Relaxing Like An Ice Cube

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Help your students visualize their bodies melting like ice cubes to help them understand what it means to “relax.”

  • Ask the students to lie down and close their eyes – make sure everyone has enough space!

 

  • Tell the students “pretend like we are ice cubes in the freezer, frozen very hard”

(Have student tense up all the muscles in their bodies and hold them tight)

 

  • Then tell them “Oops! Someone takes us outside and leaves us in the hot sun…we begin to melt! Our bodies get softer and melty” (Tell students to let their muscles relax and stay soft)

 

  • “Pretty soon the sun has melted us into a drippy, droopy puddle.” (Tell students to let their muscles relax even more/ feel even softer)

 

  • Then tell the students “This is what your body feels like when you are relaxed! Ballooning, Draining, Pretzel, and being a S.T.A.R. helps our bodies to feel relaxed when we are angry or upset or scared.”

 

  • Practice ballooning, draining, pretzel and being a S.T.A.R. and remind the students to relax their bodies like a melted ice cube while you practice.

Bubble Pens

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Why We Love Bubble Pens

If you’ve ever been to one of our behavior workshops, you may have walked away with one of our infamous bubble pens. We love those suckers, and hand them out whenever we get the chance.  We don’t love them because they’re fun (bubbles – wheeee!!) and functional (it’s a pen, too!), or because we like watching a group of adults turn into preschoolers chasing bubbles around.  Nope, we hand them out because bubbles are an excellent behavior management tool for children!

Whether it’s to diffuse a temper tantrum or de-stress, we all know how useful a deep breath can be.  Using bubbles as a calming tool, your child will visually perform the task of “taking a deep breath” to self-calm.  Create a designated Quiet Spot, and ask your child to blow bubbles. Without even realizing it, they’ll learn how to self-calm – which is a useful skill for all children to learn.

Children usually chase bubbles around and take turns popping them.  But, if instead you ask your child to hold still and see how long they can let bubbles land on them without popping, you’re teaching an excellent lesson in self-control!  To get the sillies out, for the first round blow bubbles and encourage your child to chase, pop, or squish to their heart’s content.  Then for the second round, have your child sit still while you blow bubbles.  Bubbles will be all around them, but your child must use their self-control strategies and not touch or chase the bubbles.   Ask them if it was hard to not touch the bubbles when they were all over them?  What thoughts were they thinking that helped them to stay calm, keep their voice quiet, and their hands away from the bubbles?  What will they do if they feel themselves getting out of control?

Another excellent way to use bubbles is during naptime.  As your child lays down, play some soft music and gently blow bubbles towards them.  Encourage your child to let the bubbles land on them, which is a very calming sensation, and ask them to think about floating like a bubble as they drift off to sleep