Spring Fever

If your school is anything like mine, March is a LONG month.  March tends to be the time when students decide they are tired of school, tired of each other, and spring break is still three weeks away.  I have found that the main issues that keep me busy are girl relational aggression and general conflict so I decided I needed to be as proactive as possible and confront the problem head on.  My co-counselor and I put our heads together to plan "friendship refresher" lessons for all second thru fifth grade students. I found a lesson for second grade on teachingtolerance.org , a site that I use fairly often when I need lessons on diversity or friendship topics.  The original lesson was shared by a teacher in Oregon (great collaboration!) and can be found here.  I tweaked it to fit my needs as all educators do and ended up with a fun 35 minute lesson.

I started off with one of my favorite friendship books for the primary grades,  What's the Recipe for Friends?

 

Then, I moved to a Smartboard lesson I created that had images of cooking tools and ingredients. The students reviewed the book, and I checked for comprehension by having them share what ingredients Freddy had needed to make friends at his new school.  After brainstorming, I asked the students what other recipes they liked to follow at home, and they quickly named brownies, cookies, and PIZZA as common examples.

Earlier in the week, I had called around to several pizza stores to try and get pizza boxes donated for this lesson, as well as future ideas that may come up....after all, what child doesn't get excited when he sees a pizza box?!  Papa John's was happy to help me out (shout out!), which I really appreciated. 

 

The students and I discussed the basic ingredients needed for pizza:  crust, sauce, and cheese/toppings.  We related each part of the pizza to friendship skills that would help them make AND keep friends all year long (this was also on a Smartboard page).

Crust = Friendly thoughts that give you the right attitude to make and keep friends

Sauce = Friendly words

Cheese/toppings = Friendly actions

Then, the students got to make their friendship pizzas in teams and write their own ideas of thoughts, words, and actions on the paper pizzas I provided.  For second graders, I would suggest brainstorming ideas for each of the categories together before breaking into groups so the activity will not take as long. I also created examples and put them in envelopes in case a team got stuck during the activity.  We shared ideas that the teams brainstormed themselves once the pizzas had all been picked up (by me!) for delivery.

The kids seemed to love this activity and will see a reminder of their "friendship pizzas" each day when they go up on the second grade bulletin board in their hall.

Happy counseling!

Angela

Liberty and Learning For All!

Hello! I have been on an extended absence since I switched schools and got used to a new routine, but I am ready to start blogging again!  I thought it was only fitting to start with a celebration post....a celebration of school counselors!  I wanted to share what I did to celebrate National School Counselor's Week last month. My co-counselor and I decided to create a treat for all the staff at my school and created tags that looked somewhat like this:                                   
                              Happy School Counselor's Week 2013

 

Angela     Amanda     YOU

Thanks for being our THIRD MUSKETEER!

We printed the tags on blue paper and used fancier fonts, layouts, etc. but the gist is there.  We attached each tag to a fun-size Three Musketeers bar and put one in each staff person's box, which the staff seemed to enjoy as a beginning of the week treat.        

In order to incorporate our students, we also decided to do a classroom activity to celebrate school counseling. I drew a huge puzzle on bulletin board paper and then cut out the puzzle piece by piece, numbering the pieces on the back so I would remember how the pieces fit back together.  I then gave each classroom a puzzle piece and asked students to decorate it with pictures of things they had learned during guidance lessons, words they would use to describe the school counselors, or any other decorations.  After receiving the decorated puzzle pieces, I created this bulletin board.

                     

The kids pass by this bulletin board each day in the main hall and always make comments about which piece they worked on in class.  You can see more detail on a few pieces here:

                                                                              

 

It's great to be back!       
Angela

From Air to Sea....Back to School

This school year is bringing big changes for me.  I have moved schools for the first time in eight years, and although I am staying in the air with my new mascot, a STAR, our theme for the year is "Riding the Wave to Success".  In between setting up my new office, introducing myself to new staff, and getting to know the policies and procedures that accompany any school change, I found out I was in charge of a string of bulletin boards on one of our main school halls.  I must admit that even though I LOVE being creative and consider myself artistic, bulletin boards are not my forte.  However, I happened upon some fantastic luck when I realized my neighbor had some decorations at her house from a summer activity that would work with my school's new theme.  I thought I would share some of the pictures, and I will add more this week so you can see the details more closely.  The wide view does not do them justice, in my humble opinion.

Ocean themes can be used in lots of different ways at school so you might be interested to know that the fish are made from plastic 2-liter bottles that were spray painted and decorated.  The jellyfish are garbage bags spray painted purple, filled with paper, and tied under the head.  I also stapled on green art supply store sea grass and some sea flowers made of feathers and green straws.  The effect of the boards all together side by side is fantastic!  Throughout the year, the board with "Caught You" will recognize the students from each grade level classroom who earn the character trait award each month.  The "Going Fishing for Good Character Board" will remind students of the different character trait words, and the "Swimming Along" board will highlight classroom work that is created during classroom guidance lessons.

 

I also have a "Rainbow Fish" bulletin board in my new office that reminds students of prosocial behaviors and showcases some more of these great ocean decorations. I will share those photos ASAP along with all the ways I hope to make the transition to my new school go smoothly!  Until then, I hope everyone's first few weeks of school go "swimmingly".

Angela