Angry Birds--The Pigs

This week in our social skills group we have been talking about Pigs.  Yep, that's right, pigs.  If you've been following my Angry Birds posts then you may realize that it was only a matter of time before the pigs came into the picture.

If you play Angry Birds (the game) then you know that the premise of the game is that the pigs made the birds angry by stealing the birds' eggs.  Therefore, the pigs, triggered the anger of the birds.  We talked about our triggers.  Some things that triggered some of my students were:

• When people don't do what you tell them to do
• When a computer doesn't work
• When they get hurt
• When a sibling does something to them
• When they don't understand an assignment

The kids drew their own pigs and behind each pig's head they wrote about their triggers.  

Now that we have have reviewed all of the parts of Angry Birds we made a bulletin board to hang up all of hard work.

And, one more picture...a close up of the ways to calm down:

Stop and Think, Take a Deep Breath and Count to 10, Seek Adult Help

I hope you have all enjoyed this Anger Management unit!  I know my kids have enjoyed and have learned a lot from it!  Let me know if you try any of these techniques with your kids!  I would love to celebrate your successes, too!

Mrs. H

Angry Birds---Part 3

We are continuing our Angry Birds Anger Management Unit here in my little part of the world.  I have been extremely pleased with the reaction my friends have had to this strategy.  I witness them talking about the Angry Birds and using the techniques and strategies we have learned during our group sessions.  (And when we get a chance to play Angry Birds the game...they call the birds by the names we came up with for them, ie: Angry eyes, cutting words, etc.)  I love it!

Now that I feel the kids are comfortable with each bird and what each bird means and also a strategy to handle each level of anger; we have moved on to creating our own birds.  I directed the students by telling them they are allowed to create an Angry Bird of their own.  The bird can represent anger or a calming technique.  I was (happily) surprised by some of their responses.  Some students that I thought would choose to do anger actually chose to develop a calming technique!  Am I getting through to them???? Goodness, I hope so!!

I found these great creative writing templates at TpT about creating our own Angry Birds.  They are free for download at SmartChicks TpT store or by clicking below to read on Scribd.   I use pages 1, 2, 6, 7, and 8.  There are some very interesting creative writing ideas within in this document, but I used what I needed to fulfill my needs.
Angry Bird Project Make Your Own New Type of Angry Bird Free

Here are the birds my kiddos came up with:

1.  Twister Bird: Angry Bird, His anger level is between the throwing objects bird (the white bird) and the body out of control bird (bomb bird).  When this get bird gets angry he twists his body like a tornado and wipes out everything in sight.

2.  Raining Bird:  Angry Bird.  His anger level is between cutting words (yellow bird) and throwing objects (white bird).  When he gets really angry he begins to cry (rain).

 3.  The Luck of the Irish:  Calming Bird.  His calming technique is to play the flute when feeling anger.  This student expressed that he likes to listen to music when he is upset, because it helps him feel better.  (The name comes from something they are learning in music class and it's March, soooo....Leprechauns, Irish, you get the picture!)  (In the game this bird would lull the pigs to sleep with his Irish music)

4.  Steam Off:  Calming Bird.  His calming technique is to imagine yourself outside in the snow when you are mad.  When we are mad we our temperature rises and we become very hot.  If you imagine yourself in the snow then you would cool off very quickly and the heat from your body would turn to steam.  LOVE!! :)  (In the game this bird would freeze the birds into blocks of ice that the bird could smash)

My students completed the pages in the packet to plan and create the bird.  After all of the planning and writing was complete the student used whatever decorations we could find to create the birds!

Hope you enjoy!  Next up in this little series is the PIGS!! :)  Stay tuned!

Angry Birds Anger Management--Part 2

This past week we finished up our beginnings to Angry Birds Anger Management.  We have talked about all of the "angry" birds and have begun to touch on the Coping Strategies and techniques the other birds can provide.

Let me introduce you to the "not-so-angry" birds!  (PS-I just wanted to share again that I am adapting this idea from another blogger/homeschool teacher.  She came up with all of the great visuals.  I am totally giving her the credit for putting this idea into my mind, but modified it to fit the needs of my students.  Please check out her blog here.)

source

#1 The Bird's Nest
I explained to my students the importance of how safe the eggs or baby birds feel when they are at home in the bird's nest.  They are protected my their mommy bird and their brother and sister birds.  We talked about what place in the school that they felt most safe and comfortable in.  All of the students agreed that that place was my classroom.  They know they are allowed to come down for cool down times, to talk to me, or talk to our counselor or our SAM (we all share a room).  We deemed my room "The Bird's Nest."  I (am in the process of) making each of my group participants a card with the bird's nest on it.  They will use this card to give to their homeroom teacher to use as a break card to come to my room.  This card though does have its own set of procedures.

Procedures for Bird's Nest Card:
1.  The card must be handed to your homeroom teacher when the student feels like he/she cannot handle the stressful situation.  (We have done many lessons on what stressors affect each student).
2.  The student will come straight to my room (the teacher has a copy of my schedule and will only allow the student to go at certain times or to come find me in the building if it is an emergency).
3.  I will take the bird's nest card from the student and immediately call the homeroom teacher to let them know that I have the student.  If the teacher does not get a call from me within the estimated time it takes to get to my room, then the teacher will call my room or the office.
4. Student will be allowed to go to specified cool down areas in my room.  A timer will be set and the student will take a cool down time on their own.  At the end of the designated time the student will conference with me or my assistant and will complete a "Thinking Sheet."

#2  The Balloon Bird
When a student begins to become stressed or angry they have been instructed to use the balloon breathing technique.  The student inhales deeply, holds the breath, and then slowly lets out the air as if filling up a balloon.  The student repeats this cycle until his/her body begins to get under control and goes back to a calm state.

#3  The Boomerang Bird
This is the STOP and THINK technique.  In the game, Angry Birds, when you release this bird he flies out of the slingshot, then you click the mouse button, and he boomerangs back (knocking down bricks).  I discussed with the students how they can do this same technique.  Getting angry is like flying out of the slingshot, then we stop, and turn around and make a better choice.  We also incorporated Stop and Talk.  The students came up with this.  They thought that when the bird/themselves STOP then they need someone to talk to about the issue.  We rehearsed this technique with a couple of role play scenarios.

#4 The Mighty Eagle
Sometimes the Momma Bird just needs to swoop in and save the day.   We discussed how mommies and grandmas and aunts or daddies and grandpas can't be at school everyday, but that there are people at school that care about each of them and want to help students deal with anger.  We talked about different people in the school that could swoop down and help deal with the problem.  We mainly talked about how I would be the person in most cases that would be there to help them deal with the issues at hand.

Over the weekend I will post the role plays that I have used with my students.

And just a little update:
My kids are responding to this so well.  I am impressed with their ability to talk about, participate and try to use the strategies that I am giving them throughout this unit.  Now, I must say that they are not the best about generalizing strategies across settings, but bless their hearts, I think they are at least soaking this in and with help they are (starting) to try to use what they have learned outside of my classroom walls.
It's a long journey with some kids with behavior disorders.   In fact, just today I texted my husband during a moment of frustration and he said something so simple, but great and reassuring.  "You are changing lives."   I think we all need to be reminded of that somedays!  Thanks, honey!!
Mostly likely you are a teacher if you are reading this, so just remember those simple words..."You are changing lives!!"

Angry Birds Anger Management

When I received my Bachelor's Degree in LBD (Learning and Behavior Disorders) I didn't realize, nor was I prepared for, how much "B" I would actually be handling on a day to day basis.  Recently, I came across an amazing idea for anger management and aggression from a fellow blogger.  Check out her post here.

I took this creative mama's idea and adapted it for my own classroom (That's what spec. ed. teachers are good at, right?  Adaptations!!)  I am using this anger management unit with my social skills group that I meet with daily.  The students in this group are diagnosed with Developmental Delays, Mood Disorders, Autism, ADHD, and OCD.  These friends have difficulty displaying their emotions in the most effective ways and it is a challenge for them to deal with upsetting situations without having a meltdown.  I have tried various programs/ideas with these friends, but so far this is making the biggest impact (and we just started this week).  Without further ado...

