https://nifa.usda.gov/ 

program/4-h-positive-youthdevelopment 

National Institute 

of Food 

and Agriculture 

United States 

Department of 

Agriculture 

lesson plan: activity 2.2 

lesson details introduction 

Knot Me 

A FederAl PArtnershiP For steM educAtion 

expeditionary

sKills

for life 

 

National Aeronautics 

and Space 

Administration 

age/grade level 

Middle School 

learner outcoMes 

Youth will gain a better understanding of the various situations and 

actions that make them feel angry. 

Youth will learn different ways to 

self-manage their feelings of anger. 

success indicators 

Youth will be able to identify things 

that make them angry and identify 

strategies that help them manage 

their anger. 

life skills 

Self-awareness, self-management, 

flexibility, patience and respect for 

others 

national standards 

21st Century Skills / Life and Career 

Skills / FLEXIBILITY AND ADAPTABILITY / adapt to change, be 

flexible 

21st Century Skills / Life and Career 

Skills / LEADERSHIP AND RESPONSIBILITY / guide and lead others, be 

responsible to others 

21st Century Skills / Learning and 

innovation Skills / CRITICAL THINKING AND PROBLEM SOLVING / 

reason effectively, use systems 

thinking, make judgements and 

decisions, solve problems 

prep tiMe 

15 minutes 

activity tiMe 

1 hour 20 minutes (all activities 

combined) 

Materials list 

Long piece of rope (2 feet per youth), 

Ball of yarn 

suggested space 

The first activity will require an open 

space. The other activities are best 

suited to tables and chairs. 

suggested group size 

Any size 

references 

It’s My Life 

http://pbskids.org/itsmylife/ 

emotions/depression/index.html 

Reflection Activity Ideas 

http://www.extension.umn.edu/bassets/extyouth/driven-to-discovercitizen-science/Reflection-withYouth-UWExtension.pdf 

Angry, Mad, Furious. Ticked off. 

Peeved. Whatever you want to call 

it, it is one of the most common 

and basic human emotions. Have you ever 

made it through an entire day at something 

or someone? Probably not – and that is 

totally normal. 

Just like other emotions such as happiness and 

sadness, there are many different levels and 

types of anger. “I’m so angry that I missed that 

question on the test” is different from “I’m so 

angry at my friend because they betrayed me.” 

Because we are all unique, each of us deals with 

our anger on our own terms. Sometimes we 

express it in a way that feels good in the moment, but causes more problems afterwards. 

Sometimes we keep our anger inside because 

we don’t want to make trouble – but that just 

seems to make us feel worse. 

As you can probably tell from looking at the 

adults in your life, everyone struggles with how 

and when to express anger. But anger is not 

something we should ignore or avoid, in fact, 

when we get to know our anger – what causes it 

and how we react to it – and then learn how to 

manage it, it is a chance to get to know ourselves a little better and improve our relationships with other people. 

continued next page >> 
page 2

lesson plan: activity 2.2 

Knot Me, continued 

expeditionary

sKills

for life 

>> continued from previous page 

activity instructions 

activity: knot Me (30 Minutes) 

Directions: 

1. 	 Take the piece of rope and tie a knot about every 2 feet. 

There should be one knot per youth. 

2. 	 Lay the rope out and have each youth stand by a knot. 

3. 	 Have each youth grab the rope with one hand, holding 

onto a side of a knot. 

4. 	 The youth have to use their free hand to untangle the 

knot. Youth have to work together to figure out how to 

untie the knots without letting go of the rope. 

Variation: 


Instead of having the rope pre-knotted, ask the youth to 


identify things that make them angry. Tie one knot for 


each issue that they identify. Tell them that being angry 


can make you feel like you are emotionally tied up in knots. 


Then process to step two in the directions. 


debrief activity: Web of support (20 

Minutes) 

Youth will answer reflection questions about the service 

activity as they pass a ball of yarn back and forth across 

the circle. A “web” is formed by the yarn which helps the 

youth see how they are all affected by each other and how 

together they can make a difference in the lives of others. 

Gather the youth in a circle and explain the directions. “I 

am going to ask a series of questions to you. Two people 

will have an opportunity to answer each question. When 

you answer a question, you will be passed the ball of yarn. 

