Davenport Community School District Counseling Program
Behavior Intentional Guidance
Anger Management (lesson 1)
Grades 3-5
ASCA personal/social standard A: The school counseling program enables all
students to achieve success in school and to develop into contributing members of
our society.
Competency: PSA1.5 Identify and express feelings
PSA1.6 Distinguish between appropriate and inappropriate behavior
Objective: To identify the positive uses of anger
Materials: Drawing paper and colored pencils or markers
Activities: Discuss the idea of positive anger, which can motivate people to make
thing better. Give children two sheets of drawing paper and have them draw a very
large hand on each sheet. On one hand, ask them to write five examples of anger
that can be used for positive results, such as “I feel angry when I see trash on the
street.” On the other hand, have them write five things they can do in response to
that anger such as “I can pick up the trash and throw it away.”
Discuss: How can kids make things better in their schools or communities? Have
there been times you used your anger make something good happen?
Additional: Ask students to make a small version of a hand and write in it the most
important example of positive anger they can think of. This hand can be a portable
reminder that sometimes anger can be at the root of making things better.
Have students journal about a time when they felt angry and turned that anger into
positive results.
Assessment Question: An example of positive anger is
A.
B.
C.
D.
I don’t like it when you roll your eyes at me.
I feel angry when I see the kids tell secrets.
I am frustrated when I see trash on our playground.
There is no positive anger.
Davenport Community School District Counseling Program
Behavior Intentional Guidance
Anger Management (lesson 2)
Grades 3-5
ASCA personal/social standard A: The school counseling program enables all
students to achieve success in school and to develop into contributing members of
our society.
Competency: PSA1.5 Identify and express feelings
PSA1.6 Distinguish between appropriate and inappropriate behavior
Objective: To provide a physical outlet for expressing angry feelings.
Materials: a ball
Activities: In a circle, have kids randomly toss the ball to each other. Before they
toss the ball, children should shout out something that makes them angry. Make
sure that the ball keeps moving: any child who holds the ball for more than ten
seconds is out of the circle. If time permits, keep going until only one person is left.
That person is the champion of expressing feelings.
Discuss: Was it easy or difficult to think of things to shout? How did it feel to be
able to shout things out?
Options: Bring in one pillow for every student. Have group members try pounding
the pillow and shouting out things that inspire anger.
Plan a playground game that can help angry kids calm down.
 My game is called….
 Where will it be played?
 What equipment is needed?
 What are the rules?
 How will it help kids?
Assessment question: A healthy physical expression of anger is:
A.
B.
C.
D.
Kick a soccer ball
Play kick ball
Throw a ball into a pitchback net
All of the above
Davenport Community School District Counseling Program
Behavior Intentional Guidance
Anger Management (lesson 3)
Grades 3-5
ASCA personal/social standard A: The school counseling program enables all
students to achieve success in school and to develop into contributing members of
our society.
Competency: PSA1.5 Identify and express feelings
PSA1.6 Distinguish between appropriate and inappropriate
behavior
Objective: To learn to communicate effectively in angry situations by using “I”
messages
Activities: This is a role play activity. Situation can be chosen in any way that
proves effective, either leader generated or student generated. Only use situations
that involve two people.
 Pick a pair to begin. Allow the students to role play the angry situation on
their own.
 Next, the leader will step in and model “I” message. Explain that instead of
accusing and blaming the other person for anger, one can take responsibility
with the use of I messages. For example, one scenario involves a little sister
taking a favorite jacket without asking, a typical anger response might
include ”You make me so angry!” Instead, in this activity, students learn to
focus and express their anger by using an “I”, “I feel really angry when you
took my jacket.”
 Have the kids continue to work on the role play, until they become
comfortable using “I” messages to express their anger.
Discuss: What is the purpose of “I” messages.
Options: Go around the room and have each student make an “I” message. Have
students complete the following phrase: “I get really angry when _____________.”
Discuss the idea of blame and how “I” messages work to help eliminate it.
Write a paragraph about it in the journal using an “I” message.
Assessment question: When you are angry, you can write a pretend letter and
express your anger. Which statement would be the best way to express your anger?
A.
B.
C.
D.
I am angry because taking my book is not fair.
I will just laugh at her.
I don’t care what she thinks.
It is okay that he hit me.
Davenport Community School District Counseling Program
Behavior Intentional Guidance
Anger Management (lesson 4)
Grades 3-5
ASCA personal/social standard A: The school counseling program enables all
students to achieve success in school and to develop into contributing members of
our society.
Competency: PSA1.5 Identify and express feelings
PSA1.6 Distinguish between appropriate and inappropriate behavior
Objective: To explore students, sources of anger and the behaviors, feelings and
activities that can serve as constructive responses to that anger.
Materials: Two small boxes, label the boxes “Things that make me angry” and
“things that calm me down.”
Activities: Seat students in a circle. Hand both boxes to one student. Both boxes
should be empty.




Instruct the student to first open the box labeled “things that make me
angry”. Using their imagination, the task is to “take out” one thing and tell
the group about it. Then, students close the box and set the box and the
imaginary item aside.
Next, the same student should open the second box. “Things that calm me
down”: and find something in there that is either calming, distracting or
used to vent angry energy (e.g. playing sports). The task is to “take out” that
item describe it to the group and explain how it helps handle angry feelings.
Students take the thing that made them angry and put it back in the box.
Students keep the thing that calms them down.
Pass both boxes to the next student.
Discuss the experience of thinking of something that creates anger and then finding
something to help cool down angry feelings. Was it easy to do this?
Option: Role play situations where students can act out anger and use the cool
down technique from the box.
Make a cool down box to take home.
Assessment question:
What is a good response to calm down anger?
A.
B.
C.
D.
Kick the wall
Hit another student
Yell at your brother
None of these are good responses to calm down anger.
Davenport Community School District Counseling Program
Behavior Intentional Guidance
Anger Management (lesson 5)
Grades 3-5
ASCA personal/social standard A: The school counseling program enables all
students to achieve success in school and to develop into contributing members of
our society.
Competency: PSA1.5 Identify and express feelings
PSA1.6 Distinguish between appropriate and inappropriate behavior
Objective: To examine times when anger helps to keep us safe or guides us in the
right direction; to learn the distinction between appropriate assertive behavior and
angry behavior that is aggressive and inappropriate.
Materials: paper and markers
Activities: Begin by announcing that today the activity will take place outside in the
street, in the middle of a busy intersection.
 This should inspire some response for the students. If there is no response,
begin to ask questions: Does anyone have a problem with this?” After
getting some negative responses to working in the middle of a busy street,
announce that instead you will stay inside and work on special activities the
entire day. Everyone will have to miss all their classes today and tomorrow.
Explain that no permission was obtained from the school for this—so all
required work from every class must still be done on time. If a test is missed,
too bad.
 Again, this should inspire some response from students. If not question them
to get responses.
Discuss: Did you get at all angry at the request of demands? What purpose did
your anger serve?
Write: A list of situations where it is appropriate to speak up:
 Do these situations sometimes inspire anger?
 Is it necessary to get angry to express a different point of view?
 Is it necessary to get angry to keep yourself safe?
Options: Make sign with something you should not do and put a circle with a line
through it. Example: use put-downs, take things without asking, etc.
Assessment question: Do we have to get angry to keep us safe? Yes No