Last year, I found a great idea for introducing myself to my students. It worked so well that I decided to do it again this year! The original idea came from Wanda P., a school counselor on the ASCAScene web forum. (If you aren't a member of ASCA, I recommend it just for the discussion forum alone. It's been a lifesaver at times.) I use Mrs. Potato Head to introduce the various parts of my job as Elementary School Counselor. I bring her in a bag to each class and have the kids help me put her back together again. As I take out each part, we talk about how that part helps me do my job. I created a handout that outlines what we go over in class and serves as a coloring page that students can give their parents to let them know who I am and what I do, too! Click here to download a copy of the Mrs. Potato Head handout and lesson plan. NEW!!! Click here to download a copy of Mr. Potato Head handout and lesson plan. The kids love Mrs. Potato Head and I leave her up all year in my office to remind the students what we talked about in class. It's a great way to start the new school year!
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Engaging 'Meet the Counselor' lessons, and activities to introduce the roles of school counselors, social workers, and school psychologists to various grade levels.
6 tips to make recess an inclusive environment that helps foster social skills and friendships for elementary school students.
Teach your students emotional regulation skills while completing fun, engaging, interactive, and effective craftivities!
a delectable assortment of ideas, notes, resources, and experiences of a contemporary counselor
Have you ever thought of using pipe cleaners in your counseling program? Check out these 15 ways I use pipe cleaners with counseling.
Y/n gets a call from UA about a guidance counselor position, Thanks to her old friend All Might. She picks up and leaves her American life to start new. After the nasty divorce she just had she was determined to give up on her life and focus on her career. That is until she saw The teacher in class 1A.
Mrs. Waggoner can help you in all of these ways and many more! Tell your parents, grandparents, or teachers if you think you want to talk to your school counselor…or come see me in my office. I’m ...
I’m sure we’ve all been there. A girl or two is in our office crying their eyes out because of their “friend(s)” hurting their feelings in some way or another. Let’s face it, girls can be really mean. If it’s a group of repeat offenders, it can make you feel really helpless as a counselor. Sometimes it really is an innocent squabble between true friends that will figure itself out by the end of the day. That is best case scenario. You lend an empathetic ear knowing that they just need to get it all out and then they will feel better. Other times, it seems as if it is a constant dramatic battle that will only end when all parties involved decide to no longer be friends. That is worst case scenario. You are offering rock solid advice that seems to only temporarily help the situation. The Band-Aid you place on their friendship only keeps the peace for a day or two before some other friendship shattering argument takes place. The delicate balance between friendship and full blown diva style meltdowns can make a counselor who is expected to have all the answers want to pull their hair out. So why do some groups of friends behave this way? One word; frenemies. Some “friends” do hold true to the definition of this word through their actions. Friend: a person whom one knows and with whom one has a bond of mutual affection. The piece that is missing in these volatile friendship groups is the mutual affection component. These groups that find their way to our offices normally contain frenemies, not true friends. Frenemy: a person with whom one is friendly despite a fundamental dislike or rivalry. These friendship groups are full of girls who are secretly in competition with each other, girls who are not looking out for each other’s well-being or want to see their “friends” succeed. Frenemies are girls who act like they are friends but through their actions it is obvious they want to hurt or bring their friends down in order to feel better about themselves at their “friends” expense. How can we teach our young girls to spot a frenemy? How can we teach them to deal with frenemies or break up with toxic friends? As School Counselors it can feel like a helpless situation, how can we help? Here are six signs that can help you spot if a “friend” is actually a frenemy. 1. They are untrustworthy. They do not keep true to their word or keep your secrets safe. You can never be sure if they are loyal to you or have your best interest in mind. 2. They do not seem to care about your feelings. They do not listen to what you have to say, hurt your feelings often or aren’t there for you when you are hurting. 3. They are hurtful behind your back. When you are not around, they are not a true friend. This could include talking about you, spreading rumors, laughing at your expense or not standing up for you. 4. They are not there for you when you need them. When it really counts and you truly need their time or support, they are nowhere to be found. When you really need a true friend to be there for you, there are not there. 5. They discourage you and bring you down. When good things are happening in your life or you need a supportive shoulder to lean on, they do not shower you in positivity. 6. They are unfriendly a lot of the time. Your feelings are often hurt, you’re doubting yourself frequently, and you aren’t happy around this person. When you really sit down and think about it, they just aren’t that nice to you. Here are five steps to dealing with a toxic frenemy: 1. Recognize that the friendship isn’t working out. Take time to decide if this person is a friend or a frenemy. Look back at the six statements above and decide if your “friend” meets those six criteria. If they are a true friend, try to solve the problem that is making the friendship not work, if they are a frenemy, move forward with these steps. 