The holidays are filled with so much joy and fun, but they can also bring stress and anxiety for adults and students alike. Holiday stress doesn’t just affect adults. The holidays are a hard time for students who have lost loved ones. Students may deal with extra family stressors during the holidays from divorce or turmoil in the family. Additionally, there may be an extra focus on finances around the holidays that can affect students.
Signs of Holiday Stress in Students
This stress may show up in many different forms including unusual or extreme behaviors, belly aches, headaches, or other physical symptoms, withdrawnness, sleepiness, and more. Check in with students who are showing these signs of stress around the holiday season.
Ask questions like:
“How are you feeling?”
“How are things going at home?”
“Is there anything you want to chat about?”
Or simply tell students, “I’m here for you.”
Let’s talk about some proactive strategies for helping students cope with the holiday stress.
Strategies for Managing Holiday Stress in the Classroom
Avoid talking about gifts.
Not all families will be able to afford the same types of gifts. Avoid discussions of what students want or what they receive. It is best not to ask students about what they got upon returning from winter break. Students struggle with comparison, too!
Be sensitive to family situations.
Avoid depicting “perfect” family traditions via books, movies, etc. during the holiday seasons. Check in with students who you know are experiencing changes in their family or missing family members due to death, divorce, military deployment, incarceration, etc.
Provide students with a safe space in the classroom to regulate emotions.
This is important all year long, not just around the holidays. Students need and area in the classroom that is equipped with tools and strategies to help students regulate their emotions. Encourage students who are displaying any of the signs of stress mentioned above to spend some time in your designated safe space. Remember, the safe space, or calm down corner, should never be used as punishment! If you need some ideas on setting up a safe space in your classroom, check out my post on Calm Down Corners & Why You Need One
Practice mindfulness in the classroom.
Mindfulness is an effective tool for managing stress and regulating emotions. When students learn to practice mindfulness regularly in the classroom, you are giving them a whole set of tools to use when emotions are heightened at home over the holidays as well. Check out my blog post on 7 Ways to Use Mindfulness in the Classroom for more ideas on how to regularly incorporate mindful strategies with your students.
Before you go, check out these Mindful Activities for the Winter Holidays!
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