Week of 5/6: FINAL Counseling Lesson
This week, we read The End and talk about our school memories with a Safari Snapshot activity. Students spend time reflecting on the year and sharing with their class.
Ask your child: What is your favorite counseling lesson from this year?
Week of 4/8: Growth Mindset
This week, we read Jabari Jumps and discuss what it means to have a growth mindset. Students share a time they had a growth mindset with the class.
Ask your child: What does it mean to have a growth mindset? When have you shown a growth mindset in 1st grade?
Week of 3/24: Emotional Regulation (Handling Worries)
This week, we read Worry Says What and discuss & practice ways to handle our big emotions and worries. This includes growth mindset and positive talk.
Ask your child: What is your favorite way to help big emotions?
Week of 3/3: Respecting Differences
This week, we read That's Not My Name and discuss what makes us unique and special.
Ask your child: What is something about you that makes you unique?
Week of 2/18: Career Exploration
This week, we watch Clothesline Clues and Jobs People Do and 100 kids share…. Students create a clothesline clue for the job they might be interested in and share with the class.
Ask your child: What is a career you might be interested in?
Week of 2/4: NSCW Activities
Check out the books and activities in honor of National School Counseling Week.
Week of 2/4: Kindness+Empathy
This week, we watch Ordinary Mary’s Extraordinary Deed and write about a way we can inspire kindness in our community.
Ask your child: What is a random act of kindness? Let’s brainstorm a random act of kindness we can do for someone else.
Week of 1/22: Circle of Control
This week, we read The Good Egg and discuss how to handle frustrations that are out of our control. Students create a list of coping tools to help them when they experience big emotions
Ask your child: What are some of the coping tools you can use when you have a big emotion to handle things out of your control?
Week of 1/6: Goal Setting OR Friendship (Teacher choice)
Goal Setting:
This week, we discuss what goals are and why people set them. We read Because and students practice setting a reasonable goal for the year.
Ask your child: How do you know if a goal is reasonable? What goal do you want to work on at home?
Friendship:
This week, we listen to You’ve Got a Friend in Me and imagine what it looks like to be a good friend. Students sort friendship qualities by ways to keep and ways to lose friends. Then, we read How To Lose All Your Friends and reflect on the positive friendship qualities we admire.
Ask your child: What are some positive qualities you look for in a friend?
Week of 12/2: Self-Confidence
This week, we read I am Enough. Then students list things about themselves that make them proud and draw a picture of themselves.
Ask your child: What are some things about yourself that make you proud?
Week of 11/11: Personal Safety
District Personal Safety Lesson
Ask your child: What would you do if someone tried to hurt you?
October 28-11/1: Healthy Choices Week
Here's the virtual classroom all students will have access to this week. Click around to see the videos, stories, and games.
Week of 10/28: Bullying
Using clips from various kid movies, we talk about the difference between being mean, rude, and bullying.
Rude- doing or saying something on accident that hurts someone else
Mean- doing or saying something on purpose that hurts someone else
Bullying- doing or saying something on purpose that hurts someone else several times.
Students learn that bullying is when someone is mean (STOP-Several Times On Purpose) or one big incident. We also learn that the best way to fight bullying is to STOP it (Start Telling Other People) and spread kindness. Students learn how to report bullying on our campus (tell a teacher or parent, so that an administrator can investigate it).
Ask your child: What is bullying? What would you do if someone was bullying you or a friend?
Halloween Drug or Food.mp4October 21-25: Virtual Lesson Drug Awareness
It's Healthy Choices Week, also known as national Red Ribbon Week. Here is a quick virtual lesson that students will watch that explains what a drug is (anything that is not food that changes the way our bodies feel). Students will learn that it is very important, especially with Halloween around the corner, to ask an adult they trust before they eat candy or take medicine (or candy that is not in a wrapper).
Week of 10/16: Coping Skills (Mindfulness)
This week, we review the coping strategies we have discussed in class (breathing, count to 10, imagining a peaceful place/ people that love us, conflict resolution). Then, we learn a new strategy…mindfulness. We read the book “Magic Breath” and practice several different mindful and breathing activities. Last, we reflect on how our magic breath helps us feel and other strategies we use to cope with difficult feelings.
Ask your child: What is your favorite coping skill to use when you are frustrated/angry/sad/etc?
Week of 9/30- Managing Emotions/ Time to ACT
This week, we read The Blue Day Book for Kids and talk about people we can talk to if we or a friend is in trouble and feeling sad. We need to ACT (Acknowledge, Care, Tell) and find an adult we trust to help. We also review the 3 important parts of our brain.
Ask your child: Who is an adult you trust at home that you can talk to? Who is an adult at school you trust you can talk to?
Ignore, Walk Away, Take a Break.mp4Week of 9/23- Conflict Strategies: Ignore, Walk Away & Take a Break *Virtual Lesson*
This week, we discuss 3 more strategies for dealing with small problems.
Ignore- we ignore with our eyes, mouth, body and mind
Walk away- I can walk away and move to a new place
Take a break- wait and cool off to solve the problem when you are less upset
Ask your child: When might you ignore someone? When could you walk away? What’s your favorite way to take a break?
Week of 9/16- Conflict Strategies: Talk it Out & Apologize & Take Turns/Share
This week, we continue our conflict resolution series and discuss how to handle small problems on our own. We focus on 3 strategies: talk it out, apologize, and take turns/share.
Talk it out- let the person know how you feel and what you need. Say “I feel _______ when you ______ can you please _________?”
Apologize- Understand your part in it and say “I’m sorry” for what you did.
Take turns/ Share- Let others have a say and use things
Ask your child: Share an example of an I statement you can use when someone hurts your feelings.
Big Deals Little Deals 2022.mp4Week of 9/9- Big vs. Small Problems *Virtual Lesson*
This week, we discuss the difference between a small and big problem and what we can do about them.
Big problems are dangerous, make us feel scared, or someone is hurt. We need an adult to help us solve these problems.
Small problems make us feel annoyed, frustrated, or sad. These are problems we can handle on our own.
Ask your child: What's the difference between a big problem and a small problem? Who should you talk to when there’s a big problem?
Week of 9/3- Tattling vs. Reporting
This week, we learn about the "tattle snake" and the "get help goat" . We discuss the difference between tattling and reporting. You should report to a teacher when a person or property is or will be hurt. You shouldn’t tattle to the teacher/you parent if you are wanting attention or trying to get someone in trouble. Students sort situations and determine if it's tattling or reporting.
Ask your child: What's the difference between tattling and reporting? Give an example of a time you should report to your teacher.
Week of 8/19: Introduction to the school counselor
This week, I visit each class to talk more about what a school counselor does using the book Mrs. Joyce Gives the Best High Fives and how I can help students.
We also talk about 3 important parts of our brain (Prefrontal cortex, amygdala, and the hippocampus)
Ask your child: What does Mrs. Watkins do for students at school?
2024 Intro Video.mp4Week of 8/13: Video Intro
This week, teachers share the following video with students. It briefly describes the role of a school counselor, shares an office tour, and reminds students how to request to talk to Mrs. Watkins.
Ask your child: If you were feeling sad at school? Who could you talk to? How can you request to talk?
