This year has been such a strange one! While I am never happy to say goodbye to my school friends, I am especially excited about the possibilities that come with a new start next school year. I hope we can all: focus on the positives of this year and be grateful for them, learn from this year about creative new ideas to keep, and renew "old" ideas that were missed this year and appreciate their return. I hope everyone has a safe, rejuvenating summer and can come back in the fall with enthusiasm and joy!
K- Transitions. We reviewed changes and big feelings. We talked about coping strategies for dealing with those big feelings. Read The Night Before First Grade. Shared favorite things about kindergarten and things we are looking forward to about first grade.
1st- Transitions. We reviewed changes and big feelings. We talked about coping strategies for dealing with those big feelings. Read The Koala Who Could. 2nd- Transitions. We reviewed changes and big feelings. We talked about coping strategies for dealing with those big feelings. Read Don't Be Afraid to Drop. 3rd- Transitions. We reviewed changes and big feelings. We talked about coping strategies for dealing with those big feelings. Read Little Tree. Thought about things we learned in and want to remember about third grade. 4th- Finished up career stuff, then transitions. We wrote about things we have learned and want to remember about fourth grade, then wrote about things we want to work on to be successful in fifth grade. We finished up with a human scavenger hunt! 5th- Transitions. We talked about things we have learned in counselor class that will help us in middle school. We practiced opening combination locks then filled out a sheet about things we want to remember about elementary school and things we want to work on to be successful in middle school. K- Life Changes. We talked about big things that can change and how we feel about changes. We read Big Ernie's New Home and talked about coping strategies for dealing with the big feelings that come with change.
1st- Careers. Reviewed things that we like and do well. Read LMNOPeas and talked about the jobs in the book. 3rd- Careers. Talked about how our Multiple Intelligences connect to career paths and how knowing what we like and do well can help us pick a job. OR if we know what kind of job we want knowing our strengths and areas for growth help us know what to work on! We each got a slip of paper with a job on it and wrote the responsibilities, job skills, and why that job is important. We then compared and contrasted those parts of different jobs. 4th- Careers. Took an interest inventory to think about what we would like or be willing to do in a job. 5th- Careers. Used MO Connections to take a Career Cluster Inventory. The program showed us which career clusters we might enjoy and we researched a job in that area. K- Careers- talked about the things people need to do different jobs. Read Busy People and talked about what the jobs do or use.
1st- Careers- Read People in Your Neighborhood and guessed what the jobs were based on what they do. Drew pictures of a job they might want someday! 2nd- Careers- I handed out little cards pictures on them that represented a job. They found their partner by matching the pictures! The partners then worked together to answer questions about the job like why it is important and what school skills someone with that job would need. 3rd- Careers- Watched the video What is a Career Path? and discussed. 4th- Careers- We practiced researching careers by trying to find the world's WEIRDEST jobs! We shared what they jobs do, what education they need, how much money they make, and if we would want those jobs! 5th- Careers- Used the Missouri Connections website to take a "Reality Check" quiz. It helped us think about what kinds of things we want when we grow up and how much those things might cost! K- Careers- Talked about why people have jobs. What things do we like/not like to do? How do those connect to jobs? Read Berenstain Bears On the Job.
1st- Careers- Talked about why people have jobs. Shared some of our strengths and interests- those things can help us choose what we want to do! Read Berenstain Bears On the Job. 2nd- Careers- We are on a journey to a job! Listed things we have learned to do so far in life. Connected those things to the six career paths. 3rd- Multiple Intelligences- finished our survey/self-assessment sheets and talked about what they might mean and how we can use that information to help us set goals and grow! 4th- Careers- watched the video: What is a Career Path? that I typically show in third grade, but we didn't do our career unit last year so they missed it! :) Talked about the paths. 5th- Peer Pressure- Talked about what peer pressure is and how it can impact our character/reputation. After brainstorming a list of things we might be pressured to do in Middle or High School, we practiced how to respond in some of those situations. K- Friendship- Talked about ways to be kind friends to other people!
1st- Coping Strategies- We went outside to practice hands on coping strategies! We ran in place to get our heart rates up and talked about feelings that do that to us, too. Then we talked about using strategies to help us calm down when we have big or uncomfortable feelings. We practiced some classics like soup breathing and learned what I'm now calling "exploding potato breaths" :) THEN each friend got a bottle of bubbles to practice breathing in a big breath and breathing out loooooong and slow! 2nd- Coping- We talked about uncomfortable feelings and what happens if we make a good choice vs a not good choice. Then we talked about what happens if we do nothing: our feelings build up inside and either make us feel yucky or sick, OR we *explode* !! We did an experiment with a homemade volcano to show what that might look like :) We finished by reading Andrew's Angry Words. 3rd- Multiple Intelligences- We talked about how all kids are smart, they just have different areas of strength and areas for personal growth (things that are easier for them vs. things that take more work). We started a self-assessment to find out some of OUR strong areas. 4th- Time Management- We finished up talking about different tasks and how to schedules them and students practiced making a list of the things they do and putting those things into a calendar/schedule. 5th- no class this week due to MAP testing K- Learner skills: Reviewed learner skill. We talked about interrupting and what happens when we shout out instead of raising our hand and waiting to be called on. We read Interrupting Chicken. Then we discussed the difference between a question and a statement and practiced asking questions.
