Activity: A feelings dictionary

If we can recognise feelings that we have it can help us to manage them. Lots of feelings come with physical signs in our body. These will be different for different people. Here are some examples:

Feeling nervous:

• butterflies in the tummy
• sweaty palms
• dry mouth

On a piece of paper, draw a gingerbread person or a stick person. Next, write some of the physical signs that can come with one of this list of different feelings. You can choose one, or do all four and make a feelings dictionary booklet!

• Nervous
• Excited
• Angry
• Bored

If someone is free to help you think about this, try this...

Talk for a few minutes about the things you can do to help you feel ok if you have unhappy feelings. Here's an example:

If I'm feeling nervous, I can:

• take slow deep breaths, counting to four as you breathe in and to four as you breathe out
• do some de-stressing exercise like skipping or running
• to one of my special people

Try Harold the giraffe's 'Calm Palm' idea for helping to calm down if you're feeling frustrated or upset.

Trace a finger from one hand around the edge of all your fingers on your other hand - just link in the drawing. Do this slowly! Every time you trace upwards, breathe in deeply. Every time you trace downwards, breathe out slowly. After five slow breaths you should be feeling a bit calmer! 

Being a good friend also means helping our friends when they are feeling sad, nervous of worried.

Try this activity, all about helping someone who's sad.