Christmas Career Lessons

Just in time for the holidays, I'm doing lessons in each grade level incorporating Christmas activities and a career focus. I have seen many of these ideas on other blogs and Pinterest, but here is how I've incorporated them! I love building upon the magic of the season.

Kindergarten: We read How Santa Got His Elves and applied to be Christmas elves! They were so excited to have elf finger prints (a non-toxic kid stamp pad!) One student told me he was going to leave his application out with the milk and cookies for Santa to see if he could get the job.

1st Grade: We read Snowmen at Work and illustrated our snowmen to fit with a career we'd want to have. Each student then displayed their snowman on the projector and had their friends guess what career it was - we talked about the tools and outfits to include as evidence for their chosen career.

2nd Grade: We read How Santa Got His Job and talked about strengths that help us be good at our job. Students filled out a Substitute Santa application.

3rd and 4th Grade: We had a discussion about how one finds a career and descriptive adjectives that we would want an employer to know about us if we were an applicant. We applied to be one of Santa's reindeer.

5th Grade: We talked about the job search process and students worked together to create a classified section of a newspaper looking for various Christmas jobs.

A Wrinkled Heart

I think the image of a wrinkled heart is a powerful one to help students visualize the way our words affect others. In first grade this week we are learning about put-ups and put-downs. I read the story Bad Apple and discussed how Mac felt when the other apples were being mean to him. One of the things I like about this story is that we do not see the behavior of the other mean apples change in the book when Mac is different from them, but we do see Mac and Will supporting each other as friends in spite of the unkind words. So often students must decide how to handle the teasing when changing the mean kids is not in their circle of control. They are able to empathize with Mac in the story and relate to the feelings of sadness and loneliness he feels when being teased. I do want all students to be empowered to choose kind words and recognize the staying power of their words.

After our discussion, I wrinkled a heart each time a child told me something mean someone had said to them until it was a crumpled ball. I tried to smooth the heart back out with some of the nice things they say to each other. But we compared the heart with wrinkles to a smooth heart and discussed how we can never fully erase all of the mean words from our memory.

Students made a wrinkled heart craft as a take away from the lesson. They cut out the heart and put in some wrinkles since those mean words were on it. Then they wrote kind sayings on band-aids and glued them over the mean words. This activity is available for download here.  

Kid President's video "20 Things We Should Say More Often" is a perfect end to this lesson!

The Thankful Book

With Thanksgiving later this week, we're spending some time in 1st grade learning about gratitude. Below is my lesson plan for this lesson. I loved this story as a way to help students brainstorm some of the things they are thankful for!

Hook: When someone does something nice for you, how do you let them know you appreciate it? (saying thank you, hugs, smiles) How do you feel inside when someone does something nice? (happy, thankful) With Thanksgiving later this week, we are going to talk today about some  of the ways you show gratitude.

Activities:

•  Read The Thankful Book by Todd Parr. Discussion – what might the author do when he feels thankful for all of these things? How would feeling thankful change his actions?
• Watch video trailer summary of book.
• Activity: Students will write and illustrate their own “The Thankful Book.”
• Students will read books to class as time allows.

Closure: There are so many things to be thankful for! Try to think of something each day you are thankful for. “I can be thankful for so many things!” 

And how sweet was this page that showed that one of my students was thankful for me! Warmed my heart today!!

Technology Guide for Counselors

I hosted a PLC session for elementary counselors in my school district last week. I'm fortunate to have worked in schools that have invested in technology, and I use a Smartboard and computer and iPad daily at school. I know that not all school counselors have equal access to technology tools . But if you do, here are some links that I shared with my colleagues that may be of use to you as well!

Clicking on the picture should take you to a copy of the technology guide.

Listening.

I discuss listening quite frequently in my lessons. Whether I frame it as good listening, respectful listening, or active listening, the basic concepts of listening with our ears, eyes, and heart are covered.

