Items needed to play this Anger Management Game

• Several small prizes wrapped in gift wrapping paper, or anything that will not reveal the prize. The prize can be something as small as a piece of chocolate, or something more elaborate such as movie tickets, coloring books, food certificates, or what ever your participants would enjoy winning.
• Playing cards

Prior to the anger management game, get together small prizes that are equal to the number of participants in the game minus one, and gift wrap each one. There should be one less prize than the number of participants. Place all of the gifts on a table and gather the participants.

One variation of the game is to have a participant draw a card from the deck. If the card value is less then or equal to 7, (kings, queens, aces, and jacks are considered value = 10) they may select a gift from the pile, unwrap it and set it on the table in front of him/her for the rest of the group to see. If the card value is greater than 7 , the next person draws a card from the deck in order to try and win a prize. Everyone in the group continues to draw a card from the deck until all of the gifts have been dispersed. In the end one particiipant may end up with more than one gift, and others may not have won a gift at all.

Another variation of the game is played in the same as above except now instead of selecting a prize when a card number less than seven is drawn, a prize may be selected from anyone else in the group. This continues until either all the gifts have been selected or the deck runs out of cards. Again, some people may end up with more prizes in front of them than others, and some people may not have any prizes.

At the end of the game have a group discussion session.

• What was your reaction when you did not draw that lucky card you wanted?
• What can you do when life seems unfair and things do not happen according to your plan?
• If you were angered about your outcome during the game how have you expressed this emotion?
• How do you cope when life appears to be out of control?

Anger management games are used as a tool to demonstrate that every situation has several possible outcomes. Anger management games have the objective of teaching people that they cannot control everything in their lives and they must learn how to deal with things that seem out of control, rather than giving in to anger and frustration.

Anger Management Games can be suitable for adults or children. However children's emotions can only be expressed through anger management activities geared toward children, such as anger management games for children. Because children are not mentally or emotionally mature, they can not talk about how they are feeling with an adult.

Having children play games where not every one will win, will make anger management games for children fun, and teach valuable lessons as well. At the end of the game praise the children that handle loss well, and for those that dont, talk to them about the correct behavior to the response of not winning.

Children could actually be involved in an anger management program without actually being aware of it.

Anger management is not easy to explain to young children. They aren't yet fine tuned to their true feelings and they are not able to make quick decisions and rationalize their reactions yet.