Catastrophe Scale

This week we introduced the "Catastrophe Scale" into class.

These scales are generally used to help children who have difficulty understanding the appropriate emotional responses to unpleasant situations. By creating the scale and referring to it, teachers and parents can help identify common stressors and put these situations into better perspective.

To begin, we "brainstormed" a list of stressful situations. First, situations that were unpleasant such as being bored or getting sick. Next, we thought of situations that were very unpleasant such as getting yelled at or being robbed. Finally, we thought of situations that were horrible such as someone dying or war.

Each of us then chose one situation from each category

and added one of their own to rate on our chart.
Finally we placed out situations on the scale.

We labled the scale from 1 to 100 with one being not very stressful to 100, the most stressful.