Bullying Academy

Web-shot Of: http://www.bullyingacademy.org/index.cfm

Recently, I received an email advertising the Bullying Academy.  This is a grant funded, web-based program for students in grades 4th-8th.  I decided to try it out with my 4th and 5th grade classes.  First, you have to register your school, and then each student registers and receives a user name and log-in.  For my first guidance lesson, I had time to explain what the academy was, help students log-in, and then take a "pre-quiz." The pre-quiz assesses what students already know about bullying.  That's as far as we have gotten so far, but myself and my students are very excited to pick it back up next week!

Once the students take their pre-quiz, they begin a series of lesson modules that include articles, information, and videos on what bullying is, why kids bully, what to do when someone is bullying you, and cyber-bullying.  The website has "follow along" worksheets for each grade level that the students can fill out while going through the lessons.  I know that this will be important for my students to ensure they read and not just skip to the videos!  After all the students have finished the lessons, there is a post-quiz to assess what they have learned.

My students are using Ipads to complete the Bullying Academy, and I think it will be a very engaging lesson and a new way of learning about bullying.

Positive Thought Thinking Caps

Today, I started talking to 3rd graders about preparing for our state tests.  They don't start until mid-May, but 3rd grade is the 1st year they take them, and they have to take reading, math, science, and social studies.  Unfortunately, this bring lots of nervousness and test taking anxiety, which we know can actually create lower scores.  So, that's where I come in.  I plan on doing a couple classroom guidance lessons on thinking positive thoughts, study tips, following directions carefully, relaxation techniques, etc.

Today's lesson was thinking positive thoughts.  First, we read and discussed "The Attitude Patrol: A Lesson About the Importance of Positive Thinking," from the book More Lively Lessons for Classroom Sessions, by Rosanne Sheritz Sartori.  If you click on the link to the book you can view it, as well as, a sample of the lesson I read today. Next, we brainstormed positive things the kids could say to themselves right before taking a test.  They came up with a great list (I can do it, be positive, I'm smart, I'm going to get an A+, all I need to do is try my best, relax).

Finally, we made "Thinking Caps."  Below is a picture.  They folded the large size construction paper into a paper hat and then decorated them with thought bubbles that included our positive brainstorms.  I also brought in lots of stickers they could use to decorate.  At the end of the lesson, the teacher collected them and agreed to pass them back out for their next test.  I truely believe that having their positive thought thinking caps on will help to improve their confidence and scores, hopefully!! :)

Please excuse the seal. He was just my model!  The kids LOVED these hats. I'd love to hear about other creative ideas you have for helping my 3rd graders with test anxiety.

Stranger Danger

Saturday a local headline read, "Police say man tried to enter a child's window at Roanoke County apartment."  You can read the article by clicking the link on the headline.  This was a very scary story where a man tried to reach in an unlocked ground level apartment window and grab an 8 year old little girl.  Luckily, the man ran when the little girl screamed. While we like to believe that cases like these are rare, it served as a reminder of the importance of teaching our children the potential threat of strangers and important safety tips.  So, this week in guidance 1st and 2nd graders got a good review of "stranger danger."

First, I had students tell me what they already knew about stranger safety and this created very good discussion. Next, I read The Bernstein Bears Learn About Strangers and we talked about a few more safety tips.

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To end the lesson, we started watching The Safe Side Stranger Safety DVD. It is about 40 mins long, so my plan is to finish the video next guidance lesson and follow it with some fun printable activities (see below).  Below is a picture of the video that I have. However, it looks like a new one was released in 2011.  My kids LOVE this movie.  It is hilarious, and they have GREAT safety tips for kids. You can also find lots of good resources such as lesson plans, safety week ideas, and printable activities for kids at http://www.thesafeside.com/downloads.html

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Book Fair Success

I apologize for the lack of posts this week.  We had our 5th grade writing state test, and this is my 1st year serving as Co-Testing Coordinator.  Needless to say, its been a crazy busy week! So, to reward myself for all my hard work, my sister and I took a trip to the Green Valley Book Fair, just south of Harrisonburg, Virginia. The book fair is about 2.5 hours away, but my sister is an Elementary School Librarian, and we are both obsessed with finding good children's books at affordable prices.  Here is a description from their website to give you a glimpse of just how great this book fair is.

