Why use this tool?

This tool enables each student to start growing their emotional literacy as well as emotional regulation skills, so as to limit and better cope with climate emotions, including climate anxiety. It is critical for students and educators to check the level of anxiety, stress and overwhelm in the group, while providing simple practices to address some of the anxiety, stress and overwhelm on the spot. It helps express emotions so as to release the tension surrounding them.

Activities in this Tool

Activity 1.2.1. Climate emotions wheel

Activity 1.2.2. Emotions checks

Activity 1.2.3. Climate emotions symbols

Activity 1.2.4. Climate emotions embodiments

 

Activity 1.2.1. Climate emotions wheel

Overview 

Getting to know the variety of emotions presented on the wheel can help learners and teachers put words on the emotions that are being expressed individually and in groups. The simple process of naming emotions can help learners and teachers navigate emotions better. 

 

Curriculum linkage

Any discipline or class during which climate change is discussed. 

The words describing the different climate emotions can help build learners’ vocabulary. As such the climate emotions wheel could be introduced during the main language/literature class, and could be associated with the study of poems, novel excerpts, plays exploring specific emotions. 

 

Competences built

Emotional literacy, emotional regulation, empathy, compassion, self-compassion 

Basic info

  • Age range: 7+
  • Duration: 5-20 minutes
  • Group size: Open
  • Level of difficulty: Basic
  • Materials/space required: None
  • Location: Open 
  • Engagement of external stakeholders: No

 

Prep Work

Familiarize yourself with the climate emotions wheel and the meaning associated with each emotion in relation to climate change before introducing this activity

 

Competences/activities to practice first by the teacher: 

  • Creating a culture of safety and care 

Steps  in the activity 

  1. Understanding the wheel
  2. Using the wheel
  3. Reflecting on the activity

Step 1: Understanding the wheel

  1. Acknowledge that it may be difficult to put words onto the emotions we feel in relation to climate change, and that simply putting work on emotions can trigger strong feelings and emotions. The latter are normal and should be welcome. 
  2. Introduce a grounding exercise (i.e. feeling the ground under our feet and experiencing its presence and support) as you introduce this activity,  for learners to be able to support themselves, if need be, while exploring climate emotions. 
  3. Introduce the climate emotions wheel to learners, as a tool that covers a number of emotions they are likely to feel in relation to climate change, although it is a non-exhaustive list of emotions. 
  4. Highlight that learners may experience several emotions at the same time, and that they can shift from one emotion to another while exploring them and or/listening to others expressing their own climate emotions. 

Step 2 : Using the wheel  

  1. Give learners the opportunity to identify the emotions they are feeling at that moment. 
  2. Give learners the opportunity to express those emotions in writing, and/or with the rest of the group if they feel called to do so. 

Step 3 : Reflecting on the activity

  1. Reflect collectively on how it feels to have more words to express different emotions with subtlety. 
  2. (Optional) Further explore emotions through literature and/other artforms to introduce how the arts can help live with and navigate various emotions individually and collectively. 

Dos and Don’ts 

Do

  • Answer questions that can help learners better understand what the different emotions are about. 
  • Validate the variety of the learners’ experiences, including the fact that some learners may not be feeling any emotion at all. 
  • Validate that it is normal to feel a variety of emotions while learning about climate change or taking action to address climate change and its impacts. Emotions are part of our life journey. 
  • Listen to learners who feel overwhelmed by the exercise, and/or express the need for additional support, and provide them with support to deal with dysregulation (see tool 1.4. Climate trauma/dysregulation first aid) and the information they need to access this additional support if needed (check activity card 1.4.1 – Creating a Culture of safety for more details). 

 

Don’t

  • Invalidate the emotions that are being expressed. 
  • Suggest that learners should strive to transform their emotions encompassed by the categories of ‘sadness, fear and anger’ to ‘positivity’, and/or that they can achieve this result by merely taking action. 

 

Adaptations

If your learners struggle with feeling emotions, you can start by sharing a personal story that highlights the emotions you feel when thinking about climate change. You can also invite learners who feel safe enough to share their emotions to do it with the class, for inspiration purposes. You can highlight that not feeling emotions is totally normal. Engaging with activity 1.1.3 (drawing symbols to express emotions), could also help the older students connect with how they feel.  

If your learners struggle with choosing emotions on the climate emotions wheel, consider showing them the emoji version of the wheel. 

