Door Sign Freebie!

Yesterday I added a FREE door sign to my TPT store. This is a simple sign that has only two options: come in and counseling in progress. Simply use a clip of any kind: a binder clip, a clothes pin, even a paper clip! It has a background that makes me think of Inside Out, but it is not from Inside Out. I recommend laminating this if you can, but it'll work with or without that. 
Click here to download this PDF file.

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If you would like a more detailed version of this, visit my TPT store. I have 4 non-editable versions of the wheel below as well as an editable version for a little bit more. This is the wheel I have on my door, which you can see in this post. 

Remember, my whole store is 10% off now through Saturday.                       Have a wonderful Christmas/holiday break!

Christmas Break Sale

Merry Christmas!

Can you believe it is also time for Christmas break?! We have 2.5 days counting today at my school before the break starts!

I hope everyone has a wonderful, and restful, break. To celebrate the break, I'm throwing a sale in my TPT store! 

Everything is 10% off 12/16-12/19!

Jenga

I have some students who are dealing with varying issues, including sadness/depression and anxiety (especially about tests) that I am checking in with as regularly as I can. I wanted to use Jenga as a part of my work with them. I have seen where other counselors write questions on the Jenga game. I wanted to have a multipurpose Jenga that wasn't written on so I could use it for many things. So I set out to find some sets of questions that were already made!




There weren't a whole lot out there I found. However, I did find one wonderful set on TPT! It has five sets of questions that you could ask while playing any game, including Jenga. Check it out here. This is NOT one of my products on TPT, but I think this is a great resource. There are two pages full of questions for each of the five topics. I love this because I don't have to take the time to compile my own set of questions for any of these topics, and I can use my Jenga game for many problems kids have instead of just one.

I wasn't looking for a "get to know you" version of this, but in my search, I found one of those too! Here is a free version of these questions. This would be great for a small group or with a shy child.

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Do you ever use Jenga in your counseling program? Let me know what that looks like for you!

Counseling Newsletter

I mentioned in this post how I use Google Forms to survey the teachers to tell me how effective my lessons are. I take percentages from these to see how many teachers saw improvements or differences in their students. I am taking these and putting them into a newsletter I will send to my principals next week.

On my newsletter, I give data from the needs assessment I send out when we come in for pre-planning and what the teacher surveys said about my lessons. Since school started for me in September, I have done two lessons K-6 at both my schools. I have also done a tattling lesson for kindergarten.

 

Above are examples of what my letters look like. I've blocked out my data findings as well as my school system logo for privacy and security reasons. My lessons and visits section is still pending since there is still about a week left to see students (how is it that Christmas break sneaked up so fast?!).

For these letters, you could do anything is these boxes! I chose to do the data results from surveys, but you could include tips and tricks, cool things you learned at a conference, cool programs you are wanting to start, etc. I also send these letters jsut to my administrators, but I think making one for teachers would also be a great idea!

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These letters were made using Microsoft Publisher. For your convenience, I have uploaded this file up to TPT. This item is now FREE! You can get a blank version of this form that already has all of these boxes and places for pictures.  You will need to have Publisher (it is a .pub file) and will need to know basic skills such as changing the pictures and re-sizing boxes as you need. But all the finding and placing is already done for you! See below for a look at what these blank ones look like: 

Google Forms

I love Google Forms! I use them often in my counseling program. To create one, go to or create a Google account to access Google Drive. Click on the red "New" button on the left hand side. It'll pop up with a few options, but I have to put my mouse over "More" to find Google Forms. It's a purple icon with a bullet list on it. 













At the start of the year I use a Google Form for my needs assessment. Using these are great for this because it will put your results into a spreadsheet for you. You can export this form to Excel if you'd like. It makes collecting data much easier!
For my program, I also use these for teacher reviews. I ask just a few questions about what they thought of the lesson and how it worked in their room. See below for a screen shot. I use these results in a newsletter I send to my administrators to demonstrate what I've been doing! I have one of these for every lesson I do. They are quick for me to make, and they are quick for the teachers. They take only a few seconds unless they choose to write me a novel in the last box!

More to come on that newsletter later! Do you use any sort of website or app that makes maintaining your program easier?

Stinky kids

At one of my schools, we have several stinky kids. I've talked to a few individually, but I'm going to do a whole grade lesson since there just seem to be so many. I plan to talk about why we stink and what to do about it. I plan to emphasize that it's part of growing up to be a cool grown up!
A good counseling friend of mine already had a PowerPoint made, so I plan to use that. This is always a hard lesson, but one we all have to learn. What techniques do you use for stinky kids? 

