Ms. T's
Counselor Corner
Social Skills Classes
Every week your child will participate in social skills class. During this time, we work on different skills like friendship skills, conflict resolution, communication skills, feeling identification and work up to working on more complex social issues like bullying prevention and personal safety.
Each class uses a program called "Second Step" which is a violence prevention program that aims to reduce aggression and impulsive behaviors while identifying social-emotional competence.
Please check back weekly as I will update my page with new lessons!
Kindergarten Lessons (Burnham)
In Kindergarten, along with Second Step we also use a program called "Peacemaking Skills for Little Kids" which involves a puppet named "I-Care Cat" and comes with a set of I-Care Rules.
10/11/14: This week we will go back to our first I-Care Cat Rule: We Listen to Each Other.
We will be reading the book "The Listening Walk" and then will go on a quick listening walk around the school.
Can your students tell you why it is important to listen? What did they hear on their listening walk?
Second Grade Lessons (Prue)
10/10/14: This week we will review Cause and Effect and move on to talk about Intention. We will look at a picture story about a boy getting bumped by another student causing him to skin his knee. We will talk about the cause and effect of this incident and then discuss what the INTENT of the student's action was. Did he purposefully push the boy to the ground or was it an accident?
We will then play "Accident Vs. On Purpose" where students will determine if the action was intentional or not.
Can your students tell you the difference between an accident or an intentional action?
Second/Third Combo Lessons (Lane)
10/15/14: This week we continued our work on Active Listening. We played an icebreaker game where students were asked simple questions like "Favorite Color" and "Favorite Icecream Flavor" and they had to state their name and their favorite. But before they stated their own, they had to say what the person said before them (causing them to have to listen closely to their classmates answers).
Then we split into pairs and worked on Active Listening skills with partners.
Can your student tell you what it looks like to be an Active Listener?
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Third Grade Lessons (Marcoux)
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10/16/14: This week we will finish up our Emotions Role Plays and move on to Active Listening. We will discuss what an active listener is and look at a picture story that helps to visually show what active listening looks like.
If there is time, we will practice active listening as a group and with partners.
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Fourth/Fifth Combo Class (Goodhue and Donza)
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10/15/14: This week we are working on Perceptions and differences of opinion.
We looked at a video about two boys who had a sleepover, but both had different perceptions on how that sleepover went. One boy really enjoyed it, the other did not.
We discussed how everyone reacts differently to things and how sometimes this can lead to conflicts with friends.
We read the fable "The Blind Men and the Elephant" and discussed how even though we all had different experiences or opinions, doesn't make one person right and the other wrong. But that sometimes in friendships we have to "agree to disagree" to move on.
Can your student tell you a time when he felt differently than a friend about something? How did they work out the conflict?
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First Grade Lessons (Scanlon)
10/15/14: This week we worked on Communicating Feelings. We looked at the "Frog Feeling Meter" and monitored our feelings before and after the Sitting Still Like a Frog Spagetti Exercise (a focus and relaxation exercise).
We communicated our feelings by stating "I feel ________ because ___________".
We also looked at a picture story and discussed the importance of communicating our feelings to people we trust.
Can your student tell you what happens when we let feelings build up in our bodies?