Friday 5: Five USEFUL and VALUABLE TPT purchases for School Counselors! (IMO)

I had a lot of positive feedback from my last "Friday 5" post  so I thought I would post another. This week's focus is my current TOP 5 TPT School Counseling purchases that I have made so far. I have a few favorite sellers from TPT so it was difficult to choose my top 5 purchases. 

The following purchases are ones that I use frequently and have been well-worth the money. If you are like me, you pay for most (if not all) of your counseling resources out of pocket; it is very important to make sure they are worth every penny! In my opinion, the following ARE! 

1. Emotions Posters and Writing Worksheets from Artrageous Fun

• Cost: $3.00 
• Reasons Why I love it: As a new counselor, I found that I needed some low cost items to "jazz up" my room. I found the posters to be fun AND functional. They are colorful and can be used to show examples of facial expressions and body language. One set includes descriptions of the feeling and the other set just has only the name of the feeling listed. I have both sets up in my room and refer to them often. I keep the "worksheet" that was included on my wall and use it as a "talking tool" to help students verbalize their feelings.

2. Social Skills Program from Crazy Days Counseling

• Cost: $2.00 
• Reasons Why I love it: I have referenced "Crazy Days Counseling" before as one of my favorite sellers in my last "Friday 5 post" AND in my Social Skills Group post. I LOVE this packet. I found it very useful for my students and really enjoyed the "Super Skills Challenge" page. The graphics are nice as well and it is an easy format to use for small groups. 

3. Positive Affirmations for Children from The Helpful Counselor 

• Cost: $3.50 
• Reasons Why I love it: I have also referenced this seller before in my last "Friday 5 post". I really do love these positive affirmations cards and find them useful not only in individual sessions but also small groups. The cards are also well designed and colorful. I find myself going to them quite often!

4. Social Skills Conversation Game from The Helpful Counselor 

• Cost: $5.00
• Reasons Why I love it: I know, I know, another product from The Helpful Counselor. I just love the products they make and this one is no exception. $5.00 is a lot to spend on something for me but I found that the design of the cards and the questions have been really helpful. I use them individually, within small groups, and also use them in my classroom guidance lessons in opening and closing activities. Another plus is that the kids like the cards because they are colorful and cute. They always ask to use them when they come to my room.

5. I Can Be a Pal from Kristen Smith

• Cost: $4.50
• Reasons Why I love it: I find the activities in this packet to be very useful. I typically use them with my lower elementary kiddos and have enjoyed using them in classroom guidance and small groups when focusing on friendship. The games listed are fun, interactive, and easy to implement. An added bonus of this packet is that it is tied into two different children's books as well which make it a quick an easy guidance lesson option.

Are you a TPT user? What are your favorite purchases for counseling? 

R.A.K Week- Spreading the Kindness at AIS!

This week is Random Acts of Kindness Week (February 9-13th). Last year, I had a lot of fun planning R.A.K week and spreading the kindness all over my school. This year, I decided to take it a step further and try to make R.A.K week bigger and BETTER!

**DISCLAIMER** I will admit, I am a thief when it comes to good ideas. I took some ideas from School Counseling blogs and Pinterest mainly.. I will do my best to give credit where credit is due! 

Here are some of the things I did to help celebrate R.A.K week at my school! 

• Morning Announcements: Each day of R.A.K week, I tried to have a little blurb about Random Acts of Kindness. I kept it short, sweet, and direct. Here is an example of one of the morning announcements: 
• Today is DAY 1 of Random Acts of Kindness Week! This week, try to go ABOVE and BEYOND to spread kindness. A simple way to spread kindness is to say something nice. Who can you say something nice to? A teacher, a security guard, a canteen worker, a cleaner, another student, ANYONE!
• Staff Lounge display: It can be difficult to get staff buy-in sometimes, so this year I tried to do something to reach out and appeal to them. In our staff lounge, I posted up some R.A.K week ideas they could use in their classroom. I also added a gum ball machine where staff could write RAKs they received from other teachers. I found this awesome idea from Elementary School Counseling Website, 
• Student Display: Since R.A.K week is so close to Valentines day, I also created a display for our students that said "What will your next R.A.K be?" and posted different ideas on heart cut outs. I also included some pictures as well. The display didn't turn out that great, but it definitely got the idea across.
• Classroom Guidance Lessons: I see every class in grades 1-5 once within a six day cycle. I used the designated "guidance time" (40 minutes) to introduce R.A.K week and give each student a R.A.K challenge to complete!

