September 15, 2014:

I have really enjoyed getting to know the kindergarten, first, and third grade classes! We are already off to a fantastic start! Here is an update on what your students have been learning in their guidance lessons. A few themes we have discussed are the importance of identifying and expressing feelings appropriately, listening, teamwork, and friendship.

The kindergarteners have been studying feelings and how to identify what others are feeling. In our first lesson, the kindergarteners identified happy, sad, angry, and scared feelings. They then completed a worksheet where they drew faces of each of those feelings. I saw some great artwork! In the first and third grades, I did an introductory lesson and explained the role of a school counselor. I then got to know the students by having first grade draw a picture about themselves while third grade filled out a ”My School Counselor is…” worksheet (shown below). It was great to get to know each of the students better!

This is the worksheet 3rd graders completed after our introductory lesson!

For our second lesson in kindergarten, we read the book, The Way I Feel by Janan Cain. After reading this book, it was the kindergartners’ turn to act out feelings. I discovered that our kindergarteners are great artists AND actors! In the subsequent lessons for first grade, we learned about being a better listener and a better friend. We read the book, Arthur B. Wigglebottom Learns to Listen by Howard Binkow and played several games of Simon Says to practice our listening skills. We had a lot of fun with this! In third grade, we talked about teamwork. We did a fun teamwork activity where the third graders got in groups of 4. They had to work together to draw a picture with just ONE marker for their entire group. They quickly realized the importance of sharing and working together!

Here is a drawing from the teamwork activity! Great artists!

For the third lesson in kindergarten, we talked about what it means to be a good listener. We read the book, Arthur B. Wigglebottom Learns to Listen by Howard Binkow and then colored a worksheet about listening. They are doing a great job improving their listening skills! In the third lesson for first and third grade, we read the book, Enemy Pie by Derek Munson and discussed what it means to be a good friend. The third grade students filled out a recipe (shown below) on how to be a good friend and the first graders made their own paper pies. We discussed that sometimes if we change our attitude, we might find a friend where an enemy once stood. This was a really fun lesson!

3rd grade recipe for a good friendship

1st grade paper pie example

Stay tuned for the next update J