Our Story...
Located just south of Harrisonburg, Virginia, in the heart of the beautiful Shenandoah Valley, the Green Valley Book Fair is a discount book outlet store featuring over 500,000 new books at incredible bargain prices. Save 60% to 90% off retail on over 30,000 different titles in more than 60 different categories - including fiction, history, health and self-help, children's books, religion, science, sports, cooking, home and garden, crafts, art, reference, nature and outdoors, and more. 

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Now for the fun part.....Here are the counseling books I bought:

 

These 3 books were hardback copies in GREAT condition for $5.75 or less.

I also bought Me First, Listen Buddy, Hooway for Wodney Wat, Hurty Feelings, and Batter Up Wombat, all by Helen Lester, in paperback for only $2.50 each.  The grand totoal for 8 fabulous books was only 28.00!  I'm very excited to use these books in the upcoming weeks during my guidance lessons. The kids are going to love them.  If you live anywhere near Virginia and are a book lover like me, I definitely suggest checking out the Green Valley Book Fair.

1st Career Cafe

I hosted my 1st Career Cafe on Friday, and it was a huge success! Thanks so much to Danielle at School Counselor Blog for sharing the idea of career cafes.  I know many of her readers have implemented this creative career initiative.  You can't tell from the pictures, but I had about 30 5th grade students come.

The man that came was extremely interesting.  He served in the Air Force for 4 years and then worked for 35 years with Aviation Week & Space Technology, the world's leading aerospace news magazine.  He spent 6 years working in Switzerland and France and manned bureaus in Washington DC, Geneva, Paris, Los Angeles, and New York City.  He served as Editor in Chief and Editorial Director of the Aviation Week group of magazines in McGraw Hill's New York World Headquarters for the last 10 years of his career.  He was able to talk to the students about being in the Air Force, learning to fly when he was 15, and both writing for and being in charge of a major magazine.  He also told amazing stories of all the planes he flew while researching them for the magazine.  His favorite flight was flying the U2.  He told the kids that it went so high he was able to see the curvature of the earth, the last layer of atmosphere, and the black of space from the plane.  He also had a picture of him and President Bush shaking hands.  The 5th graders were so impressed and they asked numerous questions.  It was awesome!  I highly suggest starting a career cafe program at your school if you haven't already.  You can read more about my career cafes here. How has Career Cafe worked for you? Who has come to speak?  Leave a comment and share.

Unique Snowflakes

Last weekend we had a wonderful snow storm...thus, we had a snow day on Monday and 2 hours late on Tuesday.  It was a fabulous break for both students and staff! The 5 inches of snow inspired this guidance lesson for 1st grade on Tuesday.

The goal was to teach respecting differences and valuing yourself for who you are.  First, I helped students realize just how many differences they had that made them special by playing a modified version of the game "Trainwreck."  The students sat in a circle on the floor with one student standing in the middle. The child in the middle says "I like people who (insert something that makes them unique, like wear glasses, like to swim, have freckles, love to read, etc..)  Any student who has that "trait" in common stands up and rushes to find a new seat while the students in the middle also tries to find a seat.  The last student standing is the next "it."  This game is fun for children and they also learn new things about their classmates.  We debriefed the game with a discussion.  I asked students if they learned anything new about a classmate, and we talked about how it is okay to be friends with kids who look different from us and like to do different things then they do.  The message was acceptance and our differences make us special.

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Next, in honor of our recent snow, we read the story Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin.  This wonderful book is about William Bentley and his life of photographing snowflakes.  Through his photography collection we know that no 2 snowflakes are the same.  Every one is unique and beautiful, just like my kiddos at school!  We ended the lesson by making snowflakes and I had the students share them when they were finished so we had another opportunity to celebrate how different they all turned out.  This lesson was very successful, because the students were so excited about snow and they love sharing information about themselves.  What other ways to do you teach self esteem and respecting differences?

Put-up Messages

During No Name Calling Week I wrote a post on a classroom guidance lesson where I had the kids write Put-up messages to each other. I wanted to show you the bulletin board I made to post their messages on.  The students love it because they get to search for their name and kind message, and I love it because the whole school can read 100 examples of Put-ups! :) It's a win win.

