ACT AGAINST VIOLENCE TRAINING PROGRAM
Anger
Management:
Working With
the Class
The following are examples of
class activities on managing anger.
Teachers should select the activities
that are developmentally appropriate
for their class.
Ages 3 - 4
1. How-I-Feel Faces
Give children paper plates and have
each one draw a happy face. Have them
tell you about something that makes
them happy. Next, have them turn the
paper plate over and draw an angry
face. Have them tell you about something
that makes them angry. Talk about
how it is okay to have angry feelings, but
not okay to show them in ways that hurt
yourself or others.
2. How Do the Puppets Feel?
Use puppets or dolls to act out a dia颅
logue for an emotion (happy, sad, afraid,
angry). Ask the children to tell you how
the puppets are feeling. Continue each
puppet dialogue to show a healthy way
in which the puppets express feelings.
Help children learn that all people have
feelings, and that we want to behave in
ways that do not hurt anyone.
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ANGER MANAGEMENT- HANDOUT 5
3. Relaxing
Use images to help your child relax when
they are anxious or angry.
Some examples are:
00*Have child lie down and try to melt
into the floor like a puddle of water.
00*Have child try to bend over and hang
limply like a rag doll or towel.
00*Have child bend and sway from
side to side like a slow-moving
blade of grass.
00*Have child lie down and pretend they
are floating on a fluffy white cloud.
Children's Literature
Read a book like Alexander and the
Horrible No Good Very Bad Day or The
Grumpy Lady Bug, and talk about how
the characters were feeling and what
happened at the end of each story.
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ANGER MANAGEMENT- HANDOUT 5
Ages 5 - 6
1. Be a STAR (Stop, Think, Act, and Review)
Simplify the IDEAL model by explaining
to the children in this age group that
they can be a STAR even when they
are angry. Go over the ideas and role-
play them for the children. Model the
thoughts by thinking out loud as you
go over the steps in the model. For
example, as you role-play, say, "I am
really angry. I want to fight her, but,
wait, I would rather be a STAR . So I
will Stop, count to 10, and take 3 deep
breaths to calm down. (Model this.)
"Now I must Think. Why am I so angry?
What safe thing can I do? I know I
will just tell her, 'Stacy you are mean
to grab my paint brush.' I will walk
away and tell the teacher." Act. (Model
telling Stacy and walking away.) Let
me Review or Remember by thinking
about what I did. I am really proud of
myself for calming down, thinking, and
choosing not to hit Stacy for grabbing
my paint brush!"
2. Really Mad Story
Read the story below, or a similar me,
and have children talk about how the
story might end. Before you read this
story, talk about what a bully is and how
a bully acts. After the story, talk about
boys and girls having fair chances to
do everything. Boys are not better than
girls are. Girls are not better than boys
are. They are equal. Talk about what
"equal" means. Give several examples
that emphasize inclusion and celebra颅
tion of diversity. Ask the children if they
have other examples.
Paul and Kyle built a fort out of boxes
and blankets. They put up a sign on the
front box that said "NO GIRLS." Rita
and Kyle had been playing together
since kindergarten. Rita knew Kyle was
nice. She was happy he was her friend.
When she saw the fort, she ran over to
it and said, "Cool fort, Kyle." Paul, the
class bully, rushed up and pushed her
backward so hard she fell into the
bushes. He yelled. "Can't you read,
dummy? 'No Girls.'" Rita was so
angry she felt like crying.
Ask these questions:
1. What could Rita do? As children name
possible choices, have them say if they
think the choice is a safe one. Have
the children vote on the best choice.
2. What could Kyle do? Repeat as above.
3. What should Paul do now?
Repeat as above.
3. Teach the children in simple words
what it means to be an aggressor,
victim, and bystander. Use examples
they can understand. For example:
00 person who hurts someone is
an aggressor.
00 person who gets hurt is a victim.
00 person who sees someone get
hurt is a bystander.
4. To check for understanding, have chil颅
dren listen to the following sentences
and see if they can tell who is the
aggressor? Who is the victim?
Who is the bystander?
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ANGER MANAGEMENT- HANDOUT 5
00James hit Tony with the stick while
Mary watched.
00ark was pushed down by Theresa,
who wanted to get to the swings first.
Pat saw the whole thing.
00Bobby watched as Marco kicked Julia
on her leg.
