it means for emotions to have context.

Acknowledge the value of having a range of emotions.

Connect their own personal experiences to the movie's messages.

Identify their own perspective, and be curious about the perspectives of others.

Explore the ways they identify their own emotions, including somatically.

Think about the ways they currently self-regulate, and explore possibilities for other ways.

Think about helpful versus unhelpful responses to emotions from themselves and others.

Inside Out Clips and SEL Discussion Questions for Students

If you only want to show brief parts of the film and discuss them with students, use these helpful clips to get you started. You can also use these in conjunction with the longer lesson plan below.

The time stamps can help you pick and choose your areas of focus. Use as few or as many clips as you see fit, but keep in mind that you may need to introduce the movie's overall plot and talk through some of what happens before or after each clip.
Clip #1: When Dad says Riley can't have dessert if she doesn't eat her broccoli, Anger "blows his top." (3:48-4:06)

Use this scene to talk about idioms. Have kids draw another emotion-related idiom (ex. cry your eyes out, bent out of shape, spaced out, down in the dumps, etc.).
Clip #2: Joy explains core memories and how they feed the "islands of personality." (4:37-6:38)

Have students draw and/or write about their core memories and/or their own islands of personality.
Clip #3: Riley sees her new house, and she experiences a range of emotions. (8:43-9:50)

Discuss: How do emotions influence how Riley feels about the new house? How can she go from feeling sad about her new room to feeling excited about how it will look? The room didn't change -- what did change, and how?
Clip #4: A joyful memory becomes sad, as Riley remembers a moment from the trip. (11:51-12:54)

As we grow up, sometimes feelings get more complicated. In this scene, a memory that was purely happy becomes sad. In the movie, this is caused by Sadness touching the memory. Ask students: In the real world, why might sadness "touch" a memory?

Explain to students that this movie was inspired by a real 11-year-old. Her dad wanted to show what it's like to have complicated feelings as you grow up. Ask students: Do you think he did a good job? What would you do differently?

Clip #5: Joy argues with the other emotions about how Riley should feel on the first night after the move, using the phrase, "It could be worse." (16:01-17:14)

Riley has her own room in a house in San Francisco, which is more than many people have. Ask students: Is Joy right -- could it be worse? Should Riley not feel angry, sad, or scared? Does thinking about how things could be worse change how you feel? Why or why not?
Clip #6: Mom thanks Riley for being their "happy little girl" and wants them both to keep smiling for Dad. (17:10-18:06)

Riley isn't feeling happy when her mom calls her their "happy little girl." She wants Riley to "put on a happy face." Ask students: Have you ever kept smiling even when you weren't happy? What did it feel like? Did it help the situation? Did it help you?
Clip #7: Joy asks Sadness to stay confined inside of a circle and not participate in Riley's first day at her new school. (20:50-21:27)

Joy wants to keep Sadness in a tiny circle during Riley's first day at her new school. Ask students: What's the result? In real life, can we keep our emotions exactly where we want them?
Clip #8: Riley starts crying in class as she talks about her home in Minnesota, and Joy tries to prevent a sad memory from becoming a core memory. (22:09-26:08)

Even though she didn't want to, Riley cries in class. Ask students: How much control do we actually have over our emotions?
Clip #9: Without Joy around, Riley snaps at her parents during dinner, and her dad "puts his foot down." We also get a peek into her parents' emotional headquarters. (26:26-30:08)

The movie doesn't focus on the parents' feelings or experiences much. Ask students: How do you think Riley's parents are feeling about the move or having new jobs? How do you think they feel about making Riley move? What are the emotions in charge for Mom? For Dad? Why do you think people react to the same situation in different ways?
Clip #10: Mind workers vacuum up faded memories to send them to the memory dump. (34:39-36:04)

Use this opportunity to briefly talk with students about how the movie uses examples from real parts of brain science, like long-term memory, abstract thought, and dreaming. Another example is the brain "getting rid of" unused information.

Have students pick one element of brain science to represent in a drawing (or any other type of creative output). Some other examples include learning, processing the senses, and daydreaming, among many others.)

Clip #11: While talking to her friend from Minnesota, Riley suddenly feels angry. (36:00-36:36)

Ask students: After Riley slams her computer, how do you think her friend felt? When we lose control of our feelings and do something that hurts someone else, we may not have meant to hurt them. If we didn't mean to, are we still responsible? What can we do next?
Clip #12: Joy, Sadness, and Bing Bong take a shortcut through Abstract Thought. (41:40-43:35)

An abstract thought is something that's not concrete -- or not easy to explain -- like love or loneliness. Ask students: How did the movie makers show us what abstract thought is?

