Make Your Own Regulation Tools

Thank you so much for attending our presentation on Emotional Regulation! We loved connecting with all of you and hope you found some things helpful.

Please read on for some activities you can do together to promote emotional regulation.

Calming Jar

A calming jar can be helpful because it gives quiet, meditative visual input to help focus attention and encourage mindful breathing.

Materials needed:

• Water bottle or jar with a lid

• Glue- this can be glitter glue or clear glue, depending on the look you are going for

• Glitter (optional)

• Small materials such as beads, tiny stones, small shells, pom poms, hole punched leaves, pine needles, etc.

• Water

• Duct tape or glue for the lid

Steps:

1. Place your small objects in the bottle, no more than 1/3 full

2. Fill your chosen bottle with water about 1/3-3/4 full.

3. Continue filling with clear or glitter glue until it is almost full

4. Add glitter if you would like

5. Place the lid on the bottle and shake it up, making sure the bottle looks the way you would like- you can always take the lid off and change some things if!

6. If you are happy with your bottle and are using glue to secure the lid, place glue around the inside of the lid

7. Place the lid on the bottle

8. If using duct tape, secure the lid with duct tape

Tool Jar

A regulation tool jar helps to have all of your regulation tools in one place! They can be pulled throughout the day or when children start to show signs of dysregulation.

Materials Needed:

• Popsicle sticks or twigs

• Marker

• Post-It Flags (if using twigs)

Steps:

1. Brain storm and make a list of tools that help you feel regulated such as:

• Tight hugs

• Frog jumps

• Blanket burrito

• Swinging

• Sliding

• Rolling down a hill

• Heavy lifting

• Take a walk

• Use calming jar

• Shape breathing (example: Click here)

2. Write one tool on each popsicle stick or Post-It Flag- options here include different colors (different color sticks, flags or marker) for alerting tools (jumping jacks when feeling tired or sad) and calming tools (tight hugs when feeling busy or overwhelmed)

Tool Cube

This cube can be rolled like a dice multiple times a day to use tools to help children stay regulated or when you start to notice signs of dysregulation. As with the sticks, you can make 2 cubes- one for alerting and one for calming

Materials:

• Cube template (click here! With many thanks to First Palette!) or foam cube (can be purchased from any craft store)

• Glue (if using the cube template)

• Paper

• Crayons, colored pencils or markers

• Packing tape

Steps:

1. Either: print the cube template, cut it out, fold or! measure the sides of your foam cube and cut out 6 squares of paper to fit each side

2. Write one tool and draw a matching picture on each square

3. Either fold the cube template and glue edges together or tape the squares to the side of the foam cube