New book by Molly Bang!

I'm sure most of you have seen When Sophie Get's Angry: Really Really Angry

and I was so excited to get When Sophie's Feelings Get Really, Really Hurt two years ago.

So imagine how excited I was to see a new Molly Bang book on the Scholastic Preview!

This looks like the perfect way to explore mindset and perseverance. Here are some of my ideas for using the book.

1) Do an author study. Read more about Molly here.

2) Combine with a "power of yet" activity and bulletin board, like this FREEBIE from Lone Star Classroom. 

3) Partner with your favorite perseverance game like the Target dollar spot ring toss or create your own ring toss.

4) Get younger students excited by showing this video:

5) Explore Pinterest and tell me your favorite partner activity!

Attendance Awareness Month

September is Attendance Awareness Month!

It's been a busy month, but here's how we celebrated:

1) School wide challenge:

Our PTA theme this year is "sweet." This made me think of pop rocks which lead me to our "attendance rocks challenge."

*Each class with get an attendance rocks sign and letters to spell out “rocks.” I used Savvy School Counselor's Attendance Rocks Packet to get us started. I used her cover to make signs for classrooms and then I gave them each cut out letters to spell "rocks." 

*If a class had perfect attendance that day they stuck a letter on your sign. When the class spells out the word “rocks” they let me know and they won a book for their classroom library or other prize. 

*If they got "rocks" they had a second challenge, focusing on tardies.

Just like before they added a letter each day they had zero tardies. When they spell out “rocks” they got a book prize. 

Interland by Google- Internet Safety meets Minecraft

Have you guys seen Interland by Google yet? I am really digging it for lessons on tech safety. 

It's a game that students can play on their computer/iPad and tackles internet safety in a super fun way. The graphics remind me of Minecraft, so instant buy in right there. 

Each part of the game map has questions the student must answer to successfully answer to navigate on.

Throw Back Thursday Update

I can't believe i originally posted this on MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2015! wow how time flies. 

I recently got to visit some of my favorite 4th grade teachers who also used this book for their back to school lessons. Here is how I used it and here's how they used it:

"What If Everybody.."

I love this story for so many reasons:

1) The illustrations really engage the students.
2) You can introduce so many topics with it:
           - Character Education Traits like responsibility, respect, and citizenship.
           - The importance of classroom, school, and community rules/laws.
           - Rules and consequences
           - Cause and effect
3) It works for a variety of ages. It's always hard to find a book that appeals the masses, but I've used this book for grades 2-5th and they all love it.

In fact I love it so much I made some discussion cards for students and FREEBIE activities here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_6T4rR2pFj5MEVnUjNCQWE1cE0/view?usp=sharing. You can use the cards to help facilitate discussion as you read or as a game (Quiz Quiz Trade) at the end of the story. You could also use the cards as writing prompts!  Get them at my TPT store.

These discussion cards are a companion for the book "What If Everybody Did That" by Ellen Javernick. You can use the cards as you read the story or as a discussion/review game at the end. This 20 page packet includes: 80 question cards, directions to play Quiz Quiz Trade, and connections to Common Core and ASCA Mindsets. Some of the cards ask similar questions, but they are differentiated for your grade and reading level of your students. There is also a blank card for you to create your own question.

I also like partnering the book with A Perfectly Messed Up Story to talk about how you can take care of school supplies? What if everybody ate snack while reading library books? 

Here is how my 4th grade teachers used it:

Agenda: 
Listen as I read.
Model expectations for materials.
Discuss in small groups.
Create a class chart.
Independent Work.



You can get all the worksheets here on TPT.
Check out more back to school activities from Jillian Starr here.

Help I'm overwhelmed by TPT!

Do you ever feel this way? I do! In fact sometimes when I go back through my purchases to find something I find 20 other things I forgot I had purchased. So I thought I'd share my favorite purchases from TPT- the purchases I use the most and of course the books I'd pair with them.

It's NSCW 17!

 

It's National School Counselor Week! 

It's time to celebrate to advocate. I had a wonderful plan for the week, and then illness hit and our county closed. So I am celebrating some of this week from home (is there any better gift?). But here is a brief outline of my original plan:

 First, I sent out a newsletter with a daily activity or giveaway for my teachers. I also printed this wonderful infographic by the TN School Counseling Association on the back about how we became the wonderful school counselors we are today.

Monday

School Counselors think their students are soda-lightful. 

 Thanks to the Middle School Counselor for this idea. I set out her adorable sign and some soda's in work room for a treat. 

Parent Workshop- 

I hosted a parent workshop on stress/anger management. Each parent received a goodie bag for coming. The bags included hangouts, brochures, pencils for journaling, stress/fidget toys, bubbles, stickers for reward charts, etc. I also had tons of books for parents to check out. I will follow this up with a thank and you and links to more resources.  

Tuesday

I love ...

I love being a school counselor because my students rock. Why do you love having a school counselor? I put one sign outside my office and printed copies of the sign for teachers to complete with their class/grade level team. Every class that sends me a picture or shares with me will get a special treat.  

Wednesday

Reach Higher

Counselors encourage students #reachhigher! Wear your favorite college gear and ask your students what they want to be during morning meeting.  

I also created this hall display with my amazing intern, about how counselors help during each stage- elementary, middle, high school, college, and beyond. 

 

Morning Meeting Day- 

I will (or had hoped to) visit classrooms during morning meetings this month to read this wonderful book. I hoped to share with them why I love working with them and ask them what they love/are grateful for.

Thursday

 Take time to de-stress. I had bubble wrap from an old move so I created little stress reliving goodies for the teachers.

