Anger: Hershey's Kisses

This week, I did one of my very favorite lessons on Anger. The kids absolutely love it to and it is such a great analogy so that the kids can understand it. Even my Kindergarteners got it! Yay!

Materials:
one HERSHEY'S KISS for every child

I know it seems expensive, but the payoff is great and well worth it! A lot of "lightbulbs" turn on after this lesson!

To begin the lesson, I bring the candy concealed in a gift bag. I ask the kids about the present, what is more important: the wrapping (outside) or the inside that is important? They answer what is inside. I usually put a little more drama into it and act very excited about the wrapping/the look of the present and they think its funny. Anyway, Anger is like wrapping paper, wrapping us up really tight. That part doesn't really matter, what does matter is the inside.

For the Hershey's Kisses--I have the students think of a time that they were angry and explain to them that there is always a feeling that comes first (embarrassed, sad, jealous, etc.) then the secondary emotion (anger). The first feeling can never be happy, because you can't go from being happy to angry. Also, I explain that Anger is just like mad, upset, ticked, etc. So they get the idea that there is something completely different that happens first and then we get angry.

Once they think of and share their 1st feeling, that earns them a candy. I tell them not to open it yet. We go over the parts of the candy that the wrapper=anger and we have to unwrap it to get to "the good stuff" (chocolate/feelings). How do we get to the good stuff? We have to calm down, take deep breaths and uncover the anger to get to what it is we are so upset about. As the class is giving the ways to calm down, we all slowly unwrap the candy. I remind them to not eat it.

Once it is unwrapped, I have them wad up the Anger/wrapper, and compare to the candy/feelings. I ask them: Which is smaller? The anger/wrapper is smaller and no longer matters. It is garbage now and the most important thing is what was the inside, just like a present.

Then, I allow them to eat their candy and throw their wrappers away.

Here is my bulletin board I have created for this lesson.




Hershey Candy object lesson came from Shauna Jones.