Color Out All of the Anger and Sadness

Purpose: To teach children they have the ability to change their feelings and to comfort themselves.

Materials: Crayons and unlined paper.

Procedure: Suggest that children, when they need to, take a red-orange crayon and color out all the anger within them. Ask if they can feel the anger moving through their arms and hands as it leaves their body and becomes color on the page.

Suggest that children, when they need to, take a blue crayon and do the same to color out all the sadness or loneliness within them.

Ask the children what they can do, if they want to, to change their feelings. Ask what color they would color themselves when they choose to get angry when another person is angry. Then ask them what color they would color themselves not to get angry when another person is angry.

Source: Making it Better: Activities for Children living in a Stressful  World, Barbara Oehlberg, Redleaf Press, 1996

Talking About Feelings/ Short Story

Talking about our feelings can be difficult and sometimes people keep them bottled up inside. Sometimes it can make us feel better if we tell someone how we are feeling. Practice talking about feelings by writing a short story using at least three words from the “Pleasant Feelings” and the “Difficult/Unpleasant” categories below.