We invite you to adapt this activity to the specific needs of your learners, including by taking into account their neurodiversity. When adapting tools and activities for neurodivergent learners, please note it is not about treating others how you want to be treated, but how they want to be treated. Ask, listen, and stay open to different ways of learning and engaging

References

This activity is adapted from the Climate Emotions wheel resources of the Climate Mental Health Network by One Resilient Earth. 

Download the Activity Card here

Activity 1.2.2. Emotions checks

Overview 

Daily emotional check-ins provide consistency, helping teachers establish a routine and integrate emotional literacy, fluency and care into everyday practice. This practice can be challenging at first, if you are not used to acknowledging emotions during class or to offer care when emotions emerge. It requires you to become emotionally aware and committed to establishing a culture of safety and care (see activity 1.4.2) including by seeking the support you need in the process.  Regular emotions check foster emotional regulation, mindfulness, and improved self-awareness in students. It normalizes conversations about emotions and feelings, expands emotional vocabulary, and promotes problem-solving skills. For teachers, these check-ins offer insights into students‘ emotional states, enabling them to offer support, if needed. Ultimately, regular check-ins help students articulate emotions and build essential competences.

Curriculum linkage

Any discipline or class during which climate change is discussed.

Competences built

Emotional literacy, presence, self-reflection, self-compassion, compassion

Basic info

  • Age range: 7+
  • Duration: max. 5 minutes – to be performed on a regular basis
  • Group size: individual task, can be kept on an individual level or shared in group
  • Level of difficulty: basic to advanced
  • Materials/space required: flexible, for the basic version* no materials require
  • Location: flexible (same setting where the main activity takes place) 
  • Engagement of external stakeholders: no

Prep Work

  • Brainstorm and jot down prompts for check-ins, check-outs, checks before and after activities. These shall be related to bodily sensations, feelings, emotional states, or intentions.
  • Practice emotions checks with yourself. Try out different types of prompts and questions. Observe your response to them. 

Competences/activities to practice first by the teacher: 

  • Climate Emotions Wheel (1.3.1)
  • Creating a culture of safety and care (1.4.1)

Levels  in the activity 

  1. Try out in class
  2. Nurture emotional literacy
  3. Follow up

Level 1: Try out in class

Background: This activity should be performed as a regular practice, so as to grow emotional fluency in the group. It can also be performed after some supposedly negatively charged climate-related content has been shared.

Steps

  1. Recap the event, activity, or content that has happened or been discussed or presented in class. Normalize the fact that this is most likely triggering different reactions in different people. You can use the climate emotions wheel (activity 1.1.1) to share examples of climate emotions, or give examples from your own experience. 
  2. Invite the learners to feel into the shared experience, shrug their shoulders and take a big breath through the nose counting for instance for four while breathing in and a matching count while breathing out. Alternatively, for bigger release, you can ask them to breathe in through the nose, and out through the mouth. 
  3. Use your prompt, ask a simple question related to their emotional state right now. Depending on the age, you might want to phrase it differently. Keep it simple. Some examples: How do you feel right now? What emotions has this [discussed topic] triggered for you? Where do you feel it in your body?
  4. Invite the learners to make a mental note of the triggered emotion (and/or have them jot it down on a post-it). Make sure that the students know they do not have to share their emotions with the group. 
  5. The follow-up step is to acknowledge and again normalize what has come up, among the learners who wish to share. It could be individual or group reflection, depending on the time allocated for this activity and the interest of the learners in taking part in this activity.

Level 2: Nurture emotional literacy

Based on the individual emotions checks, different types of short-term (immediate) or long-term activities could be created.

Steps

  1. Immediate activities: different types of group sharings could follow the naming of feelings, emotions, etc. with the prompt of pattern seeking, finding similarities in our emotional experiences.
  2. To further help regulating emotions, this could be followed by e.g. a climate emotion symbol activity (see 1.1.3).
  3. Long-term (individual level): creating an emotional map of each of our learners, by using emotional checks in connection to most of our climate related learning activities. Ask learners to collect these post-its on a poster, in a workbook, in their journal (see 3.1.1) with a date.

Level 3: Follow-up      

Emotional maps are to be followed up with the learners individually and on a regular basis. 