2. Think about if you want to end the friendship. Is there just a temporary problem? Are you happy in this friendship? Do you want to continue this friendship? If you answered no to these questions then you may want to seriously consider ending the friendship because it isn’t good for you. 3. If you do decide that you may want to end the friendship, talk to the person directly. Tell them exactly how you feel about their actions towards you. Be true and tell them exactly what isn’t working for you in this friendship. Either give them a chance to change and work on how they are in your friendship or be honest about wanting to end the relationship. 4. Prepare yourself for them to not take the news very well. It is hard to hear that you aren’t being the best friend or that someone doesn’t want to hang out with you anymore. Be ready for them to say something that isn’t the nicest. 5. Once you’ve said what you have to say and have dealt with their reactions, move forward with life and try to find new people to form healthy friendships with. As School Counselors, the best thing we can do is be there to listen to our students and hear their concerns. At times it may seem like trivial problems, however to the kids these problems are their entire world at the moment. We have to take them seriously. We should listen, be compassionate, try to help them problem solve on their own and know when to remove ourselves from the situation. Unfortunately, sometimes there is nothing we can do with girl group drama. We can’t help those that don’t want to help themselves. We can do peer mediation, small groups, guidance classes, individual counseling; sometimes even that isn’t enough. After we’ve done all that we can, if the girls aren’t willing to/can’t work out their differences but still want to be friends, as School Counselors we have to let them figure it out on their own. After a certain point, we have to empower them to make their own choices and deal with their interpersonal issues as they see necessary. Stay Connected: Follow Me on TeachersPayTeachers Follow Me on Facebook Follow Me on Instagram Follow Me on Pinterest Click here to read about my Girl’s Group Small Group plan, or you can download your own copy HERE. Check out my Boy's Group on my BLOG or TpT
For the first classroom guidance lesson each year I share with students what my job is as a SCHOOL counselor, (more details on that later!) ;) procedures/expectations for the 'counseling cottage' that align with the school PBIS motto (that our school R.O.C.K.S.), and most importantly how to request to come and talk. I share with students that I'm an adult that cares and want to hear about good AND not so good things going on in their life. I do this to build rapport and to let students know that I'm not just someone that listens/helps with their problems- I want to hear about their successes too! In every classroom there is an envelope with "I would like to see the Counselor" slips in them. I inform the students that during NON-instructional time they can fill out one of the slips and either 1. give it to their teacher to give to me or 2. put it in the envelope on my office door. I also share with the students that if they have an emergency (that involves safety, them or someone else getting physically hurt) to NOT fill out a note. If they have an emergency, they need to tell their teacher or another adult that they have an emergency and need to see the counselor right away. We then work together to make sure they see me or my co-counselor that day. As you might imagine, the notes certainly pile up but we make sure to get to everyone as soon as we can. It's a great way for students to self monitor their needs and to know they have an objective adult in their life they can trust. It's also a great way to 'advertise' ourselves to students- sharing with them what our role is. Early in the year we also give teachers referral forms to use when they have a student they feel would benefit from seeing us. At the end of the lesson we do a 'getting to know you' activity with my infamous 'thumb ball' the kids LOVE it and ask to use it often. Some students have even asked where I got it so they can get one! It's a great tool to use to get to know students, as an icebreaker, and even as an incentive for following classroom procedures and finishing the lesson with extra time remaining! When meeting with the young students we are a bit more creative with our approach and how we share what we do. To do this and keep the students engaged, we compare ourselves to Mrs. Potato Head! We ask the students how we are like Mrs. Potato Head and they certainly give creative responses. :) Then we go into detail about how our job and what we do is comparable to Mrs. Potato Head, for example we have ears to listen to students, hands to 'lend a helping hand' when students are in need of help or to give 'high fives' to celebrate successes with them, the glasses are to help students see more clearly and gain a different perspective to the problem they have, the purse/bag is full of tools and ideas to help students work through their problems, etc. The students really get into it and it also allows students to take turn and celebrate differences (i.e. what one student might select for the hat might be different from another student). I've also heard of counselors using a beach bag of tools that relate to their job, you can even use a beach ball and add questions to the different sections much like the thumb ball. Another way we advertise our comprehensive program and all the components of our job, while also letting people know where we are is through our "Where is the Counselor" door sign. I made the apple sign my first year as a counselor and used library pockets to demonstrate where I was in the building. Since it's one of the first things I made as a counselor, it means a lot to me and it has traveled with me to every school I've been at. When I was split between two schools I wanted one for my other office so I made a fish and used Velcro to show where I was in that building. It's now in the safe possession of my co-counselor.
