IDEAS+TO+TRY

= COUNSELLING ACTIVITIES FOR ANGER MANAGEMENT AND SOCIAL SKILLS = []  > > ==Helping/Hurting== > > ==Prioritizing== =**COOPERATION**= Materials 8 large sheets of paper and 8 crayons or markers (one of each for every group) Instructions
 * =**Appreciating Yourself**=
 * If you've been talking about appreciating yourself or having healthy self-esteem, this activity helps students appreciate their classmates and see how their classmates appreciate them in return. Each student writes his name on a piece of paper and then draws a self-portrait below, leaving plenty of room on the bottom or around the sides of the page. Tape the portraits up around the classroom and have students line up. On each portrait, students will write something good about that person. When each student has written something on her classmates' portraits, allow students to take their portraits down and read all of the nice comments.
 * This helping/hurting hands activity is helpful when introducing difficult subjects like bullying, sexual harassment or anger management. Have students trace one hand on a piece of paper, and then cut the shape out. On one side of the paper, they should write all the ways they can think of for hands to be helpful. For example, hands can hug, they can high-five, or they can help someone else carry something heavy. After giving the students some time, have them flip the hand over and write all the hurtful things they can think of that hands can do. For example, hands sometimes hit, punch, poke or pinch. Divide the students into small groups of three or four and allow them some time to share what they wrote with each other, then come together as a class and discuss some of the responses.
 * When you're talking to kids about prioritizing or study habits, it's a good idea to create a fun activity that helps them practice it. For this activity, pick a broad topic to begin with, such as "what would you do with a million dollars?" or "we're going on a pretend vacation--where should we visit?" Then, allow some time for each student to make a list of 10 choices. Pick volunteers to write choices on the chalkboard until the board is full. Next, have the students line up and mark "5" under what they think is the best choice, "3" under what they think is the second best choice, and "1" under what they think is the poorest choice. Come together as a class and discuss how they listed, thought about choices, and used numbers to pick out the best choice. Show them how they can use this technique to prioritize almost anything.

1. Begin by splitting the students up into four groups. Then give each group one large sheet of paper and two crayons or markers. Explain that each group has 10 minutes to draw two large objects (house, airplane, car, building, etc.) on the paper and everyone in the group has to help draw at least one object. Explain that they cannot ask you any questions about the activity then direct the students to start. 2. Walk around and observe some of the behaviors in the group i.e. (how the students worked together, did they communicate well, which groups did well/did not do well). 3. After 10 minutes, have everyone stop and respond to the following: Raise your hand if – 1) you think your team worked well together 2) your team did not work well together 3) group members were being nice to each other 4) group members were not being nice to each other 5) everyone in the group had a chance to help draw the object. 4. Point out the groups that did well and completed the task. Have them respond to the following:  a. How did group members agree on what to draw?  b. Did everyone in the group help draw? How?  c. Was there a leader in the group? How was the leader chosen? Counseling Activities for Teaching Anger Management and Social Skills 14 d. How were disagreements handled?  5. Allow students from the groups that did not work well together explain what went wrong. (Examples: They were not listening to each other, everyone wanted his/her own way, being rude and arguing about who would go first, etc.) 6. Explain that in order for a group of people to work peacefully together they must cooperate and be respectful. Everyone in a group will not always get their way, but agreeing or compromising on something that the majority of the group likes will make the task easier. Point out that the group members that did a good job completing the task were the ones that were willing to listen, encourage and support each other. 7. Have the students think of a setting where cooperation is important and have them share that with a partner next to them. Explain to the students that whenever you are playing or working with someone, it is important that you are respectful and cooperative so that everyone will get along better. 8. Give examples of how people need to cooperate in the classroom, in a work setting, at home and in community organizations such as boy/girl scouts, sports teams, etc. Allow students to give examples as well. **Evaluation/Assessment of Student’s Competency** The students should complete the same activity as stated above, but this time they will just have one crayon and draw only one object. Monitor the students to assess whether they cooperate with each other and work together peacefully to complete the activity. Closure Summarize the importance of cooperating with peers. Allow the students to share one thing that they learned during this activity with a partner next to them. Remind the students that when this is done, everyone is able to get along and enjoy the activity. Explain that the next session will focus on how to handle conflict with your peers.