             
1. With grade one, we made a craft to say thank you to our teachers. After school was out, I snuck into their rooms and taped the cards on their computers. They were quite surprised to see them the next morning and the students were excited to be a part of the surprise! Students also watched the video Color the World with Kindness. 
2. With grade two, we made origami paper hearts and wrote letters or nice encouraging words on the hearts to deliver to teachers. We also watched this video and discussed how kind acts can cause a "ripple effect". The students loved the video and even asked to watch it twice. The origami hearts will be delivered to teachers at the end of the week. 
3. Unfortunately, grade three missed their guidance lessons due to a school-wide event, however their classroom teachers still reinforced kindness in the classroom and did some seperate activities to celebrate R.A.K week. After getting back from our break, the grade three students will receive a lesson on "Keeping the Kindness going!" though. 
4. Grade four viewed a power point of kindness quotes and ideas that I purchased for Teachers Pay Teachers. They also helped create large-scale cards for some of our specialist teachers and departments. Some of the cards we made were for PE, Music, Library, and Art. The students were also able to help deliver their work to the teachers.
5. Grade five was focusing on their Middle School Survival Unit during this time and didn't receive the same focus lesson on kindness as the other students. However, to still encourage Random Acts of Kindness, I had students take a R.A.K from the "Kindness Bucket" and challenged them to complete the act before the end of the week. Next year, I will try to plan better so that they can focus on R.A.K week as well. 

• Small R.A.Ks: Separate from the student led R.A.Ks, I also wanted to spread some kindness around to people within the school. I left pieces of candy and "You have been R.A.Ked" notes on the desks of teachers, assistants, our principal, some of our other various staff members just to help spread some of the love. 

Overall, I think that this R.A.K week has been a successful one thus far! I can't wait to find more activities to celebrate R.A.K week and make it better each and every year! What did you do to R.A.K week? 

Up, Up, and AWAY! Social Skills Superheroes groups!

Last year, I ran a Secret Agent Group for students to help promote kindness around our school. It was a huge hit for our students and I still have students ask to be Secret Agents. This year, I decided to make my Social Skills building group have an exciting theme as well for students!

Introducing....

SOCIAL SKILLS SUPERHEROES!

I downloaded the Social Skills Program  from Crazy Days Counseling on Teachers Pay Teachers and I absolutely love it! 

I created the invitations for group and delivered them while wearing a super hero cape and mask (mainly to grades 1-3). The kids were really excited about being a part of group! 

I am able to use the packet with grades 1-5, with a little tweaking for each grade level. I found the Checklist and Challenge pages in the packet to be very helpful. The students enjoyed going through each one and I was impressed with how honest they were with themselves. I use their responses on the Challenge page to guide the group with activities. 

While the group has JUST started, I am really excited to see how it develops over the quarter. 

What programs have you used for your social skills groups? 

Want more awesome TPT sellers? Click here!

Origami After-school Group: Teaching Patience and Persistence

Last year, I ran an after-school Origami group and used it to teach Patience and Persistence. I found it to be a HUGE success! Here is the outline for how I ran the group just in case you want to try it out at your school! 

**DISCLAIMER**: I am BY NO MEANS an Origami expert. I found most of these activities online and focused on the process of the group more than the actual Origami skill set.

