On Thursday, March 10th all Kindergarten, First and Second grade students will begin their 7th round of guidance lessons. Please read below to find out what they will be learning!

Kindergarten: The kindergarten lesson is entitled, "I'm Gonna Like Me" and covers Prince William Guidance Objectives KC.1/KP.1 (Identify areas of interest and one's unique abilities). This lesson will transition well into our guidance lesson for next month which will be about careers/jobs. During this lesson students will listen to the story, "I'm Gonna Like Me: Letting Off a Little Self-Esteem" by Jamie Lee Curtis & Laura Cornwell. We will be discussing what the word "self-esteem" means. After the book is completed, we will have a class discussion about what the students are good at. The students will then be given a picture of a tie. Their assignment will be to write down things they are good at on the tie (at least 3 things). When they are finished they can decorate their tie and write their name on the knot. Two holes will be punched in the top, and the students will be able to wear their tie.

First Grade: As the weather is gettting warmer and students are spending more time outside in their neighborhoods, it is important to discuss "Stranger Danger." The first grade guidance lesson begins with a discussion on "What is a stranger?" "What does a stranger look like?" Students will be told that strangers are usually nice, but we should never talk to a stranger unless we are with our parents. We will then read the book "Don't Talk to Strangers!" by Christine Mehlhaff. After we finish reading the book, the students will be shown pictures of people they know at school and famous people. They will be asked, "Is this person a stranger?" This activity is designed to show students that just because we know who someone is (ex: The Jonas Brothers), doesn't mean we know them. Students will return to their seats and complete a worksheet that requires the student to write their address, phone number and the name of the adult(s) they live with. Students who do not know all of their information will be asked to bring their worksheets home to complete with an adult.

Second Grade: During this rotation, all second grade students will be participating in a guidance lesson that covers the Prince William County Guidance Objective 2P.6 (Recognize different coping strategies to deal with situations). The students will listen to the story, "When Sophie Gets Angry--Really, Really Angry..." by Molly Bang. As the story is being read, the students will discuss Sophie's angry feelings. The students will be given 5 minutes to write down as many things as they can think of to do to calm down when they are angry. The students will come to the carpet and will be given a toothpick. A styrofoam ball will be passed around--the students will share one thing that makes them angry and then stick the toothpick in the ball. After everyone has shared what makes them angry, they will pass the ball around to illustrate what anger feels like. Students will then be given a mini marshmallow and will pass the ball around and share one thing they can do to calm down when they are angry. The students will then place a toothpick on top of the toothpick (to illustrate the easing of the angry feelings). Once everyone has had a chance to share, they will then pass the ball around again to show that the anger does not hurt as much if you can find a way to calm down.

All kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade students just completed their 3rd round of guidance lessons. Please read below to find out what each grade level worked on!

Kindergarten: This rotation in kindergarten guidance the students listnened to a story called "The Turkey With The Terrible Temper." The students were active participants in this story about a turkey who gets so angry that he is constantly changing colors! He starts off as a brown turkey, but turns red, blue, purple, green and yellow throughout the course of the story. By the end of the story he has learned how to cope with his angry feelings. The students learned 4 different coping strategies to deal with angry feelings: taking a deep breath, talking it out, walking away and ignoring. The students were then able to decorate their very own turkey and wrote a word to describe how they were feling that day on the turkey's stomach.

First Grade: This rotation in first grade the students finished their unit on tattling and reporting. The students were reminded that tattling is when you tell on someone to get them in trouble, while reporting is telling an adult about a situation when it is a big deal (someone is hurt or in trouble). Students finished making their "Tattling Toolboxes" which contained 3 ways to solve a kid-sized problem. The three strategies are: tell the person to stop, ignore the person and "Bugs and Wishes." The students reviewed "Bugs and Wishes" (also called "I statements") where they tell the person what is bugging/bothering them and what they want/wish the other person would do. Example: It bugs me when you cut in front of me. I wish you would go back to your own spot. The student also watched a video on our school-wide character trait of the month "caring."

Second Grade: The second grade students learned about setting goals. We read the book "Tops and Bottoms" about a clever hare who sets a goal to provide food for his family. The students discussed school goals and practiced writing their own--including 5 things/steps they will do to reach their goal.

Starting on Friday, October 22nd, Ms. Flood will be coming into all 3rd, 4th and 5th grade classrooms for the second round of guidance lessons (although this is the 4th encore rotation, guidance is only in every other rotation). Please see below to find out what Ms. Flood will be teaching!

3rd Grade: Ms. Flood will be reading "Simon's Hook" to the students, a book about how to deal with teasing and put-downs. The students will learn about 5 different strategies/approaches that they can use when they are being teased/bothered.

4th Grade: Ms. Flood will be disucssing problem solving strategies. The students will learn about "clay problems" and "rock problems."

5th Grade: The students will be learning/discussing the importance of celebrating diversity/differences. Ms. Flood has several fun activities planned to reinforce this importance concept!

Books that help children understand how to manage angry feelings

Check out our yearly calendar to see what we have planned during the 2010-2011 school year. For more detailed information, click on our monthly calendars to see what classrooms we will be visiting and what groups we will be facilitating.

Books to help children cope with the loss of a loved one, friend or pet.

Books that help young children deal with the separation and/or divorce of their parents

Books on friendship and issues that may arise such as teasing and tattling.

Books that talk about moving and starting at a new school

In an effort to use data as a means for driving our counseling program, as well as for guiding future lessons and groups, we have created this section to display data we have collected over the past few school years.