E-MOTIONS

HOW WE DEAL WITH

ANGER

One of the main emotions children are learning to deal with is anger. Anger appears on a regular basis inside and out of the classroom. It is an essential part of being human, but it can be useful and positive or harmful and negative. It is important that children develop an awareness and acceptance of anger and how to express it appropriately. The idea is to gradually help them build self-management, help them recognise how individual actions can affect others' feelings and choose an appropriate way of expressing and dealing with anger rather than seeking adult responsibility. The three steps in dealing with anger are:

·        Recognise and accept how they are feeling

·        Try to control the feeling

·        Show anger in an appropriate way.

Now all of this sounds easy, but it isn't that simple. In the classroom, we have a calm down box with several options for children to use for step 2 "Control the feeling":

Children shake, open and choose a random ice cube. Each cube gives an idea of how to cool off (e.g. read a book, draw a picture, take 5 deep breaths, tell a friend...)

(students blow through the hole and practice the deep breathing calming technique until the breathing slows and the dragon is calm) by The Elementary School Counselor http://elementaryschoolcounselor.tumblr.com)

The calm down box is also useful  for managing other emotions such as anxiety or when children are over- excited. All these ideas are easily found on internet.

When I introduced the box to my students, I let them experiment with the different options so they became familiar with each one.