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.

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?

New Resources

Attention other school counselors:
I have some school money that I haven't spent yet this year, and I have been browsing the counseling resource catalogs, quite excitedly, I might add.  Here is my list of possibilities that definitely needs to be narrowed down significantly.  PLEASE COMMENT...Have you used any of these? Do you recommend them? Did you find any of them not so helpful?  What other resources would you suggest I look into purchasing??

        

The Good Mourning Game

Please provide some input on these and other resources you suggest! :) Thanks!


All images came from CreativeTherapyStore.com and Bouldenpublishing.com

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. 

 

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!

Conflict Resolution Vokis

In guidance classes, students have been learning about effective conflict resolution skills.  They have learned to use "I" Messages when someone is doing something they don't like.  "I" messages allow students to express their feelings and to be assertive with students who are not treating them positively. 

I recently came across this awesome website: www.voki.com.  Using free trials, students can search through many different characters including animals, political icons, randoms, and other people and add accessories, backgrounds, and speech.  I let my 5th grade classes play around on this website and create a character for their conflict resolution project. Using a "text to talk" function online, each voki gives advice to a hypothetical student who is a concerned bystander to bullying.  Students were asked to created a "voki" character that answered this prompt....

"Hello, This new kid moved into our neighborhood.  He's from a different country, and he doesn't speak English very well.  Some other kids are calling him names and making fun of his clothes.  I wish they'd stop it.  What can I do?" (from Treat Me Right, Kids Talk About Respect by Nancy Loewen)

Click the links to view a couple Vokis the students created: 

http://www.voki.com/pickup.php?scid=4598179&height=400&width=300

http://www.voki.com/pickup.php?scid=4598244&height=400&width=300

http://www.voki.com/pickup.php?scid=4598124&height=400&width=300