Ok, so we need to talk about coping skills, specifically teaching coping skills SEL lessons at the middle school level. For a number of reasons, in the last
This circle of control activity teaches students the difference between what is inside their control and what is outside of their control.
Simple mental health lessons for kids, like this activity, leave even young children with something to think about in their daily lives.
The Good Egg Activities - use these activities to help students understand what is and is not their responsibility & practice self care for managing stress!
These 4 lesson topics are a must-have for your small group counseling lessons focused on conflict resolution.
Quick, fun, no-prep SEL lesson activities that are perfect for before and after breaks or any time you need an extra fun guidance lesson
Looking for an introductory First Grade Self Control Activity? Your students will love this fun story and craft for practice!
Ready to go student check-in activities to find out what your students are thinking and feeling. Find the ones that work for you!
Use this list of free resources to use as social emotional learning activities to help you work with kids and young adults. As a special educator for 10 years, I can say without a doubt that we need more social emotional learning supports for kids and young adults. Some of my best days in the classr
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Use these outdoor counseling activities to help kids learn about and explore important social emotional topics like anxiety, coping skills, mindfulness and more. They are a great way to make your school counseling lessons engaging and effective!
Social Emotional Learning (SEL) has been found to promote academic success and increase students' commitment to school. Generally, there are five key components that make up social emotional learning. These competencies include self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and decision making. Today, I'd like to focus on ways to help students develop self-awareness. Self-awareness includes one's ability to recognize emotions, have an accurate self-perception, identify strengths, develop confidence, and show self-efficacy. Researchers have found that a student's ability to control his or her feelings, thoughts, and behaviors can be linked to academic success. So, let's take a look at some easy ways to help students develop an awareness of their individual characteristics and personal emotions. All About Me - A - Z This activity helps students to define and identify a variety of aspects about themselves. They'll create a list about themselves with a characteristic, quality, or emotion for each letter of the alphabet. Materials: Piece of paper, pen or pencil Directions: - On a piece of paper, have students create two columns. (Or grab a ready-made poster here.) - Have them write all the letters of the alphabet in each column. - Then, challenge them to write something about themselves for each letter. For instance, they might write "gregarious" for G or "curious" for C. Ideas: - Share your own A to Z list with students first. - Create a class list of emotions and descriptive words to get students started. - Assemble students' finished lists in a class book. Moment of Mindfulness Mindfulness is a great way to build self-awareness. Since mindfulness is all about paying attention to the present moment, it's a great way for students to pause and reflect on how they are feeling, what they are thinking, and what they need in the present. It's simple to do too! Ways to take a moment of mindfulness: - At the beginning of class, have students close their eyes and take several deep breaths. Ask students to pay attention to their breathing. - Share a mindfulness quote with students to help focus students' thoughts during a moment of mindfulness. - Pause during instruction and have students do a self-awareness check. Encourage them to be mindful of their thoughts and feelings. Reflective Journaling Reflective journaling is a powerful way to help students become self-aware. With targeted writing prompts, students can develop insight into their feelings, make sense of their experiences, and build clarity on their thoughts. When students write about their own experiences and feelings, they become more self-aware. Materials: - A notebook and/or computer, pen or pencil, writing prompts - A list of writing prompts that spark self-reflection, these might include: --- Write about a time when you were proud of yourself. --- List ten things that make you feel excited. --- Reflect on how you have changed this year. --- What is something that you find challenging? (Check out a set of 10 engaging prompts here.) Ideas: - Have students respond to their prompts as if they are writing a letter to themselves..."Dear me..." - Read students' responses and respond to their writing in the margins. Add questions and positive notes at the end of their writing to build connections and spark further reflections. - Schedule a time each day or week for journaling to make it an intentional part of your classroom community. Growth Mindset There are many ways to help students develop a growth mindset. When students develop an understanding that all forms of intelligence are malleable, they are inspired to work toward success. That's why it is so powerful to infuse lessons about growth mindset into instruction. Giving students a moment to reflect on their own mindsets builds self-awareness. Materials: - Short lessons or articles about Growth Mindset to help students understand the differences between a fixed and growth mindset. - Series of questions about students' own mindsets. Directions: - After teaching students about Growth Mindset, have