The goal of weekly classroom guidance lessons is to provide a space for students to learn about emotional regulation, friendship, conflict resolution, careers, stress management, goal setting and much more! Here is what we are learning about in the final months of the school year.

November

Grades 3-5: We are going to start the month of November with a lesson about our circle of control. The idea behind the circle of control is that our energy, attention, and focus should be on the things we can control (such as my thoughts and attitudes, my choices and responses, how I take care of my feelings, how I treat others, and what I say). Sometimes students (and honestly we as adults too) get caught up in what they cannot control (such as other peoples' choices, what other people say, things that have already happened, rules/expectations from authority). When we get caught up in what we cannot control, it leads to worry, distress, and struggle. Our lesson will focus on what we can control and the strategies and tools available to us within that control, as well as how to navigate those things that out of our control. Ultimately we can rest in knowing that God is in control.

We will then launch into a new unit about having a growth mindset. We'll compare and contrast a fixed mindset vs. a growth mindset, how our brain literally grows when we learn from mistakes and face challenges, having grit and resilience, the power of yet, and setting SMART goals. For a brief overview of having a growth mindset, you can click on this link to view a short video. As Christians we know God sometimes calls us to hard things and to persevere. We also have the perspective that our failures and challenges not only help us grow, but also show us how much we need God.

Grade 6: We are going to have a different focus for our sixth grade students during the month of November in CGL. We're going to dive into our personalities and how God uniquely created us by taking a simple personality test. This will set the stage for a discussion about our personality strengths and weaknesses, and how our personalities can compliment or conflict with others. We'll then shift our focus to strategies we can use when we encounter those personality conflicts with others.

October

For the first part of the month of October, we will wrap up the units we began in September. In third grade, we will finish discussing what it means to be a social detective and how we can use the power of observation, reading context, and interpreting clues to give them tools and choices as we interact with others. In grades 4-6, we will be wrapping up our discussion of executive functioning skills. In 4th grade we focused on the skills of task initiation, attention, and self-control. In 5th grade our focus has been time management, planning, and organization. In 6th grade we have addressed time management and priorities. While executive functioning skills continue to develop into our 20's, students should have walked away from our lessons with some tools and strategies in these areas.

The month of October is National Bullying Prevention Month. We believe it is important to address bullying prevention at LCCS, however we think that is even more important to impress upon our students the why behind it. Our lessons this month will focus on our identity in Christ and how God created us with a purpose. We want our students to see their value in who God made them to be but also value others as God made them to be. To address bullying prevention, we will also explore different kinds of bullying, how we can change if we are bullying others, how to respond if bullied, as well as how we can be upstanders, or those who stand up for others. 

September: Social Detectives and Executive Functioning Skills 

Third Grade: During the month of September our third grade students are going to be exploring what it means to be a Social Detective. The social world is a big, complicated place! We are all social detectives as we observe, gather, and make sense of the clues in different social contexts (settings, situations, and the people in them) to figure out the hidden expectations (sometimes called hidden rules) for expected behaviors, as well as to understand how we each feel and think about what others say and do in a situation. The main goal is to teach students the power of observation, reading context, and interpreting clues to give them tools and choices as they interact with others.

Grades 4-6: During the month of September, our upper elementary students will be learning more about Executive Functioning Skills, which are the skills in our brains that help us accomplish daily tasks, work through challenges, and meet goals. Executive function is housed in the pre-frontal cortex of the brain which continues developing into our early 20's. Executive functioning skills grow and develop over time and with practice. Each week we will dive into a specific skill (ie. planning, organization, attention, working memory, task initiation, self-control, metacognition, and time management) to learn more about that skill and strategies to improve that skill.

August - Welcome Back!

The beginning of the school year is a time to reset and begin anew. In our classroom guidance lessons I will give the students an overview of my role as their school counselor, what they can expect from me, and how we can connect. We will also review the Zones of Regulation and coping skills that we can keep in our toolboxes for those moments that we are not in the green zone. 

A Theology of Emotions

At LCCS, we believe that emotions are a gift from the Lord, but that they do not govern our lives. Emotions serve as -

Signals - Emotions can be signals because they show us what we value; what is important to us. 

• For example, if it is important that things are fair and that people follow the rules, cheating might make you upset. So if you are playing GaGa Ball and someone doesn’t go out when they should, you might feel angry. Your anger shows that you value fairness and think that cheating is wrong.

• Another example would be if it’s important to you to be a good friend, and someone says: “You’re mean! You’re not my friend anymore!” you might feel sad and hurt. This shows that you value being a good friend. 

Activators - Emotions can also be activators - they motivate us to act. 

• For example, if you watched the Operation Chrsitams Child video about poor children in other countries, you may have felt sadness and compassion - these emotions may have motivated you to fill a shoebox of things to send to a child in need! 

• Perhaps your little sister is starting Kindergarten, and you feel worried that she may feel nervous or scared. Your worry or concern could motivate you to offer to sit by her on the bus and walk her to her classroom on the first day of school. 

Connectors - Emotions can be connectors - they can help us connect with God and with others. 

• For example, if someone you love is very sick, you may feel worried and scared. Your fear may remind you to pray to God during the day. It may motivate you to read special Bible verses, reminding you that He is with you and helping you experience His comfort. In this way, your emotions help you connect with God.

• Emotions can also help us connect with others. Imagine that your friend walks into school with a sad look on her face. You ask her if something is wrong, and she tells you that her pet died yesterday. As you remember what it felt like when your pet died last summer, you might feel sadness and compassion - you share in this sadness with your friend, offering to comfort her by giving her a hug, playing with her at recess, or sitting by her at lunch. In this way, your sadness and compassion connect you and your friend closer together. 

God created you, every part of you, and giving you emotions was a part of His creative design. Because He is the one who made you, and because Jesus came to earth and experienced life as a human being with emotions, there is no one who better understands how you feel than God. A favorite verses in the Bible tells us to “pour out our hearts” to God (Psalm 62:8) - He wants us to share our feelings with Him. He wants us to use our emotions to show us what’s important, to activate us to do good things, and to connect to others and to Him. 

Zones of Regulation

As beings created in the image of God, we experience emotions. However, God did not intend for our emotions to control us. He instructs us to be discerning of our emotions, self-controlled, and to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit (Jeremiah 17:9, 1 Peter 5:6-11, Galatians 5:22-23). Emotional regulation helps us to recognize our emotions, identify the source, and at times, submit those emotions to God. At LCCS we use an emotional regulation tool called the zones of regulation. The zones of regulation help us to categorize how our brains and bodies feel into different zones. When we understand how our brains and bodies feel, then we are able to learn how to use tools to better regulate ourselves.