Hello 2nd grade parents! I am so excited you are here! Please use this site as a resource to know what topics your child will be learning about throughout the year. Guidance is a special for 30 minutes every other week. We cover many topics throughout the year however, the topics always fall within academic, social/emotional, or career education. Your child would love to have conversations with you about many of these topics. To make this easier, I will always try to provide "extension questions" for each lesson to help facilitate meaningful conversations at home.
Our School Counseling program is both preventative and responsive. If you need to consult with me about any concerns you may have surrounding your child's school or home life, please feel free to contact me via email Tana.Amodeo@lcps.org.
In our first guidance lesson of the year, we reviewed the role of the school counselor by exploring Mrs. Amodeo's "School Counselor First Aid Kit". We discussed expectations for guidance this year, reasons to see your school counselor, and how to ask for help. We enjoyed sharing in our first circle of the year!
At-Home Extension Questions:
Handouts: Meet The School Counselor, Family Engagement Letter
In our second guidance lesson of the year, we used our imaginations to think about what school would be like without Pinebrook's "3 R's"....yikes!! We need to work together as a class and school community to be ready, respectful and responsible. We read the book, "What if Everybody Did That?" and each participated in a restorative circle to explore the cause and effect of our choices. We all agree we need the 3R's to keep Pinebrook a safe, happy, and fun place to learn!
At-Home Extension Questions:
We kicked off bullying prevention month by learning about the difference between conflict and bullying. Bullying is when someone hurts our body or feelings on purpose AND they do it over and over again. We also reviewed how to respond to bullying with "stop-walk-talk" (see above)... unless of course someone is hurt or in danger, we skip straight to step #3, talk!
At-Home Extension Questions:
We concluded bullying prevention month by learning what to if you see someone else being bullied. A bystander sees bullying and doesn't know what to do. An *upstander* sees bullying and chooses any of the 4 upstanding options to help: Be a buddy, interrupt, speak out, or tell someone! We watched the NED Show's Upstander video, linked above.
At-Home Extension Questions:
In our first guidance lesson this month, we learned about diversity, or differences...which are a good thing! Differences make the world an exciting place to learn. Some differences we can see on the outside, and other differences we cannot see until we get to know someone. To emphasize this point, we read and discussed "Red: A Crayon's Story" in a class circle. It is important to be true to yourself and treat others who are different than you with kindness!
At-Home Extension Questions:
As one of our 3 R's, we all know what it means to be responsible... doing our homework, cleaning up after ourselves, and paying attention. But what about taking responsibility for our choices and our mistakes? We discussed blaming others vs. taking responsibility and reflected on some of our personal experiences. We read "But It's Not My Fault!" and practiced changing blaming statements into responsibility statements.
At-Home Extension Questions:
In December, we learned and practiced a new coping skill called "mindfulness". Mindfulness is all about paying attention in a new way...paying attention to ourselves! When we are mindful, we pay attention to our what our brains and bodies are doing right now in the present moment. By taking deep breaths and thinking calm thoughts, our brain can spread a feeling of peace to the rest of our bodies! In this mindfulness activity, we used our imaginations and pretended we were in a snowglobe. We thought about people, places, or activities that bring us a sense of peace and calm, or "settle our snowglobes".
At-Home Extension Questions:
In this lesson we learned we all have a special superpower, the power to choose! We read a choose-your-own-adventure book, "What should Danny Do?". We read the book a few different times and made different choices along the way. We learned that even if things happen in our day that we don't like or seem unfair, it is ultimately up to us whether we have a good day (as long as we use our "power to choose" wisely). We completed a worksheet and reflected on a time we used our power to choose wisely, and a time we did not.
At-Home Extension Questions:
We are now halfway through the year and it is a great time to reflect and review! We played a jeopardy review game to ensure we all remember key points from this year. Question topics included conflict vs. bullying, how to be an upstander, stop-walk-talk, the role of the school counselor, and how to ask for help.
At-Home Extension Questions:
In February we discussed the importance of kindness in our school community. We read "How Full is Your Bucket? For Kids" and learned what it means to have a kind, bucket-filling moment. We reflected on how it feels to fill someone's bucket. We created our own buckets and came up with 3 bucket-filling examples. During the month of February, students are encouraged to complete the 28-Day Kindness Challenge (due March 13th). Participants will feel amazing for completing their acts of kindness, but will also receive an official kindness certificate and a chance to appear on the morning announcements!
At-Home Extension Questions:
We kicked off our career exploration unit by learning about SMART goals. SMART goals are specific (detailed), measurable (count-able), attainable (do-able/possible), relevant (important to you), and time-oriented (have a "due date"). We completed a sorting game/activity to ensure we can spot a great SMART goal when we see one! SMART goals are so important because they keep us motivated, set us up for success, and give us action steps to make our dreams come true.
At-Home Extension Questions:
In our second career exploration lesson, we read a true-story book called, "The Boy Who Never Gave Up" (a children's biography of NBA player, Stephen Curry). We learned how smaller SMART goals can help us work towards a big career goal. We identified SMART goals that Mr. Curry may have set as a student to work towards college and a professional career in basketball. (For example, "I will complete all of my homework assignments this quarter" or "I will practice basketball for 30 minutes each day this month".
At-Home Extension Questions: