
If you are providing counseling to kids like I am, then teaching Coping Skills is likely your bread and butter. Coping skills help kids understand how to face tough situations, understand and manage their emotions, and work toward regulating stress in their minds and bodies.
From kids with poor anger management to children with anxiety in the classroom, helping children learn the skills for understanding and coping with their emotions can be taught with a variety of tools.
Here are 10+ different activities that can help you provide fun, engaging, and informational instruction to your students during their coping skills-focused counseling sessions.
Board Games to Teach Emotions and Coping Skills!
(Just click on pics to learn more!)



These board games are tons of fun for teaching students about Emotions and Coping Skills. In each game, there are prompts that ask students questions about different coping strategies, have them practice different coping skills, and facilitate discussions about what strategies to use in different stressful situations. These are printable games, so to play, just print out the game boards and laminate for lasting use. If you have a Candyland, you do not need to print out the gameboard, as a printable one is provided.
If these games look easy and fun to play with your students, just click HERE or on their pictures to learn more about each one!
WORKSHEETS for Learning Coping Skills





These worksheets can be a great tool for teaching students new information as well as reinforcing already learned information. Younger children often enjoy coloring worksheets and older children can learn from working with their counselor on worksheets that require more critical thinking and reasoning skills. As a School Psychologist, I will often pair a worksheet with a video to further engage the child in learning about different coping skills. (See #3-SEL Videos below). These worksheets are all available in my 18-Week Coping Skills Curriculum in my TpT store if your looking for both worksheets and games to support your instruction for Coping Skills.
VIDEOS and Video-Game Activities


Videos can make your life as a teacher a counselor much easier because they can be both fun and entertaining for kids as they learn a variety of SEL Topics. This list (seen above) has over 225 video links that includes Coping Skills Videos for Elementary and Middle School Students.
It also has video links for Anger Management, Self-Esteem, Learning Emotions, Zones of Regulation, Social Media, Coping Skills, Growth Mindset, Improving Attention, Social Skills, Study Skills, Working in Groups, Transitioning to Middle School etc.). This list will hopefully save you hours and hours of research because I’ve already done it for you!
If you want to check out a Video Activity specifically for teaching kids about COPING SKILLS, then check out Coping Skills BINGO!
Coping Skills JENGA, Cards, and UNO Games!



You can play these fun games with your students who are learning how to use coping skills and manage BIG emotions, including anger. They are good for small group counseling for between 2-5 students ideally, but I have played with students for individual sessions as well.
To play the JENGA games, you will need to have a Jenga or imitation Jenga and number it 1-30. Just have students pull the pieces and read the corresponding prompts. Jenga is always my students’ favorite.
Jenga…and UNO!!! For UNO, just color-print the game pages and play UNO. As the students put their cards down, read the corresponding prompt to help facilitate discussion and practice coping skills.
The Positive Thinking Game-Applying principals of CBT

Focusing on changing negative thinking patterns to positive thinking is very helpful for counselors who like to use Cognitive Behavioral Therapy instruction in their counseling. The Positive Thinking board game is a fun and easy way to work with students on improving their positive thinking habits, growth mindset, and self-esteem. It’s perfect for small group counseling groups for ages 2-8.
The Positive Thinking Super Heroes Game

This 2 page play is called the “Positive Thinking Super Heroes Play!” It can be a fun activity your counseling group or classroom as a fun way to facilitate learning about the benefits of positive thinking. The social story goes into how positive thinking can help our brains and body, and help make better decisions during the school day.
Included after the play are 2 reflection worksheets where students can answer questions about the story and themselves and then draw them-self as a positive thinking superhero.
Social Stories Coloring Books for Emotional Regulation


Help your students learn about emotions and strategies for controlling emotions with these Social Story Coloring Books. The goal of this social story to share information in a way that makes sense to children in order to help them understand their own experiences. Children have a range of feelings and emotions during the school day. Some have to learn skills for managing their emotions, so that they can avoid having behaviors, such as aggression, yelling, crying, or eloping at school. Just click on the pictures to learn more about each book!
This story is in first person, which encourages the development of empathy and understanding.
The books are great for teachers, school psychologists, and counselors of preschool through 5th grade students and/or students with disabilities who are working on learning a variety of social skills.
If you liked these activities and would like to save both time and money, then please check out the full, 20-Week, Curriculum for Counseling students for Coping Skills. Click HERE to check it out!

How to Get 200+ Counseling Activities… for FREE! Pre-Enroll for the Video-Course TODAY!

