Emotions

At Hope 4 Hurting Kids, one of our principle missions is to help young people understand, cope with and overcome the difficult emotions that they face. Whether it is dealing with family problems, parental divorce, bullying or a multitude of other issues young people face today, dealing with the underlying emotions is a vital first step in moving from hurt to hope and healing. To that end we have developed a comprehensive emotions management plan we call Jump In! Stand Strong! Rise Up! Many of the articles and resources listed on this page represent ideas on how to help kids understand (Jump In!), cope with (Stand Strong!) and overcome (Rise Up!) difficult emotions. We have also included information and resources related to grief on this page. While we realize that grief is way more than emotions, difficult emotions are a significant part of grief. If you would like to limit your search to one area, please click on one of the options below.

Using a Feelings Journal to Cope

Whether you like writing or drawing or none of the above, a Feelings Journal is an extremely useful tool in learning how to cope with emotions. It is one of the most important thinking coping skills in the Please Don't Sweat The Small Stuff Coping Tool Box and can also serve as a diversion tool or even a spiritual tool. Your journal is a space to record what's going on in your life, and even more importantly the emotions that you are feeling. It can be as simple as a binder full of lined paper, a journal purchased from the store, or ...
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Shark Bite Feelings

Shark Bite was one of the hottest games around this past Christmas. It was flying off the shelves and hard to get your hands on. It also seemed like the perfect game to help kids learn more about emotions. Before you can play though, you'll have to drop a few buck on your own copy of the game. You can get it through Amazon here. Playing Shark Bite Shark Bite is a simple game to set up and to play. You put the fish in the mouth of the shark, then roll the dice and fish out the number of ...
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Mirror Mirror

If your kids are like mine, they like to look at themselves in the mirror. They like to make funny faces, and when they were younger it was uncommon to find them in the bathroom making themselves laugh by what they saw in the mirror. Mirror Mirror is a fun game that builds on that to help kids learn and practice what emotions look like. These are the important "See It" and "Mimic It" phases of the The Super Simple Feelings Management Technique. Items Need to Play You don't need much to play this game. All you need is A mirror ...
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Emotion Stress Balloons

Stress Balloons are a unique homemade alternative to the traditional stress ball that you can make with a child while talking to them about what is causing the stress in their lives. The instructions below use flour to fill the balloons. Use can also use rice, small beans or sand. These stress balloons can be a valuable soothing tool in a child's Coping Tool Box. What You Need to Make Stress Balloons A package of balloons. Flour (2/3 of a cup to a cup for each balloon) Funnel (or a water bottle) Pen or pencil Sharpie Marker Scissors How to Make ...
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Gauging Emotions With a Mood Meter

The Mood Meter is a fun craft to build and gives kids a chance to gauge how they're feeling at any given moment, and over time. Your mood meter can be as simple or as involved as you want and is a nice alternative to a traditional emotion chart. We borrowed this wonderful idea from Education.com and encourage you to check out their website for more great ideas. What Do You Need to Make a Mood Meter Use your creativity to make your own personal mood meter. The following represents what we did: White poster board. Ruler Compass (helpful for getting ...
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Color Wheel of Emotions

The Color Wheel of Emotions provides kids and teens an artistic outlet for exploring their emotions. It also provides a golden opportunity to talk about those emotions with them. Although a simple exercise, the Color Wheel of Emotion hits on most of the aspects of the The Super Simple Feelings Management Technique - particularly the "Talk About It!" component. And, the best part is, you don't even have to be a good artist to do it. The color wheel above was done by my (at the time) 13 year old daughter Lyndsey. Supplies White piece of paper or poster board. Colored pencils, ...
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Breathing Sphere

Over the last couple of weeks, we have looked at Lazy 8 Breathing and Triangle Breathing as effective tools for beginning to teach kids about deep breathing. Deep breathing is a key skill to have in the Please Don't Sweat The Small Stuff coping skills toolbox. The Breathing Sphere can be used along with the techniques from either method to further reinforce breathing skills in kids. How Does the Breathing Sphere Work This activity may require spending some cash if you don't have a sphere lying around, but we found it to be a very effective tool in helping kids to visualize their stomach expanding ...
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When Dinosaurs Die by Laurie Krasny Brown (An H4HK Review)

About the Book When Dinosaurs Die is part of the series of books by Laurie Krasny Brown and Marc Brown that also includes Dinosaurs Divorce – A Guide For Changing Families which we also highly recommend. It is a colorful and well written explanation of death and grief designed to help give kids who have lost a loved information about what is going on. Who Is This Book For? This book is aimed primarily at kids in first through third grade though younger and older kids who have experienced a death will most definitely benefit from reading the book or having it ...
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Triangle Breathing

Last week we looked at an easy way to help kids learn deep breathing called Lazy 8 Breathing. Triangle breathing is another simple way to teach kids how to breathe as a means of coping. The triangle breathing method adds the additional step of holding in the breath before exhaling as explained further below. like Lazy 8 Breathing, you can find a triangle in a picture or simply have the child make a triangle on a piece of paper. How Does Triangle Breathing Work Have the child trace the triangle with their finger. The speed will vary depending on the ...
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Pool Noodle Fidget Toys

Pool Noodle Fidget Toys are an easy DIY project you can make for, or with, your kids. They are cheaper than fidget spinners, squishies and other fidget toys, and you can mass produce them with relative ease. I've worked with kids for years, and for many of those years I was in charge of games with a large group of students. Ever since that time, I've kept a box of pool noodles in my basement, because you never know when you're going to need them! (FYI, you can get a box fairly cheap after summer is over). A standard pool ...
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Emotion Cards

A significant part of helping kids to deal with their emotions (Jump In! Stand Strong! Rise Up!) is helping them to develop a robust feelings vocabulary. That is why we are excited to present our very own set of Hope 4 Hurting Kids Emotion Cards. What Are Emotion Cards? Each of these 54 cards includes the name of an emotion, a face demonstrating that emotion, and a brief definition of the feeling. Definition have been taken from, or adapted from entries in the WordNet® lexical database of English. The emotions included in this deck of feelings cards were extracted from our upcoming ...
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Feelings Pictionary

Feelings Pictionary is a new take on an old game that help kids to learn about emotions while having fun at the same time. It's a great game for small groups, schools or family game night. This game builds on the history of games like Pictionary; Win, Lose or Draw and Draw Something to create an environment where kids and adults can explore what emotions look like in all kinds of fun ways. All you need to play is two sets of cards that you can download here at Hope 4 Hurting Kids and something to draw on. The Hope ...
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