Teacher’s Brain

Category: education

How Journaling Can Help Students With Stress

education, Teacher's Pay Teachers

Thinking about journaling with your students? Due to the effect of the pandemic, it is no surprise that stress levels are running high for everyone, including our students. Their school year was abruptly cut short, their schedules and routines were turned upside down, and  they have been cooped up at home away from their friends. They may also be feeling stress from the struggles their parents may be facing as a result of the stay at home orders across the country. 

While we may not be able to see our students in person, we can still try our best to help them cope with these strange times however we can. Studies show that journaling could be a great way to do that. 

Here are the ways that journaling can help your students cope with stress. 

  • Having your students write down how they are feeling can be a great way to clear their mind
  • It can boost their mood
  • It can offer a great distraction from the fear and stress many of them are facing 

You can find more information on how journaling helps kids here.

With this in mind, I created these journaling products that you can give to your students to help them through these difficult times. 

My Yearlong Writing Prompts Bundle for students in kindergarten to 3rd grade includes: 

  • 12 themed monthly journals
  • 365 writing prompts for every day of the year
  • Word bank for each journal
  • Writing rubrics 

My Coronavirus Living History Journal is designed to help students write about what is happening now during the pandemic. This includes: 

  • Pick and choose pages to print out and color 
  • 36 pages of activities and prompts to help students cope

Journaling To Help with Stress

You can find more information on journaling during coronavirus here.

These are unprecedented times which makes it a great time to start journaling with your students. It is a great way to help them face their fears while dealing with all of the uncertainty and ultimately improve their mental health. 

What stress relieving activities do you like to do with your students? Let me know in the comments!

Journaling To Help With Stress

Digital Award Ceremony – End of the Year Virtual Classroom Awards

education, Teaching Tips

End of the Year Activities

Celebrating accomplishments at the end of the school year is not only popular, but important to recognize student achievements.  Accomplishments can include more that academic success.  Recognizing improved behavior, attendance, athletics, character, art or music abilities are great ways to shine the spotlight on your students at the end of the year.

Distance learning has made it more difficult to celebrate our students with their friends and family.  But, it is not impossible! If you are an educator who is using Zoom, Google Meets or some other way to video conference your students, there is many ways to celebrate.

First, send and invite to the families and students for your virtual ceremony. If you normally give certificates to students,  fill them out as normal and then share them during the ceremony.  You can than email or mail them their certificate.

Don’t want to worry about printing out certificates?

You can create certificates in a PowerPoint or with Google Slides to share during your meet-up.  Then, just send them a copy through email.  There are lots of pre-made editable certificates available online also.

Planning a Virtual AWARD Ceremony

If you are doing your own planning for your classroom, grade level or even the entire school, here are some key elements to consider:

  • Introduction  Music
  • Introduction Slide to the Ceremony
  • Certificates (Titles and possibly add Images of each student)
  • Music during the show
  • Funny Moment Slide Breaks (A group photo or funny science moment)
  • Will there be a video or live announcement from you, a special guest or the principal?
  • Ending Music
  • Practice Practice Practice

Here is an example of how to create an end of the year virtual ceremony:

There are virtual award ceremony templates already made for you at TpT to make your celebration easy.  You just drag and drop text and images in the google slides.


Do you have an award ceremony for your students? If so, what types of awards do you give? Please leave your comments below, I would love to hear how you recognize your students.