Have students take an abstract idea and show it in a concrete way in a drawing (or any other type of creative output).

Clip #13: Riley's hockey tryout is very frustrating and upsetting. (45:16-46:50)

Ask students: Riley is good at hockey and usually enjoys it, so why are the tryouts so hard?
Clip #14: Both Joy and Sadness try to comfort Bing Bong when his wagon is thrown in the dump, and Sadness is the one to succeed. (47:04-49:39)

Having empathy is about understanding what someone else is feeling. Ask students: Why does Bing Bong respond to Sadness but not Joy?

Ask students: Why are movies a great way to see other people's perspectives and practice using empathy?

Clip #15: Joy and Bing Bong are stuck in the memory dump. Joy feels sad herself (and realizes that emotions work together), and Bing Bong sacrifices himself to make sure Joy can escape. (1:06:27-1:13:35)

Ask students: What does Joy realize as she holds Riley's memory the moments after losing the hockey game? Why does Bing Bong decide to let himself fade away?

Introduce students to the idea of nostalgia. Ask them: When you think about happy memories from when you were little that may be fading, how do you feel?

Clip #16: Riley's parents realize she's gone -- Riley struggles with her decision, returns home, then shares her sadness with her parents. (1:13:40-1:23:54)

Explain that Riley choosing to run away and try to get back to Minnesota is one way to deal with her feelings. Then ask students: What's the impact of that choice? What are some other ways she could have expressed her feelings?

Inside Out SEL Lesson Plan and Graphic Organizer

Begin by introducing the movie and give students some context about why it's worth thinking about more deeply. A lot of students may have seen the movie already since it came out in 2015, so make a strict "If you know it, don't blow it" rule to prevent spoilers. You might also want to discuss some of the learning objectives or the concept of active viewing.

Before the Movie

Hand out copies of theInside Out Active Viewing Guide, and give students a few minutes to finish the Before You Watch question.

Students will be listing emotions and circling the emotions they see as "good" or "positive." Importantly, they'll return to this after the movie and reflect on it in the last question. It's essential that students do both the first and last questions on the handout so as not to reinforce misconceptions about emotions or feelings being inherently good or bad.

For a more interactive experience, you can have kids create a "positive emotion" word cloud using Kahoot or another tool of your choice.

Before you start the movie, explain the next activity that students will complete while they watch. They'll need to pick a moment that has great use of color and/or music, and make a sketch of it.

During the Movie

Make sure to pause periodically at key scenes throughout the movie (feel free to use the clips outlined above in this article). As you pause and discuss, give students time to do some sketching.

After the Movie

Have students complete the After You Watch activities.

Students can write down their responses individually, then discuss in pairs, small groups, and/or as a whole class.

Discussion Questions:

After the movie ends, it's important to help students reflect on what they've seen and talk about what they're thinking. You can discuss anything that feels particularly relevant to your students. The scenes and discussion questions listed earlier in this article can be a good starting point, but feel free to guide your class discussion as you see fit.

Creative Extensions

Ask students to imagine what their own memory storage system is like: How are their memories categorized? Where do their memories all go? What does the system look like?

Have students think of a memory they have that started out one way but feels a different way now. Using color, create something that show the feelings they have from this memory, and how they've changed over time.

Watch another movie that explores similar themes but from a different cultural perspective. Invite students to consider how these movies tackle universal themes, but in different ways given who they represent and how (e.g. the family in Inside Out is a contemporary upper-middle-class White family in the city, and the family in My Neighbor Totoro is Japanese and lives a more modest life in rural, post-war Japan).

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Inside Out and SEL: A Movie Guide and Lesson Plan for Your Classroom | Common Sense Education

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Help students reflect on the social and emotional aspects of the movie and consider how their own emotions work.

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Mental Health Awareness: Resources & Professional Development

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Mental Health Awareness: Resources & Professional Development

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This contains 46 recources about mental health. The include videos, webinars, blogs, and lessons. This is a resource for pre-k-grade 12. Topics include easing anxiety, dealing with tragic news, addressing suicide, and being mindful.

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Nearly one in five children in the United States show symptoms of a mental health disorder, yet 80% of them will not receive treatment. This valuable collection, curated by our Share My Lesson team, provides tools, resources, lesson plans and activities that cover stress, healthy eating, coronavirus school closures, cyber-wellness and more. You'll find several resources like:

There are different ways to estimate which children have difficulties with mental health. The CDC uses surveys , like the National Survey of Children's Health, to understand which children have diagnosed mental disorders and whether they received treatment.