Final hours of the TPT sale!

The special TPT sale is almost over! Run over to check out my store and get the best deal you'll get all year with the extra % off on top of my 20% off sale! Use the code below for an extra % off.

Anxious babies

It's a sad fact in our world today that many of our kids are anxious. With high stakes testing and all the pressures they face socially and at home, kids are more anxious than they may have ever been. I have a good handful at each school that need to be seen for this. I've been working on building an arsenal for helping them with their anxiety. I've already done a post about worries that has some useful things. I wanted to share some new ideas I plan to try with a particularly anxious child:

1. I found these cards in my search and thought they would be a good resource for the kids themselves to have and be a good conversation starter for a session. I plan to make a book of sorts by binding them with a binder ring after lamination. 
   There are three pages with idea and a blank page for you to write in your own. You can pick out which ones fit your kids and your school and discard the rest. That's what I did!
2. This blog post is fantastic for visualizing the biggest worries! I love the idea of attaching a string to the worry based on how big it is.  Part 2 is also a good idea!

What are your go to anxiety techniques? I'd love to build my arsenal more!

Thanksgiving/Cyber Monday Sale!

I hope each of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I know I have many blessing to be thankful for, and I have definitely been thankful for a week off! I needed the rest I have gotten this week!

Teacherpayteachers.com is having a Cyber Monday sale, and I have decided to participate. Check out my store to check out my sale (details below!).

ALL of my store is 20% off today and tomorrow! See the image below for a special code to get an EXTRA percentage off!

Getting my own bucket filled

I've mentioned that this month is bucket filling lesson month at my schools. I really love this lesson, and the kids at my schools have taken to it so well! A few are stopping me in the hallway to tell me they are filling buckets. I start my lessons each month with kindergarten, so I'm starting to get into my older babies (4-6). These kids get to fill out cards for friends. I encourage them to fill out a card for someone who isn't their best friend, or for someone they think may not be getting their bucket filled often. They love doing this! I have to cut each class off. Almost all of them want to keep filling out a card! I make sure to tell them they don't need a special card to do this and that they can do it anytime they want. Several students choose to fill their teachers' buckets, and a few even filled my bucket!

It truly did fill my bucket to get these from my students. I hope they retain this skill and continue to do it after this month's lessons are over.

Veteran's Day

I just want to brag on one of my schools. My larger school put on a Veteran's Day celebration yesterday and our kids did fantastic! The kids invited community veterans and did a little program for them. We had a great turnout from the veterans. There was a skit and a couple of poem readings, the school chorus sang. There was a moment of silence in honor of the passing of the county's oldest vet, who passed away on Saturday, and they were all respectfully silent! It was at the very end that I was the most proud of them. The program finished by all the kids singing "God Bless the USA," and all 800 of them were singing and doing the motions our awesome music teacher taught them. There is a point where they were supposed to stop singing. I cannot express to you how amazing it is to hear 800 kids stop in unison. Many of our teachers and several veterans were crying by the end of the song. They did great and were so well behaved, and I'm so proud of them! 

After the program, the veterans were treated to hamburgers or hot dogs from the cafeteria and an American flag cake. The veterans were very appreciative of the whole thing. I love this idea one of our third grade teachers came up with! It teaches our students to honor our veterans as they deserve and shows our veterans how much they are appreciated. 

Did your school or any classes at your school(s) do anything special for Veteran's Day? I hope you have a wonderful Veteran's Day!

Anger

Like I always tell my students, we all get sad and mad, but sometimes we need help dealing with our sad and mad feelings. 

Here are a few strategies I use for angry kiddos:

• I use pinwheels. You have no choice but to breathe deep when blowing a pinwheel. And my pin wheels are like industrial strength! I found these on clearance at Target at the end of the summer. Sometimes I even struggle to blow them! 
  
• I use beads and pipe cleaners to make a countdown tool. Counting down from ten, or even up to 10, can help them get a hold of their strong emotions. This is a tangible way for them to count. 

• I have a pool noodle I cut into small pieces to use as a stress ball, first mentioned here. Such a cheap and easy way to get a stress ball! Sometimes it even sounds like bubble wrap to me!

• I use the anger management puzzle. This puzzle has nine different strategies for kids to use to calm down when they are angry. The file will also come with instructions and an explanation for each strategy. It might be good the first time to play with the pieces turned over and talk about them one by one as the student flips them over. Or you could discuss them as they assemble it. I like to ask which is their favorite and what makes it their favorite.

These are my go-to favorite anger strategies. What are yours? What do you use with your students?