students respond to questions about their own mindsets. - Give students a chance to share their responses with a partner, small group, or the entire class. Ideas: - Share and display inspirational quotes about growth mindset. (I particularly love paper desk tents. They are an easy way to display quotes right on students' desks.) - Highlight important people who demonstrate a growth mindset. Emotions Skits Researchers have noted that there are at least six universal emotions. These include happiness, sadness, anger, surprise, fear, and disgust. Help students investigate and demonstrate these universal emotions by challenging them to write a short play or skit that involves a character or many characters experiencing one of the universal emotions. Materials: - List of the universal emotions, paper, pen - Skit planning pages (optional) Ideas: - Review the six universal emotions with students. As a class have students brainstorm what each emotion looks like (how people look when they are experiencing that emotion) and sounds like (what people might say when experiencing that emotion). - Brainstorm situations where people might feel each emotion. Encourage students to share personal situations when they felt a certain way. - Divide students into small groups. Secretly assign each group an emotion. - Challenge students to write a script that their small group could act out for the class that demonstrates that emotion. - Have small groups perform for the class. Have the audience identify the emotion prevalent in the skit. Self Check-In Daily feelings check-ins are a great way to build self-awareness. When students are given the opportunity to assess how they are feeling and share their emotions with others, they begin to know themselves more fully. Self check-ins also help normalize feelings. Materials: - Paper with an open grid shape - List of feelings Directions: - Pass out the gridded paper to students. - Have them fill the grid with different emotions. - Then, have students display the grid on their desks. - Have them place a token or shape on the emotion that shows how they are feeling at a particular moment. Ideas: - Once students can recognize their feelings, help them to develop strategies for regulating their emotions. - Encourage students to track their feelings over an entire school day. Then, discuss how feelings change in different situations. -------------------------------------------------- I hope you've found a few ways to help students develop self-awareness. Incorporating lessons that target social emotional learning is essential in today's classrooms. If you're looking for ready-made resources, check out this set of 10 SEL reading passages and this set of 6 Self-Awareness Activities. Thanks for stopping by! Mary Beth
Looking for a fun and meaningful activity for your school counseling worry group? Help your students make a worry monster! Get details here:
Looking for cool tools to make your virtual counseling lessons fun and engaging for your students? You'll love these 3 digital tools.
A few years ago, a 4th-grade student I had worked with regularly since kindergarten sulked into my office. Her head was down and her arms were crossed. I could tell she had been crying. She had just created a memory book with her classroom teacher when it suddenly hit her: elementary school was really over.…
Running school counseling small groups? Check out these tips for successful and effective small group counseling.
Working on helping kids understand big deal/little deal? Check out my size of the problem lesson and see if it'll work for you!
two fun games to use in classroom guidance lessons or small group counseling to teach and practice self control strategies -Counselor Keri
Hi There! Last week I posted on Facebook about how my team's hallway needed a spring make-over. We were stuck in winter mode and the dark blue butcher paper was starting to depress me. I needed color! I needed funshine... yes... I said FUNSHINE!! This week, I had planned a lesson on self-esteem for my 4th graders. Part of our curriculum is to teach students about tobacco and alcohol resistance. I always start this conversation with lessons on self-esteem and friendships. I started the lesson with a quick powerpoint with two pictures: one of a child frowning and looking down, the other of a child smiling and looking confident. I had the students brainstorm words to describe each of the kids. Then I introduced them to the term self-esteem. We then went to kids health.org and read the article "The Story of Self-Esteem". I use kids health.org a lot. It has great articles written so that kids can understand the concepts. The website even has a read-aloud feature. My students LOVE it because it is a computer voice that often pronounces words incorrectly and they think that is hilarious! After we added our notes to our health notebooks, I introduced the "Garden of Greatness" craft. I had each student brainstorm a list of things that he or she is good at, things that made them feel important, or things that made them feel unique and special. I passed out strips of bright colored paper and circles pre-labeled with their names. Students glued between 4 and 8 of the strips onto the back of the circle. When that was done, they turned over the flowers to the front side and wrote ideas off of their list onto the strips of paper. To finish the project, I collected the flowers and stapled them onto the bulletin board. As I stapled, I wrapped each petal to the back. The finish product turned out great! Bright, colorful, and full of FUNSHINE!! Thanks for visiting! Here are few new resources recently added to my TeachersPayTeachers store: Get it FREE! Click on the graphic to go to my TpT store to download!
