I Got behind! Parent Teacher conferences were last week and that is usually about the time I start getting behind! I apologize for the delay in blog posts! I have now switched to working with 3rd through 5th graders and we began by talking about Friendship last week. In third grade we took a Friendship Voyage on the smart board learning important lessons about making and keeping friends. In fourth we learned How to Lose All Your Friends and discussed the qualities we look for in friends and what qualities we should posess as friends. The kids had fun with a friendship word find competition as well! In Ms. Stewart's fifth grade class we talked about how sometimes we might be friends with people who make us uncomfortable. We read the book Sorry! and learned the difference between sincere and insincere apologies. We discussed the difficulties that come along with wanting to feel "cool" and making good choices. I only took 1 picture that week! Here, Ms. Tedrow's class works on thier friendship word find.

This week we have moved on to talking about feelings. In 3rd grade we are discussing worries and how we can sometimes make them worse when we dwell on them. We are reading Is a Worry Worrying You and the kids are designing their worry monsters and thinking of creative ways to get rid of their worries. In 4th grade we talked about how most of the time when we are worried about something it is because of a problem. We discussed how some problems are "Rock Problems" and some problems are "Clay" problems. Things like not getting your homework done, or having a poor attitude or fighting with a friend are clay problems. You are in control of them, you have the power to change them etc. One's parents getting a divorce or what teacher you have or where you live are examples of rock problems. No matter how much we think about them, worry about them or wish they were different we do not have the power to change or control those problems. Instead we must find ways of coping with them and leave our worries behind. We read Wilma Jean the Worry Machine and learned how to take control of our worries. In fifth grade we talked about anger. We read the book Soda Pop Head and learned that anger is usually a secondary emotion and underneath it often is a fear or a worry. We learned some ways we can keep our cool and not blow our tops when we get angry. The children wrote about taking a "mental vacation" and thinking about a relaxing environment/ daydream to get them through angry moments.

Great books to use for worry and anger!

 

3rd graders drawing what their "worry monsters" would look like and how they would get rid of them

 

5th graders making a list of "mental vacation spots" and drawing their favorite one

 

Last week flew by because we did not have school Friday. I headed to the Missouri School Counselor Association's fall conference in Tan-Tara over the weekend and returned to school today and knew I needed to catch up on our Counseling Corner! This year I was asked to present at the conference so that was a bit different than my typical experience. While I was not presenting,  I enjoyed learning about many important issues school counselors and students face and have returned feeling a renewed energy and passion for our Midway eaglets:)

Here's what happened last week!

All grades were working on Problem Solving and learned the Stop Think and Choose model. Each class had separate activites including coloring their own reminder sheets for Stop Think and Choose.

 

Here is a picture from Kindergarten

 

Here is one from first grade with my Practicum Student explaining the steps to Problem Solving.

I didn't get a photo from second grade or Ms. Lenz's fifth grade class this week.  Shame on me. 5th Graders had actually earned a celebration for good behavior so they watched a video and will learn about problem solving this week. On Monday, November 11, I will be switching to grades 3-5 and will have Ms. Stewart's 5th grade class (Lenz's will switch to Media Center). I will include a photo of the staff after the fall parties on Thursday last week. Hope you all have been appreciating the Autumn beauty lately!

Have a great week!