In first grade (earlier this year) we read the book Listen Buddy by Helen Lester. This is one of my all-time favorite stories to read to students each year. After our discussion about what Buddy needed to do to improve his listening skills, I told the students I was going to test them to see how well they could listen. With some silly directions, students had to listen (and not ask questions) to follow my directions for how to color Buddy (I adapted this resource.)

In second grade, I read The Worst Day of My Life Ever! by Julia Cook. We discussed how much listening can affect how we feel and what happens to us. I reinforced the lesson with some of the resources found in the activity guide that accompanies the story. The listening game from this guide is great fun for the students (though still a bit complex for 2nd graders.) We will keep practicing this throughout the year! 

7 Habits of Happy Kids - 1st Grade Style

After hearing a lot about Stephen Covey's 7 Habits of Happy Kids in the past year, I decided to give it a try. While there are school-wide curriculum resources through The Leader In Me website, I wasn't quite ready to purchase the whole curriculum. So I purchased two items that have enabled me to teach the content and found various other resources online that have reinforced my lessons. The students have really mastered the basic concepts of each habit. I used the book The 7 Habits of Happy Kids and I downloaded this awesome craftivity pack from Teacher's Pay Teachers. I did have to tweak some of the craftivities to simplify them for the sake of time and paper. But overall they have been a great reinforcement for what we've been learning.

Habit 1: Be Proactive

Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind

Habit 3: Put First Things First

Habit 4: Think Win-Win

Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then Be Understood

Habit 6: Synergize

Habit 7: Sharpen The Saw

There are tons of other resources for 7 Habits available via Teachers Pay Teachers and Pinterest. I've also been teaching this to my 4th grade students and will have some follow up posts about what I've been using to teach them.

Anger Management Lessons

I've taught lessons on anger management to several grade levels over the past few weeks. I know it is vital that children learn that feeling angry is okay but you must not hurt yourself or others when you feel this way. Here are some of the ideas I've used in my teaching of these topics.

In Kindergarten we read the book Mouse Was Mad by Linda Urban. We practiced the standing still and deep breathing skills that Mouse uses as well as brainstormed some other things we could do when we're mad to control our anger. Students drew an angry face and colored a picture of a mouse. This is available for download here.

In third grade, I shook a bottle of soda and we talked about what would happen if we opened the bottle. We saw that if I slowly release a little fizz at a time, it would be safe to open. We connected this with our reading of Julia Cook's Soda Pop Head.  We made a list of all the strategies Lester learns in the story to control his fizz. We practiced several of these strategies together.

No, David!

In a Kindergarten lesson, we read three books by David Shannon: No, David!, David Goes to School, and David Gets in Trouble. As we read the books we identified the behaviors that were causing David to get in trouble and what better choices he could be making. After reading we identified characteristics and behaviors that would describe a Peacebreaker or a Peacemaker. I charted student responses on the board.

We made a David craft as a way to reinforce the story. These books are a great resource for discussing positive behaviors and expectations that lead to school success!

Feelings Centers.

This year our school schedule has a unique Friday rotation to allow for vertical PLCs to meet. Because of this I have 3 55-minute classroom guidance rotations on Fridays outside of my usual every other week schedule, and I see these Friday classes every 6 weeks. I have been using these extra guidance times for "Fun Friday" so that these classes don't move ahead from their peers in my classroom guidance curriculum.

One of the things I've done so far with 3rd - 5th grade classes is centers, and these were a huge success! I loved being able to rotate around the room and observe the students learning and engaged, and the students were excited for a change of pace! This first rotation of centers focused on feelings. They were easy to put together and the students had a blast. Each rotation lasted about 10 minutes which was perfect for what I had planned. Here were the rotations I used:

1. Reading Center: I had a bucket full of books from my shelves about feelings, and students were invited to sit in my chair or lie on the carpet to read for a while.

2. iPad Center (definitely a favorite): I had access to 5 iPads so each child could use their own, and students explored the Feel Electric app. It has various games using feelings vocabulary. (I also researched how to set the iPads in guided access mode so students could not get out of this app.)

3. Poetry Center: I had students choose a feeling word to focus on and write a poem using a template I provided. They could then illustrate their poem and share it with others at their table.

4. Game Center: Students played Feelings Bingo and took turns being the caller of the feeling words for their group.

5. Art Center: I had this template of blank feeling faces for students to use to illustrate and label 12 different feelings.

I'm excited to try centers focused on other topics. I'm thinking bullying will be my next rotation to put together. Have you ever tried center rotations in your school counseling program?

Today I Feel . . .

Building a feelings vocabulary is an important part of my school counseling curriculum. In first grade we read Jamie Lee Curtis' Today I Feel Silly and made these feelings wheels.

After we finished, I called out a situation and students would point to it on their wheel. It was a great way for them to learn the vocabulary and connect feeling words within a context.

Building Empathy with Hey Little Ant

Hey Little Ant is a great resource for building empathy as students are asked to put themselves in another's shoes. This year I used this book and song with some of my second grade students. A free mp3 version of the song is available here.  I read the story, we discussed it, and then we brainstormed reasons why the ant should be squished or should go free.

Students then wrote a letter to the ant bully persuading him to either squish or not squish the ant. The ant bully letter template can be found here. 

Meet Wiggles.

This year I used some new resources from HeidiSongs with my Kindergarten friends as we learned about following the rules and paying attention. I used a dog puppet and the books Wiggles Learns the Rules at School and Wiggles Learns to Pay Attention. I watched Heidi's video (found here) and used this strategy of students saying "no no Wiggles" along with the book to all of the wrong behaviors Wiggles has. They LOVED it! After each reading we learned a song from the HeidiSongs Music for Classroom Management DVD and made a Wiggles craft. I found both of these books and lessons to be ones students enjoyed. A 1st grader came into my classroom a few days later wanting to meet Wiggles because he'd heard about him from his Kindergarten brother - success!

After reading Wiggles Learns the Rules at School, we learned the song "Follow the Rules." We made a Wiggles puppet. Then we read the story again with all of the students using their Wiggles puppet just as I'd used mine on the first reading.

Here we are singing our "Follow the Rules" song. 

After reading Wiggles Learns to Pay Attention, we learned the song "No Interrupting." I videoed students singing this song and we watched the clip of their performance at the end of the lesson. We made a "good listener" badge like the one Wiggles received in the story. 

Lessons on Bullying

After my initial lesson, I typically do a lesson on bullying in each grade level 1st - 5th to have everyone on the same page. I will continue to talk about bullying and have some additional lessons on this topic as the year goes on.

Here's an overview of each lesson I did this year.

1st Grade: We read Chester Raccoon and the Big Bad Bully and discussed the story. Students completed a worksheet identifying behaviors to have if being bullied (page 2 in the packet.) We also did a whole class fill in the blank activity to review key points of the lesson and students drew a picture of themselves being a friend to someone who has been bullied.

2nd Grade: We watched and discussed clips from this site. We read and discussed The Bully Blockers Club. Students then completed two worksheets taken from the Safe & Caring Schools book. (*Which side note is the best resource I have ever purchased for myself! I use this book series constantly in my planning.)

3rd Grade: We read The Bully Machine and discussed the story. Students completed a story completion activity sheet and designed their own bully machine following our reading. My lesson and activities are taken from this free resource on the Free Spirit website. (This activity is one students always enjoy!) 

4th Grade: One of my goals with this lesson was to contradict the stereotype of a bully as a boy beating up other kids. We started with the Mean Girl Webisode from Pacer Kids Against Bullying (a great resource). We read Bully Beans by Julia Cook, and in our discussion of the story, I emphasized the importance of bystanders in stopping bullying. Students did an activity sheet about bullying from Safe & Caring Schools.

5th Grade: I use various video clips and PSA's to introduce the content of this lesson. I have used this, this, and this clip. The students do a role play of the Bully Circle that I saw demonstrated by Rodger Dinwiddie at a professional development day a few years ago. One of the key points I remember him making from that training was "for bullying prevention, you don't focus on trying to change the bully. You focus on trying to change the environment." This is what I try to empower my students to do as we talk about bullying - to take a courageous step towards the target and not be okay with any bullying behaviors.

A few years ago I compiled a video on bullying that I always show to my students in 4th and 5th grade at the end of our lesson. Kids want to see it every week! I know that many of the images in the video are some I found online (not sure copyright issues with this), but it is a great way for us to visualize the emotions experienced by targets of bullying and make an empathetic connection with the topic.

link to video on animoto.com

Kid President

I love incorporating media and technology into my lessons in any way I can. I also love Kid President! This video message to teachers and students would be great to share as an encouragement to all in your building!

Teachers see things. They see when you're running down the hall. They see when you're passing notes. But they also see the person that we can all become someday. A writer, or a speaker, or Martin Luther King. . . Here's to teachers that see the awesome. - Kid President

Here's a link to other Kid President videos.

Back to School Classroom Lessons

There are so many wonderful ideas out there in the school counseling blogging community and on pinterest for meet the counselor and back to school lessons. I've tweaked some ideas to make it work for me. After introducing myself and reviewing classroom expectations and our behavior system, this was what we did in each grade level:

Kindergarten: The Kissing Hand is my favorite book for beginning of the year. As students came to my room for their first classroom guidance lesson, we discussed how they felt on their first day of school. I introduced them to my Chester stuffed animal, we read the book, and they made a kissing had to take home - a hand they colored and put a heart sticker on. I also came across this coloring sheet which could work well with the lesson.

1st Grade: I reviewed with all of these students my role as a school counselor using the Mrs. Potato Head ideas I've seen on other websites. We watched the first day of school clip from Finding Nemo and discussed how Nemo felt and his father felt and how we could tell the difference. We then discussed how they felt about starting 1st grade. I read a cute book - The Hair of Zoe Fleefenbacher Goes to School - which the students were captivated by! While they don't have magical hair like Zoe, they all have something that makes them special and which can be celebrated in their 1st grade class. The students wrote and illustrated an activity sheet with "My name is _______ and I am special because ___________."

2nd Grade: We discussed rules at school and why we have rules (safety, so everyone can learn, etc.) We imagined what it would be like if we came to school and there were no rules! I read the book What if Everybody Did That? The students all had the opportunity to come to the SmartBoard and complete a sentence related to the story (for example: If everybody shouted out the answer, then __________.) I took some ideas for this lesson from this excellent source. It was a good discussion on the importance of making positive choices and realizing the ways our choices can affect others.

3rd - 5th Grade: With these students I reviewed my individual student referral form and policy. Each student completed a get to know you information sheet as a way for me to check in with everyone about how they're feeling at the beginning of the year as well as a place to write me notes about things that are going on. They then made a get to know you fortune teller. They LOVED this. It was a great way for them to follow various instructions as I instructed them on how to make it. They practiced listening skills as well as teamwork - students really helped others out at their tables. I loved watching students interact and ask each other questions (practicing those conversation skills!)

I'm Back.

It's hard to believe sometimes that my 6th year as a school counselor is underway. And this is the year I'm resolving to finally start blogging more of my ideas and experiences. This summer I updated a few bulletin boards in my classroom. I'm already very excited about the college readiness bulletin board and interactions my students are having with it. It's inspired by this image on pinterest.

My Counseling Space

Welcome to my school counseling blog! I am in my 5th year as an elementary school counselor and want a place to share ideas and experiences from my work. This past summer I moved from an elementary school in North Carolina to an elementary school in Tennessee. At my new school I have a whole classroom where I see students for classroom guidance, groups, and individual counseling. I loved getting to decorate and make this space my own!

This was what it looked like when I walked in . . . a bit overwhelming (but look at all those books and games in the back!!)

So after many hours, here it is ready for students . . . a cheerful and happy space.

I hemmed some curtains I found at Goodwill to cover the games shelves and my personal bookshelves in the back. I created a play therapy space in the back corner, tucked away behind a cabinet. I sewed these fabric buntings to hang from the ceilings. I created this bulletin board based on this one online.

And a few months later, these red tables were purchased for me! So exciting!! (And that SmartBoard is waiting to be installed on the board.)