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?

Grrr...growls and snarls and anger resources

One thing I love about my county is that once a month we all get together and share our resources! This month we talked about anger! Here are some highlights and our counselors favorite resources:

Books

When Sophie Gets Angry, Really, Really Angry

The Grouchies

Angry Arthur-  https://vimeo.com/76617063


Workbooks
Conflict Resolution Activities that Work- Lots of great role play activities on conflict resolution.

Potter Pig In Control- great for K-3.

How To Stop Before You Pop- great for grades 3-5.

Groups To Go- a great Marco product for small groups.

Websites

KidsHealth.org- this is a great tool for parents, teachers and students.  The articles  have re aloud options and even re aloud in Spanish option.

Missouri Career Education- a good resource for lesson plans especially for small groups.

Brain Pop- great videos, activities, and surveys (for your data) on anger.

Kelly Bear- tips for students and teachers.

The Do's and Don'ts of Teaching Children Anger- great article by Huffington Post

Scholastic

Videos

Gotta beat that stress

Helping students with stress is one of my favorite lessons. I think it's the former yoga teacher in me and the fact that teaching them means I naturally get to  practice as well.

Here are some of favorite resources:

Activities/Printables

*Free Spirit Publishing has so many great resources and printables, including:

*This Frustration Triangle - this is great for classroom lessons as well s small groups

*Pebble relaxation- For the life of me I can't remember where I found this! Anyone know?  It's a great visual activity to do with individual students.
You could also follow it up with activity from mindful kids. 

* Foam shield- I use this as a visual in small groups to talk about what coping skills they can use to "protect them" from stress. I found them in the dollar section of Target (aka where my paycheck goes).

*Relaxation stations- I love doing this for older students. We start with a class wide calming activity (see Go Noodle references below) or watch the Brain Pop on stress. Next, I set up stations around the room and  play calm music. The students silently work at each station and switch every  3-5 minutes. At the end they write for me what station they liked the best, why, and how it helped them relax.

Here are my favorite stations:
*Coloring sheets/Mandalas- there are one million coloring books out there now, but you can find a lot of sheets online.

*Play dough

*Journaling- Sometimes I leave it open for the students to journal on their own and sometimes I will prompt them. You can find lots of gratitude journals online and lots of gratitude prompts here 

* Brain Pop activity

*Reading- I will set out lots of books on stress and relaxation and allow them to read quietly.

*Breathing- I will put out the 5- Start breathing cards and let the students practice breathing

Technology

* iPads- if you have a few ipads you can always set up an iPad station and allow them to explore some fun apps.  Here are some ideas- Kids Relaxation and this amazing list from Common Sense Media 

Happy NSCW

Don't forget to follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/sassy_school

My latest book splurge

"I'll just go to McKay's for one specific thing" and 89 books later..... Target and bookstores are without a doubt my weakness. Lucky for my students I picked up a few great books.

The "One" book I came for - no pun intended.

I LOVE this book. I love it so much it's our character education book of the month. Each month a "mystery reader" films themselves reading the book and the kids get to watch it and guess who it is. I think someone gave me away as the mystery reader this month. Check her out here:

My book splurge didn't end with "One" book though. Here's what else I picked up.

So I picked up:

Mutt the Dog

Here's the Amazon description: "Mutt Dog is brave and fast and gentle and loyal and smart, but he's also hungry, and he doesn't have a home. Then one day his luck changes, and he at last finds a family--and a cozy, loving place to belong."

How I plan on using: I love this book to talk about fitting in, finding a home, and caring for others. 

So Few Of Me

"Just the message overscheduled families need in today's frantic world . . . delivered with humor and terrific artwork." — John de Graaf, national coordinator, Take Back Your Time

How I plan to use: to talk about scheduling, organization, work habits, and doing your personal best.

Daisy and Josephine

"New York Times bestselling author Melissa Gilbert makes her picture book debut with this fetching story about a shy little girl and her spunky dog, Josephine!" - Amazon.com

How I plan on using: to address shyness, friendship, loneliness, perseverance, and more

Martha Doesn't Share

Check out this amazing description from Amazon: 

"Martha has a new favorite word.

And that word is MINE!
Martha has officially mastered apologizing. Unfortunately, she still has a lot to work on when it comes to sharing. And while she doesn't learn to love it, she does discover that having her toys to herself means having to play with them all by herself, too. Not so fun! 
This hilarious follow-up to Martha doesn't say sorry! shows readers that sharing isn't all that bad when you take it one (small) toy at a time--like Martha does. It gets easier every day. Well, almost every day."

I bet you can guess what topic I will use this book for!

Someday

This is such a sweet story about a mother's dream for their child.

How I plan on using: I am going to let my teachers borrow for morning meeting and talk about their dream for their students. 

Work Habits pre and post test

It seems like forever ago I was posting about my work habits, organization, and responsibility lesson.
Today I finally found time to update my pre and post tests. Check them out:

Pre Test

Post Test

National School Counselor Week 2016

It's almost time for National School Counselors Week- a week we can advocate for our programs, share with stakeholders how we can help them, and celebrate our awesome jobs. Here's my plan for 2016. What are you doing?

Me and my AMAZING practicum student

School wide weekly events and contests:

Monday- Teacher Treats
Here’s the scoop:
It’s National School Counseling week. Stop by the work room for a treat.
I found this cute treat on Pinterest that I'll recreate for my teachers.

Tuesday 
I love ...
I love being a school counselor because my students rock. Why do you love having a school counselor? Complete the sign and take a picture with your class/grade level team. Every class that sends me a picture or shares with me will get a special treat.

 Wednesday

K-2 Contest
Don’t forget to watch the Character Education mystery reader video. Teachers have your students guess and vote on who they think the mystery reader is for February. E-mail your guess (1 per class) and I will put the correct answers in a drawing for a prize.

*Each month we film a teacher or staff member reading our character ed book of the month. The students will guess who this month's mystery reader is.

Thursday

3-5th Contest
What is bullying? We often confuse bullying and conflict- ask your class to write the definition of bullying and e-mail your guess (1 per class).  I will put correct answers in a drawing for a prize.

*We've been learning a lot about bullying in recent months. I am looking for three parts to the winning definition: 1)it's negative, unwanted, aggressive behavior 2)it's repeated 3)there is an imbalance of power

Friday
Counselors encourage students #reachhigher! Wear your favorite college gear and take a #reachhigher selfie. Learn more about this amazing initiative at https://www.whitehouse.gov/reach-higher


*This idea comes from the ASCA Photo week challenge. I will also be doing the photo week challenge.
Get the signs and ideas here: https://www.schoolcounselor.org/school-counselors-members/about-asca-%281%29/national-school-counseling-week


Daily announcements:

I created daily announcements based on the ASCA suggested announcements check my announcements out here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_6T4rR2pFj5UnZKV1hrWDJURWc/view?usp=sharing

Newsletter:
To kick off the week I created a newsletter for my teachers and staff. Check out the entire newsletter here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_6T4rR2pFj5N3BEbjB1b3F5Snc/view?usp=sharing

 It gives an overview of events, explains why we have school counselors and explains that the week is designed to share about the program and is not an "appreciation week," includes an about me section, and fun things in our cooking theme.

Get more ideas here:
http://freespiritpublishingblog.com/2016/01/19/10-ways-to-celebrate-national-school-counseling-week/
http://freespiritpublishingblog.com/2013/02/07/counselors-corner-celebrating-national-school-counseling-week-part-2/

Promoting Character Education Books

This year we started doing class meetings school wide. Several of the teachers decided to use the time  to read to their students and discuss character education and life skill topics. To help promote some of my favorite books I set up several books in our conference room so teachers could browse them when they met for their weekly PLC. On each book I put a post it note with ideas for topics, discussions, and activities. I was very excited when several teachers borrowed the books to read with their class. What a simple and effective way to promote literacy and my counseling program.

Here are some ideas:

Mr. Wuffles- check out the lesson here

Everyone Loves Bacon- popularity, jealousy, and friendship

Friendshape-  tolerance, friendship, resepct

Say Hello To Zorro- new student, friendship, getting along with others

Journey-  need a new spin on New Year's Resolutions? Talk about what personal and classroom 

journey the students would like to take in the new year. How will get there? 

Crenshaw-  this chapter books is perfect for the mornings, because each chapter is very short. Use it to talk about homelessness, perseverance, imagination, stress, struggles, and more.

Kid President's Guide To Being Awesome  - each week the classes can talk about and practice one way to be awesome

Clark The Shark- review rules, new student, skills for success

Numberlys-  team work, goal setting, imagination, journey, mindset, work ethic. This book also has a companion App for your teachers with iPads.