TENSE!!!

Here are a few things I plan to use this year to help my students isolate those "tense" feelings. There are few more in my post titled - Essential Tools.

  Don't you get tense just thinking about a balloon popping? This game makes you so tense that even my 17 year old son would not stay in the room with me when I was testing it out. Actually, when the balloon pops, it is not overwhelming. The balloons that come with the game make a relatively gentle popping noise and the pieces of the balloon stay pretty contained within the frame of the game.

 This game is a take on the more common, Crocodile Dentist. The jaw will "SNAP" the student who finds the Lion's sore tooth. The Lion will roar as well. Very cool!

I plan to mix this in with other cans of nuts and food to increase the element of surprise.

 I plan to use this by having students take turns putting their pieces into the game. This will help develop team work - group success and failure.

This is another game that gives you that tense feeling. It is laborious to set-up, so I usually use it once and then just sweep the blocks to the side until after group. Thankfully I have a group of kiddos who love to stack them back into the box and readily volunteer.

Don't forget during all this fun, the real purpose of identifying the tense feeling is learning that the calm feeling is much more comfortable!
Make sure your kiddos are using their "practicing hands" and breathing techniques to reclaim their "calm."  

 Breathe!