Bucket Filling Activities!

As I mentioned in my last post, I love the book about being a bucket filler. I know many teachers already use this book in their classrooms, but I use it as a kindness lesson for all of my kids K-6. As promised, here are the activities I do with them after reading the book: 

1. For kindergarten, writing can sometimes be a challenge for them. So, I give them the page below that allows them to draw a picture of how they could fill a bucket. I encourage them to think specifically about something they could do today. Sometimes students this age struggle with the concept of an invisible bucket, so I always clarify they know what invisible means. After reading the book, we do the drawing. I always follow up telling them to draw one way they will fill a bucket today by saying to draw something nice or helpful they can do for another today.  

2. For first-third, I have two writing activities. Which one I use depends on the level of the kids in each class. Sometimes first graders struggle with a complete sentence, so I have a sentence starter version for these guys where they can complete the sentence to say how they will fill a bucket today and then draw a picture of it.If they are able, I like to give them the page with just sentence lines on it. I try to encourage their academic skills whenever I can, so I do prefer to have them write the sentence themselves if possible. This page also has a spot for drawing pictures. I wish I had taken some pictures of some of the drawings I've seen so far! Some of them really are fantastic!

   

3. For fourth through sixth, I like to have them fill buckets right there in class! They use these cards to say something bucket filling to a friend. I always proof these before returning them to the teachers. Sometimes they say hurtful things

meaning well. I let them do as many as they have time for or want to do. Many of them have great ideas! 

For this lesson, I also try to teach about good compliments. They know saying someone's shirt is pretty is a compliment, but I encourage them to focus on something about the person. What is cool about them as a person? What thing is that person good at that they respect or admire? What do they value in the other person? Superficial compliments are good, but this kind of compliment is even better I think. 

All of these activity pages are available in a pack you can find in my TPT store. :) 

So, what do you think? Will this work with your students? Have you done bucket filling before? If so, what are your activity ideas?

Bucket Fillers

Whew! Things have been so crazy at my schools I've hardly had time to stop! This month my classroom lessons are about kindness. I'm using the book Have You Filled a Bucket Today? by Carol McCloud.

I love this book! I use it will ALL of my kids, K-6. The book is a little young for 5th-6th grade, but the lessons is good for them. It gives a great example of filling up another person's invisible bucket with good thoughts and good feelings about themselves, and that empty buckets leave us sad and lonely. People who dip into buckets also feel sad, but can't fill their own buckets by dipping into another's. I'll try to do a post soon on the activities I use with this book in my lessons!

What books/activities do you like for teaching kindness?

New Activity Available on TPT

I am working with a student who has had a loss at one of my schools. I created an activity that can be used to talk about the memories this child has of the person she lost. There are four boxes for different memories of the person lost that can be written or drawn in, so this activity will work for any age.
Check out my TPT store to see more about this item or to purchase it.The download includes a black and white copy in addition to the color copy shown below.

Worries

I mentioned in this post how I made my "Worry Boxes." I love these and think they are good for kids.

Here's how it works, when students are worried about something, they can come and leave worries in the worry box. The can write it down or draw a picture of it. Then they fold it up and drop it in the worry box. Putting it in there symbolizes letting it go. It helps them visualize putting the worry away. 


As I mentioned in my DIY decorating post, I used Modge Podge to put scrapbook paper on these.  The words are just printed off the computer and are also modgepodged on. However, a friendly tip, regular Modge Podge doesn't work very well with printed on copy paper! The ink bleeds a little, so these you may want to Elmer's glue or tape on. These are just boxes I had laying around the house! One was a gift box and one is a shoe box. I keep one in both offices. 

I've also seen some people turn boxes or tissue boxes into "Worry Monsters," which is another great tool for anxious students. For this one, just decorate the box to look like a monster that "eats" worries. 

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For students that have a lot of worries, I like to pair the use of the Worry Box with the book "Is a Worry Worrying You?" by Ferida Wolff and Harriet May Savitz.
Find this book on Amazon.
After reading the book, I have the student put the worry in the box. But this book has some other ideas for dealing with worries, so it is a good door opener to other things students can do with worries. We all worry sometimes, but worries don't have to take over our lives!

These are just a few things I do for worried/anxious students. What activities do you like for worried kids? What works well with your students? I'd love to hear more ideas!

Decorating your office on a dime! (Part 3)

This is the third and final post on decorating an office on a dime. See the other two here and here. This post has a few DIY tips for decorations!