Helping A New Teacher Fit In Mid-Year

One of our 3rd grade teachers moved mid-year to a new position teaching reading and math to help decrease class sizes, so someone had to be hired to take her 3rd grade position.  As you know, this can be very difficult because relationships have already been built and there is not much time for community building during the middle of the year when everyone is in the middle of SOL lessons!  So, I tried my best to help Mrs. Valentine feel welcomed at Dudley by helping with this much needed bonding process with a classroom guidance lesson.  

First, I asked the students to raise their hand if they had ever moved to Dudley (meaning they did not attend school here since Kindergarten). Surprisingly, over half of the students raised their hand. Awesome! Empathy should come easier! :) We discussed how hard it is coming to a new school where you don't know anyone's name, or where the gym, library, bathrooms, etc. are. Then, I read them the story First Day Jitters by Julie Danneberg.  This story is typically read to younger students in Kindergarten or 1st grade and usually only at the beginning of the year, but it was the PERFECT book to help explain that teachers get nervous when they are new too.  The story is about a girl who doesn't want to go to her new school, because she is very nervous.  All the students think the girl is a new student, but at the end it turns out to be the teacher!

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Since I did this lesson on Valentine's Day, I included an activity that seems to be very popular. I cut out a heart from red construction paper and told students this is Mrs. Valentine's heart (our new teacher).  Then, I asked students what are some things that students could say or do that would hurt Mrs. Valentine's feelings?  After each response I crumpled a piece of the heart.  After the heart was balled up and in bad disrepair, I asked students what are some things they could say or do that would help Mrs. Valentine feel welcomed at Dudley.  After each kind response I straightened a part of the heart back out.  Finally, the heart started looking like a heart again, but it was still ripped in places and wrinkled, so we had a discussion about thinking before we say or do hurtful things, because even after apologizing and being kind it doesn't take away the hurt someone feels after you've been mean to them. 

Finally, I had every student fill out this All About Me Robot worksheet to help Mrs. Valentine get to know her students better.  The students liked this because they love sharing fun facts about themselves.  I created a bulletin board with a big robot on it and Mrs. Valentine filled it out with important stuff about her. Below is a picture of the board. All in all this lesson was very successful and it could be adapted for introducing a new student as well. 

 

Positive Frame to Promote Self Esteem

This is a wonderful idea to use with students to help promote positive self talk and build self esteem.  I made this frame as an example while one of my kiddos made one.  I put a picture of the student in the frame and she decorated it with cute foam stickers.  Then, we talked about some positive words/phrases she could tell herself when she is feeling down.  She wrote things like..."I'm popular," good singer," and "smart." She is going to put her frame in her room and look at it as a reminder for how wonderful she is.

 I bought foam frames from Walmart. They come 2/pk and cost about $2.50. I also bought foam stickers to decorate them with. This was such a simple, fun project that I think will have a long term impact on students who make them!

Take A Stand: 5th Grade Bullying Lessons

To capture my students’ attention at the beginning of the lesson, I had them pretend that they were doctors (or counselors) and I was a 5^th grade girl who was coming to see them because I’ve been so sad lately.  I said, “You know when are sick or having problems you go to see a doctor or a counselor? Well, today, I’m going to be the 5^th grader and you are going to be my doctor. So pretend that I have just come into your office and sat down and you ask me what’s been bothering me.  Once I tell you what’s wrong, your job is to sort through everything you hear and tell me what you think is causing my problems.”  They were all very excited to be my doctor! J  Here is what I said:

“My name is Abby and I haven’t been feeling good lately.  I don’t want to go to school or even play in my basketball game on Saturday.  I have to go to my dad’s house tonight but I don’t want to.  He doesn’t understand any of my problems. This weekend my friends are having a sleepover, but I probably won’t even get an invitation, because last week at lunch everyone was having fun and all I wanted to talk about was my dog that died.  All in all things just aren’t going well at all!”

Then, I asked students what they thought the root of my sadness was.  Most students thought Abby was sad because her parents were divorced and her dad didn't understand her, her dog died, her friends weren't going to invite her to their sleepover, etc...They were a little surprised when I said, "Yes, those are all things that usually really upset students Abby's age, but in her case the thing that was bothering her the most was that other kids at school were calling her names everyday and bullying her.  This is why she didn't want to come to school anymore."  I explained to my students that in this "case study" Abby had serious problems, but none of them were more serious than being a victim of bullying.  I think this helped them think of the effects of bullying in a different way than they had before.

