Oh the Places You'll Go

Goal Setting

Oh The Places You’ll Go

I spent the first of January focusing on goal setting with all my grades. For first and second, I wanted to find a way to incorporate goal setting while also discussing perseverance, the importance of goal setting, and why we don’t give up. For this topic I thought Dr. Seuss's "Oh the Places You’ll Go" would be the perfect fit! I found a great interactive video of Oh the Places You’ll Go on YouTube. The video puts the story in motion-more like a movie-instead of me just reading to them. They loved the video!

Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxdV0Fdtx7I

Before the video, I asked the students:

“What is a goal?”

“What does it mean to set a goal?”

“Should we set goals, and why?”

Once the students realized we weren’t talking about soccer/basketball :) they did really great coming up with ways we can set goals and why we should set goals for ourselves. After the discussion I played the video.

Once the video was over, I asked students if there were things that got in the way of our friend’s journey. They loved telling me all about how his air balloon popped! We then discussed that sometimes when we set our goals, something can get in the way and make it really hard to achieve our goals. I then asked the students if we should give up when things got difficult-I got a very confident (and loud) NO!!!!! They did so well when I asked them why we should never give up. One answer really made me laugh-“Well if we just gave up, we’d just be couch potatoes not doing anything”. :)

First grade: I then passed out a blank hot air balloon that said “My Goal”. Students were told to write down their goal and decorate their hot air balloon. I told students their goals could include something at school, home, maybe something they want to be when they grow up, somewhere they want to travel, etc. Overall, the project turned out VERY cute and the students really put some time into their goals on their hot air balloon. VERY proud of first grade!

I found the hot air balloon in a simple Google search and I wrote “My Goal” and made copies-easy enough!

Second grade: I passed out the “Oh the Places I’ll Go” handout. This hand out had a street sign with many different arrows pointing in all different directions. We talked about how our goals can take us down many paths and journeys and we have to decide which path is best. The students were instructed to write their goals on the arrows then decorate their arrows. Again, this project turned out very nice and the students did really well in thinking about their goals for the future!

I found the arrows activity on Teachers Pay Teachers at the Glitter is Everywhere store. This was a FREE download!

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Glitter-Is-Everywhere

First Grade Hot Air Balloons:

Second Grade Arrows: 

Super Hero Bulletin Board 

New year, new bulletin board!

Now that we are in 2016, I want my lessons this month to focus on goal setting and making healthy choices.

To begin, I thought I would decorate my bulletin board to match the first theme of goal setting.

I will be talking with students about SMART goals, so I used my bulletin board as a way of sparking the students’ interest in goal setting!

I used a super hero theme and found a great goal setting pack on TPT. 

I found the super hero pack at the Teaching and Tapas store: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Alyssha-Swanson-Teaching-And-Tapas

This store has so many great resources and everything is very cute and colorful!

I also found the super clip art for FREE on TPT at the Clip art Queen Store

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Clipart-Queen

The bulletin outlines what SMART Goals stand for:

Specific

Measurable

Attainable

Reason

Time

Overall, I think my bulletin board turned out very cute and I am excited to see the student reactions and start my lessons on goal setting for the new year!

Rudolph: 2nd Grade

Second Grade Guidance

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

Keeping with the Christmas theme for my lessons, I used Rudolph as another example for my second graders. We used the story of Rudolph to learn how to see the good in others, respecting differences, and learning that being different is okay! 

Luckily, the second graders had just watched Rudolph for recess (due to rainy weather) so they were experts on the story when I came for guidance. 

We discussed what we saw in Rudolph that was being a not so great friend and examples of when saw others being a good friend to Rudolph. We also discussed why Rudolph was excluded, how he could have been feeling when others treated him differently, and how we could be friends. 

We talked about being unique, accepting differences, and looking for the good in others despite differences. The second graders did so well with this conversation! They came up with great ideas on how to friends to one another, how to help others, and what to do when we see others being excluded or treated differently based on outside appearances. Once they realized how "mean" the other reindeer were to Rudolph, they were determined to not be like those reindeer and to be more like Rudolph. 

Our quote from this lesson to bring it all together was from Rudolph. 

"He always knew he was a little different, but he let his light shine regardless of what others said"

We then did a fun activity together that I found at http://firstgradewow.blogspot.com/

We each created our own Rudolph with a message on what we learned from the story of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer-which turned out to be the cutest/sweetest responses I've had from second graders! After hanging them up, I took time to read all of them and it was one of those moments when you realize the kids are actually listening and learning from the lesson! 

