Special Thanks
Rev. Michelle King for curating this playlist
Need something else?
Need another resource? Looking for advice? Please contact Kathy Pittenger.
Feelings Wheel
This wheel shows a lot of feelings, starting with basic ones in the center and getting more complex as you move out to the edges of the circle. You can use this wheel with older children who want to go deeper and learn more specific words for complex emotions.
Exploring Emotions with Young Children
If you have preschoolers or younger children, you may want to use the Bible Story and then explore the Exploring Emotions topic from Sesame Street. Including this great Feeling Faces printable.
5 Ways to Teach Your Child Anger Management Skills
Help your child learn healthy ways to deal with angry feelings from verywellfamily.com.
Anger
Anger can be a difficult emotion to handle both when we ourselves are angry and when we’re around someone who is angry. It can be overwhelming and make us feel out of control, but that doesn’t mean it’s bad. Everyone gets angry sometimes, even Jesus. In this story, Jesus gets angry at the people who are using God’s temple, a sacred place of worship, as a place to sell goods and make money. Jesus expresses his anger by flipping tables, making a whip, and chasing people out of the temple. These are not behaviors we want to encourage in children, but we can all relate to Jesus in this moment. Remind the children in your life that it’s okay to be angry but when we’re angry we shouldn’t hurt other people, hurt ourselves, or hurt property.
Start by reading the Bible Story or watching one of the videos and going through the wondering questions. Then pick the activities your family would like to do, as many or few as you like. Close your family faith time with prayer – use your own or the one provided.
Bible Story
- Read John 2:13-22 in your favorite Bible or watch the video of the story.
- Wonder about the story together:
- I wonder what Jesus was angry about.
- I wonder what makes you angry.
- I wonder if you’ve ever been so angry that, like Jesus, you wanted to knock things over and chase people away.
- I wonder what else Jesus could have done to express his anger.
Prayer:
Dear God, thank you for giving us all of our emotions – even anger. Help us not to bottle up our anger and to instead take a few deep breaths and talk calmly to someone about what made us angry. Help us remember that we can always come to you with any of our emotions. (Insert family celebrations and requests here if desired.) Amen.
Videos
Activities
1. Anger Map – This is a worksheet to explore different aspects of anger
2. Anger is like a balloon activity and questions from faithfulmoms.org
3. Releasing Anger Mindfulness Exercise – Try this mindfulness exercise to help you calm down when you are feeling angry or upset. You might practice a few times when you are calm to get the hang of it.
- Sit where you are, close your eyes if that feels comfortable
- Take three soft, slow, mindful breaths. Pay attend to what you are thinking and feeling.
- Imagine those thoughts and feelings gatherings like red-hot energy in your hands.
- Breathe in and squeeze your fists as tightly as you can.
- Breath out and open your hands, soft and loose. Imagine the red-hot energy in your hands flying away like sparks.
- Breathe in and squeeze your fists again. Let the energy build.
- Breathe out, open your hands, and let the energy go.
- Repeat until you feel calmer.
4. Make an Anger Plan – As a family, make a plan for what each of you will do next time you’re feeling angry, and then practice it. This can include coping strategies such as counting to ten, taking deep breaths, walking away from the person or situation, praying to God, squeezing a stress ball or similar object, talking to a trusted adult, or other strategies that you find helpful.
5. Especially for younger children:
Watch the Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood episode “Daniel Gets Mad“
Go deeper with supporting materials from pbslearningmedia
Books
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst
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When I Feel Angry by Cornelia Spelman
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When Sophie Gets Angry – Really, Really Angry by Molly Bang – This is a great option for preschool and early elementary children.
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Watch It
