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Anxiety Resources for K-6: Don't stress!

This guide has information to support students who are experiencing anxiety. Parent and caregiver resources also available in this guide.

What is mental health?

Mental health is a part of your overall health. It's about how you feel, think, and behave; how you cope with the ups and downs of everyday life; how you feel about yourself and your life; how you see yourself and your future; how stress affects you; how you deal with negative things that happen in your life; your self-esteem or confidence.

When tests make you nervous

 

What's in this article?

  • Performance Anxiety?
  • No More Tests?
  • What Makes Anxiety Happen?
  • Who Gets Test Anxiety?
  • What can you do? 

 

What is it?

What is Anxiety?

Basically, anxiety is spending a lot of time worrying about things in the future and stuff we can't control.

Mostly, it's the fear in the absence of real danger that is called anxiety.

Jelly Belly Relaxation Video, Deep Breathing

Stress Busters For Kids

 

20 THINGS YOU CAN DO WHEN YOU ARE FEELING NERVOUS OR WORRIED

These are things you can try at home by yourself, at school, at a party or on a crowded bus. Try them. They actually work!

  • Count backwards from 100 by 3’s (100, 97, 94…..)
  • Go for a brisk walk around the block
  • Take a bath or a warm shower
  • Work out
  • Play basketball
  • Listen to your favourite music
  • Read a book
  • Repeat the words of a poem or song
  • Draw
  • Doodle
  • Watch a movie
  • Sort your sock drawer
  • Think positive
  • Describe in detail all the things you see around you. Notice color, size, shape, texture and position
  • Tell yourself that you can’t be tense and relaxed at the same time: Consciously tense and relax specific parts of your body
  • Play simple word games such as spelling words backwards or counting the number of letters in a word
  • Imagine yourself as a rag doll and let your muscles go loose and limp
  • Avoid substances and alcohol when you are stressed out
  • Make a list of things to do that you’ve already done
  • Try some new ways of ‘grounding’ yourself and become more aware of the present: Look around the room and notice the colors, the people, and the shapes of things. Listen to the sounds around you, the traffic, birds etc. Feel your body, the boundary of your skin, your clothes, the chair or floor supporting you. 

From www.mindyourmind.ca  

Kids Help Phone

https://kidshelpphone.ca/

Stress Me Less Game

The goal of this fun game is to destroy your stress beyond repair.  Watch your 'destruct-o-meter keep track of the stress you have destroyed!

Staying calm

Here are some ideas for activities you can try when you feel really anxious. Try it at home, or somewhere quiet. Once you practice, you'll find you can do it anywhere, anytime. (From kidshelpphone.com)

Activities to try to help you stay calm

Stretch your arms in front of your body and bring them over your head.  Stretch as high as you can, feeling the tension build in your shoulders.  Drop your arms and breathe.  Repeat.

Wrinkle your nose and scrunch up your face.  Now relax.  Repeat, this time lifting your eyebrows to make creases in your forehead.  Let it go.

Make a fist with your left hand.  Squeeze.  Feel the tension move up your wrist and arm.  now let it go.  Breathe out.  Repeat with your right hand.  Notice how much more relaxed your hands and arms feel after you've squeezed them tight and released them.

Clench your teeth tight.  Now let it go.  Do it again.  Repeat a couple of times until you feel relaxed and loose.

Push your feet and legs down on the floor.  Push hard, spreading your toes apart if you can.  Let it go.  Try this again, this time letting all of the tension out of your lower body as you relax.

This exercise should help you relax your body from head to toe.  If you're stil feeling tense, try repeating the exercise again.

Tighten up your stomach so that it turns hard.  It might help to place a hand on your belly so you can feel it tighten.  Take a deep breath and relax your stomach as you breathe out.