Engaging 'Meet the Counselor' lessons, and activities to introduce the roles of school counselors, social workers, and school psychologists to various grade levels.
Teach students calm down strategies by playing the domino calm down game. Reinforce the calm down strategies with various classroom activities and visuals.
It can be difficult for young students in grades 3-5 to navigate relational aggression, implement boundaries, and form healthy friendships. Students struggling with healthy friendships and frenemy-like behavior may benefit from a small group intervention that explicitly teaches the skills. Starting at a young age, our students can display frenemy-like behaviors. Frenemies say they are ... Read more
Enduring some teasing is a part of growing up. We all had to go through it and all have had teasing that was meant to hurt as well as teasing that was done in good fun. The mean teasing is easy to identify, it hurts us and leaves a lasting impact. Playful teasing can lighten the mood, or it can be misconceived and seen as rude. It is all about who says it, and how it is said. Kids are sensitive and sometimes what is meant to be friendly, light teasing, can really hurt their feelings. I’ve been noticing that a lot with my third graders this year. They are so quick to say that they feel someone is being mean or that they are being bullied, when in reality there is just a bit of teasing going on. I decided to teach my kids the difference between mean teases and playful teases in hopes of cutting down my peer conflict and bullying requests. The main question I wanted them to ask themselves before visiting the complaint department (aka my office) is: Are they laughing at me or laughing with me? To accomplish this, I taught a thirty minute lesson to each class where we read Tease Monster by Julia Cook, reviewed key terms, played a fun sort game and completed an independent activity sheet. We started by reading Tease Monster by Julia Cook (click here to check out my Amazon affiliate link). I absolutely love her books. In third grade, most teachers don’t have comfy rocking chairs and reading mats, I displayed the book on the overhead and made sure all students could see. After we read the book, I used these posters to review the difference between mean teases and playful teases. We talked about laughing with and how it is different than laughing at. We reviewed the mirror test and talked about how before we tease think of how we would feel if someone said it to us. We then “feed” the monsters. I’ve got to tell you, the kids were cracking up at this part. Using two paper bags, I created two situation sort containers. One was for mean teases, the other for friendly teases. Students pick a card, read it out loud, and then drop into the mouth of the appropriate monster depending on if they think the situation describes a friendly tease or a mean tease. Some of the situations could be taken as mean or friendly, depending on how the person it was said to, takes it. In these situations, I had all of the students give me a thumbs up if they would perceive the tease as friendly and a thumbs down if they would take it as a mean tease. This showed the class how sometimes what we mean to be friendly can really hurt someone’s feelings. It was a good visual to show that we have to be careful of the words we use. After we finished with our sort, I passed out the activity sheets as a way to check for understanding and ensure all students were not only listening but understand the concepts. There are two different versions of the activity sheets so I was able to differentiate instruction to an extent. I have to admit, my third graders have been understanding each other a little bit better since I did this with their grade level. I definitely have had fewer kids in my office telling me about teasing. Download your own copy here! Check out other ways I've used this resource here. Let's Connect: Follow Me on TeachersPayTeachers Follow Me on Facebook Follow Me on Instagram Follow Me on Pinterest
Teaching students the difference between good choices and poor choices is crucial, especially at a young age. Making sure that students can make good decisions for themselves helps in countless ways as they grow older. I like to use a variety of tools to get the ideas across for my little guys. I especially enjoy this activity with second and third grade students. At this age, they really like to cut, glue and complete hands on activities. It’s a bit harder to keep their attention when we are just talking, they need something highly interactive. I like to use these two activities to keep the conversation flowing, the lessons learning and the good choices coming. I usually complete these over the course of two separate sessions. Activity #1: Good Choice Puzzles Students cut apart the good choice or poor choice puzzle pieces. They separate the pieces based on if they think the situation is a good choice or if they think it is a poor choice and place the puzzle pieces in the appropriate spots. They glue the pieces in place and can then step back and admire their completed worksheet. Activity #2: Good Choice vs. Poor Choice Cut & Glues Much like the puzzle activity, students start by cutting apart their pieces. They then pick up each piece one by one and decide if that situation would be classified as a good choice or a poor choice. Once they make their choice, they glue the piece in place until all 20 situations as snug in their proper spots. After completing these two activities, students are sure to have a clearer understanding of the difference between a good choice and a poor choice. Download your own copy of Good Choice vs. Poor Choice Cut & Glue HERE! Let's connect: Follow Me on TeachersPayTeachers Follow Me on Facebook Follow Me on Instagram Follow Me on Pinterest
Teach students the keys to healthy friendships with this interactive small group intervention. Ten weeks of lessons plans and materials.
