4th Grade
- Lesson 1, Counselor Introduction: During the months of August and September I visit each child's classroom to introduce myself to new students and review my role as the school counselor. Students learn the process for seeking my assistance when they have a concern to discuss or a problem they need help solving. In grades 2-6 students complete a needs assessment to help me gather data to determine how to best structure to my counseling program for the school year.
- Lesson 2, Bullying Prevention: 4th grade students read the story Say Something by Peggy Moss to learn how ignoring unkind behavior can be harmful to peers. We discuss the difference between being a bystander, seeing unkind behavior and doing nothing, and being an upstander, seeing unkind behavior and saying or doing something. Students have the opportunity to brainstorm ideas of what they could say when they witness unkind behavior and create a classroom sign.
- Lesson 3, Peer Pressure/Refusal Skills: Fourth grade students discuss what peer pressure is and why it can be hard to say no to something that your peers want you to do. Students create their own "bag of tricks" they can use to say no to peer pressure situations. Then students learn a decision making model they can use when deciding if they want to engage in the behavior/activity their peers are asking them to participate in. Finally, students practice working through several peer pressure situations with a group.
- Lesson 4, Learning From Mistakes: During this lesson students take time to explore the idea of why it is okay for people to make mistakes. As a class we read the book It's Okay to Make Mistakes by Todd Parr and discuss how we can learn from our mistakes and how people tend to make mistakes when they are challenging themselves. Students then work in groups to learn about famous mistakes from history which led to new inventions and discoveries, such as chocolate chip cookies and post-it notes. Finally, students respond to one of three writing prompts about mistakes and create a classroom sign.
- Lesson 5, Managing Emotions: Students discuss how everyone feels sad, angry, worried, and upset at times. When we have these feelings there are certain activities we can do to help us cope with our feelings. Students learn that "coping" with feelings is a fancy way of saying that we deal with our feelings and do things to help us feel better. Students identify situations that might make them feel upset, sad, angry and worried. Students then learn about a variety of coping skills appropriate for their age group and have the opportunity to practice certain coping skills. In 4th grade students use the website Mind Yeti to practice mindfulness activities and calming breathing. Students then create their very own coping toolkit full of ideas they feel will help them when they feel upset.
- Lesson 6, Review & Assessment: The last few weeks of the school year are spent with students in grade K-6, reviewing their learning by creating posters as a class to show others concepts they covered through school counseling classroom lessons throughout the school year. Students also engage in age appropriate games and/or interactive assessments to determine how well they have learned concepts taught to them over the past year.