TPT Sale

Celebrate our local hero's (aka the teachers that face angry parents, flying pencils, "he cut me" complaints daily) with my TPT sale: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/My-Products

Knight of the Round Table

This year I created a small group for students whose parents had divorced. It turned out all the members were boys, so I changed the name to "Knights of the Round Table." We had a ton of fun being knights and incorporating the knight theme into our group.

So I created a small group packet so you could do a similar group. This is perfect to pair with this free TPT resource I found on becoming a knight: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Medieval-Times-Becoming-a-Knight-Overview-and-Activities-373496
This great way to include non fiction work and cover many Common Core standards!!

Here is how I used the packet, a description of the packet, and ideas for you:

Use the contents to create a packet the students can take with them at the end of the group.

*Introducing knight page: Use this page as an icebreaker to have fun and get to know each other. Students can create their own “Knight name” or simply add their own name. Then draw themselves as a Knight. Use this as a cover for your packet.

*Shields: We used this two ways. First, we used it as an icebreaker for the second session. The students created their own “coat of arms” that told us about themselves. For example, I decorated mine with paw prints and colored it blue. I am sure you aren't shocked I included my pups. For my group I actually let the students use large pieces of poster board to create huge life size shields. You could also use cardboard or the outline in the packet.

Next, we used this as the last page in our packet. Each student wrote down ways they could “protect” themselves in the future with different coping skills. We discussed how knights used swords and metal armor to protect themselves, but we can always do that. What we can do is develop coping skills that help us. 

Examples:

*Divorce group: What skills help you when your parents fight, when you feel angry that your family has changed, etc. Here are some ideas my group came up with: read a book on divorce for resources and help, talk to an adult like their parents or the school counselor, talk to each other, think about the positive instead of the negative, call the parent you are missing.

• New to school: How can you make new friends? Introduce yourself to someone new, ask the play with them at recess, find out what you have in common, offer to help them, etc.

*Anger group: What skills can help you calm down when you start to feel angry? Take deep breaths, walk away, use an “I- Message”, take a break, etc.

Idea: You can also, use a shield for them to write down group rules such as confidentiality to discuss how following these rules and being confidential “protects” the group..

Comic strips: I paired this with a “Becoming A Knight” packet by Pam Rossi I found on TPT. Get it here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Medieval-Times-Becoming-a-Knight-Overview-and-Activities-373496. 

First, we read about how a young man became a knight. Then we created a comic strip documenting that journey. Next, I had them create a comic strip that told me about their own journey. 

Examples:

*Divorce group: Tell us about the journey you took as your family changed. You can start whenever you would like (when you were born, before the divorce, when  you got the news about the separation) and end your comic with today or where you would like to be. 

• New to school: Tell us about the journey you took coming to this school. Start with your previous school and end with this group.

*Anger group: Tell us about a time you got angry. Include the events that lead up to it, what you looked like when you got angry, what you did, and what happened after.

* Reflection pages: Use these pages to wrap up the group and get feedback on how the group ran.

 *Pre/Post surveys: Have the student’s fill out the surveys at the start of the group and at the end to rate how they are coping and feeling about school, their friends, and home.

You can use this packet to run any boys small group on a variety of topics. I used it for divorce, but you can easily incorporate it into any topic like anger, starting a new school, transitioning to middle school, etc. The 15- page packet includes two icebreaker activities, a variety of comic strip options, three shield templates, 3 pre/post surveys, and a reflection page.

Get the packet on my TPT store here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Knights-of-the-Round-Table-a-small-group-for-boys-1728765

More Android Vids

 I am sure none of you were shocked to read about how I incorporated this video:

Now I have got to figure out how to use this handshake video!!! Social skills? Icebreaker? Being unique? So many ideas!!

How would you use this video?

Funny Friends

Are you guys loving this Android commercial as much as me?

I adore it!  I knew I had to sneak it into one of my lessons. I also had to share with one of my favorite collaborators, S. Svarda, School Librarian extraordinare. Check out her blog here!!!

 This month my lesson with 2nd/3rd really continues to morph, especially with Valentines Day. Here's a rough sketch of what I did and how I used this wonderful video.

Introduction: This month we are talking about respect, being a considerate classmate, and bullying prevention. I introduced the topic asking students to share with a neighbor one way they include others at school.

Lesson: Next I asked them to look and see if they could see any of their answers in our story and we read the  award winning and wonderful book "Each Kindess" by Jacqueline Woodson.

Next (depending on time) we played Quiz Quiz Trade using my "Each Kindness" cards. You can get them on my TPT store for $1. Some classes we played a short game (find 5 partners) and some classes we played a longer game. It really depended on time and what I had planned next.

Follow Up Fun - Here are 2 options for what to do next.

New Favorite Book and Activity Guide

Thanks to my favorite librarians I found my favorite new book! "Pirate, Viking & Scientist" by Jared Chapman is so adorable, funny, informative, and well so much more. It's the story of Scientist who is friends with Viking. He's also friends with Pirate, but Pirate and Viking are not friends. What is a Scientist to do? Hysterical experiments to bring his friends together of course!


