Area Addressed: Personal/Social Development
Objective: Students will learn to recognize, acknowledge, and understand feelings of anger; to allow students to explore healthy coping styles, to model how to ask for help from teachers, counselors, peers, and family.
Title: “Bottling it Up” Grade: All
Materials:
● 1-2 small unopened bottles of soda
● 1 package of Mentos* candy (or mints)
● Pencils/markers
● Small strips of paper
*If you don’t have Mentos handy, note the suggested replacement at the bottom.
Procedure:
1) Each student will receive small strips of paper and a marker. Students will be asked to write or draw things that they may keep “bottled” up on the inside. (Parents/leaders can also write and share).
2) Prompt students with:
● What is it that they feel they never tell anyone?
● What is something they don’t like to talk about or even think about?
● How are they feeling about all that is going on?
● How are they feeling about all the new changes? (learning from home instead of school, not seeing their friends/teachers, not having extracurricular activities/sports/hanging out with friends…)
3) Provide an opportunity for the student to share what they wrote with no pressure if they don’t want to share.
4) Talk to the child/teen about keeping things “bottled” up on the inside:
● What happens to your body when you bottle things up on the inside?
● What does it feel like?
● What thoughts do you have when things start to get tough?
4) Move to a place where you can get a bit messy (kitchen, yard) and bring the bottle of soda.
Ask the questions: What happens when we keep our feelings “bottled” up on the inside?
5) Open the soda and pour out a small bit so you can add in the strips of paper and observe what happens when it gets too full. Each child/teen will take a turn putting their papers in the soda bottle and watch as the soda begins to bubble (already feeling the effects of those things we keep bottled up) and overflow.
6) Add 5-6 Mentos to the bottle. When the bottle has exploded, discuss what the students observed.
● Discuss what happens when the number of things not being said get added up – they explode.
● Talk about the importance of using healthy coping skills to help when we feel our bottle is getting too full.
● Point out the mess that was left behind when the soda exploded – the systems that it affected (social, family, support, etc.)
● Discuss healthy coping skills and invite child/teen to share what works for them when their bottle is filling up.
● Discuss the importance of sharing this “stuff” with each other, even when it seems too hard or too big.
Closure/Evaluation: After discussing and sharing healthy coping skills, use the thumbs system to evaluate students. Thumbs up – if you learned a new way to cope today. Ask students to share the new ways they learned to cope.
* If you don’t have Mentos handy, here’s an alternative. Instead of soda and Mentos, use a glass that’s ⅔ full of water and legos or other small toys instead of Mentos. Your activity won’t ‘explode’ like soda and Mentos, but it will ‘spill over’ showing how small stressers build up and spill over.