In addition to more access to resources and professionals in schools, we hope everyone involved in education and the struggle for mental health awareness will consider incorporating mental health awareness topics into existing curriculum with these resources. Click here for "Top 20 Principles from Psychology for Teachers " from the APA.

Professional Development & Mental Health Awareness Webinars

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#2 Collection of 2018

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Mental Health Awareness: Resources & Professional Development

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Nearly one in five children in the United States show symptoms of a mental health disorder, yet 80% of them will not receive treatment. This valuable collection, curated by our Share My Lesson team, provides tools, resources, lesson plans and activities that cover stress, healthy eating, coronavirus school closures, cyber-wellness and more.

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5 Little ways to Show your kids the importance of Mental Health.

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5 Little ways to Show your kids the importance of Mental Health.

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This is a great article with “easy” resources to teach kids about mental health. There is a book that can be purchased but it also includes ideas to use right away in your classroom. It includes a great resource for teaching kids to journal.

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When children scrape their knees, they know it's an injury that needs to be treated. But when they suffer from something mentally, they might not know it's just as important to have their minds cared for too.

Maintaining good mental health should be considered a lesson not only for adults but for children as well.

"I used to see this level of stress in high schoolers who were applying to college," said Katie Hurley, a child and adolescent psychotherapist and the author of The Happy Kid Handbook: How to Raise Joyful Children in a Stressful World. "Now I have 5-year-olds in my office who are dealing with anxiety disorders and excessive stress."

We spoke to experts in psychology, pediatrics and mindfulness for tips on how to teach kids the importance of mental health. They offered five interesting ways to get children to express themselves, feel validated in their emotions and take care of their minds just as much as their bodies.

Try the 'emotional volcano' method

Hurley said she talks to kids and parents about their feelings using the "emotional volcano." She draws a volcano on a whiteboard and explains that everyone has different feelings throughout the day. When we don't express those feelings, they remain in the volcano until it erupts.

"If we just leave those feelings in the volcano, they start to really bubble and bubble and bubble until they come flying out and exploding, and that's when you get the crying, hitting and kicking," she said.

Hurley noted that many parents regard these actions as the result of a behavioral problem, but it's more "an explosion of emotions that weren't dealt with." That's why it's important to teach kids to talk about their feelings and release them one by one.

"If you see a child making a particular face in response to a stressful situation, rather than saying, 'Oh, don't be frustrated,' you can say, 'Your face looks upset. What's up? What's going on?'"

Teach by example and be mindful of your own habits

Various studies have shown that in excessive amounts, screen time for kids and gaming and social media for teens can have harmful effects on behavior, mood, sleep schedules and overall health. Dr. Katherine Williamson, a pediatrician and the vice president of the Orange County chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said it's important for caretakers to set an example of sensible screen time with habits like having no phones at the dinner table or at bedtime.

Similarly, it's important for parents to lead by example and share their vulnerabilities so their kids will be comfortable exposing and discussing their own.

"You can say something like, 'I had something happen at work today, and I'm not even sure I handled it right, but I did my best,'" she said.

Take note of the language you use

Rachel Busman, Psy.D., a clinical psychologist and the senior director of the Anxiety Disorders Center at the Child Mind Institute, said it's important for parents to not automatically interpret their kids' facial expressions and instead give them a chance to explain.

"If you see a child making a particular face in response to a stressful situation, rather than saying, 'Oh, don't be frustrated,' you can say, 'Your face looks upset. What's up? What's going on?'" she said. "It's beneficial to provide an opportunity for kids to tell you how they feel, rather than narrate what you think your kid is experiencing."

When looking for the right language to use when asking about a child's day, caretakers should avoid very general questions like "How's school?" or "How was the playdate?"

"'Those conversations often don't end in a lot of information," she said. "Instead ask, 'What was something interesting that happened today?' or 'What did you do in gym class?'"

Teach them mindfulness techniques

Mallika Chopra, an author and wellness expert and the daughter of spiritual leader Deepak Chopra, learned how to meditate at the age of 9. She said it's a "great gift" she also passed down to her kids. The experience inspired her to write her children's book, Just Breathe: Meditation, Mindfulness, Movement, and More.

Aside from meditations, the book features gratitude exercises as well as suggestions about movement, like walking and yoga, and being aware of how you use your words.

"The goal of this book is to share the tools that I had growing up," she said. "As a mom, I can see that this generation has a lot of pressure."

Encourage them to journal

According to the University of Rochester Medical Center, journaling can reduce stress and help people manage anxiety and depression. Dianne Maroney, who has a master's degree in psychiatric and mental health nursing, has also seen the impact of giving kids the power to tell their stories, and in 2015, she founded the Imagine Project Inc., which offers a seven-step process focused on expressive writing.

The journals used in the project (offered in age groups from kindergartners to adults) are available on the nonprofit's site at no cost. The project allows kids to process stress and trauma and gain confidence while letting parents, teachers and caretakers in on difficult times the child may be going through.

"The Imagine Project helps kids talk about what's happened to them, if it's stress, minor trauma, major trauma, anything," Maroney said. "It's a point where they can still talk about it, overcome it and write a new story in its place. It helps give kids hope, and hope is something that kids really need. I think they're struggling with that in our society right now."

Parenting is harder than ever, and there's no one way to do it right. So on Nov. 2, HuffPost Life will convene a community of people trying to figure it out together at our inaugural HuffPost Parents conference, How to Raise a Kid. In advance of the event, HuffPost Parents will publish stories on topics that matter deeply to parents of children who are starting to navigate the world on their own - bullying; sex, consent and gender; money; their digital lives; and how to raise compassionate, self-sufficient, creative, emotionally intelligent children. In short, kids who aren't assholes. View the event site here and be sure to follow HuffPost Parents on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and subscribe to our newsletter, How Not to Raise a Jerk.

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5 Little Ways To Show Your Kids The Importance Of Mental Health

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When children scrape their knees, they know it's an injury that needs to be treated. But when they suffer from something mentally, they might not know it's just as important to have their minds cared for too. Maintaining good mental health should be considered a lesson not only for adults but for children as well.

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This is an app for kids that includes hundreds of stories to help children breathe and meditate. It has options for day time and night time to help with sleeplessness. This app has lots of free content, but also has a paid option. It is something I have used in the classroom with stories for improving focus, calming down, managing emotions, and easing anixety. It has been a life saver for younger kids (although older kids may like it as well).

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Hundreds of audio stories that will capture your child’s imagination, help them sleep faster, and unlock their potential. All through a simple subscription.

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Mindful Schools aims to help build a culture of mindfulness, equity, and well-being. They do this through foundational training and personal development. Teachers working  in low income districts are able to receive a discount.

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Make a Gift Today
We've kicked off our annual fundraising campaign and we hope we can count on your support. Make a statement about the kind of community you want to live in and the future you want to see

Take Five: Classroom Activity
One of the great things about mindfulness is that it helps us insert pauses throughout the day. Try this Take Five exercise and print a poster for your classroom.

Mindful Communication, December 7
Discover tools and insights of nonviolent communication and the science of nervous system regulation to create more trust, cooperation, and collaboration.

We empower school teams to build upon their unique strengths to achieve their community's vision of wellness.

Our team of classroom teachers, administrators, and implementation specialists draws from lived experiences and expertise to design programs that are impactful and relevant for educators.

"Mindful Schools is our go-to organization when it comes to training and resources-- what we do, how we do it, and why we do it. We were searching for that, literally for years."

- Robert Caplinger, Elementary School Principal
Laveen, AZ

Schools are facing a mental health crisis, with anxiety, stress, and burnout at record levels. But it doesn't have to be this way. We take an integrated approach to create healthy school cultures in which every person feels valued, engaged, and ready to learn.
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Join this powerful, 2-week live experience of our 201: Mindfulness in the Classroom course over the summer when you have more dedicated time to dive into the richness of the course content.

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Mindful Schools | An Integrated Approach to Create Equitable and Joyful School Culture

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We help educators create equitable and joyful learning environments that center collective well-being. Mindful Schools has trained over 70,000 educators. What's New at Mindful Schools Make a Gift Today We've kicked off our annual fundraising campaign and we hope we can count on your support.

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Finch is a self care app that allows you to care for a virtual pet while caring for yourself. It helps you to begin each day with a positive note. There are several self care exercises that range from simply getting out of bed to journaling your feelings. There is plenty of free content, but paid content is also available.

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Meet your new self care best friend! The only pet that helps you feel prepared and positive, one day at a time. Take care of your pet by taking care of yourself! Choose from a wide variety of bite-sized mindful exercises that are personalized for you.