Here is our Rudolph finished project:

Conflict Resolution

5^th and 6^th Grade

Conflict Resolution

When in doubt about wondering what to do next with middle school, turn to conflict resolution! In my opinion, there can’t be enough lessons on healthy conflict resolution when discussing middle school students.

For this lesson, I used a Prezi. Prezi is a pretty neat presentation creator online. I’ve used Prezi’s for my lessons and also while I was in grad school for my own classroom presentations. The templates provided include those from professional all the way to silly and fun-mostly why I love this website! The kids think it’s so cool to see something other than a normal PowerPoint and I find it definitely keeps their interest-which is always a plus! 

You can start creating your own Prezi’s, share them with others, and see other Prezi’s other people have made. The website is www.prezi.com

Back to conflict resolution-My Prezi included:

•         Defining conflict and resolution
•         A fun video showing conflict
•         Defining perception
•         Fun pictures to show the students we all perceive things differently
•         Defining tolerance
•         Steps of conflict resolution
•         Rules for fighting fair

You can find my conflict resolution Prezi at: 

https://prezi.com/x6v3kvpwz29m/copy-of-health-2-conflict-resolution/

After going through the Prezi, I handed out the steps of conflict resolution and the rules for fighting fair. I then split the students into 4-5 groups. I gave each group a situation that may lead to a conflict. I instructed them to work as a group, use the steps and rules, and come up with a healthy resolution to the problem.

Following the group work, each group read their scenario aloud and shared how they would use the steps and rules to resolve the conflict.

Overall, I really enjoyed doing this lesson with my 5^th and 6^th graders. I think the Prezi was super informative, yet fun and engaging. The students loved the presentation and also worked very well in their groups. Some groups even came up with their own skit to act out the scenario!

Bullying Lesson: Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

5^th and 6^th Grade Guidance

Reindeer Games

To keep with the Christmas theme, today in 5^th and 6^th we played reindeer games!

We used Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer to discuss bullying. The goal of this lesson was to teach the differences between teasing, meanness, conflict, and bullying.

We started this lesson by playing scoot. This game is a fun way to get students up and moving while keeping them engaged on learning about bullying. I downloaded this reindeer game from Teachers Pay Teachers at one of my FAVORITE stores, The Savvy School Counselor. This game was included in the December activity packet.

Link: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Savvy-School-Counselor

To set up the game, I cut out questions cards-1 for every student in the class. I then printed out number squares to correspond with the question cards. I set 1 question card and corresponding number on every desk. The students start at their own desk. The object of the game is for the students to “scoot” to each question in the room moving in numerical order until they are back into their own desk.

For this game, students must read the scenario on the cards and determine if the behavior is bullying or not. I played some fun Christmas to go along with the theme. Each time the music stopped, the students moved to the next desk. For a class of 16, it took about 2 Christmas songs to finish-so about 6-ish minutes.

Once we finished, we went over each scenario together to determine if it was bullying. It was a great way to see their previous knowledge on bullying.

After going over the questions, I think passed out “Rudolph’s Problem Solving Square” and went over teasing, meanness, conflict, and bullying. I got this sheet from a pack on Teachers Pay Teachers called Christmas Reindeer Games: Teasing, Meanness, Conflict, and Bullying at the Counseling Wisdom store. 

Link: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Counseling-Wisdom 

Once the students had each of these down, we looked at the different examples we can see each on throughout the story of Rudolph. The students did a fabulous job of giving examples of each from Rudolph. I was so impressed with their memory on the account that we didn’t have enough time to actually watch the movie!

After this discussion, I passed out scenarios for the students to work in groups. I instructed the groups to determine what category their scenario fell under-teasing, meanness, conflict, or bullying. I then asked each group how they could handle their specific situation.

 Overall, this lesson was really fun! However, it is imperative that students understand that during the scoot game there is no talking, running to the next desk, bumping into one another, etc. Also this lesson did take some time to complete everything so I would make sure the teacher is okay with using 45 minutes or so for this lesson or you could break it down into 2 lessons. That being said, I LOVED this lesson! I wanted all my lessons to have some sort of Christmas theme and this lesson fit that perfectly while teaching the students about bullying in a fun and engaging way! And with it being Christmas, of course I couldn't help but to bring some goodies for the students!                                   

I found this adorable Christmas erasers, along with pencils, at the Dollar store!

