Be a "Free Fish"

My friendship refresher lessons have continued into the upper grades as my co-counselor and I work hard to give students strategies to handle conflict appropriately.  I decided to use the book Simon's Hook, which I absolutely LOVE and use for classes, groups, and individual students.  There are so many variations of what you can do with this book, and I highly recommend it for any school counselor.

In second grade, I like to read the book to make sure the students fully understand the analogy of not biting the hook to the choice of reacting appropriately to teasing.  For third, fourth, and fifth grades, my co-counselor and I decided to switch it up and add a little more excitement with some You Tube videos, a fishing pole prop, and a visual reminder product the students could keep.  Also, I did some qualitative data collection with four classes that contain the majority of our self-referred and teacher-referred students (more on that in an upcoming post!)

To start our "Free Fish" lesson, we showed the following video on You Tube that my AWESOME co-counselor found.

 Then, I used my own fishing pole to assess comprehension and let the students summarize what we had just learned in the video about keeping control and power ourselves and being a free fish.  Students worked in cooperative groups to brainstorm hooks that they hear in their own classroom, at recess, on the bus, or in their neighborhoods.  After sharing some hook examples from each group on the Smartboard, I did some pre-teaching on the five strategies that Grandma Rose was about to introduce in the second video.  Then, we showed the second video.

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These videos are by far the best supplemental activities that I have seen for Simon's Hook, and the kids loved them! After reviewing the second video, I introduced the Free Fish Card to students (see below for a blank and completed example). We had students fill in the five strategies from Simon's Hook as well as other strategies we learned earlier in the year from our bullying lessons.  It was also a great time to review the times we automatically get adult help (bullying situations and any physical contact) since I had put that strategy in the middle of the card.

 
To end the lesson, we allowed students to practice being a free fish in an online quiz found here at the
Grandma Rose website. Each class "graduated" after handling five hooks appropriately. The best part is that the Free Fish Cards will continue to be a reminder to students of how to avoid biting the hooks their classmates may throw at them.  Students taped the cards to their desks or pasted them inside their agendas and teachers will be able to refer students to their cards if they hear insults or teasing in class. My hope is that we can all swim free between now and the end of the year!   Angela