Discover how to create and use a calm corner for children. Includes free printables and suggestions for your home or classroom.
Practical advice for parents to discuss family tension with children and support healthy conflict resolution at home.
• We are learning to compare texts with a similar topic and understand how different characters and settings help us learn about emotions.
The picture book explores the intense feelings that come with anger and how children can learn to manage them. When Sophie feels overwhelmed, her body reacts in strong and noticeable ways: her face gets hot, her fists clench, and she feels like exploding. This allows students to describe what anger looks and feels like physically (AC9HPFP03 – Foundation Year, Health and Physical Education), helping them recognise emotional cues in themselves and others.
As Sophie removes herself from the situation, takes time to cool down in nature, and eventually returns feeling calm, the story models simple and effective emotional regulation strategies (AC9HP2P03 – Years 1 and 2, Health and Physical Education). These moments provide powerful prompts for children to reflect on their own ways of calming down and regaining control during emotionally charged moments.
When Sophie Gets Angry — Really, Really Angry is a gentle yet impactful resource for developing emotional literacy, supporting children in identifying and managing their big emotions in healthy ways.
• We are learning how to recognise and manage anger using strategies from a story
This powerful story helps children understand and manage anger through the metaphor of a ‘red beast’ that awakens when feelings become overwhelming. The book offers a safe and engaging way for students to explore what anger looks and feels like in the body (AC9HPFP03 – Foundation Year, Health and Physical Education), using clear language to describe both the emotional and physical signs of big feelings.
As the main character learns how to calm the red beast, readers are introduced to strategies for emotional regulation (AC9HP2P03 – Years 1 and 2, Health and Physical Education). The narrative also opens up conversations about how certain behaviours and language can cause hurt and harm to others (AC9HPFP02, AC9HP2P02 – Foundation to Year 2, Health and Physical Education). Through reflection and discussion, children are encouraged to build empathy and make respectful choices in how they express emotions.
The Red Beast is an essential resource for supporting social-emotional learning in early years classrooms, offering practical tools to help children recognise, name, and regulate big emotions in themselves and others.
• We are exploring safe spaces in the text to understand how they help us regulate.
• We are learning to make connections between the story and ourselves and make use of the regulation strategies from the text.
Discover respectful strategies and positive calming tips to manage children’s big feelings. Learn how to foster emotional regulation in kids both at school and home.
• We are learning to make predictions about the text.
Understand your child’s meltdown. Learn what triggers meltdowns and how to support them through big feelings.
• We are learning to identify tools and strategies that help us feel calm when we have big emotions.
• We are learning to brainstorm emotional regulation strategies for different situations.
The story follows a young girl who struggles to express herself calmly, often shouting when she feels frustrated or unheard. Through her journey, she learns to recognise and understand her emotions (AC9HPFP03, AC9HP2P03 – Foundation to Year 2, Health and Physical Education) and works to develop positive strategies for expressing her thoughts and feelings in respectful ways (AC9HPFP02, AC9HP2P02 – Foundation to Year 2, Health and Physical Education).
The story also encourages children to explore characters’ perspectives and emotional responses, fostering empathy (AC9HP2P01 – Health and Physical Education, Years 1 and 2). It helps them define safe and unsafe environments, such as calm corners, through interactions with friends in a classroom, establishing help-seeking strategies in such situations (AC9HP2P05 – Health and Physical Education, Years 1 and 2).
With its poetic language and engaging illustrations, The Shouting Girl helps students understand how rhyme and rhythm create cohesion in a text. It also explores how words and images shape settings and characters, along with other literary features such as lists of three and similes.
I Have Feelings by Jana Hunter is a sweet story that explores the wide range of emotions children experience. Through relatable scenarios and simple text, the book helps young readers recognise and understand their own feelings, such as happiness, sadness, and anger, and what triggers those feelings. This book serves as an excellent resource to support children in describing and express emotions they experience in an appropriate way (AC9HPFP03 – Foundation Year, Health and Physical Education).
With its vibrant illustrations and engaging narrative, I Have Feelings encourages children to express their emotions in a healthy and constructive way. It provides a perfect opportunity to discuss emotional literacy, social skills, and respectful interactions with peers.