Adding Some Christmas Spirit

Christmas Spirit in Guidance

“I can make the Grinch grin by…”

We are quickly approaching Christmas break, so I wanted to incorporate some Christmas spirit into m guidance lessons these last 2 weeks.

With first grade this week, we went back from last week (Rainbow Fish) and refreshed on our adjective words when describing a friend. The students did a GREAT job remembering all of our adjective words when characterizing a good friend and a not so good friend.

After our review, I played the original Grinch song.

(found on YouTube-about 3 minutes long https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgP0aUKlmNw). 

We then used our adjective words to describe our Mr. Grinch. I found a FREE print out at Twin Dragonfly Designs. Link: http://www.twindragonflydesigns.com/

I hung up our Mr. Grinch and wrote all the adjectives around him. Examples included: mean, angry, sad, sneaky, plays tricks, robber, hates Christmas, etc. After we completed describing Mr. Grinch, I asked students if he fit our description for a good friend or a not so good friend. All the students were VERY confident in their decision that Mr. Grinch is a not so good friend.

After determining our Grinch was a not so good friend, I asked students if there was a time they were a not so good friend. We discussed that sometimes we can all make poor choices when it comes to being a good friend everyday. I then asked students if they thought having a bad day meant never being nice to someone again. They all agreed that having a bad day or sometimes making poor choices does not mean that we can be mean to others.

After a productive discussion, I passed out a Grinch (found at: http://coloringarena.com/grinch-coloring-pages/) and a writing sheet called “I can make the Grinch grin by…”. (I made this sheet myself in Microsoft Word). I encouraged the students to think of ways to still be nice to others when we or someone is being a not so good friend. I then instructed them to use their ideas to come up with a sentence on how they could be nice to the Grinch and make him smile.

Overall, this lesson was very cute and also gave a GREAT message to the kids about making poor choices, getting past those choices, and always being nice and being a great friend! The students did an excellent job with describing a good friend, characterizing our Grinch, coming up with ideas on being friendly, and remembering that everyone has bad days but to always remember to treat others how we want to be treated.

(Plus it was a fun and inspiring way to incorporate Christmas!)

Finished project:

That Bugs Me Lesson

That Bugs Me!

4th Grade Guidance

This week's lessons all incorporated conflict resolution. For the fourth grade, we did That Bugs Me! This was a fun lesson with a cute activity to teach students to recognize things that bug them, that we all do things that bug others, and how to resolve conflict that may arise. 

I purchased this lesson on TeachersPayTeachers for $3.00-definitely worth the investment :) The store is called The Learning Tree by Kimberly Santana. Along with the supplies to make the bugs, it comes with some GREAT activity sheets for recognizing feelings, conflict resolution, and planning ahead to make positive choices. 

Link: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/The-Learning-Tree

I started the lesson with asking the students what they thought conflict meant. Examples included fighting, not getting along, arguing, etc. After we had a great definition for conflict, I asked the students what they thought resolution meant. Examples included solving, making up, etc. 

We then put the two words together and discussed what it meant to have a conflict and how we could resolve conflict. Overall, the students did a great job with this discussion!

I then wrote on the board "What Bugs You?". I instructed the students that we would not be using any names, just behaviors/actions that bug them. Student examples included: 

• Being bossy
• Being jealous
• Using mean words
• Name calling
• Tattle-tale
• Interrupting 
• Blurting out
• Not playing fair/cheating

I then wrote on the board "Things You May Do That Bugs Others". I explained that we all sometimes do things that bugs others. I gave them an example that I know sometimes I interrupt others and that bugs other people. They did a great job being self aware and giving examples of some of their behaviors that may bug others. 

After this discussion, I passed out all the supplies they would need for their bug. Each student receives: a bug head, body, wings, eyes, and antennas (pipe cleaners). Students also received a circle with writing lines that goes on the bug body. 

I asked the students to put their bug together first. I then instructed them to write "It bugs me when.." on one of the bug wings. On the lined paper they were instructed to write something that bugs them. 

Once their bugs were all put together, we went over some of the things students wrote and how we could resolve the conflict that may arise. 

Overall, I LOVED this lesson! It was a super creative way to discuss conflict (which sometimes can bring negativity) and how to resolve conflict! The lesson was not only very engaging for the students, it allowed them a moment of self reflection on things that bug them and some of their behaviors that may bug others. 

Here are a couple pictures of the finished project: