Handling Angry Feelings

For the past couple weeks we have been building our perspective-taking skills.  Last week was an especially fun time as students had the opportunity to share what they liked about their friends in group.  I was amazed that kindergarten through fourth grade students alike embraced the idea of making their groupmates feel good by writing kind things to them.  And, of course, it was fun to be able to bring an envelope full of positive thoughts about themselves home, too!  We will continue to build on this concept as we move into our next unit on handling angry feelings.

There's nothing that gives us "weirder" feelings about someone as when they "lose their cool" during frustrating situations.  Some people are naturally able to handle difficult feelings with grace and control, but the rest of us very human human beings have to develop the ability to appropriately manage when we are feeling upset or angry.  The earlier we can learn these skills, the better off down the road we will be, the better other people will feel about being around us.  We will start this month-long unit this week by building a 5 Point Scale of angry feelings.  Students should be familiar with this scale as it is something we learned about last fall, but we will adapt it to reflect the different levels of mad there are (from irritated to irate).  We will identify what our bodies and thoughts are like at each level.  We'll reinforce what we learn with real-life anecdotes as well as fun worksheets.  Next week we'll work on different techniques to handle angry feelings (like we did with anxious feelings).

One quick heads-up as we roll into MCA testing next week:  Schedules are crazy!  Even though it is just our third and fourth grade students testing, many grade levels' schedules are impacted due to lunches, specials, and staff being shuffled around in order to accommodate the demands of the MCAs.  I will do my best to make sure I see all of my groups each week, but I fully expect that things will be a little wild and woolly starting next Monday!  If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact me. 

Have a great week!