Counselors "chip" in. I have been very focused on helping my admin. understand my role this year, so I created a little "chip in" handout that explains my job. I can easily staple this to a bag of chips and bam. 

Friday

Mystery Reader

Each month I put a character ed. mystery reader book on our Canvas system, what teachers use to watch the news. I reminded teacher to  watch the Character Education mystery reader video. I asked classes to guess and vote on who they think the mystery reader is for February. If they E-mail their guess (1 per class) and I will put the correct answers in a drawing for a prize or give each class a surprise.  This month our book is One.

 Need more ideas?

Check out what I've done in the past.

Visit the Elementary School Counselor Idea Exchange Group on Facebook.

Check out Pinterest.

And....

Is there any better way to say " I love you" than with a sale? 

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Paws-itive-School-Counselor 

A Peak At Nov's Lessons

Here's what I am doing in Nov. What are you doing?

K- Problem and Solving

We did this FREEBIE color sheet of different situations together to discuss tattle vs. telling. Heads up this is a tough sheet for them so we went slowly. You could also do a big/small problem sort.

Next, we discussed how we can solve small problems by watching Kelso.  I also found this great Big Deal/Little Deal Prezi online.
After that we went back to our color sheet and spun a Kelso wheel I created online to figure out solutions would work. We acted out our problems and solutions. If time allowed we colored our own solution wheels.

I'm clearly no artist. 

In first grade, we are talking about anger management.
First, we read Grumpy Gloria. After reading, we folded long construction paper over to make a book. On the first page we did a "Grumpy Me" cover.

Then on the first page we drew something that makes you grumpy.  

After that we read How To Dinosaur's Say I'm Mad and practiced the two strategies in the book. First we counted to 10 and then we did Belly Breathing on GoNoodle.
After that we added another page to our book by drawing us belly breathing and the back cover was us happy.


3rd Grade- We are talking about coping skills.
First, we read and discussed Silly Billy.  Before reading we made predictions and observations about the book and then checked in as we read to see if they were coming true. We took a brain break to practice our own ways of relaxing by doing Chillax on GoNoodle.
Then we made guesses as to what coping skills were and then I introduce coping skill's using Counselor Keri's Interactive Notebook. Next, we identified the coping skills seen in the story and then used the notebook to pick out and color 4 of our own coping skills.  45 minutes flew by!

5th Grade- We are problem solvers.
First we read and discussed one of my new favorite books What Do You Do With A Problem?  After reading we discussed ways we could solve your own problem using a problem solving tip chart I created with our school mascot. We also discussed what a silver lining is.

Afterwards I gave each student a small sheet of paper and asked them to write down or a real problem they had had this year at school. If they couldn't think of one they could make one up. I gave them a heads up that someone else was reading it, so if it was too personal they could write that down and give it to me and make up another problem. After they were written we threw all our problems into a snowball and everyone grabbed a new paper. Next, they had to find the silver lining in that problem and then if possible come up with one solution.
You can also use this silver lining FREEBIE.

Here is a great silver lining activity to go along with the lesson. I also highly recommend the book It's Tough To Lose Your Balloon.
Also, here is a "silver lining" idiom study.

Perfectly Messed Up Books

I share a classroom with 2 art teachers! There's a lot of supplies in that room. Last year I really struggled with my students taking care of our supplies, especially my books. It was made worse when they had a sub! So I was so excited to purchase A Perfectly Messed-Up Story by Patrick McDonnell. It's the perfect book to talk to students about taking care of books and our supplies.

Its an adorable story just going along, until the reader starts to make a mess!

Since I am day dreaming about RAMPing up, I am writing all my lessons in the ASCA template this year. Which lead to me to brain storm ways I can gather perception data (i.e. % correct on team quiz and number of students that can complete exit ticket). So I created a freebie packet to partner with the book.

Pick up this freebie here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Responsible-Students-Take-Care-Of-Their-Supplies-2694989

 

Last Minute Lessons K-2

It's happened to all of us we need a last minute lesson. My practicum student and I are working on a few last minute lessons for K-2 and I must admit I like them.

K- Honesty

We are starting out with another good book: "The Dog Who Cried 'Woof!'"





You could also watch this cute story, The Dog Who Cried Wolf:

(I asked the students to guess what they thought our topic today was going to be before hand, but you could have them read the book and guess at the end).

I used these cool FREE self assessment fans as a great informal assessment along the way.

As they read I asked them to hold up a red face when they heard a lie, a green when they heard the truth, or yellow if they weren't sure. You could also have them do things like raise their hands when they hear a lie, give snaps when they hear the truth, stand up or sit down- anything to get them active.

Next we had a short discussion about honesty and what it meant to be honest and dishonest.

Next we watched the video/ story "Tell the Truth B B Wolf" on Vimeo- https://vimeo.com/117880122

At the end I used these adorable and FREE partner cards by Speckled Moose Counseling to have the students pair up and share a time they had been honest or told a lie.

To end our lesson I created this cut/paste honesty sort. It was a great way for them to create a definition of honesty and decide if the two scenarios were honest or dishonest.


1st- Caring

We started by watching  Brave Irene on http://www.storylineonline.net/

At the end I used these adorable and FREE partner cards by Speckled Moose Counseling to have the students pair up and share a time they had been brave or shown courage.

We ended with this cute courage color sheet by Savvy School Counselor.

2nd - Caring

We started by watching Someone Loves You Mr. Hatch on http://www.storylineonline.net/

Next we used a beach ball to pass around the class and share different ideas how we show people we care about them at school, then at home, and then in the community.

We ended with this cute caring color sheet by Savvy School Counselor.

What are your favorite last minute lessons on courage, caring, and honesty?