Soda Pop Head by Julia Cook Extension SEL lesson and worksheet

Identify a personal anger trigger and represent it through drawing or writing.

Generate at least one calm-down strategy to use when angry.

Connect the soda-can demonstration's building pressure to the physical experience of escalating anger.

Let students take turns shaking the can after each trigger they name, or shake it yourself if that fits your class better, since the directions note "you know your class best."

Pretend to open the can partway through the demonstration without actually opening it, to build suspense before students suggest calm-down strategies and tap the can.

Send the completed two-sided worksheet home afterward as reinforcement, following the demonstration.

Emotional trigger identification — students name a personal anger trigger, prompted by the shaking-can demonstration and worksheet examples like being cut in line.

Self-regulation strategy generation — students name and record calm-down strategies such as breathing, getting a drink of water, or counting.

Cause-and-effect reasoning about emotion — students connect the escalating pressure in the demonstration can to how anger builds when triggers go unaddressed.