We have continued to talk about bullying this week in our kindergarten guidance lesson. I started this week’s lesson by reading the book, Bully B.E.A.N.S. by Julia Cook. The B.E.A.N.S. stands for Bullies Everywhere Are Now Stopped. This is a fun and interactive book that teaches the reader how bullying happens and it gives the reader courage to stand up to bullying behavior. The bully in this story, Bobbette, is constantly making verbal threats to the students in her class. The reader quickly learns that Bobbette is learning this behavior from her older brother. The students in the story are able gain courage from bully beans (jelly beans) to stand up to Bobbette’s bullying behavior. This is a great story and a must-read!

In order to emphasize the severity of bullying, each student was given a contract to sign that declares Gracemor Elementary School a bully-free school. This contract holds the students accountable to their behavior and will be sent home with the students. I also have made copies of their signed contracts in case an incident comes up and the contract needs to be reviewed.

This is the Gracemor Elementary School anti-bullying contract, which will be signed and sent home with the students.

The students were given several opportunities to talk about bullying with a shoulder partner. I heard some great conversations about bullying! Have a fantastic week J

Brave, Bold, Kindergarteners

Since it is October, which is bully prevention month, we have been focusing on the topic of bullying. I began the kindergarten lesson last week by asking the students to define bullying in their own words. Many responses I received had to do with kicking, pushing, and hitting. The kindergarteners were surprised to learn that bullying is not just physical- it can be emotional and verbal as well. Many times students confuse bullying with teasing, conflict, and a mean moment. It was important to emphasize that bullying is repeated, intentional, and an imbalance in power.

In order to emphasize this point further, we read the book, Howard B. Wigglebottom Learns About Bullies by Howard Binkow. The kindergarteners loved this book and were able to point out all of the times the main character, Howard, was getting bullied. At the end of the book, Howard musters up the courage to tell his teacher. Once he tells his teacher, the bullying subsides. We then talked about the importance of telling a trusted adult (like a teacher) if they see someone getting bullied or feel like they are getting bullied.

The students colored pictures of themselves telling a teacher that someone is being bullied. I got this idea from schoolcounselingbyheart.com.

This is an example of what our kindergarteners colored. This picture is from schoolcounselingbyheart.com

This lesson incorporated the Missouri Comprehensive Guidance standard PS.3: Applying perusal safety skills and coping strategies and the American School Counselor Association National Standard (ASCA) PS: C1.6: Differentiate between situations requiring peer support and situations requiring adult professional help.

This week, we will continue our discussion of bullying. Have a great week! :) 

The Sneetches

For the past two weeks in first and third grade, we have been talking about the importance of respecting differences in others while also recognizing our own personal strengths and characteristics. I began the lesson this week by reading the book, The Sneetches, which is written by Dr. Seuss. This book brought up many topics including fitting in, treating others the way we want to be treated, and recognizing what makes us unique. At the beginning of the book, the star-belly sneetches think that they are better than the plain-belly sneetches. Toward the end of the book, however, the star-belly sneetches and plain-belly sneetches unite and realize that one group is not better than the other.

After I read the book in third grade, half of the students received a sticky note with a star on it. The students were told that if they had a star, it did not mean that they were better than a student without a star (much like the sneetches). All of the students formed a circle and I tossed a ball to a student with a star sticky note. I then gave one compliment to that student. That student then tossed the ball to a classmate without a star sticky note and gave them a compliment. This was done until each student received a compliment. Then, we went over how great it felt to give and receive a compliment. The third graders really excelled during this activity!

This is an example of the star sticky notes students put on their shirts during the activity.

In first grade, the students were given a worksheet and were instructed to complete the phrase, “I am unique because…” The students came up with creative sentences! After the students completed their sentence, they were able to color the sneetch. Once every student was finished, all students were given the opportunity to share what makes them unique.

This student wrote, "I am unique because I get darker [in the summer]."

This student wrote, "I am unique because I get the computer a lot."

Have a great week! :) 

A Bad Case of Stripes!

I have had a great time with first and third grade this week! Our focus this week has been respecting the differences of others and the identifying the students’ uniqueness.  I began the lesson by reading the book, A Bad Case of Stripes, which is written by David Shannon. The main character, Camilla, is afraid to tell others that she likes to eat lima beans in fear that she will get teased for being different. This book engages students and helps them realize that we are all different and have different likes but that’s a GOOD thing! The students were encouraged to brainstorm foods that they like to eat but that others may not. 

I asked the each student to create a class book, which displays all of the different foods they enjoy eating. During this exercise, the students picked a wide array of foods including carrots, fish, celery, peas, tomatoes, green beans, and broccoli.

This is the artwork of a third grade student who likes to eat carrots.

This is the artwork of a first grade student who likes to eat fish.

After each student was finished creating their page of the book, they were invited to color one stripe on the title page to resemble the main character’s stripes. Each class will get their book back so the students can see how many differences exist in one class. This was a really fun activity that we all enjoyed J

This is Mrs. Pullium's third grade class' title page. What great artists!

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