Best for
Stress and coping lessons, mentoring, tutor-time planning, or follow-up after a thermometer or check-in task when students need to move from noticing into actual choices.
Health / Hauora • Years 7-10 • Regulation strategy bank
Coping Strategy Menu
Use this page to help ākonga build a realistic bank of coping strategies across Te Whare Tapa Whā, not just a short list of generic “calm down” ideas that collapse when stress actually rises.
Free strategy bank, premium adaptation when classes need more fit
This menu is ready to teach with now. The premium workflow becomes useful when you want a version tuned to your kura language, sensory supports, fictional case studies, or a differentiated menu for mixed learning needs.
- Generate lower-reading-level or visual-heavy strategy versions.
- Localise the menu to your school's spaces, routines, and support adults.
- Save a tutor-group or mentor version to My Kete for repeated use.
Kaiako planning snapshot
- Use length: 20-35 minutes as a strategy lab or planning block.
- Grouping: Whole-class modelling first, then small groups or individuals.
- Prep: Decide whether students will choose from real-life use, fictional cases, or mixed safe examples.
- Teaching move: Emphasise strategies that are realistic, mana-enhancing, and available in students' actual contexts.
Resources already provided
- Strategy categories across all four walls
- Quick-reset and deeper-reset planning prompts
- Zone-by-zone action table
- Reality-check prompt for good strategy fit
- Trusted-support mapping
- Curriculum companion for planning and reporting
This page gives the structure teachers often end up inventing mid-lesson: categories, examples, and a way to sort strategies by when they are useful.
Ngā Whāinga Akoranga / Learning Intentions
- We are learning to identify a range of coping strategies across Te Whare Tapa Whā.
- We are learning to match different strategies to different levels of stress.
- We are learning to choose supports that are realistic and mana-enhancing.
Paearu Angitu / Success Criteria
- I can name quick resets and deeper supports that fit me or the scenario.
- I can explain which strategies fit yellow, orange, and red zones.
- I can identify a person or place that helps me use the strategy in real life.
Curriculum integration / Te Marautanga alignment
The curriculum companion makes the self-management, wellbeing, and help-seeking links explicit so this strategy menu can sit inside real Aotearoa health planning rather than reading like generic internet advice.
A good coping menu is realistic, not performative
Students do not need a hundred impossible strategies. They need a smaller set that fits their body, relationships, spaces, and routines, and that they are genuinely likely to remember under stress.
That is why this menu is grouped across the whole whare and connected to actual support pathways.
1. Build your strategy bank across the whare
Taha Tinana
Breathing, water, stretching, walking, shaking out tension, rest, kai, or sensory reset.
Taha Hinengaro
Grounding, journaling, reframing a thought, visualising, karakia, or a short focus routine.
Taha Whānau
Talking to someone trusted, stepping into a safe space, using a code word, or joining a steadying routine with others.
Taha Wairua
Karakia, waiata, creative practice, time outside, connection to whenua, gratitude, or values-based reflection.
2. Sort quick resets and deeper resets
| Wall | Quick reset I can do in 1-2 minutes | Deeper reset I can use later | Who or what helps me remember it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Taha Tinana | |||
| Taha Hinengaro | |||
| Taha Whānau | |||
| Taha Wairua |
3. Match strategies to the zone
| Zone | What I will try first | What I will do next if I still need support | Who I tell if I cannot settle |
|---|---|---|---|
| Green / Mauri tau | |||
| Yellow / Caution | |||
| Orange / Overloaded | |||
| Red / Urgent tautoko |
4. Reality-check the menu
Keep the best-fit strategies
- Would I actually use this when stressed?
- Can I access it in the places where stress usually happens?
- Does it support my mana and safety rather than hiding the issue?
- Do I know who can help me remember it?
Ngā Whāinga Akoranga · Learning Intentions
- Identify personal coping strategies that work at different levels of distress
- Recognise cultural and community resources as legitimate coping tools
- Build a personalised coping menu that is realistic and accessible
- Understand that different situations call for different coping strategies
Paearu Angitu · Success Criteria
- My coping menu includes strategies for mild, moderate, and high distress
- At least one strategy draws on cultural practice or community connection
- I have tried each strategy at least once and know which ones work best for me
- I can explain my menu to a trusted person so they can support me in using it
Hononga Marautanga · Curriculum Alignment
Health and Physical Education — Hauora
Level 3–4: Identify and describe the relationship between feelings, thoughts, and actions; develop strategies to maintain and enhance hauora across the four pou of Te Whare Tapa Whā; recognise the impact of connections and relationships on wellbeing.
Social Sciences — Tikanga ā-Iwi
Level 3–4: Understand how cultural practices and values shape identity and wellbeing; recognise the role of community and whānau in supporting individuals; explore how Indigenous frameworks offer ways of understanding health that are distinct from Western biomedical models.
Aronga Mātauranga Māori
Māori coping traditions are embedded in everyday practice — karakia before and after activity, waiata when words are hard, haka when energy needs expression, kōrero with kaumātua when perspective is needed. A coping menu that only includes Western strategies (breathing exercises, journaling, exercise) risks suggesting that Māori ākonga's own cultural toolkit is irrelevant. This resource explicitly invites students to add their own cultural practices, recognising that some of the most effective coping strategies are already held in their whānau and community.
Ngā Rauemi Tautoko · Support Materials
- Unit 8 Grounding Cards (unit-8-grounding-cards.html) — immediate grounding strategies to add to the menu
- Unit 8 Koru Breath Card (unit-8-koru-breath-card.html) — breathing technique for the menu
- Unit 8 Regulation Plan (unit-8-regulation-plan.html) — formalise the best menu choices into a personal plan
- Unit 8 Mindfulness Journal (unit-8-mindfulness-journal.html) — reflect on which strategies work best
Tuhia ōu whakaaro · Write Your Thoughts
Which coping strategy from your menu works best when you are really struggling? What makes it work?