Feelings Navigator Counselor Guide
FEELINGS NAVIGATOR
8-Week Social-Emotional Curriculum
COUNSELOR MANUAL
Curriculum Mission
This explorer-themed roadmap is designed for 2nd-grade individual counseling. Over eight structured 30-minute sessions, students learn to decode facial expressions, map body sensations of anger and anxiety, construct empathy bridges, and assemble a personalized coping toolkit.
Recommended Library
- • In My Heart (Jo Witek)
- • The Color Monster (Anna Llenas)
- • Glad Monster, Sad Monster (Emberley)
- • My Many Colored Days (Dr. Seuss)
Expedition Pacing Schedule
| Week | Expedition Destination | Core Emotional Target | Primary Tool Used |
|---|
| 1 | Mapping My Heart | Identify primary feelings; establish counseling rapport. | Heart Cartography |
| 2 | Face Detectives | Recognize micro-expressions and body cues in self/others. | Expression Clue Cards |
| 3 | The Volcano Inside | Recognize anger thresholds and physical body warnings. | Sensation Map / Coolers |
| 4 | The Worry Wave | Externalize anxieties; establish cognitive distance from fear. | Worry Release Box |
| 5 | The Empathy Bridge | Contextual perspective-taking; recognize feelings in friends. | Perspective Bridge |
| 6 | My Calm Corner | Design an environment and select breathing techniques. | Compass Breathing |
| 7 | My Courage Shield | Identify inner strengths, positive self-talk, and advocates. | Strength Shield |
| 8 | Celebration Trail | Reflect on growth, celebrate accomplishments, graduate. | Explorer Certificate |
Counselor Preparation Tips
Before starting, administer the Emotion Baseline scale found in the toolkit. Establish a simple physical ritual at the start and end of every session (e.g., "The Explorer High-Five" or spinning a feelings globe). Maintain a folder for the student to store their completed workbook pages.
Feelings Navigator Curriculum Manual Page 1 of 5
Phase 1: Emotional Foundations
Weeks 1 & 2 Session Guides
Expedition Launch
WEEK 1
Mapping My Heart
Objective: Build a collaborative therapeutic alliance and identify range of baseline feelings.
1. Check-In & Ritual (5 mins)
Introduce yourself as the "Co-Navigator." Hand the student the "Explorer Workbook." Set the expectation: "We are exploring the landscape of feelings together!" complete the first Emotion Baseline in the Toolkit.
2. Shared Reading (8 mins)
Read In My Heart or The Color Monster. Ask: "If your heart were a house, who lives in there today? Is there a loud yellow monster or a quiet blue room?"
3. Hands-On Activity: Heart Cartography (12 mins)
Guide the student to Page 1 of their Workbook. Color the heart sections with different colors corresponding to different emotions (e.g., Red = Anger, Blue = Sadness, Yellow = Happiness). Note what sizes the sections are.
Guided Prompts
"Which feeling took up the biggest room in your heart today? Why do you think that feeling is so big right now? Is it okay to have multiple feelings in our hearts at the exact same time?"
WEEK 2
Face Detectives
Objective: Identify facial cues, posture signs, and micro-expressions in self and others.
1. Check-In (5 mins)
Review Week 1. Ask: "Did your heart map change color since we last met?" Introduce today's goal: Becoming a certified "Face Detective."
2. Activity: Clue Cards & Mirror Mirror (12 mins)
Use the "Compass Reference Cards" from the Toolkit. Act out emotions using only eyes, then only mouth. Have the student look in a small mirror and practice recreating standard micro-expressions (anger, worry, curiosity).
3. Workbook Application (10 mins)
Open to Workbook Page 2. Guide the student to identify and label emotions based on visual cues. Have them draw their own "Explorer Face" inside the compass container.
Guided Prompts
"What details on a face tell you someone is feeling worried instead of just tired? How do your own eyebrows or mouth move when you feel surprised?"
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Phase 2: Inside Sensation & Sensation Release
Weeks 3 & 4 Session Guides
Mapping Internal States
WEEK 3
The Volcano Inside
Objective: Trace physiological warning signals of anger and construct rapid-cool strategies.
1. Check-In & Metaphor (5 mins)
Introduce the "Anger Volcano." Explain that anger starts deep underground (rumble), moves up (steam), and eventually erupts (explosion). Our goal is to catch the "steam" before the blast.
2. Activity: Body Sensation Map (12 mins)
Have the student look at Workbook Page 2 (Volcano Inside section). Ask where they feel heat/tightness first: hands clenching (fists), heart racing, face turning warm? Guide them to color these biological zones in red.
3. Coping Skill: Ice Cubes & Popcorn (8 mins)
Teach progressive muscle relaxation (PMR): "Squeeze your hands as tight as ice cubes, hold, now pop them loose like popcorn." Repeat 3 times.
Guided Prompts
"What is your body's earliest warning clue that the volcano is rumbling? How does shifting your hands from an 'ice cube' to 'popcorn' make your chest feel?"
WEEK 4
The Worry Wave
Objective: Gain cognitive distance from anxiety and worries using visual and tangible metaphors.
