Second Step is a violence prevention program that is nationally known and research based.  It is designed to promote social competence and reduce children’s social and emotional problems.  The curriculum teaches students several skills central to healthy social and emotional development:  (a) empathy, (b) impulse control and problem solving and (c) anger management.  There are several lessons for each grade level, and topics covered include:  identifying our own and others feelings, looking at “cause and effect,” learning to stop, clam down, and think, asking for help in a respectful way, identifying the problem and generating solutions, apologizing, recognizing anger “buttons,” and dealing with consequences.  This is a program I use in classrooms at all levels – we use puppets and songs in the lower grade levels, and practice role-plays at the 1^st and 2^nd grades.