Flipbooks have seriously become my new obsession. They are so quick and easy to use in the moment. A student came into my office the other day, mad as can be. He could not tell me why he was so upset or where the anger was coming from. He didn’t want to focus on any ... Read more
A list of job options you have as a special education teacher (outside of the traditional classroom setting), given the skills you possess as an educator.
Leader in me Lesson Plans School Counseling Blogs 7 habits
Tod Munn Is A Bully. He's Tough, But Times Are Even Tougher. The Wimps Have Stopped Coughing Up Their Lunch Money. The Administration Is Cracking Down. Then To Make Things Worse, Tod And His Friends Get Busted Doing Something Bad. Something Really Bad. Lucky Tod Must Spend His Daily Detention In A Hot, Empty Room With Mrs. Woodrow, A No-Nonsense Guidance Counselor. He Doesn't Know Why He's There, But She Does. Tod's Punishment: To Scrawl His Story In A Beat-Up Notebook. He Can Be Painfully Funny And He Can Be Brutally Honest. But Can Mrs. Woodrow Help Tod Stop Playing The Bad Guy Before He Actually Turns Into One . . . For Real? Autor(es)Shulman, MarkData de edição01/01/2010Paginas234IdiomaInglês AmericanoCondiçãoNovoRBNLivrosEditoraRoaring BrookInformações complementaresGêneroInglês e Outras LínguasISBN-101596434171ISBN-139781596434172
Hurray! We are back in school and back to making music! This week my students learned how to do the newspaper dance. We started with a section of the paper, unfolding it and laying it flat. This was our "dance floor". Students then could dance in their space. Before we started, each group decided what they considered to be "dancing". Most groups said that to be dancing you had to move your arms and legs in some fashion. And so the dancing began... Now, as fun as that was...it was just getting started. Next, we stepped off the newspaper and folded it in half and stepped on again. After a while, students had to move in very creative ways to stay on the newspaper. We had a great time defining "dance", practing making the fraction 1/2 and movin' and groovin' to some great tunes. With older students we created math sentences like "We are standing in 1/8th of the space that we started on." Some of my favorite tunes to use with this activity: "I Like to Move It" by Crazy Frog "Thank God I'm a Country Boy" by John Denver "Get Jiggy Wit It" by Will Smith "Happy" by Pharrell Williams "Best Years of Our Lives" by Baha Men "The Twist" by Chubby Checker "Goofy Goober Rock" by Spongebob "Walk Like an Egyptian" by the Bangles "Everything is AWESOME" from the Lego Movie "Boot Scootin' Boogie" by Brooks and Dunn Are you looking for movement ideas for that first week of school? How about ribbon dancing? You can create really inexpensive ribbons or streamers with plastic table cloths and pencils (or chopsticks or dowel rods or something of similar size. Check out THIS blog post to learn how to make them. Then check out these: This collection includes cards with pictures and cards with word prompts to use with your students. Pass out your scarves, ribbons or streamers and start the music. Then hold up the cards and let students choose how to interpret them. I also love to use other sets of movement cards that don't always have one correct way of being interpreted. I have several sets of Freeze Dance and Creative Movement cards that you might be interested in.
