Angry Daniel | Activities | WTTW Kids Learn & Play
Through a fun sing along with Daniel Tiger, students will practice anger identification and control. When students are able to recognize the cause and a solution, they are better equipped to manage their own feelings.
Activity
- Talk with the children about anger. Ask the following questions and repeat some of their answers: • Do you ever get mad? • What makes you mad? • What do you do when you are mad?
- Have children show you what they do when they are mad about something. Model the behavior of stomping your feet, shaking your hands, scrunching your nose, and growling. Tell them that when you say, “Go,” they should act angry, and when you say, “Stop,” they should freeze.
- Do a round of “Go” (acting angry) and “Stop” (freezing).
- Now tell the children that they are going to learn what to do to help them the next time they start to feel mad. Model stopping and taking a deep breath. Have them do it. Then tell the children that after taking the deep breath, they will count to four. Ask if anyone knows how to count to four and let them lead it. Then let everyone try the activity again. Do hand motions to indicate calming down as you go along.
- Now tell the children that you are going to put it all together, but that Daniel and his friends are first going to model what to do the next time the children are mad. Play the “When You Feel So Mad that You Want to Roar” clip.
- Then play the clip again a second time so that the children can sing along.
- Next, tell the children that they will try it out. Tell them that when you say, “Get angry,” they will pretend to be mad by stomping, shaking, scrunching, and growling until you say, “Stop,” as they did before, but this time they will follow Daniel’s lead by stopping, taking a deep breath together, and counting to four together.
- Practice together.
- Now tell the children that you will play the song again, but they will pretend to get mad then follow Daniel and the gang.
- Ask all the children what they will do the next time they are angry. Model taking a deep breath and counting to four. Congratulate the children for being “Grrific!”
Considerations/Modifications/Extension Activities
- For children that need extra help, use additional clips from Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood as further examples after watching the clip. (See pbskids.org)
- For more adventurous children, condense steps to save time.