5. Teachable Classroom Moments
If anger erupts in the classroom or on
the playground, use the scenario to
role-play with the children later. Talk
about the choices the angry child and
the person against whom the anger is
directed can make to resolve the situa颅
tion. Talk about what children should
do if they see an angry person who is
out of control.
Ages 7 - 8
1. A Feelings Clock
Supplies: One sturdy dinner-size paper
plate and one sturdy plastic straw for
each child. Scissors and crayons or
markers for children to share.
00rainstorm with the children, listing
on the board feelings people have.
00Have each child identify four feel颅
ings he or she has.
00Have each child write the numbers
3, 6, 9, and 12 in the correct posi颅
tions on the face of their clock.
00Ask them to write the names of
these feelings on the paper plate at
the 3, 6, 9, and 12 o'clock posi颅
tions. Have them put their feelings
in order, from their nicest feeling to
their worst feeling. (The nicest
feeling goes at 3:00 and the worst
feeling at 12:00.)
00Ask the children to draw something
that they associate with each
feeling under the word on the
plate. Ask the children not to draw
weapons to show angry feelings.
Examples:
3 o'clock:
Very Happy (picture of a rainbow)
6 o'clock:
Sad (picture of a sad-looking pumpkin)
9 o'clock:
Afraid (picture of a scary ghost)
12 o'clock:
Mad (picture of an angry face)
00Have children use closed scissors to
punch a small hole in the middle of
the plate just big enough to poke a
straw through.
00Have children bend the straw
to create an hour-hand for their
feelings clock.
00Have them put the hand on a
feeling they are having now. (If they
are not feeling any of the four feel颅
ings they chose, they should place
the hand between any of the
feeling words on the clock.)
00Discuss with the children what they
think are their best feelings and
worst feelings. Talk about how feel颅
ings change many times during the
course of an hour, day, and week.
Ask each child to think about one
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ANGER MANAGEMENT- HANDOUT 5
feeling they need to express in
healthier ways. Talk about how to
express angry feelings in healthy ways.
00Have the children use the back of
their clock to write (1) two healthy
ways to express angry feelings, and
(2) the name of someone they can
talk to when they are feeling bad.
2. Thinking Positively
Have the children suggest short, positive
words or sentences that could be said,
over and over, when they need to calm
themselves down, or feel themselves
getting to the boiling point. List them on
the board. Ask the children to secretly
choose their favorite positive thoughts
and practice saying them "inside their
head" 10 times. Start each day by asking
each child to say their private calming
thought for practice. Post either the
simple STAR four-part model or the
harder IDEAL five-part model on a wall
chart and refer a student to it if you see
the child struggling with self-control.
Designate a "calming spot"00 place in
the room where a student can go to
calm down on his or her own and then
rejoin the class. Encourage students to
keep in touch with how they are feeling,
recognize signs of frustration and anger,
and self-regulate using the calming-down
techniques or the calming spot, or both.
3. Stereotypes Hurt
Tell children that a stereotype is using the
word "all" to describe a group of people.
Examples of stereotypes: All red-headed
people have tempers. All fat people are
lazy. Girls are weak. Boys are strong. Girls
are sissies. "Boys are brave." Talk about
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how stereotypes hurt people and are
unfair. Ask the children to point out to
you when they hear a stereotype. Explain
that stereotypes can lead people to think
they dislike or even hate others because
of some stereotypes about people that
aren't even true. Stereotypes can lead to
violence if people think that others are
bad. Use these incidences as triggers for
class discussions about stereotypes.
Closure: Next Steps
1. Plan a parent-caregiver workshop to
help them learn how to teach children
to manage anger and solve problems
about strong feelings.
2. Conduct the workshop several times, once
at school and once on the weekend in the
community, to ensure that more people
can attend. Solicit community volunteers
to plan a special activity to be held concurrently
for children of the parents and
caregivers attending the workshop.
3. Ask that a staff committee be appointed
to identify how the entire school can
work together to teach children safe
and fair ways to manage anger.
4. Ask the school librarian or a volunteer to
develop a list of books that involve charac颅
ters making good choices on how to
behave when facing problems, dealing
with strong feelings, showing empathy,
looking at things from another person's
perspective, or negating stereotypes.
Use these stories as springboards
to reinforce the
STAR model and teach
positive social skills.
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