Big Emotions in Small Bodies: Helping Students Regulate Anger, Frustration, and Emotional Outbursts

Big Emotions in Small Bodies
Helping Students Regulate Anger, Frustration, and Emotional Outbursts

Some students don't misbehave—they overflow. What looks like defiance is often dysregulation. What feels like chaos may be a nervous system in distress. And when teachers aren't trained in emotional development, classroom disruptions don’t just derail the lesson—they destabilize the room.

This 25-page resource module is written for real classrooms, not clinical settings. It's a psychologically grounded, emotionally intelligent guide to navigating emotional outbursts in students ages 5–13—before, during, and after they happen.

Inside, you’ll learn how to:
– Distinguish dysregulation from disrespect
– Spot early warning signs before escalation
– Respond with steady, scripted language in high-emotion moments
– Hold boundaries without shame or power struggles
– Restore classroom safety and connection after a rupture
– Support your own emotional regulation as a teacher

Whether you’re managing yelling, crying, shutdowns, or peer conflict, this guide offers calm-in-the-storm strategies that preserve dignity, teach emotional literacy, and keep the learning environment intact.

You don’t need to be a therapist to teach emotional growth.
You just need the tools to respond like a regulated leader—especially when it matters most.

Call to Action

This is not a behavior chart. It’s emotional scaffolding.
Let’s raise a generation that can come back to center—and give teachers the tools to stay there too.