The ABC's of Anger

Stories and activities to help children understand anger from different points of view.

The ABC's of Anger leads children to discovery! It contains easy-to-read stories involving some aspect of the theme "anger." It provides children with an awareness of differing degrees of anger and helps them explore choices for responding when they are angry.

• Teaches constructive coping skills to handle destructive feelings.

• Teaches the difference between feelings of anger and how we act out those feelings.

• Helps unravel confusion when inundated with overwhelming feelings.

• Provides tools to handle anger constructively rather than strike out destructively.

• Arms the child with coping skills for unexpected feelings, allowing them to win the battle against anger.

• Appeals to the visual learner with delightful artwork, allowing the presenter to reach children who might otherwise be missed.

Each story begins with a letter of the alphabet – the first letter of an animal's name and behavior. A picture and short story about the character follows, and a definition of the described characteristic. These pictures and stories may be photocopied and distributed for younger children to color and for older students to add cartoon speech balloons. The lesson on the facing page includes questions the teacher may use to initiate discussion. Student responses and questions will lead to a more personalized dialogue with the teacher as a discussion facilitator. A resource chapter at the end of the book further explains the theme words and provides additional questions for classroom use. Follow-up activities conclude each lesson, which may also be adapted to suit the class's needs.

The stories may be read separately or combined into themes, such as trigger words, anger intensity words, solution words, empowering words, and feeling words.

The stories' characters will help students connect their actions and feelings and those they may experience in other children and adults. Ray hopes this book will challenge children's thinking and provide a non-threatening means for them to work through feelings, behaviors, and emotions beneficially and enjoyably.