Testing Monsters!

While my younger ones are getting a lesson on being responsible and doing their best at school, 3-6 is getting a lesson on testing. Our state testing is just over a month away. I'm trying to tell my students that they have really good teachers and they will be ready for this test. They aren't expected to get every question right. They just need to do their best and they will be fine! 
A fellow school counselor has a great lesson for this, which I have taken and adapted for my students. You can find a copy of her lesson here! And it's FREE! There are also really awesome book marks that can be printed and given the students. 

She uses Monsters University to talk about what scares us about taking a test, which is quite popular with at least my students right now. I do this lesson along with some basic study skills and test prep techniques. My kids REALLY love the monsters and I often hear them talking about their monster as I leave. I tell them we all have one and even share which monster is mine with them. Some of my teachers also volunteer this information too! 

 There is also a memory challenge in this lesson, which I use to show them how important it is to not wait until the last minute to study. If they take the time to look over material more than once, they'll know more for the test. She used objects, but I just used images in the Powerpoint for this. I give them 20 seconds to memorize as many of the 12 pictures as they can. Then they write down what they remember. We talk about boosting our memory, but also about this is how it is when you study. You only remember some of what you study most of the time, so you need to study a little at a time and not wait until the last minute!

I also try to make sure they know how much their attitude about how they will do really matters for their score. They can't think they will fail, or they might! We talk about giving ourselves a pep talk if we need one on the way to class!

One last thing I share with them is the power of writing down their worries to help them let go of those and focus on the task at hand. I have a slide with the following picture and I tell each class about my worry box. 

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!

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. 

-----------------

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!