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 learned the process for seeking my assistance when they have a concern to discuss or a problem they need help solving. In kindergarten classrooms I read the book How Are You Peeling? by Saxton Freymann and Joost Elffers.We discuss how school counselors teach students healthy ways to express their feelings and students create their very own feeling faces!
Lesson 2, Friendship Skills/Bullying Prevention: Kindergarten students read the story Have You Filled a Bucket Today? by Carol McCloud to learn that they can be bucket fillers by showing kindness to others. We discuss how when we engage in unkind actions we can hurt other people's feelings and be bucket dippers, which we want to avoid. Then students illustrate their own picture of them filling a friend's bucket by showing kindness.
Lesson 3, School Readiness Skills: In kindergarten students read the story A Bad Case of Tattle Tongue by Julia Cook to learn the difference between tattling and reporting. Students learned the tattle rules, such as you need to tell an adult when there is danger. Students then are read different situations and have to decide if telling a teacher would be tattling or reporting. Finally, students had the opportunity to color their very own tattle tongues.
Lesson 4, Understanding Feelings: Learning how to recognize and identify feelings is a key skill kindergarten students need to practice. During this lesson we talk about what an emotion is and why it is important for people to recognize how they feel. To help us with this discussion we read the story The Color Monster: A Pop-Up Book of Feelings by Anna Llenas and students learn about happiness, sadness, fear, anger, and calm. Students then decided how a person might feel in different scenarios by sorting situation cards into five different feelings jars.
Lesson 5, Impulse Control/Managing Emotions: Kindergarteners learn that it is okay to feel angry, but it is never okay to hit anyone when we are upset. We watch an animated story called Howard B. Wigglebottom Learns It's Okay to Back Away, where the main character learns how to handle his anger. Students learn a song and dance to help them remember what to do when they feel angry. When students are angry they need to stop, back away, and do an activity to help them calm down.
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.