Lessons

School counseling Lessons

As the school counselor, I teach guidance lessons once a week in each classroom. These lessons are centered around topics such as feelings, conflict resolution, friendship, inclusion, bullying, careers, and empathy.

I have included some examples of real lessons that I teach students at Carrie Martin below for you to review if you are interested!

Second step curriculum

For the upper elementary grades, I utilize some literature that is developmentally appropriate, as well as utilizing the Second Step Curriculum. This curriculum is approved by Thompson School District and covers the same topics in more detail for older students.

3rd Grade

In this lesson, students learn about the power of making mistakes. We discuss how making mistakes helps us learn and helps us grow!

4th Grade

This lesson talks about managing emotions and using strategies to help us calm down. Students expand on their learning by doing partner work with scenarios.

5th Grade

Students are given an opportunity to set goals for themselves, and this lesson allows them to dig deeper to determine what is important to them. They work towards these goals over a period of 2-3 weeks.

K-2 Curriculum

For the early elementary grades, I utilize the power of books and read stories related to the topic we are discussing. This is typically followed by an activity that expands on their learning. I will also use school appropriate videos to reinforce concepts and allow students to participate in various modalities of learning.

We learn about the concept of "filling someone's bucket" by being kind and helpful toward others. Students will expand their understanding by drawing ways they can fill another's bucket at school.

We talk about our feelings through the zones of regulation curriculum. The zones allow students to recognize and name how they are feeling in the moment. We follow up with talking about strategies we can use to help us feel better when a big feeling arises.

Bullying is an important topic to discuss with students, and I use age appropriate literature to teach young students about this subject. After students learn what bullying is, they will expand on their learning by drawing ways to be kind and help others who are experiencing bullying.

An important SEL topic for students is inclusion! Students will learn that they are unique individuals with many positive qualities, and that being different from one another is something to be celebrated. Students get to show off what they love about themselves through this activity and express who they are.

Leader In Me

Our main focus is on being a Leader In Me school, and this is the social emotional curriculum that is most commonly understood by our students. When I am teaching my lessons, I will incorporate our Leader In Me language. For example, I may pose questions like "what would a win-win solution look like?" or "why is it important to put first things first?" Building consistency around this language allow students to connect their social emotional learning to their leadership mindset.

For the younger kids, I will typically read a short story from the 7 Habits of Happy Kids and do a follow up activity related to the habit. For example, tracing before coloring (in Kindergarten) to demonstrate Habit 3: Put First Things First. For the older students, I will show a 7 Habits video from the Leader In Me website and students will get into groups to talk about how the habit was utilized. We may also do some role playing scenarios to show how to use the habit!

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