1. Signs
You can make your own signs! I had a sweet supervisor in internship give me one made with a cricuit. I liked it so much, I made another one for my other office! There is a photo of my sign at the bottom of this post. You can make signs for anything. Quotes, messages, etc. The board my sign is made out of is a chalkboard sign, which you could use for a sign you want to change a lot. I have seen many of the boards my sign is made from in the school halls for teacher doors. 

2.Cricuit
If you have one or know someone who has a Cricuit, your options are endless! You can use them for signs, as well as for decorations. I have seen people use it to brighten up filing cabinets. I used my mother-in-laws to make the buckets I got on clearance at Walmart pretty. I also used it to put my initial on one of my fake flower vases to give it some color.  

3. Modge Podge
Modge Podge and pretty scrap book paper can also be used to bring life to anything in an office. Both my filing cabinets have some pretty paper modgepodged on. You can also put these on any boxes you use in your office.

I also used Modge Podge to make "Worry Boxes." I took an ordinary box and modgepodged scrapbook paper on them to make them pretty. 













4. Free Printables
I found TONS for free printables online! I mentioned in my last post that I bought frames from the Dollar Tree for these. For someone like me who isn't very artistic and can't make my own pretty posters and doesn't want to spend money on them, putting a free printable in any size you'd like in a frame is a great way to get art up on the wall. Pictures of my free printables are below. They are all from Pinterest. Just search for free school printables or inspirational signs. 

5. Where is the Counselor?
I know some people that have made a white board pretty to say where they are. Some really awesome counselors even make a themed picture to let the kids know where he or she is. I opted for using a wheel with several locations on it. If you are computer savvy, you can make signs like this one for where you are (as well as for wall decor). If you aren't computer savvy, I have several premade ones like mine in my TPT store. You can also pay a little more and get an editable version to make it unique to you and your job. 

You can find more about the big confidentiality poster on my wall here. It was probably the most expensive purchase for my offices, but probably my favorite!

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That's the end of my tips, at least for now! Are there any DIY things in your office? I would love to hear what people more creative than myself come up with! 

Decorating an office on a dime (Part 2)

In my last post, I started talking about my tips to decorate an office cheaply. Last time I covered free things. I mean, who doesn't love free stuff?
This post will be all about cheap options for a cute, professional office decor. Free is awesome, but cheap is the next best thing!

Today's tips: 
 1. Yard sales
You can often find some great deals on kid items such as toys and furniture at yard sales. There is a huge yard sale that goes up one of the major highways in my town. The weekend of this just happened to be a week or two after I was hired for my position. I went and was able to find quite a few things for school (and plenty for me too!). I found several small toys for sand trays, stuffed animals, and dolls. I also saw some kid furniture that was very decently priced, but it was either not going to fit in my office or was still a bit out of my price range. 

2.  
This is a GREAT places to get many things for an office for very little money! I got storage containers for sand toys and my calm down tools, frames for the free printables I found on Pinterest, two bags of stones for decoration (these also double as worry stones!, a memo board for my smaller office, and a pool noodle that I cut up to use as a stress ball.

 
In these pictures you can see part of both my offices at both schools. My frames are on the one on the left, and my sand toys and calm down toys are on shelves on my desk.  I also keep my "worry stones" in the black bucket with the colored dots on it.















3. Clearance/bargain sections
I found lots of cool things in bargain and clearance section. Sometimes you find really good deals near the start of school or just after the start of the school year. I got the black bucket I mentioned above on clearance at Walmart. Actually, I got four of them on clearance. I found pinwheel on clearance at Target at the end of summer in the garden center. Target had adorable Dr. Seuss posters in their bargain section when the school stuff was out.  You can sort of see my Dr. Seuss posters on my wall in this photo.

4. Other ideas

• While I didn't use them, storage ottomans are a great idea. They are $17-18 at Walmart where I live and they are great for an office, especially a small one. The double as seating and storage. 
• Rugs are also a great way to decorate an office, especially if you have time. Sometimes you can find great deals on rugs. Big Lots may be a place to look for a cheap rug. Car rugs are also great for play therapy. That's yet another thing I was blessed to have donated to me! 
• I was also given stick on wall decorations. These are cute and super easy, and also not terribly expensive I believe. My sunflower and penguins are my wall stickers. 
• Fake flowers! I bought some fake flowers at Hobby Lobby that were 50% off to add a little happy color to my office. I think they look great. I put my in jars I had at home already. These can be incredibly inexpensive when bought on sale.

What cheap ideas do you have for decorations on a dime? Where did you find deal? I have one more post in this series, and it's a DIY one! Be on the lookout for it!