Dos and Don’ts 

  • Regarding this toolcard, it needs to be mentioned that these are vulnerable activities, especially for a group where bullying is (or might be) an issue. It is good to have conversations about consent and allow students to choose whether they want to participate. And if they chose to opt out, they can do so without judgment (Show no disappointment!)
  • Regarding Level 1 Step 4, sometimes learners might not be able to connect to their inner experiences, feelings, emotions, and they will come up with NOTHING! If so you might want to normalize that too, and help them with simpler prompts, or just invite them to listen to their peers’ sharings and get back to them later – if that helped them to understand or feel their own feelings, emotions, etc.
  • Remind participants that all emotions are normal and valid, and that they provide information to consider. 

Adaptations

We invite you to adapt this activity to the specific needs of your learners, including by taking into account their neurodiversity. When adapting tools and activities for neurodivergent learners, please note it is not about treating others how you want to be treated, but how they want to be treated. Ask, listen, and stay open to different ways of learning and engaging

References

This activity is adapted from UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center by Lund University. 

Find out more at the Greater Good in Education, a free resource hub for educators from UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center: 

More information on check-ins (and other tools) can be found on the Transformation Hosts International (THI) homepage, which is a community of practice for Transformative Learning and for hosting the socio-ecological transition:

Find out more about integrating social and emotional learning into everyday teaching in middle- and high- school classrooms here: 

  • Srinivasan, M. (2019). SEL Every Day: Integrating Social and Emotional Learning with Instruction in Secondary Classrooms (SEL Solutions Series). Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company. 

 

Download the Activity Card here

Activity 1.2.3. Climate emotions symbols

Overview 

This artistic practice helps explore climate emotions by drawing symbols of our emotions related to climate change on a piece of paper or on the back of a fellow learner, and then discussing them with the group.

Curriculum linkage

Any discipline or class during which climate change is discussed. 

Competences built

Emotional literacy emotional regulation, empathy, compassion, self-compassion 

Basic info

  • Age range: 7+
  • Duration: 20-30 minutes 
  • Group size: Open
  • Level of difficulty: Intermediate  
  • Materials/space required: A5 or A6 paper for each learner, felt pens, pencils or markers. Does not require a specific space. 
  • Location: Indoors
  • Engagement of external stakeholders: No

 

Prep Work

  • Practice guiding breathing and grounding exercises. 
  • Have information ready for learners who are particularly distressed and/or request additional support.  

Competences/activities to practice first by the teacher: 

  •  1.4 ‘Climate trauma/dysregulation first aid’. 
  • Activities from competence areas 1.2 and that help you regulate your emotions and feel prepared to welcome the emotions of a large group. 
  • Also 3.3.2, Deep listening to others. 

 

Steps in the activity 

  1. Introduction and breathing exercise
  2. Drawing of symbols 
  3. Open-sharing 
  4. Reflections and integration 

Step 1 – Introduction and breathing exercise

  1. Inform learners that this activity is an invitation to express their emotions in a group and that they can choose to opt out. For adaptations for those who choose to opt out, please see below. 
  2. Make sure each learner has a piece of A5 or A6 paper and a felt pen or a marker, and explain to them that they will be drawing symbols. 
  3. Explain to the learners that they will have to draw symbols after the guided breathing exercise. Symbols are stylized representations of concepts, objects or relationships. No particular drawing skill is required to draw a symbol. You can show the group images of different symbols in general or in different cultures, and introduce their meanings, as this can help with inspiration. 
  4. Invite learners to take part in a breathing exercise to encourage them to connect to their body. You can invite them to close their eyes to do the breathing exercise. If you or some learners do not feel that closing their eyes and doing the breathing exercise will be helpful, there is an alternative: invite learners to keep their eyes open, lean back against their chair, feel their feet firmly supported by the ground, and just observe their breathing. If you or your learners are new to breathwork, or unsure, you may want to do this exercise with open eyes and feet on the ground, as deep breathing can amplify emotions while closing the eyes can feel like a disconnection and be potentially re-traumatizing for some students. 
  5. You can accompany the breathing or grounding exercise by encouraging learners to rub their hands together during the entire duration of the exercise, if they wish to. 
  6. While learners are breathing and rubbing their hands together, invite them to focus on the part of their body where they are feeling the strongest emotion(s) associated with climate change. 
  7. Invite learners to continue breathing deeply or grounding as they experience the emotions in different parts of their bodies

Step 2 – Drawing of symbols

After 3-5 minutes of guidance, invite learners to open their eyes, if they are closed, and start drawing a symbol representing their emotions immediately and spontaneously. 

