Additional Strategies for Teaching Safe Ways to Express Anger

1. 1. Welcome Song – as in Sessions One and Two

1. 1. Train Yoga – from Session Two

1. 1. Visual Schedule (welcome, rules, game, story, calming activities, game, goodbye song)

1. 1. Discuss Anger Rules: (display visual of rules)
      It is okay to feel angry but:
      • Don’t hurt others
      • Don’t hurt yourself
      • Don’t hurt property
      • Talk about how you feel

1. 1. Fishing game with “Self-Calming Cards”. Each child gets a chance to fish for one card from the pond. All children act out the strategy on each card.

1. 1. Read Thomas the Tank’s Anger Book.

1. 1. Discuss how we can take control of our bodies and calm down:
      • Sliding board yoga
        Sit with your feet in front of you and your hands in back on the floor. Breathe in and push yourself up into a kind of backwards push-up. Make yourself into a perfectly straight sliding board by pushing your stomach up and point your toes away from you. Count to 10, 20, or 30–can you go for 50? (20-40 seconds)
        Sliding Board makes your arms, legs, and stomach muscles strong
      • Elephant yoga
        Stand up. Bend forward with your arms hanging down. Clasp your hands together, with fingers interlocked. Now walk around the room, bent over, and swinging your trunk. After a minute, stretch your trunk high up into the air, lean back and let out a big elephant sound like a horn!

1. 1. Game: cooperative Simon Says (act out safe ways to be angry). Have Simon say strategies previously discussed with self-calming cards.

1. 1. Read “The Anger Monster” book with or without the puppet and props to act it out. (Can use the monster puppet to depict the physical changes made when calming down.)

1. Hurray song – as in Sessions One and Two.