A Healthy Amount of Curiosity Never Killed The Cat

Our 4th new character skill was curiosity. This one was especially hard to teach because so many students were taught that curiosity would get them into trouble. I had to reframe their thinking into remembering that curiosity leads us to learn new things. All learning starts when we are first curious about something. 

Everything is Awesome

Back in December, I switched my character skills to some that might have more learning potential than our original 6 traits that we practiced in the past. You may remember my post about this. We began with Grit, moved into Optimism, and then on to Zest.

Promoting Your Program Through Monthly Newsletters

I apologize for the throughly lame title to this post . . . but I honestly couldn’t think of a cute, witty title  . . . Don’t judge a book by it’s cover, I promise this will be worth the read!

Last year, I started writing up monthly newsletters for the parents. I wanted to promote my program, so they knew what their child was learning during “Character Education.” During my first year of counseling (as the first counselor at the school), I kept battling parents who were truly angry when they heard their child came to see me or that I went into the classroom to teach a lesson. They figured if their child saw the counselor then there was one of two problems:

1. Their child was spilling all the family secrets

and/or

2. Something was wrong with their child and he would come talk to me

and inadvertently, even though he was only 4, he would spill all the family secrets.

Fresh Start

I started my 3rd year as school counselor with a fresh new room (well really I just rearranged the furniture) and fresh new lessons.

I am extremely blessed to have such a large room to be working in, but at times (during these past two years) it turned into a race track. With no division of work space and play space, my computer area turned into a tennis court, with balls bouncing on the back walls.

I thought this year I would rearrange so that each different section of my room had a purpose.

The Misbehaving

Let’s back up a bit . . . let’s say 4 months? Picture yourself back in September (as painful as it might be for educators). You see although we might be deep into January 2014, my lessons are backlogged to September 2013!

In September of this school year, the boys were practicing responsibility. And for Kinders, this applied to responsible school behaviors. It’s a big responsibility jump from 4PreK to Kindergarten and these boys needed a few lessons to remind them of all that they are responsible for at school.

I introduced Responsibility to my Kinders and 1st graders by reading the book Paperboy by Dav Pilkey. It is a good example of doing what you are supposed to do even if you’d rather be doing something else.

Being Nice

It basically feels like forever since I have A. written a post and B. since I have talked about my Jellybeans.

One of the units in Jellybean Jamboree is all about friendship. I think the unit does a great job of hitting “hot” friendship topics and covers a wide range of how to be a good friend and how to deal with friends who are unkind. The unit discusses qualities of friends, sharing, being nice (kind words and actions), feeling left out, listening to each other, and being special.

Ornery Ordean, The Misbehaving Green Jellybean

Last year, I frequently talked about my Jellybean Jamboree. I used the Jamboree only with my Kindergarteners and it was a hit!

Kindergarten + Feathers = Fun

This is what happens when you combine 4 Kindergartners and 2 feather boas.

How Does Your Jellybean Feel Today?

Mine feels like it should be Friday . . . or summertime . . . or Friday during the summertime. Wishful thinking, right?

Well, sadly enough the Kinders saw Emotional Eugene for the last time last week. Surprisingly enough, they were SUPER excited to know who they were going to meet this week. I’m going to hold out on you . . . you will also find out in due time!

Boundin

I can only take credit for 3/8ths of this idea. The other 5/8ths belong to Marissa at Elementary School Counseling.

I used this lesson for Kinders, 1st, and 2nd graders (pretty versatile). The Kinders got the second part during their small group Social Skills lessons, while 1st and 2nd graders got it during their bi-monthly guidance lesson.