Empty Lizzie
Tirsha Breaux
MSUM Intern
Franklin Elementary School
Mankato, Minnesota
Description of the Lesson
Empty Lizzie is a lesson found in Project Charlie's Peaceful Partners Curriculum for elementary students. This lesson is designed to help students identify levels of anger intensity, to explain what anger looks like, feels like and sounds like, and to identify steps that can be used to deal with anger. The lesson take approximately 30 minutes to teach. Materials used for the lesson include an overhead transparency of an anger thermometer, the "Empty Lizzie" story, and paper for each student. The story and transparencies can be found in Project Charlie. See references for an address, phone number, and web site.
The lesson begins by reading the story to the class. Let the students know that you will be asking them to recall the events of Lizzie’s day. After reading the story, put the anger thermometer on the overhead projector and ask the student to trace the events of Lizzie’s day by drawing a red line up the thermometer.
Ask the students to think of a time that they were angry. Ask a couple of volunteers to share their answers. Pass out the paper and explain that the student will be drawing about their anger. Instruct them to draw a Y on the paper dividing it into three parts. Draw the Y on the board, writing in the spaces- "looks like," "sounds like," and "feels like." Explain that in the spaces they should draw how their anger looks, sounds, and feels accordingly. Encourage them to use to use their imagination since we cannot really "see" feelings. If they need examples; some ideas fourth grade students from Franklin Elementary have come up with are a Band-Aid for feels like, cars crashing for sounds like, and a monster for looks like. The students can then share their ideas.
To conclude the lesson, ask students to discuss positive ways to deal with anger and ways to "cool-down". Ask them to create a poster listing ideas for ways to manage anger. Discuss the ideas and how to choose an appropriate response for different situations. For example, listening to music is a good idea for at home, but will not work at school.
Connections to Minnesota Graduation Standards
This lesson on anger relates to the required profiles of learning numbers 7 and 8 (understanding interactions between people, their world and their cultures, and making informed decisions). The standards covered are the family, school and community standard and the personal health standard. Students are taught an understanding of their feelings and the feelings of others and use decision making skills to choose alternatives for dealing with anger.
References and Resources
Project Charlie, (1997). Empty Lizzie. Peaceful Partners Curriculum
Project Charlie * 6425 Nicollet Avenue South, Richfield, MN 55423 * (612)861-1675. Website at www.projectcharlie.org/