Friday 5: FIVE AMAZING CHILDREN'S BOOKS I use in my Counseling program!

Hello Again and Happy FRIDAY!
Today's FRIDAY 5 is Five Children's Books that I use in my Counseling Program and how I use them! Check em' out and share your favorites below!

**These are in NO particular order**

I LOVE COMMENTS AND FEEDBACK!


#5: It's Okay To Be Different, Written and Illustrated by: Todd Parr
To be honest, I love ALL of Todd Parr's books. They are all wonderful, colorful, and are great for kids. I use his books a lot and read this book with a Kindergarten class during their story time and as well used it for my "Redesign A Favorite Book Cover" Door Contest as my school during our 2014 Book Week in March. The book has fun pictures and pages about how we are all unique and that it is great to be different. This Teach Idea Factory Blog has other FUN ideas to use with the book including making a class book.


#4: Miss Rumphius, Written and Illustrated By: Barbara Cooney
I love this book and used it with my 4th grade students during a Classroom lesson during Random Acts of Kindness Week. The book is about a woman who follows her dreams and also makes the world a more beautiful place. When I first read the book, it tugged at my heart strings quite a bit. After we read the story, we discussed the plot and tied the conversation into how Random Acts of Kindness can make the world more beautiful. We also watched this video tied into RAK. Then, I had each student write their own list of ways they can make the world a more beautiful place.

#3: The Hundred Dresses, By Eleanor Estes
This is one of my most favorite children's books. I remember my fifth grade teacher reading this book to me when I was in elementary school and it truly stuck with me. I typically read this book with grades 4-5 during my Bullying Awareness Unit for Classroom Guidance. The message of the story is still very applicable to students, even though it was published in 1944. I find the students get "sucked in" to the story and many of them have checked out the book independently after hearing in guidance.

#2. The Sneetches and Other Stories, By: Dr. Seuss 
As a huge fan of Dr. Seuss (who isn't?!?) I have to add The Sneetches in here. I have used this with grade 2-5 and they seem to love it. I have used this to teach about Diversity, Exclusion, Discrimination, Cliques, etc. This is a classic that I find I use again and again! Definitely worth a purchase!

















#1: The Monster Who Lost His Mean, By: Tiffany Strelitz Haber and Illustrated By: Kirstie Edmunds
I used this awesome book with my first grade students and I loved it. The book is about a Monster who loses his mean and then more or less realizes he is happier being a nice "Onster" instead of a "Monster". I tied this into a 3-lesson unit I found from The School Counselor's Chronicle Blog. The unit was focused on being assertive and not acting like a "Monster" or a "Mouse". I read the book to the students and then we did a role-play activity and the students pretended to first be "Monsters" and then to "Lose their Mean" and handle it like the "Best Me, I can be!" Needless to say, it was entertaining and a LOT of fun.


For more information about Books for School Counselors check out this link for the Books That Heal Blog!

So, now I want to know... WHAT ARE YOUR TOP 5?!

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? 

Friday 5: FIVE AWESOME Teachers Pay Teachers accounts for COUNSELORS to check out!

FRIDAY 5: FIVE AWESOME TpT accounts for COUNSELORS to check out!

So I recently have been utilizing the Teachers Pay Teachers website to help me with my Elementary School Counseling Program. Let me just say...I have been pretty impressed! While I have only been using TPT for about two weeks, I have found some AWESOME accounts on there with great products. Here are my CURRENT TOP 5 (in no particular order) accounts to follow!


The Helpful Counselor : I LOVE LOVE LOVE THC's products. I have already purchased quite a few including: Social Skills Conversation Game, Bullying Bingo Game, Friendship Definition Card set, and the Anger Management Card set. I have definitely been impressed with the quality of work put into these products and already have some more of the THC products on my WISH LIST!



School Counseling Is Magical This is a NEW TpT creator and after checking out her products I am very impressed. She has created a "Scooping Up I-Messages" activity pack that is already on my wish list! She also has some freebies on there including "A Bug and A Wish" cards and more! Have an idea for something? Let her know through TpT!




One stop Counseling Shop This counselor has over 87 different products for sale on TpT. The "Coping Skills Card Pack" really caught my eye and it now has a spot on my Wish List as well! There are a lot of different games and activities on the OsCS account. Check it out!





Crazy Days Counseling: While this counselor only has 11 products so far, they are AWESOME products for Elementary School Counselors! Plus about half of them are free! I really like the "Using Kind Words" packet that has four different lessons to choose from (another FREEBIE!). I look forward to seeing more products from Crazy Days Counseling!






Super Power Speech: This creator has some awesome products and bundles especially focused on Social Skill building and conversation skills. Although her focus is on Speech and Language, I still find a LOT of her products to be applicable for classroom guidance lessons and small groups.




So I want to know, what other COUNSELING related products and creators have YOU found on Teachers Pay Teachers? Let me know and comment below!

Happy Friday!