My friends LOVE Angry Birds!  It is such a trend right now and they enjoy "doing what others are doing."  It gives them a commonality with their peers and allows them to engage in conversations with peers that they may not typically interact with.  The best thing about this is that they are learning behavior management techniques while learning some great socialization skills!! BONUS!!

This is Part 1 of the Angry Bird Anger Management Series.  I will go into more detail about how to deal with anger in Part 2 of the series.  I think first of all the students must have a good grasp on what it means and how it looks and feels to be angry.  We will continue to work on this and I will begin introducing the "strategy birds" in the next part of our unit...stay tuned for that! :)

Part 1:  Introduce them to the Angry Birds

source

Below you will find the descriptions for each bird.  (Again, you can check back to the original source to see how she uses this with her daughter, but from now on I will explain how I use this in my classroom).  I began this unit my prefacing that we all have different emotions and anger is one of those emotions.  It is okay to get angry, it is okay to be mad at others, but it is not okay to express those emotions in ways that could hurt themselves or others.

 This bird has, you guessed it, angry eyes.  I explained to my students that our emotions often show up on our faces before they show up anywhere else on our bodies.  We all know that we can tell when "that kid" is getting mad just by the look on their face!  You know the saying, "If looks could kill."  Well...there you have it!  We discussed how our faces can sometimes say it all without telling anyone our feelings.  For each bird or step I gave my students a way to deal with that emotion at that moment and how to deescalate the behavior before it moves on to the next step.  My tip for this bird/emotion is to SMILE!  You try it...furrow your eyebrows and then smile!  Impossible.  I had all of my students try it and we all burst into fits of laughter!  It was great!!  

If you are not familiar with the game, this bird can cut through wood. I explained to my students that sometimes our words can be like this bird.  He can cut through wood just like our hurtful words can cut through someone's feelings.  We discussed many different hurtful sayings.  The kids had a great grasp on this concept.  My tip for this bird was to say something nice about the person that you are want to say bad things to OR if for some reason you cannot think of something nice, then say the mean thing to yourself (NOT OUTLOUD) or speak to the teacher about why you are upset.

Kids like to throw things!  It's a fact of life.  I don't know why.  Power?  All of the built up tension has to go somewhere?  I don't really know.  I do know that it does and will happen if a kid escalates. This bird drops exploding eggs to blow up the towers.  I discussed with the kids about the dangers of throwing objects out of frustration and even if your intentions are not to hurt someone that it could still happen.  My tip for this situation was to use items from their break boxes, including stress balls, crumbling paper (not their work), squeezing something, etc.  This still allows the child to get the tension out of their body, but in a controlled way.

Just like a bomb bird, sometimes our emotions get the best of us and we explode.  Children with difficulties handling emotions can sometime "explode" at a moments notice (which is all the more reason to learn ways to deal with anger).  I taught my students that explosions are not an appropriate way to handle anger or disappointment.  In previous lessons I have taught my students what to do in situation when they were about to explode, such as leave the room with adult supervision, go to a cool down area, and other stress management strategies.

EXTRAS:

• I made bookmarks for my kids of the 4 Angry Birds together so they can look at that card when they are feeling upset and identify that emotion.  The kid can then have a visual to show to me what they are feeling so I can help them identify their needs.
• The kids in this group have behavior charts and also rewards and breaks built into their schedule.  The kids can choose to play Angry Birds on the computer for a reward.
• Honestly, this has been the best anger management plan to date.  They have a buy-in, it's a popular theme, and it is fun to play the game.  I know it is making an impact, because they are telling their peers about it, and that is the best reward of all, to hear "my" kids teach others about what they are learning.

And just one more time...a shout out to thehometeacher.blogspot.com for her creative idea!  Thanks for letting me borrow this great idea!!

Mrs. H  :)








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