Next we did an activity from the "No Name Calling Week" lesson plans, called Response Cards. Each student got a copy of these cards and cut them apart:

Then, we talked about ways to "take a stand" and who to "ask for help." I read them a couple bullying scenarios from the lesson plan and they held up which option they would do in that situation and we discussed each one as a class.  

In my next lesson, students chose a typical bullying scenario and drew rough drafts of "Bully Comic Strips."  I got the idea from this lesson in the "No Name Calling Week" plans.  They had 4-6 blocks for their comic. The first box set up the setting for their bullying scenario and the second box included the bullying.  In the third box the students were to illustrate a character either taking a stand or asking for help.  And, in the fourth box, they drew the conclusion.  We used Lego Comic Builder to create our comics. Here is my example: 

No Name Calling Week

Last week was officially "No Name Calling Week," or as my students like to call it, "No Bullying Week." What better week to begin my bullying unit?!  I thought I would share some of my ideas with you. I got a lot of my resources from http://www.nonamecallingweek.org/cgi-bin/iowa/home.html. They provide a teacher guide, parent letters, school-wide activities, and more.

Classroom Guidance Lesson for 3rd grade
Today, we read Simon's Hook: A Story About Teases and Put Downs by Karen Burnett and talked about what to do when someone is teasing you or calling you names.

I picked this book specifically for No Name Calling week, but also because I know of some current friendship concerns in 3rd grade.  My hope is to give the students who are being picked on some confidence and some tricks to "pull out of their bag" when their classmates are being mean to them. Also, as a way to encourage more positive behavior, I had each student pull another student's name out of a cup and had them write a "put-up" message to that person. We talked about what a put-up is and brainstormed ideas of nice things to say to each other. I made sure to tell them to tailor their put-up message specifically to the person's name they drew so we didn't get lots of general put-ups like, "you're nice" and "you're a great friend."  I created this document and printed it off on label paper so that I could stick the put-ups up on a bulletin board.  Then, as the students walk by the board they can search it for the put-up written to them and hopefully it will brighten their day :) not to mention provide a visual of hundred of examples of put-ups.

Next week, I plan on showing these 3 videos to review Simon's Hook and remind students how to "not get caught by the bully's bait!"

Check back tomorrow for No Name Calling Week ideas to use with 5th grade and 4th grade! :)

New Year's Resolution Videos and Penguins

I realize this post is coming a little late to help anyone with New Year's resolution lessons plans, seeing that it is already the 27th, but hey there's always next year, right!? After returning from our holiday break, my guidance lessons focused on goal setting, tying it into New Year's resolutions.

In my 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade classes we had a New Year's party where we set 3 goals.  To make the lesson more engaging and fun for students, I brought in party hats, crowns, and necklaces that I had at home from our New Year's Eve celebration. This was a great way to "re-use" my party favors.  I bought the party kit at CVS for about 5 dollars.

Once the party favors were passed out we discussed what New Year's resolutions are, and I explained that they are the same thing as setting goals.  This led into a lesson on how to set appropriate goals and make a plan for accomplishing them. I created this worksheet for each student to complete. They set 3 goals: 1 for school, 1 for friendship, and 1 for home.

To conclude the lesson, I video-tapped each student reading their goals and put the clips together into really cute class videos using Windows Movie Maker.  The students LOVED watching their video during their next guidance lesson, which also helped with the lesson by reinforcing the goals they had set the week before.  I got inspiration for doing the videos from this video on SchoolTube. After watching this clip you will have a good idea of what our videos looked like, but I didn't feel comfortable posting the actual videos online due to student privacy concerns. (It's unfortunate, because they are so cute)

With my 1st and 2nd grade classes I stuck with the New Year's party theme and also taught them how to set goals and why goals are so important in school and in the real world.  They created these cute "Penguin Resolutions Reminders" from EdHelper.

 

 

Teaching Friendship with Real Life Animal Stories

I am a LOVER of bookstores. I religiously browse Barnes and Noble and Books A Million for new books to use in my guidance program. Lately I kept noticing non-fiction animal stories with sub-titles like, "The True Story of a Remarkable Friendship" and "The True Story of an Unlikely Friendship."  How could I resist?!  What better way to capture students' interest than to use real life stories and photographs of animal friendships! I decided to teach these books as a friendship unit and I started it this year in 2nd grade.  The stories and lessons were a huge success! Here are the books I used....

