Label difficult emotions

Recognizing and labeling emotions can help children "become self-aware and begin to control their own emotional states successfully" from elementary school to high school. Students who learn to recognize, name, and understand their emotions are better prepared to make reasonable decisions and manage unsettling or disruptive emotions in their life, all of which are essential components of resilience.

Quick daily emotional check-ins are an excellent place to start in the classroom. Plutchik's Wheel of Feelings can be used by teachers to teach pupils, based on grade level, the words they can use to express the emotions they are experiencing. The emotion wheel can assist teachers to categorize their feelings and their reactions to those emotions. Students can also realize that other emotions are a combination of the eight basic emotions or are descended from one or more of them. This is a profound understanding for them because it allows them to detect emotional triggers and prepare how to respond with excellent self-management skills.