When you have the yarn ball, you should hold onto the 

end of the yarn and toss the ball – leaving a trail of yarn 

behind the ball. In this way, we will make a “web” of yarn 

between all of us.” 

Ask the first question and, while holding onto the end of 

the yarn, toss the ball to a youth (preferably across from 

you). Ask them to answer the question. Depending on 

group size and the number of reflection questions you 

would like to include, you can change the question after 

each youth or allow multiple youth to answer each question. 

Once the “web” is complete, ask the youth to pull the yarn 

taut, then pick up one section of the web and “pluck” it. 

Ask the youth if they all could feel that. Most likely, the 

vibration will be felt by all youth. Use this example to 

illustrate how we are all interconnected and our actions 

can positively or negatively affect many other people. Ask 

one person to drop their part of the yarn. This illustrates 

that if even one youth was not involved in the service 

activity, the result would have been different. Each person’s contributions make a big difference! 

Here are some example questions: 

•	 How difficult was this activity? 

•	 How did you feel during this activity? (Some anger and 

frustration may occur during this activity.) 

•	 What is another word for anger that can be used to 

describe your feelings? 

•	 How did you manage those feelings? 

•	 What did you learn from this activity? 

applied challenge (30 Minutes) 

Have students develop rules and guidelines for a specific 

situation that is important to them (class rules, club rules, 

house rules, etc.) 

1.	 Divide the youth into small teams of 2-3 youth per 

team. 

2.	 Assign or allow each team to select one scenario from 

the handout What Makes Me Angry. 

3.	 Have the team discuss their scenario and identify what 

they might do to manage their anger in that situation. 

4.	 Have each team share with the full group their scenario and their approach to reacting to the scenario. 

Ask them to explain why they think that approach will 

be helpful in that scenario. 

5.	 Pass out the Managing My Anger handout. 

6.	 Have each youth select the strategy that they thinks 

works best for them. Allow them the opportunity to 

write in their own strategy if they know of something 

else that works well for them. 

7.	 Challenge the youth to practice that strategy any time 

they get angry during the next three days. 
activity 2.2: learner assessMent 

These questions are about things you learned during this 

activity. Please check the circle that best describes you. 

Q1 

Q2 

Q3 

activity 2.2: learner assessMent 

These questions are about things you learned during this 

activity. Please check the circle that best describes you. 

Q1 

Q2 

Q3 

activity 2.2: learner assessMent 

These questions are about things you learned during this 

activity. Please check the circle that best describes you. 

Q1 

Q2 

Q3 

activity 2.2: learner assessMent 

These questions are about things you learned during this 

activity. Please check the circle that best describes you. 

expeditionary

sKills


expeditionary

for life

sKills


for life 

I can identify the things that make me angry. 

Not at all like me 

A little like me 

Somewhat like me 

A lot like me 

I know what I can do to manage my anger. 

Not at all like me 

A little like me 

Somewhat like me 

A lot like me 

I try not to do things that will make someone else angry. 

Not at all like me 

A little like me 

Somewhat like me 

A lot like me 

I can identify the things that make me angry. 

Not at all like me 

A little like me 

Somewhat like me 

A lot like me 

I know what I can do to manage my anger. 

Not at all like me 

A little like me 

Somewhat like me 

A lot like me 

I try not to do things that will make someone else angry. 

Not at all like me 

A little like me 

Somewhat like me 

A lot like me 

expeditionary

sKills


for lifefor life

expeditionary

sKills


I can identify the things that make me angry. 

Not at all like me 

A little like me 

Somewhat like me 

A lot like me 

I know what I can do to manage my anger. 

Not at all like me 

A little like me 

Somewhat like me 

A lot like me 

I try not to do things that will make someone else angry. 

Not at all like me 

A little like me 

Somewhat like me 

A lot like me 

Q1
 

Q2
 

Q3
 

I can identify the things that make me angry. 

Not at all like me 

A little like me 

Somewhat like me 

A lot like me 

I know what I can do to manage my anger. 

Not at all like me 

A little like me 

Somewhat like me 

A lot like me 

I try not to do things that will make someone else angry. 

Not at all like me 

A little like me 

Somewhat like me 

A lot like me