Session Outline

Group Size: 8-10                      Group duration: 40 minutes                           Grades: 3-5

Session #1: Students will be introduced to the purpose of the group and will help create set rules for the group. Each member of the group will also be given a brown paper lunch bag to keep their origami creations in as they move throughout the group. At the end of the group, they will be able to take home their bag full of their creations. The first session is also a good time to go over the different types of origami paper you may be using (recycled paper squares, large origami paper, small origami paper, floral paper, etc.). Students will also learn how to make “perfect squares” out of recycled paper (folding over on corner to the side so that it makes a square and then cutting). Have students create about 4 or 5 perfect squares for them to use throughout the group. If there is time, students can decorate their paper bag.

Session #2: Students will be introduced to basic origami techniques and will learn about the patience and persistence required to practice origami. The instructor will read the book, “Butterflies for Kiri” by Cathyn Falwell and discuss how it is common to become frustrated when you are doing something that requires patience. The instructor will then teach students the basic origami group vocabulary to students: bone folder (a stiff edge used to make strong creases in paper- usually a Popsicle stick-to be kept in their bag), valley fold (a fold that is concave-like a valley), mountain fold (a fold that is convex- like a mountain). Students will then make their first creation: a paper fortune teller. 

Session #3: Students will review the previous vocabulary terms learned in group and will learn about trial and error and how it helps us learn and grow. Students will then be given two different sheets of paper. One where they can make their own paper airplane without any instructions and another in which they can follow written out instructions. At the end, students will have a paper airplane contest to see which one worked the best. Afterwards, students will reflect on their planes and which one worked differently. Share with students the following image, and ask them discuss what it means to them.

·         Airplane Examples: http://www.origami-make.com/howto-origami-airplane.php

Session #4: Allow students to explore different types of folds and have them work independently to see how they can use persistence and patience. Use frustrations as “teaching moments” and point out situations of persistence. Some simple suggested folds include:

·         Talking Dog: http://www.origami-fun.com/origami-talking-dog.html

·         Lady Bug: http://www.origami-fun.com/origami-ladybug.html

·         Fox: http://en.origami-club.com/animal/animal(small)/fox/fox/index.html

For students who finish early or easily, have Origami books or separate print-out instructions for other various folds for them to explore.

**Usually, there will be some students who express frustration or will want the teacher or other students to complete the folds for them. This is a great time to bring up Kiri and how her persistence paid off and how rewarding it is to succeed on your own accord.**

Optional: After students have practiced some of their own folds independently, tell them that their “take-home task” is to find an origami video online and to create one creation at home independently to share with the group.

Session #5: If students completed the “take-home task”, have them share their creations with the group and share if they found it frustrating or not and how they used persistence and/or patience. Students will then take some time to review some of the things they have created thus far within the group. Students will be able to reflect on how they have improved already and which different folds have given them the most difficulty thus far. The focus of this session will be “support”. Share with students that sometimes in life, we need others to help support us and that we can be that support for others as well. Students will make an origami heart and on the flat-side write an encouraging statement. Allow them to make more than one and to share them with people who encourage them. Have students keep one for themselves in their bag.

·         Heart: http://en.origami-club.com/valentine/heart/heart/index.html

Session #6: If possible, reserve the computer lab to allow students to explore different kinds of folds independently. Have them aim for creations that challenge them but are still “good fits” (not too difficult, not too easy). Have them explore independently and create 3-5 different creations. At the end, have them share what they created with the group. Some good websites for kids to explore include:

·         Origami for Kids: http://www.origami-instructions.com/origami-for-kids.html

·         Origami Fun: http://www.origami-fun.com/origami-for-kids.html

·         Origami Make: http://www.origami-make.com/howto-origami-kids.php

Session #7: Share with students that they are going to be given a more difficult task to complete today. The chance of frustration with this more advanced fold is high and can serve as valuable teaching moments for students.

·

  Harry Potter “Golden Snitch”: http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/origami-golden-snitch

This time should also be used by students to encourage one another and work together some if possible. End the group by reflecting on the process of making the “Golden Snitch”.

Session #8: End of group celebration! Students will be able to review their creations in group and will have a mini celebration. Each student will receive a Certificate of Achievement, a list of the websites to use, and a few sheets of origami paper for them to take home to continue to practicing.

Have you run an Origami group before? How was it? Did you find it successful? What challenges did you face?