This year Mrs. Bishop is working with all of the classes during the week they have Media as their resource. Mrs. Bishop 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: “The Rabbit Listened” by Cori Doerrfeld
- The Rabbit Listened Lesson by Laura at https://musiccitycounselor.com/
First Grade:
- Pin the Role on the Counselor Lesson by Counselor Keri
Second Grade:
- Meet the Counselor Game Show
Third Grade:
- Meet the Counselor Escape Rooms by Bright Futures Counseling
Fourth Grade:
- Meet the Counselor Escape Rooms by Bright Futures Counseling
Fifth Grade:
- Meet the Counselor Game Show
October-November-Lesson 2
Kindergarten:
- Book: Howard B. Wigglebottom Learns to Listen
- Lesson: Listening-from Overcoming Obstacles
- 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 Simon Says and Red Light, Green Light.
First Grade:
- Introduction to Bug Feelings and Bubble Breathing-Lesson from Puzzle Pieces
- Book: The Color Monster by Anna Llenas
- Our first grade students were introduced to Bug Feelings. Bug feelings are those feelings that we don’t like to have and want to get rid of (anger, sad, lonely, confused, embarrassed, etc.) Children often display undesirable behaviors (fighting, tantrums, disrespect, etc.) simply because they do not have the feelings vocabulary to properly express what they are feeling. We will be focusing all year on how to get rid of bug feelings (or de-bug). During this lesson, we talked about the rules for letting out our bug feelings. 1. I may not hurt myself. 2. I may not hurt property. 3. I may not hurt others. One of the main ways that people hurt themselves is by holding in their feelings. These feelings then come out in physical ways such as queasy stomachs, headaches, etc. Many people think that it is OK to slam a door or throw something that breaks. While this may make you feel better momentarily, there are always consequences for our actions. Not only are you still mad or sad, but you have broken property. Finally, we discussed the two ways we hurt others: with our bodies as well as with our words. Neither are OK ways to deal with bug feelings. Students also learned the first strategy for “de-bugging”-bubble breathing (or deep breathing). Students learned how to slowly breathe in through their nose and then blow out, like they are blowing a bubble, through their mouth. This is something that can help us calm down, no matter our age!
Second Grade:
- Friendship-Attractor/Repellor-Lesson 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:
- Conflict Types-Lesson from The Responsive Counselor
- Our third graders learned about the different types of conflict. We talked about the differences between a disagreement, a rude moment, a mean moment and bullying. These are all often confused and all mistaken for bullying, so it is important to learn the difference between each type. We learned that a disagreement is when people have different ideas about something and usually no one’s feelings are hurt. A rude moment is hurting someone’s body or feelings on accident. A mean moment is hurting someone’s body or feelings on purpose and it happens just one time or every once in awhile. Bullying is hurting someone’s body or feelings on purpose, more than once and the person doing it has more power (older or bigger, more than one person or someone you are afraid of). Students worked in groups to examine situations and decide which type of conflict each was.
Fourth Grade:
- Teamwork-Lesson from Overcoming Obstacles
- Book: A Little Spot of Teamwork
- Throughout our lives, we have to work with others, so learning how to work as a team is an important skill. Our fourth graders talked about situations now where they have to work as a team and also what jobs they might have that require teamwork. Then we talked about what skills are important to remember when working as team. Then students were tasked to put these skills to the test and complete a cup stacking challenge as a team.
Fifth Grade:
- Conflict Resolution Game Show-Lesson from Whole Hearted Counseling
- This month we reviewed different conflict resolution strategies, which is so important at this age. We talked about what conflict is and how it is normal to have conflict, we just have to learn how to deal with conflict in appropriate ways. The class then worked in teams and played a conflict resolution game show, similar to Jeopardy.
December-January-Lesson 3
Kindergarten:
- Lesson: Small and Big Problems and I-Message from Music City Counselor
- During this lesson students will learn the difference between small problems and big problems, and how to solve small problems themselves with an I-Message! Small problems can be solved themselves and big problems they can ask a grown up for help. An I-Message is when students say “I felt ____ when you ____. Can you please ____?”
First Grade:
- Bug Feelings-Strategy #2- Change the Channel!
- In first grade, we added a new strategy to our list of ways we can “de-bug”. This month we focused on changing the channel in our brains. We talked about how we are the boss of our brain and when we have bug feelings, we can choose to change the channel in our brain to something else. We discussed 3 different channels-the memory channel (thinking of a fun time, a happy memory from the past, etc), the imagination channel (imagining yourself doing something that would make us happy or imagining ourselves doing something we have never done before like swimming with dolphins or meeting someone famous, etc), and the thankful channel (thinking of things we are thankful for).
Second Grade:
- Resolving Conflicts-Lesson from Overcoming Obstacles
- Book: Matthew and Tilly by Rebecca C. Jones
- This month our second graders learned what conflicts are and learned ways to resolve conflicts. Students learned 5 conflict resolution steps: 1) Take a deep breath and calm down. 2) Listen carefully. 3) Think about the situation. 4) Use “I statements instead of “You” statements. 5) Be willing to compromise. Students then worked in groups to practice solving conflicts all by themselves.
Third Grade:
- Responding to Teasing and Put-Downs
- Book: Simon’s Hook by Karen Burnette
- Our third grade students learned how to deal with teases and put downs. We read the book Simon’s Hook. In the book, getting hooked meant you responded to the hook (or tease) or let it get to you. Simon learned 5 strategies that helped him not get hooked and be a free fish. We talked about the five strategies presented in the book: 1. Do little or nothing (don’t react). 2. Agree with the hook. 3. Laugh or make a joke about the hook. 4. Distract or change the subject. 5. Stay away. Students got to fish for teases and practice using the five strategies.
Fourth Grade:
- Conflict Resolution from Counselor Keri
- This lesson helps students better understand how to positively resolve conflicts with peers! Students will brainstorm to contrast positive conflict resolution and negative conflict resolution and then learn steps to positively resolve conflicts with friends. We will discuss 8 steps to solve conflicts peacefully. 1) Ask the person to talk privately. 2) Share how you feel in a calm tone. 3) Listen without interrupting. 4) Check for understanding and acknowledge feelings. 5) Active listening. 6) Brainstorm solutions. 7) Choose a solution that works for everyone (win-win). 8) Agree-forgive and move on. After completing this lesson, students will know how to approach a conflict with a peer in a way that will promote positive conflict resolution.
Fifth Grade:
- Respect from Overcoming Obstacles
- Book: A Little Respectful Spot by Diane Alber
- During this lesson, we discussed what respect means and brainstormed ways to show respect at school, at home and in the community. Students then worked in groups to look at different scenarios to determine if the character in the scenario was being respectful and if not, what the character should do to be respectful.