1. Check-In & Metaphor (5 mins)
Introduce worries as "waves" in the ocean. "Waves rise high, but they always roll back down and crash on the sand. We don't have to stop the wave; we just learn how to surf it."
2. Activity: Worry Release Box (12 mins)
Open Workbook Page 3. Guide the student to identify and illustrate worries. Encourage them to write "heavy" thoughts on paper strips, roll them up, and place them inside a physical box (labeled "Coping Cargo").
3. Coping Skill: The Balloon Belly (8 mins)
Practice diaphragmatic breathing. Place a small toy or stone on the student’s stomach while they lie back or sit up. Watch the explorer cargo rise and fall like a gentle wave, soothing their anxious heart.
Guided Prompts
"What happens to a wave after it reaches the top? How does putting your heavy worries in the box change how your shoulders feel?"
Feelings Navigator Curriculum Manual Page 3 of 5
Phase 3: Connection & Safe Harbors
Weeks 5 & 6 Session Guides
Interpersonal & Self-Regulation
WEEK 5
The Empathy Bridge
Objective: Map social perspectives and build prosocial pathways of helpful empathy.
1. Check-In (5 mins)
Brief check-in using the "Feelings Compass." Ask: "Can you notice a face today in school and write down what feeling that person might have?" Explain today's concept: building safe bridges to others' hearts.
2. Shared Storytelling & Roleplay (12 mins)
Read a simple situational prompt: "Leo dropped his lunch tray. Milk is spilling. Everyone is laughing." Ask: "What is Leo's heart feeling? What would a helping explorer do to cross the bridge?" Act out the solution.
3. Workbook Construction (10 mins)
Turn to Workbook Page 3 (Empathy Bridge section). Draw Leo's face on one side of the canyon, and color the bridge tiles with kind phrases ("Are you okay?", "I will help you pick it up").
Guided Prompts
"How can we spot when someone needs us to build a bridge to them? What's a powerful word we can send across our bridge to help?"
WEEK 6
The Calm Corner
Objective: Curate an individual self-regulation space and learn standard structured breathing.
1. Check-In & Brainstorm (5 mins)
Ask: "Where do you feel safest and quietest inside?" Discuss physical environments that make the student feel quiet and safe (e.g., under a blanket, in a library corner, outside by a tree).
2. Activity: Designing the Cozy Corner (12 mins)
Open Workbook Page 4. Ask the student to design their ideal "Calm Harbor." What items are inside? (Soft pillows, visual timers, sensory fidgets). Have them list three physical components of their "Quiet Station."
3. Skill: Compass Breathing (8 mins)
Teach "Four-Way Breathing" (Box Breathing): Trace a square compass face. Inhale up (4 secs), hold across (4 secs), exhale down (4 secs), hold relaxed (4 secs). Practice 4 cycles.
Guided Prompts
"If you were in your calm corner right now, what sensory toy would help you slow down your heart? Let's practice drawing our slow square breaths together."
Feelings Navigator Curriculum Manual Page 4 of 5
Phase 4: Resilience & Homecoming
Weeks 7 & 8 Session Guides
Expedition Graduation
WEEK 7
My Courage Shield
Objective: Identify safe support figures and cultivate inner-strength self-talk.
1. Check-In & Concept (5 mins)
Talk about Shields. "A shield doesn't stop rain or snow, but it keeps the core dry. A shield of courage holds our best traits, our trusted team, and our kind words when things are tough."
2. Activity: Core Shield Architecture (12 mins)
Open Workbook Page 4 (Courage Shield section). Guide the student to divide their shield into three quadrants: Upper Left: "Things I can do well" (My Talents). Upper Right: "My Helpers" (Parents, teachers, counselor). Bottom Center: "My Magic Phrases" (Kind, encouraging self-talk).
3. Skill: Grounding Anchors (8 mins)
Practice identifying three supportive people the child can talk to immediately if their "Volcano Inside" or "Worry Wave" rises unexpectedly. Write their names inside the helper quadrant.
Guided Prompts
"Who is a counselor, teacher, or relative on your team who is always in your safety squad? What's one kind thing you can whisper to yourself when a mistake happens?"
WEEK 8
The Celebration Trail
Objective: Measure growth baseline, celebrate accomplishments, and graduate to Certified Feelings Master.
1. Final Checklist & Review (10 mins)
Review the entire Student Workbook page by page. Highlight the student's creative work and progress. Ask them to point out their favorite activity and their go-to self-soothing strategy.
2. Post-Assessment Tracker Check (5 mins)
Administer the baseline assessment one final time. Celebrate and record the positive growth in emotional confidence, recognition, and self-coping.
3. Graduation Ceremony (10 mins)
Open Workbook Page 5 (The Celebration Trail section) and have the student draw their graduation portrait. Award the student the customized "Feelings Navigator Graduation Certificate" from the Counselor Toolkit.
Guided Prompts
"What are you most proud of learning during our expedition? How will you continue to use your feelings compass every day in 2nd grade?"
Feelings Navigator Curriculum Manual Page 5 of 5
