Best for
Stress and coping lessons, mentoring sessions, transition planning, and any class where students need explicit language for noticing early warning signs.
Health / Hauora • Years 7-10 • Early warning sign mapping
Stress Thermometer
Help ākonga recognise what rising stress looks and feels like before it becomes overwhelming. This thermometer links body cues, thinking patterns, relationships, and support actions across the whare.
Free warning-sign scaffold, premium adaptation when delivery differs
This handout is ready to use in tomorrow's lesson. The premium workflow becomes useful when you want a version matched to your school's behaviour language, neurodiversity supports, or a low-reading visual-first format.
- Generate a calmer visual version for junior or high-support groups.
- Adapt the zones to your school's language for dysregulation and re-entry.
- Save the localised version to My Kete for repeated mentoring use.
Kaiako planning snapshot
- Use length: 15-30 minutes for teaching and mapping, or shorter as a mentor tool.
- Grouping: Whole-class modelling first, then individual or paired completion.
- Prep: Choose whether students map themselves, a fictional learner, or a common class scenario.
- Teaching move: Emphasise early noticing and practical support, not shame about having a stress response.
Resources already provided
- Four-zone thermometer scaffold
- Whole-whare signal mapping prompts
- Early action planning space
- Trusted-support reflection prompts
- Safe use note for sensitive contexts
- Curriculum companion for planning and reporting
This is the structure many teachers end up drawing on the board by hand. Here it is already built, printable, and connected to the wider hauora family.
Ngā Whāinga Akoranga / Learning Intentions
- We are learning to notice how stress changes across different levels.
- We are learning to identify signs of stress across Te Whare Tapa Whā.
- We are learning to choose support actions before stress becomes overwhelming.
Paearu Angitu / Success Criteria
- I can describe what calm, caution, overloaded, and urgent states look like.
- I can identify at least one personal or scenario-based warning sign.
- I can name one action and one support person for higher-stress zones.
Curriculum integration / Te Marautanga alignment
The curriculum companion makes the stress-literacy, help-seeking, and self-management value of this resource explicit so it supports real classroom planning instead of living as a generic wellbeing poster.
The point is to notice stress earlier, not tougher-it-out later
Most young people can name stress only once it is already high. A stress thermometer gives kaiako and ākonga a shared language for the rising signs that show up beforehand.
Use the handout to teach that stress responses are real body-mind experiences, and that support is part of the response plan.
1. Map the thermometer zones
Green / Mauri tau
Calm, settled, focused, or recovering well.
Yellow / Caution
Tense, distracted, frustrated, or starting to rush.
Orange / Overloaded
Spiralling, panicky, snappy, or close to shutting down.
Red / Need immediate tautoko
Unsafe, flooded, shut down, or unable to cope alone.
2. What does rising stress look like across the whare?
| Part of the whare | Yellow signs | Orange signs | Red signs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Taha Tinana | |||
| Taha Hinengaro | |||
| Taha Whānau | |||
| Taha Wairua |
3. What should happen early?
-
1
At yellow Choose one fast reset: breath, water, stretch, movement, or stepping out briefly.
-
2
At orange Reduce pressure, use a stronger support, and tell a trusted person you need help to regulate.
-
3
At red Stay with trusted adults and follow the support process already named by your kura. Do not carry it alone.
4. Who or what helps at each stage?
My fastest reset
Person I can tell when I hit orange
Place or routine that helps me settle
What my school wants me to do if I hit red
If the thermometer is showing something serious
Urgent support belongs with real people
This page is for noticing and planning. If a student is in an unsafe or crisis state, stop the worksheet and move into the actual support pathway your kura or school has already set up.
Thermometers are most useful when they lead to timely human support.
Ngā Whāinga Akoranga · Learning Intentions
- Identify personal stress triggers and describe them with specificity
- Rate stress intensity accurately and track changes over time
- Connect different stress levels to different coping strategies
- Recognise the physical, emotional, and social signs of stress in themselves
Paearu Angitu · Success Criteria
- I can name at least three stress triggers and explain why they raise my temperature
- I can accurately rate my stress on the thermometer with a brief explanation
- I have matched different intensity levels to specific coping strategies
- I can identify physical signs of stress in my body — not just thoughts and feelings
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 understandings of stress and pressure include concepts that Western frameworks often miss: the weight of tapu (restriction and sacred obligation), the strain of disconnection from turangawaewae (one's place of standing), and the toll of being unable to express one's cultural identity without cost. A stress thermometer used in an Aotearoa classroom should invite students to name these sources of pressure too — not just academic deadlines and social conflict. Recognising the full range of stressors means ākonga can seek the full range of support, including cultural reconnection as a pathway to wellbeing.
Ngā Rauemi Tautoko · Support Materials
- Unit 8 Emotion Check-In (unit-8-emotion-checkin.html) — name the feeling alongside the intensity
- Unit 8 Coping Menu (unit-8-coping-menu.html) — what to do at different temperature levels
- Unit 8 Regulation Plan (unit-8-regulation-plan.html) — build a personalised response to high stress
- Unit 8 Help-Seeking Plan (unit-8-help-seeking-plan.html) — when stress reaches a level that needs support
Tuhia ōu whakaaro · Write Your Thoughts
What is your stress level right now on the thermometer? What is causing it — and what would bring it down?