Green Teeth

While giving a kindergarten pre-test for an anger management unit, I included questions about the difference in strong feelings and calm ones, clues that our bodies give us that we're having a strong feeling, whether it's easier to think when we're calm or angry, and good and bad ways to handle strong feelings. Well, I asked a beautiful brown-eyed boy to tell me 3 examples of anger signs in our bodies. He could have said that our eyes get smaller, our mouths get tighter, our teeth grind, our faces turn red, our hearts beat faster, etc. The child correctly identified changes in heart rate and eye shape, and when he mentioned that his teeth changed, I got excited, thinking he was referring to grinding teeth and thereby giving me 3 correct anger indicators. When I asked him to elaborate on what happens to our teeth when we're really angry, he said with a solemn expression, "They turn colors." Seeing my confused expression, he went on, "If we don't brush them, they might turn yellow or green." Oh well, 2 out of 3 ain't bad!