Step 3 – Open-sharing

  1. Create subgroups of 3-5 people, depending on the time you have available (count 3-5 minutes per person). 
  2. For 18+ students: 
    • Ask learners to show their symbols to other members of the groups. For each symbol, the members of the group who did not draw the symbol are invited to comment on the symbol, by sharing how it makes them feel and what they interpret the represented emotions to be. 
    • After all members of the group have shared their interpretations on the symbols drawn by other members of the group, each member of the group is invited to share what their symbols meant for them.  
    • Remind learners that the purpose of the exercise was not to get the interpretation of each other’s symbols right, but to explore the variety of climate emotions that can be felt, sometimes simultaneously. 
  3. For students below 18: 
    • Invite them to share what their own symbol means to them with the group. 
    • Invite students to reflect on the similarity or variety of climate emotions that may have come up.  

Step 4 – Reflections and integration 

  • Provide learners with an opportunity to discuss the impact of the experience on them, and their relationship to their own climate emotions and to the climate emotions of others. This can be done openly in the classroom or through journaling exercises.
  • Provide learners the opportunity to go outside, so that they can move, breathe, and integrate what they have felt and learnt before going back to the next class or assignment. 
  • If going outside is not possible, you can play some music and invite learners to move, get a drink of water, chat with their friends informally, before moving on to the next activity of your day. 

 

Dos and Don’ts 

Do

  • Acknowledge and accommodate the possible discomfort of learners when practicing breathing exercises. 
  • When offering the alternative of keeping the eyes open and feet on the ground, introduce it by saying ‚If it helps you to close your eyes then do that, if not then keep them open, whatever you are most comfortable with‘. It is important not to stigmatize the learners who choose that option. 
  • Offer learners the opportunity not to disclose the meaning of their own symbols to the other learners. 
  • Listen to learners who feel overwhelmed by the exercise, and/or express the need for additional support, and provide them with the information they need to access this support (check 1.4.1, Creating a culture of safety and care, for more details). 

 

Don’t

  • Don’t assess or judge the aesthetic quality of the symbols drawn. 
  • Don’t foster a dialogue between learners around the emotions expressed, especially if this dialogue could lead to hierarchies between emotions or to questioning the validity of some emotions. The exchange space is about open sharing and deep listening (check the Listening tool 3.3). 

 

Adaptations

If your learners do not want to take part in the exercise, encourage them to journal to just journal about the emotions they feel or do not feel in relation to climate change, or to listen to the guidance and both draw a symbol and journal, without any need to share with the group. For tips about journaling, check activity 2.1.1.

We invite you to adapt this activity to the specific needs of your learners, including by taking into account their neurodiversity. When adapting tools and activities for neurodivergent learners, please note it is not about treating others how you want to be treated, but how they want to be treated. Ask, listen, and stay open to different ways of learning and engaging.

References

This activity stems from a collaboration between One Resilient Earth and theater and visual artist Alois Reinhardt. It was improved thanks to guidance from Jo McAndrews, of the Climate Psychology Alliance. 

Download the Activity Card here

 

Activity 1.2.4. Climate emotions embodiments

Overview

This group practice consists in embodying emotions associated with climate change through a posture and/or a movement. This practice can help express the emotions for which we have no words, or just the overwhelm associated with the multiplicity of emotions we sometimes feel all at once. It is an intense activity, to be practiced by teachers/ educators who are open to doing in-depth emotional work, have emotional literacy and know emotional regulation techniques. As a teacher/educator, you may want to practice it first and a few times with friends or colleagues who are open to the experience before suggesting it to your 18+ students. You should not suggest it to a group of students that does not feel safe for all students. It could also be an activity to which the most committed students sign up for. 

 

Curriculum linkage

Any discipline or class during which climate change is discussed. 

 

Competences built

Emotional literacy, emotional regulation, empathy, compassion, self-compassion 


Basic info

  • Age range: 18+
  • Duration: 10- 30 minutes depending on the size of the group
  • Group size: Open
  • Level of difficulty: Advanced 
  • Materials/space required: n/a
  • Location: Classroom, but it can easily be done outside as well as no material is required. 
  • Engagement of external stakeholders: No

 

Prep Work

  • For the teacher/educator, make sure your own nervous system is regulated through what works best for you (e.g. breathing, time in nature, mindfulness) as the embodiment of emotions can help express intense emotions among learners. 
  • Have information ready for learners who are particularly distressed and/or request additional support. 

 

Competences/activities to practice first by the teacher: 

  • 1.4 ‘Climate trauma/dysregulation first aid’. 
  • Activities from competence areas 1.2 and 1.3 that help you regulate your emotions and feel prepared to welcome the emotions of a large group. Other activities from competence area 1 could also be of help. 

