This year we are working with all of the classes during the week they have Media as their resource. Mrs. Bishop teaches KG, 2nd and 4th grade classes and Ms. Stadt teaches 1st, 3rd and 5th grade classes. We will work with students on various topics such as character education, friendship skills, feelings, etc. Check back each month to see what we focus on and how you can help reinforce these things at home.
August-September-Lesson 1
Our first lesson with all of the classes at Picolata will be an Introduction to the School Counselor. Students will learn what school counselors do. We will talk about what school counselors can help them with, such as problems they have at school or home, helping with feelings or friendships, etc. We discussed how school counselors can work with them one-on-one with issues they may be having. Students learned about other things school counselors do such as working with students in a small group and coming into the classroom for a guidance lesson.
Kindergarten:
- Book: Mrs. Joyce Gives the Best High Fives by Erainna Winnett
- Pin the Role on the Counselor Lesson by Counselor Keri
First Grade:
- Book: The Rabbit Listened by Cori Doerrfeld
- Discussion on Role of A School Counselor
Second Grade:
- Meet the Counselor Game
Third Grade:
- Meet the School Counselor Tic Tac Toe Game
Fourth Grade:
- Meet the Counselor Game
Fifth Grade:
- True, True, Not True Role of the School Counselor Game by the Savvy School Counselor
October-November-Lesson 2
Kindergarten:
- Book: Howard B. Wigglebottom Learns to Listen
- Listening is such an important skill. We talked about why it is important to listen and how we can become better listeners. We talked about how we don’t just use our ears to listen, we listen with our whole bodies-our brains are thinking, our eyes are watching, our mouths are quiet, our ears are listening and our body is calm. We got to practice our listening skills by playing Howard Says.
First Grade:
- Book: The Crayon Box That Talked by Shane DeRolf
- In this lesson we focused on Teamwork. We talked about why it is important to work together and how we can cooperate in our classrooms. We discussed ways of how we work together in our class and how each student is unique and valued. We also did a special art activity with where each student drew a smaller part of the larger picture and then completed their whole picture at the end.
Second Grade:
- Lesson: Resilience by Counselor Keri
- Book: After the Fall by Dan Santat
- This month our second graders learned what the word resilience means. We watched a short video called A Lesson on Resilience from The Learning Lab and students made an informed guess on what resilience means. We read the book After the Fall: How Humpty Dumpty Got Back Up Again and talked about how Humpty Dumpty showed resilience. Students got to make resilience wobble eggs to take home with them. We watched a short video on Dexter, a dog who was injured and learned how to walk to two legs. We wrapped up the lesson by talking about ways we have shown resilience in the past and how we never give up.
Third Grade:
- Book: Pumpkin Soup by Helen Cooper
- We read and discussed this book about friendship and then discussed the importance of choosing friends and what qualities are important when deciding friends. We had a wonderful discussion surrounding how to be better friends, what to look for in friends, and how to repair broken friendships. We also did an activity where each student got to pick out the qualities they were looking for in a friend.
Fourth Grade:
- Lesson: Expressing Feelings and Needs by Counselor Keri
- This lesson focused on how to use I-Message statements to express to others their feelings and needs. We learned the I-Message-“I feel ___ when ____. Can you please (or I need) ____.” Students worked with a partner to practice using the I-Message using a set of scenario cards.
Fifth Grade:
- In this lesson we focused on conflict resolution. The 5th graders first learned 4 steps to becoming peaceful problem solvers and ways to deal with conflicts. As a group we had a great time role playing some different conflict scenarios together and we practiced using our 4 steps to solve these problems.
December-January-Lesson 3
Kindergarten:
- Lesson: How to Resolve Conflicts Peacefully
- Book: A Bug and a Wish by Karen Scheuer
- After reading the book, students learned how to solve conflicts by using the phrase “It bugs me when ___. I wish you would ____.” We practiced taking turns role playing different situations and how they could let others know how they are feeling.
First Grade:
- Book: Clark the Shark by Bruce Hale
- Self-Control Scenarios Sorting Card Game by the Music City Counselor
- In this lesson we read the book Clark the Shark by Bruce Hale and discussed we what it means to have self control. We also went over different scenarios and sorted them into piles based on if the students in the scenarios were showing self control or not.
Second Grade:
- Friendship Attractors and Repellors from Puzzle Pieces
- Book: Making Friends is an Art by Julia Cook
- This month our second graders compared the properties of a magnet to our personal behavior. A magnet can either attract other magnets to it, or it can repel other magnets to it. People are the same way. The things that we do either attract others to want to be around us, or they can push people away and make them not want to be around us. Therefore, it is very important to think about a behavior or action before doing it. In class, we made a list of attractor behaviors and repellor behaviors and then played Attractor and Repellor Tic-Tac-Toe
Third Grade:
- Empathy Obstacle Course by the Creative School Social Worker
- This lesson we focused on empathy. The 3rd graders learned what empathy is and how to have empathy for other people. The students also completed the Empathy Obstacle Course that incorporated 5 different tasks that helped them practice seeing things from another person’s perspective and helped them work on building up their empathy skills.
Fourth Grade:
- Lesson: Think Before You Speak by the Responsive Counselor
- Book: The Sandwich Swap by Kelly DiPucchio
- Students learned 5 questions to ask themselves before speaking and how our words have power. Once we say something, it is hard to take it back, so we always need to think before we speak and say something that may hurt others. Students learned to “THINK” before they speak and ask themselves Is it True, Helpful, Inspiring, Necessary, or Kind. We used the wrinkled heart and toothpaste to see how our words have power and once we say something hurtful, it is hard to take it back.
Fifth Grade:
- Social Media Safety Lesson by Counselor Keri
- The 5th graders learned about and discussed ways to be safe online and how to recognize safe and unsafe social media sharing behaviors.