1- Life Changes: Discussed big changes that change our lives. Read We are Best Friends and talked about coping strategies for the big feelings that can come with change. Some classes had time to do some mindfulness with a guided imagery script. 2- Coping Strategies: We talked about how feelings can affect our bodies and increase our heart rate. We practiced some breathing strategies to calm ourselves including blowing bubbles! 3- No official lessons this week due to a conflict, but all three classes joined me together to do a lesson the students missed last year about coping with feelings. We talked about things that cause big, uncomfortable feelings and what happens when we keep those feelings inside instead of expressing them. Those feeling will either make us feel sick inside or come out all at once... BOOM! 4- Time Management: Talked about things we do regularly and sorted those tasks into three categories: scheduled have-tos, unscheduled have-tos, and want tos. We did an experiment to show what order we have to put things into our schedule to make sure we have time for everything we need (and want!) to do. 5- Character and Reputation: Who are we inside? What strengths do we have and what traits do we want to strengthen before Middle School? MS is an opportunity to show people who we are--what impression do we want to make and how do we do that? How do the people we surround ourselves with impact who we are an how we are seen (do they build us up or are they a bad influence)? K- Learner skills: reviewed what our bodies should be doing to learn. Talked about the steps to being a whole body listener and sang my listening song. Read Listen, Buddy!
1- Learner skills: reviewed what our bodies should be doing to learn. Talked about the steps to being a whole body listener and sang my listening song. Read Listen, Buddy! Played a game to practice following multi-step directions 2- Learner skills: Talked about the steps to being a whole body listener and sang my listening song. Played a game to practice listening, paying attention, and following directions. Kids each had a slip of paper with directions. They had to watch for someone else to do their action before they could follow their own directions. 3- Testing: Finished Tyler Tames the Testing Tiger and learned/practiced our notetaking skills by taking notes about the testing tips in the book. 4- Testing: Looked over our tests from last class, reviewed our test taking tips, and then tried ANOTHER test that required students to read the directions carefully :) 5- Testing/Organization: Reviewed our testing tips and took a practice test. We then talked about organization skills we need to be successful in Middle School. Gave them a handout with organizational tips (see below). K- Learner skills: We talked about what our bodies need to be doing to be amazing learners (feet/legs quiet, hands/arms quiet, mouth quiet, ears listening, eyes looking, raising our hands and waiting to be called on). We talked about WHY all these things are important and what happens if we do vs. don't do those things. We read Howard B Wigglebottom Learns to Listen.
1- Learner skills: We talked about what our bodies need to be doing to be amazing learners (feet/legs quiet, hands/arms quiet, mouth quiet, ears listening, eyes looking, raising our hands and waiting to be called on). We talked about WHY all these things are important and what happens if we do vs. don't do those things. Read I Just Want to do it MY Way and talked about steps for staying on task and asking for help when we need it. 2- Learner skills: We reviewed what our bodies need to be doing to be amazing learners. Read The Worst Day of My Life EVER! and discussed how to listen and follow directions. 3- Testing: Talked about the big feeling we can have about tests. Read Tyler Tames the Testing Tiger. Discussed how tests are just feedback- information to help us learn and grow and strategies to help us calm down and handle the big feelings that they can cause. 4- Testing: talked about test taking tips such as bring prepared, reframing our thinking about tests, being a good listener, studying day-by-day, dealing with nervous feelings, relaxing with deep breathing, positive thinking, pacing ourselves, and preparing our bodies with sleep, nutritious food, and rest, reading carefully, and checking our work. We took a "test" to practice using our skills to calm down and do our best. 5- Testing/study skills: We brainstormed together different testing tips and skills and discussed them. We used a flap booklet to record our ideas and as an example of a way to organize information to study! The AABBBBAA, etc. schedule the district has had us using for teaching was making it VERY difficult to tell you what your kids were learning! After Spring Break I am able to go back to a nice, "normal" days of the week class schedule and will be able to again post regular updates on our classroom lessons--This makes me SO HAPPY!! :)
I do want to let everyone know that I just finished the district's bullying prevention unit (except A days who will finish in the next two days). The curriculum we use is published by Second Step, the same company who published the social emotional learning curriculum that teachers use on Wednesday mornings. K-3 Lessons: 1 Recognize- Bullying is mean or hurtful, over and over, on purpose. It is unfair and one-sided and the target has not been able to get it to stop. There are LOTS of mean behaviors that are NOT bullying, but it's okay to ask for help with those situations, too. 2 Report- it is always okay to ask for help! This is NOT tattling. We talked about who to talk to and how to report to them. 3 Refuse- We talked about being assertive- standing up for ourselves in a strong, respectful way that makes the problem better not bigger. We discussed what to say and how to say it if someone is being unkind. 4-5 Lessons: 1 Recognize, Report, Refuse- We talked about what bullying is and what to do about it (see lesson summaries above for K-3) 2 Bystander Power- Bystanders are people who see or hear bullying happening to others. We discussed things these people can do to make the situation bigger or better. 3 Bystander Responsibility- Just like if we see something unsafe like glass on the playground that could hurt someone, if we know someone is being hurt by bullying we have the responsibility to do our part to help. The response depends on the situation and what feels safe. Helping might include standing up for the target, reporting to an adult, or supporting the target by being a friend. 4 Bystanders to Cyberbullying- We reviewed what they already know about dealing with problems on electronic technology (immediately down and dark, reporting to an adult). Then we discussed what to do if they saw bullying happen to someone else on an electronic platform. All lessons included video vignettes to illustrate the concepts for the students. |
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