Respect: K-3

My last monthly lesson for this year is on respect. Many of my April lessons will be pushed into May with testing, and we have state required career lessons I am in charge of making sure each child gets, so April is it for me.

For my little ones, I use a great book for this lesson. It is Tacky the Penguin by Helen Lester. I LOVE this book. My supervisor in internship used it, and I just fell in love with this story of an odd bird that saved his friends! I use this to teacher our kids that everyone is different, and that was okay. Tacky was different, and it ended up saving his friends. We should be proud of what makes us unique as well as respect the uniqueness of others. I tell them what unique means. 

Then we do an activity based on grade level and ability. I use a coloring sheet of Tacky, a writing sheet where they write something unique about themselves they are proud of and draw a picture, or an alike/different Venn diagram comparison.

For the alike and different, I try to have the teacher pair up the kids so they don't end up with their best friends. I call out topics for them to discuss: favorite color, favorite sport, favorite food, etc., as well as natural things like eye color and hair color. They write different stuff in the outer part of the diagram, and things they have in common in the middle. After the activity, we process what they learned about their partners.

You can get my Venn diagram for FREE here in my TPT store. 

How do you teach your kids respect? Let me know! 

Have any questions about this lesson? Let me know!

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. 

Responsibility!

This month I'm talking about responsibility with my K-2 kids! 
I read them the fable "The Ant and the Grasshoppper" and we talk about working before we play, like the Ant did. We talk about what responsibility means and some ways we can be responsible. I tell them that school is their job and that it is the most important job in the world. It is more important than my job, their teacher's job, and the principal's job. That's why it is so important that they come every day unless they are sick and do their best because they are growing up to graduate. I love how my school system pushes graduation all the way from kindergarten!

Then we do a really fun activity. I give them a picture of a pig to color, who I call Wilburt. 
After they finish coloring, we go over some choices Wilburt has made and whether he was responsible or not. When he isn't responsible, we talk about what he could have done different. These examples of his choices are included in the pack in my TPT store!
This is a super fun lesson that the kids love and the teachers appreciate!

Click here to get the Wilburt activity!

Younger Bullying Lesson

This month we are talking about bullying at both of my schools! I've already made a post about my bulling lesson for 4th-6th grade, which you can find HERE. I really, really want my kids to know what bullying really means. We over use that word so much, so I'm determined to help them learn when it is real bullying.

Kindergarten-1st grade
I use the book Llama Llama and the Bullygoat for my smallest babies. After reading the book, we talk about the difference between mean kids and bullies. I tell them I want them to know the difference. Mean kids aren't a big deal and they have already learned some skills to help with that in Simon's Hook and in our tattling lesson. Then I tell them bullies are a big deal that an adult needs to help with. Then I explain the difference:

A bully is someone that:

• Hurts you over and over again. They hurt you every day.
• They hurt you on purpose.
• You are not being mean back to them.

I tell them that if they are calling someone a mean name back every day that it is NOT bullying. I give them some examples of mean kids vs. bullies and ask them to help me figure out which ones are bullies and which ones are mean kids. After that I give them a coloring page. 


2nd grade and 3rd grade
For these students, I use the book The Recess Queen. However, instead of reading it to them, I use a Youtube video of someone else reading it. Why? Because while someone else is reading the book, I take a piece of paper with a heart drawn on it and rip it every time Mean Jean bullies kids on the playground.
I stop the video at about 1:53 and we talk about what happened to my heart. I tell them this is what happens when we bully our friends. 
After this discussion, we finish the video of someone reading the book. Then we talk about what Katy Sue did that no one else had. We refer back to our bucket filling lesson and the activities we did and how bullies are bucket dippers, so they have an empty bucket. Katy Sue filled Mean Jean's bucket! And then Mean Jean wasn't so mean any more.
I also give them the same info about mean kids vs. bullies, and remind them that they learned how to cope with mean kids last month with Simon's Hook. 


Click HERE to get all the resources I use for K-3!

What fun things to you do to help stop bullying and teach kids about bullying at your school?

Happy National School Counseling Week!

Happy National School Counseling Week! 

I cannot believe how fast this came up! I wanted to have big plans for this week and to make this week a big deal. The person I replaced when I took this job did not do the best job of advocating for our profession and showing and telling our teachers what school counselors do. My staff has been so welcoming to me and all the new things I have brought. I wanted to have cards made or give out candy for my amazing staff, but time just got away from me! I did take the time to make a little thank you note for them though. You can find it in my TPT store. There are three per page and can be changed and edited to meet your needs. I only have access to black and white printing, but you can make it colorful if you have access to that.

Also, to celebrate this week, my entire store will be 20% off Tuesday, Feb. 2, through Friday, Feb. 5.

Are you doing anything for National School Counseling Week? I'd love to hear ideas for next year. Next year I'd really like to do something for my students too. Throw me some ideas, please!