Lesson details
- Objective: Students build a personal menu of three calming strategies and identify when each one fits.
- Time: 20 minutes
- Grade band: K–2
- CASEL competency: Self-management
Materials
- A menu template (folded card, three sections)
- Crayons or markers
- Strategy picture cards: belly breathing, counting down, squeeze-and-release, water sip, quiet corner, drawing it out
Steps
- Review any calming strategies the class already knows (belly breathing counts). Introduce two or three more from the cards.
- Try each strategy together for thirty seconds, while calm — name the rule: we practice when calm so it works when upset.
- Each student picks three for their personal menu and draws them on the template — one for school, one for home, one for anywhere.
- Pair share: show your menu, name when you would use each item.
- Menus go somewhere real: taped in a folder, on a desk corner, or home to the fridge.
Debrief questions
- Which strategy felt best in your body today?
- When would your "anywhere" strategy be hardest to remember?
Variations
- For Pre-K, make one class menu with two strategies instead of personal menus.
- For grade 2, add a fourth slot: a strategy that did NOT work for you, and why that's okay — menus differ.
What mastery looks like
- Names their three chosen strategies from memory
- Tries a menu strategy during a real frustration with at most one prompt
- Explains when one strategy fits better than another ("counting is for when I can't leave my seat")
What tends to go wrong
The menu's power is choice — a child who picked their strategies uses them more than a child assigned strategies. Resist the urge to standardize the menus. Revisit in a real moment: "check your menu" is a calmer prompt than "calm down."