Teaching students the difference between good choices and poor choices is crucial, especially at a young age. Making sure that students can make good decisions for themselves helps in countless ways as they grow older. I like to use a variety of tools to get the ideas across for my little guys. I especially enjoy this activity with second and third grade students. At this age, they really like to cut, glue and complete hands on activities. It’s a bit harder to keep their attention when we are just talking, they need something highly interactive. I like to use these two activities to keep the conversation flowing, the lessons learning and the good choices coming. I usually complete these over the course of two separate sessions. Activity #1: Good Choice Puzzles Students cut apart the good choice or poor choice puzzle pieces. They separate the pieces based on if they think the situation is a good choice or if they think it is a poor choice and place the puzzle pieces in the appropriate spots. They glue the pieces in place and can then step back and admire their completed worksheet. Activity #2: Good Choice vs. Poor Choice Cut & Glues Much like the puzzle activity, students start by cutting apart their pieces. They then pick up each piece one by one and decide if that situation would be classified as a good choice or a poor choice. Once they make their choice, they glue the piece in place until all 20 situations as snug in their proper spots. After completing these two activities, students are sure to have a clearer understanding of the difference between a good choice and a poor choice. Download your own copy of Good Choice vs. Poor Choice Cut & Glue HERE! Let's connect: Follow Me on TeachersPayTeachers Follow Me on Facebook Follow Me on Instagram Follow Me on Pinterest
Use this interactive fishing activity as a school counselor introduction lesson to teach students about your roles and responsibilities
These seven activities for social-emotional learning and growth are the perfect craftivities for elementary students to learn new skills.
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Teaching students the difference between good choices and poor choices is crucial, especially at a young age. Making sure that students can make good decisions for themselves helps in countless ways as they grow older. I like to use a variety of tools to get the ideas across for my little guys. I especially enjoy this activity with second and third grade students. At this age, they really like to cut, glue and complete hands on activities. It’s a bit harder to keep their attention when we are just talking, they need something highly interactive. I like to use these two activities to keep the conversation flowing, the lessons learning and the good choices coming. I usually complete these over the course of two separate sessions. Activity #1: Good Choice Puzzles Students cut apart the good choice or poor choice puzzle pieces. They separate the pieces based on if they think the situation is a good choice or if they think it is a poor choice and place the puzzle pieces in the appropriate spots. They glue the pieces in place and can then step back and admire their completed worksheet. Activity #2: Good Choice vs. Poor Choice Cut & Glues Much like the puzzle activity, students start by cutting apart their pieces. They then pick up each piece one by one and decide if that situation would be classified as a good choice or a poor choice. Once they make their choice, they glue the piece in place until all 20 situations as snug in their proper spots. After completing these two activities, students are sure to have a clearer understanding of the difference between a good choice and a poor choice. Download your own copy of Good Choice vs. Poor Choice Cut & Glue HERE! Let's connect: Follow Me on TeachersPayTeachers Follow Me on Facebook Follow Me on Instagram Follow Me on Pinterest
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This is NOT my original idea! I've seen a few versions of bead glyphs around on the internet and I've adapted it to fit into my own classroom. This is such a fun activity for the first day of school and it helps students to break the ice with their classmates! Using a glyph sheet, the students place beads on colored string according to their interests and facts about themselves. (To save on time, I do tie the string to the key rings before this activity!) The kids really enjoy using their glyphs to get to know their classmates and then they have a nice keepsake to hang on their backpacks for the rest of the year! Here are the printables for this activity!
After seeing a Calm Down Kit on pinterest, I decided to make my own, inspired from "The Autism Adventures of Room 83." This blog c...
Want to teach Social Emotional Learning Skills in Morning Meeting but have no time to plan out the lessons? THIS RESOURCE IS FOR YOU! These Morning Meeting Slides and Printable Resources will guide you through TWO WEEKS worth of Morning Meeting Lessons to teach your students all about Emotional Zones and Regulation Strategies. Each day is simple but meaningful and should take 10-15 minutes to work through as a class. WHAT'S INCLUDED? 60 Daily Slides for displaying and teaching lessons to the class. Slides are broken down by day and are made in Google Slides. You can download them into PowerPoint if desired. Slides include videos, discussion questions, and work pages Book List Recommendations Emotion Zone Posters Emotion Zones Anchor Chart Printables Daily Lesson Plan Outline complete with suggested materials for each of the 10 days in the unit 2 Printable Activities to pair with the Slide Lessons. Printable items provided in PDF (non-editable) form. FOLLOW ME FOR MORE TEACHING IDEAS ON: INSTAGRAM TIKTOK PINTEREST READ MORE ON THE BLOG JOIN MY EMAIL LIST