 

Steps of the activity 

  1. Connecting to the emotion(s)
  2. Expressing emotion(s)
  3. Releasing emotion(s)

 

Step 1 – Connecting to the emotion(s

  1. Inform learners that this activity is an invitation to express their emotions in a group and that they can choose to opt out. It is critical to stress that point. Let them know that if they feel uncomfortable at any point in the activity, they should stop. An alternative to this activity is suggested at the end of the activity card. 
  2. Introduce that this activity offers learners the opportunity to connect to their emotions without having to make sense of them immediately, and that it will require them to use their body. 
  3. Invite learners to form a large circle and then turn around and face the wall or the outside of the circle at the start of the exercise. 
  4. Remind participants that the exercise may feel unusual or uncomfortable at first, but that it should feel painful to them in anyway. They are invited to stop at any point if the exercise itself feels overwhelming. 
  5. Invite learners to represent how they feel in one posture. Adopting the new posture means that they can move their hands, legs, and head. They can stay standing or move to other positions. However when they have found their postures after 30 seconds to one minute, they should stay still. 
  6. Invite learners to turn around, show their posture to the group and discover the posture of others.  
  7. Group the learners who have similar postures together and invite them to create smaller groups, standing in circles and facing each other. Once they have formed a new circle, invite them to recreate the posture. 

 

Step 2 – Expressing the emotion(s)

  1. Invite learners in each group to add a movement to their posture. It can be either how the posture came to be or how the posture could unfold in a movement. The movement is meant to further express the emotion(s) they feel. 
  2. Once learners have practiced their own movements for 1-2 minutes, move from one group to the other and give each group the opportunity to practice their own movements together, while the other groups are observing.  
  3. After this, offer learners the opportunity to add a sound, a few words, or a sentence to their own movement. The sound is meant to further express the emotions they are experiencing, not to make sense of it. 
  4. Once learners have practiced their own movements with the sound added for 1-2 minutes, move from one group to the other and give each participant in each group the opportunity to practice their own sound and movement, while the other groups are observing. 

Step 3: Releasing emotion(s)

  1. Offer learners the opportunity to spend a minimum of 5 minutes moving, going outside, breathing, journalling, so as to come back to a more regulated space before continuing with the class or other assignments. 
  2. (Optional) invite learners to journal later about the experience. They can use the climate emotions wheel (1.1.1) in the process of journaling (2.1.1). 

 

Dos and Don’ts 

Do

  • Accommodate the needs of learners who are not able to stand nor engage in this physical exercise. Accommodations include invitations to draw the posture, the movement and write down the sound before presenting to the group.   
  • Make it clear that learners do not have to engage or keep on engaging with the exercise if it feels overwhelming for them. 
  • Acknowledge that this exercise can steer up a lot of emotions as we witness our own or others’ emotions being expressed. 
  • Offer different options at the end of the exercise to come back to a more regulated emotional space. Feel free to choose some of the activities involving movement from competence area 1.2. 
  • Listen to learners who feel overwhelmed by the exercise, and/or express the need for additional support, and provide them with the information they need to access this support (see activity 1.4.1 for more details). 

 

Don’t

  • Don’t run the exercise if it feels overwhelming to you. 
  • Don’t try to make sense of the emotions being expressed by the learners for them. 

 

Adaptations

If your learners are not comfortable with each other, nor trusting of one another, a tool that focuses on expressing emotions individually (e.g. journalling) followed by an activity involving movement to calm climate anxiety (e.g. activities in competence area 1.2.) is probably a better choice.

If your learners struggle with expressive arts and improvisation, you can first introduce the practices in arts classes, without connection to climate change. It will then be easier for them to mobilize the techniques they have learned to express their climate emotions. 

If your learners feel uncomfortable or stretched already after doing the posture, you can stop the exercise then and move directly to step 12. You can repeat the exercise several times, by adding new elements each time, from movement to sound. This can make it easier for the learners to fully enjoy and benefit from the exercise.  

We invite you to adapt this activity to the specific needs of your learners, including by taking into account their neurodiversity. When adapting tools and activities for neurodivergent learners, please note it is not about treating others how you want to be treated, but how they want to be treated. Ask, listen, and stay open to different ways of learning and engaging

 

References

The activity was designed by One Resilient Earth, and inspired by Image theater, which has been theorized by Augusto Boal and is described fully in his book The Rainbow of Desire.

 

Download the Activity Card here