Go Out and Be Gritty!

After attended the positive psychology session at the TCA conference this year, I came back and changed the last 6 character traits of the year. I had stuck to the normal 9 respect, fairness, responsibility, cooperation, caring, courage, trustworthiness, dignity, excellence, and citizenship for the last 2 years. Now I changed the traits, not because these 9 traits are bad . . . because honestly they are not at all, in fact if one human could have all 9 of these traits they’d be a hero, but I changed the traits because I teach all boys.

Mix it up, Fix up!

It’s that time of year again! What time of year you ask? The time of year when the boys start jumping all over each other’s nerves. It’s that time between parent/teacher conferences and Thanksgiving break when the boys are so comfortable with each other that they begin wondering how far they can push each other before someone loses it.

What Does Self-Respect Have To Do With Group Norms?

This year I became an adivsor for our middle school boys. I know it sounds crazy, but as a school counselor in a PreK-8th grade school, I hadn’t been permitted to work with our middle school students until this year. Remember it’s a year of change and I LOVE CHANGE!

Would You Rather?

Would you rather  . . . game for all ages.

Puzzles

Have I ever told you how much I LOVE puzzles?

Not Your Average Name Tag

I’ve been doing a lot lately with helping the boys appreciate each other’s differences. I wanted to give them a chance to see some positive things about their classmates and communicate these through praise and compliments.

And because I was on a lack of creativity, I called this lesson . . . .

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.

It Hurts

What does it mean when someone says, “That hurt my feelings?”

A lesson from Jellybean Jamboree for my Kindergarteners.

Working Together with Legos

So, I have this lesson that I used with 4th grade, it was so fantastic that I decided to do it with 3rd grade. . . not so fantastic. So . . . take that as a warning before attempting to adapt this bad boy for younger grades. I guess you could say that this lesson comes with a disclaimer!

A Modern Game of Concentration

It’s been quite a while since I’ve posted one of my lessons. Be assured I still am actually quite busy and have not stopped guidance lessons, small groups, or individual sessions (which I’m sure it seems – but do not fear, I am not over here with my feet kicked up, eating Bon Bons in my room). I will once again blame homework and Grad school for taking every last spare second of my time these past few weeks.