 

http://www.amazon.com/Friend-Einstein-Smallest-Stallion/dp/1423145631/ref=pd_sim_b_4

http://www.amazon.com/Owen-Mzee-Story-Remarkable-Friendship/dp/0439829739

 

http://www.amazon.com/Tarra-Bella-Elephant-Became-Friends/dp/0399254439/ref=pd_sim_b_1 

http://www.amazon.com/Tarra-Bella-Elephant-Became-Friends/dp/0399254439/ref=pd_sim_b_1

I started with A Friend for Einstein 

by Charlie Cantrell and Dr. Rachel Wagner

First, I explained the unit to the students and they were very excited to see pictures and hear stories of real life animals. I read them the story and throughout the book we talked about how Einstein was very different from the other horses and how this made it hard for him to find friends. I could tell that they instantly connected with Einstein because I heard many things like "Aw, poor Einstein," "I would be his friend," and "He's soooo cute!"   The moment I knew the lesson was going to be successful was when I heard one student say, "They shouldn't leave him out just because he's small!" Yes! I thought. They get the moral of the story: to be nice to everyone and not to exclude anyone just because they are different. 

Next, I showed them an ActiveInspire lesson I created on the book. I used a LOT of information from http://thesmalleststallion.com/mystory.html.

Here is a glimpse of what you will find: 

There are also videos, and pictures, and a teacher discussion guide on this website to use in your lesson.

To send the final message home for my class, I passed out a blank index card to every student and had them write 3 things that make them different on one side and then draw pictures of these things on the back.  This was a way to celebrate our differences and learn to accept everyone.  The teacher posted them on a bulletin board with the title, "Our Differences Make Us Special!"

The next week we read Owen and Mzee: The True Story of A Remarkable Friendship by Isabella Hatkoff, Craig Hatkoff, and Paula Kahumbu

Again, I read the story and the kids were fascinated by the pictures.  After the story we talked about taking care of your friends and what it means to be loyal.  There is an amazing website that accompanies this story: http://www.owenandmzee.com/omweb/home.html.  We used the video maker on the ActiveBoard to bring this lesson to life. 

We finished the unit with Suryia and Roscoe by Dr. Bhagavan Antle and Tarra and Bella by Carol Buckley

I spent one guidance lesson on each of these stories continuing to teach the characteristics of good friendship. I used these websites as supplements to the lessons: http://www.suryiaandroscoe.com/ and http://www.elephants.com/aboutSanctuary.php.

Has anyone else used these stories in their guidance program? If so, please leave a comment and share your ideas!

Student Council Fundraisers

In addition to being the counselor at school, I happen to be one of our Student Council Association advisers. We have about 20 student members from 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade and it is mostly a student run organization.  We meet once a month after school and we typically host monthly fundraisers for different organizations.  I love being a part of SCA because it teaches children about the importance a giving to others, caring about our community, and helping those in need.

In November our project was titled "Can the Office." The goal was for students to bring in enough cans to fill up our front office and make the principal and office staff work out in the hallway!  The food drive was very successful, and we donated many boxes of food to Lake Christian Ministries in Moneta, which serves about 1400 families during the holiday season.

Career Cafe

I frequently visit The School Counselor Blog.  The author, Danielle, started a new career counseling initiative at her school and encouraged others to try it out.  After reading both her blog post and her article published in the Pennsylvania School Counseling Magazine, I decided to give it a whirl. Based on her ideas, this is my version of Career Cafe...

Front Side

Back Side

I created these postcards on Vistaprint.com and got 100 for free! I just had to pay for shipping.  Career Cafe is going to be a 5th grade program at my school.  First, I plan on having every student complete a career inventory to determine what careers they are most interested in.  Then, I'm going to recruit family and community volunteers that have careers similar to the ones my students are interested in.  My plan is to have 2 volunteers come each month on 1st and 3rd Fridays during 5th grade's lunch time.  Any student whose career inventory results match up with the volunteer that is coming that Friday will receive one of these postcard invitations.  They will bring their lunch to their classroom where they will be able to listen to the guest speaker.

I think this will be a successful program because students will be learning during lunch, which means no instructional time will be used! Teachers will really appreciate this.  Also, students will only be attending career cafe sessions that they are interested in. This will increase student behavior and provide for a more positive experience for the volunteer speakers.

I will let you know how it goes! Does anyone have any suggestions??