Grab some plastic eggs, and you've got tons of spring counseling activities! Your students will love these activities and lessons that are perfect for small groups, individuals, or classroom guidance.
Looking for fun ways to teach kids coping skills? Your students will love these fun, hands-on activities to help them deal with tough feelings.
In this blog post, I'm going to give you 5 Social Emotional Learning Art Ideas that you can use in your Art Classroom! As well, I'll tell you about what Social Emotional Learning (SEL) is, how to instruct it, and how to encourage students to engage in the lessons. I'll give you lesson ideas that you can use right away with your students, and I will also give you links to Art Projects that are ready-to-use! Before we begin, let’s understand what Social Emotional Learning, or SEL is and what it can look like in the art classroom or through art!
Make sure you include 4 key components when you are terminating counseling with elementary students.
Students don't always know when they're doing something that makes conflict worse. Teaching them about the conflict escalator (with role plays!) helps them identify their own roles in this
Use these 3 topic ideas for SEL and school counseling lessons this April. The activities will help kids learn about test anxiety, friendship and body safety!
It doesn’t get much more awkward than when a teacher asks you to help a child who is smelly. It’s a sensitive but necessary topic. On the one hand, you don’t want to offend anyone…
Running a self control group counseling program? Your students will love these 10 games to teach kids self control skills!
Grab some plastic eggs, and you've got tons of spring counseling activities! Your students will love these activities and lessons that are perfect for small groups, individuals, or classroom guidance.
I designed this poster as a (playful) way to reflect on what is (and by extension, is not) within our control.Use as classroom or office decor.Or distribute to your students, and challenge them to try each of the 24 suggestions.Discuss ways in which they are already agents of their own lives, and ta...
Grab some plastic eggs, and you've got tons of spring counseling activities! Your students will love these activities and lessons that are perfect for small groups, individuals, or classroom guidance.
5 school counseling activities using string to focus on growth mindset, anxiety, trauma, coping skills, and impulse control.
Helping kids with poor emotional regulation or anger management is tough! Here are some counseling ideas and activities to help support them.
Counseling Lessons to Rock Your Second Semester: My 2nd Semester of school counseling lessons and activities. This post explains what I did in my building before, during, and at the end of the second semester. Keep reading to find out more about each of my lessons and activities!
These emotional regulation activities strengthen children’s ability to manage emotions by teaching them how to move forward from both small and big mistakes.
Learn how to implement solution focused counseling in your school counseling program, including effective techniques to use with students.
Make sure you include 4 key components when you are terminating counseling with elementary students.
Check out these effective ways of teaching kids conflict resolution skills at home & school with these easy-to-implement ideas & strategies.
Use these positive self-talk activities for school counseling to help your students develop the tools they need to believe in themselves and the great things they can do. These positive self-talk activities are perfect for your school counseling lessons and more!
Looking for a great classroom community building or empathy activity for your classroom guidance lessons? You'll love this I am Human activity!
Grab some plastic eggs, and you've got tons of spring counseling activities! Your students will love these activities and lessons that are perfect for small groups, individuals, or classroom guidance.
Social Emotional Learning (SEL) has been found to promote academic success and increase students' commitment to school. Generally, there are five key components that make up social emotional learning. These competencies include self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and decision making. Today, I'd like to focus on ways to help students develop self-awareness. Self-awareness includes one's ability to recognize emotions, have an accurate self-perception, identify strengths, develop confidence, and show self-efficacy. Researchers have found that a student's ability to control his or her feelings, thoughts, and behaviors can be linked to academic success. So, let's take a look at some easy ways to help students develop an awareness of their individual characteristics and personal emotions. All About Me - A - Z This activity helps students to define and identify a variety of aspects about themselves. They'll create a list about themselves with a characteristic, quality, or emotion for each letter of the alphabet. Materials: Piece of paper, pen or pencil Directions: - On a piece of paper, have students create two columns. (Or grab a ready-made poster here.) - Have them write all the letters of the alphabet in each column. - Then, challenge them to write something about themselves for each letter. For instance, they might write "gregarious" for G or "curious" for C. Ideas: - Share your own A to Z list with students first. - Create a class list of emotions and descriptive words to get students started. - Assemble students' finished lists in a class book. Moment of Mindfulness Mindfulness is a great way to build self-awareness. Since mindfulness is all about paying attention to the present moment, it's a great way for students to pause and reflect on how they are feeling, what they are thinking, and what they need in the present. It's simple to do too! Ways to take a moment of mindfulness: - At the beginning of class, have students close their eyes and take several deep breaths. Ask students to pay attention to their breathing. - Share a mindfulness quote with students to help focus students' thoughts during a moment of mindfulness. - Pause during instruction and have students do a self-awareness check. Encourage them to be mindful of their thoughts and feelings. Reflective Journaling Reflective journaling is a powerful way to help students become self-aware. With targeted writing prompts, students can develop insight into their feelings, make sense of their experiences, and build clarity on their thoughts. When students write about their own experiences and feelings, they become more self-aware. Materials: - A notebook and/or computer, pen or pencil, writing prompts - A list of writing prompts that spark self-reflection, these might include: --- Write about a time when you were proud of yourself. --- List ten things that make you feel excited. --- Reflect on how you have changed this year. --- What is something that you find challenging? (Check out a set of 10 engaging prompts here.) Ideas: - Have students respond to their prompts as if they are writing a letter to themselves..."Dear me..." - Read students' responses and respond to their writing in the margins. Add questions and positive notes at the end of their writing to build connections and spark further reflections. - Schedule a time each day or week for journaling to make it an intentional part of your classroom community. Growth Mindset There are many ways to help students develop a growth mindset. When students develop an understanding that all forms of intelligence are malleable, they are inspired to work toward success. That's why it is so powerful to infuse lessons about growth mindset into instruction. Giving students a moment to reflect on their own mindsets builds self-awareness. Materials: - Short lessons or articles about Growth Mindset to help students understand the differences between a fixed and growth mindset. - Series of questions about students' own mindsets. Directions: - After teaching students about Growth Mindset, have students respond to questions about their own mindsets. - Give students a chance to share their responses with a partner, small group, or the entire class. Ideas: - Share and display inspirational quotes about growth mindset. (I particularly love paper desk tents. They are an easy way to display quotes right on students' desks.) - Highlight important people who demonstrate a growth mindset. Emotions Skits Researchers have noted that there are at least six universal emotions. These include happiness, sadness, anger, surprise, fear, and disgust. Help students investigate and demonstrate these universal emotions by challenging them to write a short play or skit that involves a character or many characters experiencing one of the universal emotions. Materials: - List of the universal emotions, paper, pen - Skit planning pages (optional) Ideas: - Review the six universal emotions with students. As a class have students brainstorm what each emotion looks like (how people look when they are experiencing that emotion) and sounds like (what people might say when experiencing that emotion). - Brainstorm situations where people might feel each emotion. Encourage students to share personal situations when they felt a certain way. - Divide students into small groups. Secretly assign each group an emotion. - Challenge students to write a script that their small group could act out for the class that demonstrates that emotion. - Have small groups perform for the class. Have the audience identify the emotion prevalent in the skit. Self Check-In Daily feelings check-ins are a great way to build self-awareness. When students are given the opportunity to assess how they are feeling and share their emotions with others, they begin to know themselves more fully. Self check-ins also help normalize feelings. Materials: - Paper with an open grid shape - List of feelings Directions: - Pass out the gridded paper to students. - Have them fill the grid with different emotions. - Then, have students display the grid on their desks. - Have them place a token or shape on the emotion that shows how they are feeling at a particular moment. Ideas: - Once students can recognize their feelings, help them to develop strategies for regulating their emotions. - Encourage students to track their feelings over an entire school day. Then, discuss how feelings change in different situations. -------------------------------------------------- I hope you've found a few ways to help students develop self-awareness. Incorporating lessons that target social emotional learning is essential in today's classrooms. If you're looking for ready-made resources, check out this set of 10 SEL reading passages and this set of 6 Self-Awareness Activities. Thanks for stopping by! Mary Beth
Simple mental health lessons for kids, like this activity, leave even young children with something to think about in their daily lives.
Kids of all ages love playing games! School counseling games are no different. Play with small-groups or individuals. See my favorites here..
Check out these effective ways of teaching kids conflict resolution skills at home & school with these easy-to-implement ideas & strategies.