I am in the special area rotation 2 days a week and my classes are 45 minutes. So you can stretch reading this book out for 45 minutes, but I also shortened it and did this lesson using technology into 20 minutes.  

I created a 24 page activity guide that's in my TPT store and having a 15% off sale for #NSCW15. I hope you find it as useful as I have.

Here's what included: This activity pack is to be used in conjunction with the book "Pirate, Viking & Scientist" by Jared Chapman. It includes two pages of lesson ideas, a list of CCSS Standards met, ASCA and TN State School Counseling Standards met, 7 versions of Venn Diagrams, 34 vocabulary cards, a before reading, a during reading, and after reading worksheet, a formula for friendship worksheet, angry feeling ranking cards with 4 different variations to help differentiate for your learners.

I would also suggest these two awesome TPT finds to go along with this book:

Extend the conversation by tying in career awareness with this "What Does A Scientist Do?" adorable packet from Creating With Crayolas.  I love the idea of using this as a follow up lesson to the book. It's a great way to talk about how scientists solve problems and how all of the students are scientists because they are always solving problems with friends.

Working on more ELA standards? Use this adorable Story Map Packet by Nicole Baranov.  It's an adorable way to extend the discussion, but would also be super fun to encourage teachers to download so they can use it in their room. It would be a great collaboration. 

If you want a shorter version or are using technology here's what I did:

 We read the book at a faster pace and then I made a quick Kahoot.  Here is the short 5 question game I created for my 1st-2nd graders: https://play.kahoot.it/#/k/bfd759d6-9c46-4868-8cb9-b6f040742e80. 
We used the librarians iPads to play and they loved it!!!

Happy National School Counselor Week

Happy National School Counselor Week!!!

ASCA School Counseling Week Photo Challenge Sign

It's #NSCW15! February really snuck up on me this year. In fact this year has been blowing by so I haven't been the best blogger, but hopefully today's posts will make up for it.

I am super excited to celebrate this week, even if my activities were a little last minute. Here's what I've got up my sleeve for the week.

The gift bags for teachers. I used old bags I had around can you tell?

 Weekly announcements and trivia contest. I love doing this! Each morning I go on the announcements and share a little something about my job or my program. Then I ask a trivia question. Last year I let students enter themselves and they won prizes, but this year I made it a class wide contest. So each day I ask the class to tell their teacher the answer and then the teacher e-mails it to me. All of the correct answers go in a bucket and then the next day I pick one class as a winner. That class wins a "goodie bag." Here are some of my questions and prizes.

Monday: For students in K-1 only. (I made this one a little bit easier for them. )
          Q: What are the names of my dogs?
          A: Brooklyn and Boss

The K-1 winner goodie bag had 4 books I found at McKay's, sight word flash cards, a Frozen dry erase letter writing board, and moon sand from the Target dollar bin, and expo markers and supplies for the teacher.

Tuesday: For students in 2-3 only.
           Q: To help promote and teach a certain word each month, this year I hid flat dogs in library books. Each month the dogs found new books to hid in. How did I pick the books each month?
            A: I picked books related to our character education trait each month.

The 2-3rd goodie bag contained: "Mr. Peabody's Apples" and a chapter book from McKay's, book marks for students, multiplication flashcards, and other office supplies for the teacher. 

Wednesday: For students in 4-5 only.
          Q: What are the 6 character education traits we celebrate each month.
          A: Respect, Trustworthiness, Citizenship, Caring, Responsibility, Fairness

The 4-5th bag contained: "Mr. Peabody's Apples" from McKay's, "Road Trip" which I picked up at the Scholastic Warehouse sale, pencils and markers for all students from Target, book marks, and a classroom calendar also from Target. 

Thursday: For all classes.  *This had a special award. This year I am helping promote literacy and my program in the building by partnering with UTK's Human Animal Bond program. Each week we have a reading therapy dog come to school and read with our students. The winner of this day would win a "reading party" with our HABIT dog.
           Q: What very famous lady is also celebrating this week with us? Hint her twitter name is @FLOTUS. (If they need an extra hint: her husband just made a special visit to our state).
           A: Michelle (you know since we are friends since the #ASCA14 conference.)

Our First Lady!

Friday: For teachers only. *Also, their prize will be a gift card to TPT.
        Q: What Knox County School Counselor is being honored at the White House this year for being an ASCA National School Counselor Semi-Finalist?
        A: The one and only @BevAndersonTN.  Beverly Anderson, school counselor at Bearden High School, has been named a 2015 American School Counselor Association (ASCA) School Counselor of the Year semi-finalist.  Anderson is one of 16 semi-finalists across the nation to receive this honor.  As part of Anderson’s recognition, she will attend a White House recognition ceremony hosted by First Lady Michelle Obama on Jan. 30, 2015, and a School Counselor of the Year Gala at Washington’s historic Union Station.  The recognition ceremony will be streamed live; streaming details should be posted on the ASCA website on Jan. 30.

What are you doing this week?  If you haven't checked out the ASCA Photo Week Challenge check it out asap here.