Who, Whooo are You?

happy fall y'all!

We are officially off to a running start in Room 104.  How is your school year so far?

To kick off the school  year (and create a handy-dandy holder of behavior bucks*), Room 104 created Clothespin People.  How fun are these?!

Each group member and participant in Room 104 had the simple instruction to create a person/place/thing representative of them self.  Mixed in with this bunch is a Diva, a butterfly, a couple pirates, and a polka-dot princess (me, of course!).

This activity provided valuable feedback for all of the growing tweens in Room 104.  From the shy, quiet girl who made herself into a butterfly to the active boy who incorporated a little bit of everyone else's ideas into his own.  I think this may be an end of the year activity as well, to compare/contrast how similar or different each member's clothespin person is after an entire year!


Kristina


*post re: behavior bucks to follow!

Welcome to Room 104

Happy New (School) Year!

I hope everyone is off to a great start for the 2014-15 school year!  It's been an adjustment for me in a new town, with a new school district, and a new room (think less Cookie Monster).  But I think this year is going to teach me A LOT.  I'm looking forward to sharing all the new tips and tricks I learn this school year with 5th and 6th Graders :-)

I'm thankful for a large, undecorated room this year.  I can't wait to add some color and hang up all the projects the kids make throughout the year.  To get us started I borrowed an idea from JYJ Counselor Blog using an iPhone template...for feelings!

Sprucing up our door made me feel a little more at home...and I think it will definitely appeal to our clients.  Over the 2014-15 school year, I hope to continue creating  a safe, kid-friendly environment all of our clients will feel comforted by.  Stay tuned for more...

Kristina

In the Middle

Happy (almost) beginning of a new school year!

I hope a great summer was had by all. Mine was rather busy with...starting Graduate School! My fist quarter was fantastic, I can't wait for the next 3. Although the workload will only increase from here on out, I loved learning new concepts and elaborating on my current skills. I truly love that I can learn something on Monday and apply it in practice on Tuesday, so great!

Along with my new learning opportunities comes...a new job! Unfortunately relocating to attend graduate school meant leaving the Cookie Monster room (pause for deep breathing and maybe a stray tear). But, it wouldn't be a new adventure without anything new. My new position is with a 5th/6th grade intermediate school in a smaller town. Initially, I was (and am still a little) nervous with the change in age range, but I think this change will truly push me to test my new skills and think even further outside the box.

With that in mind, I have been researching,...let's be honest, pinning...middle school counseling tips and tricks. Anyone out there have any advice for this new middle school employee?


Kristina

Transition Time

Oh, the Places You'll Go!

It's that time of year again...the end.  Cut, that's a wrap!  Although the end of the school year means summer vacation, for many Cookie Monster kiddos it also means the BIG SCARY UNKNOWN.  These kiddos depend on regular meals and TLC from teachers and school staff.  Summertime means they often don't know what will happen, where they will go, or even what and when they will eat.  Which also means, as the end draws near, the behaviors presented are not so kind.  

To help these tiny, terrified students, we read Oh, the Places You'll Go! and started thinking about just what, and where, we would be going this summer.  I also shared some big news with my favorite little Cookie Monsters...I'm going back to school, grad school!  Unfortunately, this also means I will be leaving an amazing school and moving to a new city.  It was a tough day, at least for me, to say goodbye.  But, it was a great growing experience to share my worries and fears and help the kiddos process their own about upcoming events.

To liven up the activity, we utilized this download (thanks Pinterest) to share in words and pictures where we hoped to go over the summer and beyond.  Some places were pretty local- Glacier National Park, the lake.  And others were more exciting- Disneyland, Legoland, and Seattle.  The kids were able to share about plans they already knew about for the summer, and think about what plans they wanted to make for the summer.  

The book helped us think of places we might get "stuck" and times when we have overcome obstacles.  And the activity helped us plan ahead, a scary task.

Good luck to those of you finishing up school this week, see you next year...in a new town, and a new school!

Kristina

Visiting Feelings + iSpy feelings

1 more week....!

The countdown is on...1 week left of this school year! I know many schools across the country have already sprung their students for summer vacation, but here in Montana we are still chugging away.

To wrap up our unit on feelings, we utilized the book Visiting Feelings by Lauren Rubenstein.  This is a great book to help kiddos visualize their feelings and learn how to be curious about these feelings rather than overwhelmed by them.  After reading the book with the Cookie Monster kiddos, we played a game of iSpy feelings.  

For this, we simply wrote various feelings on cards and taped them around the room.  Utilizing the "Describing Your Feelings" worksheet, we "spied" feelings that were different shapes, textures, weather patterns, and sounds.  I started the game to give them an idea stating "I Spy with my little eye...a feeling that is soft."  Based on this information, the kiddos had to look at all the feelings and try to guess which feeling might feel soft.  If no one could guess the feeling after the first round, a second clue was given, "this feeling is quiet."  Most of our groups were able to engage in this game proactively with little direction, but it was a little tricky for our younger groups.

The "Describing Your Feelings" worksheet was a great tool to help children think about feelings in different aspects and was a great transition after reading "Visiting Feelings."  For more feelings ideas, check out my Pinterest board!

Kristina

Do you ever get STUCK?

Hang On!

It's almost the end of the year.  And I, for one, feel like the train has picked up speed exponentially and I can't find the brakes.  As I try to locate the emergency stop, here's another feelings activity we have been working on...

Do you ever get STUCK in a feeling or situation?  Do you ever feel like, while you're stuck, the feeling or situation just keeps getting bigger?  Well then, you might have some things in common with Floyd.  Floyd's kite becomes stuck in a tree, and he tries a lot of different ways to get his kite un-stuck...including an orangutang, a rhinoceros, a light house, the house across the street, and even the kitchen sink.  Soon, Floyd forgets about his kite and is distracted by all these other "things" stuck in the tree.  Eventually, Floyd's kite returns!

The Cookie Monster kiddos thought this book by Oliver Jeffers was riotously silly, which it is...but it also provided a good discussion about places WE get stuck.  Our group of 3rd graders frequently shut down in their classrooms when they feel overwhelmed.  This book and activity gave them the power to express times when they feel stuck and process through some coping skills.  Instead of allowing our tree to get full, the 3rd graders decided practicing deep breathing, using words instead of actions to express feelings, and taking a short break before feeling totally overwhelmed were great ways to avoid becoming stuck.

If you haven't discovered the greatness of Oliver Jeffers, you should definitely begin with STUCK.  It's quite silly, but can be utilized to relate several therapeutic interventions.  Some other great titles by Oliver Jeffers include: The Heart in the Bottle (a must for grief and loss), Lost and Found & Up and Down (friendship), and The Way Back Home (friendship).


Kristina

Feelings, Feelings, and more...Feelings!

Happy mid-May!

We have been busy, busy bees the last few weeks in the Cookie Monster room.  The past weeks/month have been dedicated to exploring...Feelings!  The Cookie Monster kiddos have learned:

• what feelings are
• how we experience feelings 
• how we sometimes get "stuck" in/on feelings
• to be curious explorers of their feelings

We utilized books like "The Way I Feel" by Janan Cain and "Today I Feel Silly: And Other Moods That Make My Day" by Jamie Lee Curtis to help explore what feelings are.  We also utilized "Glad Monster, Sad Monster" by Ed Emberley and Anne Miranda to learn feeling expression:

As you can see, the Cookie Monster kiddos have been learning A LOT about feelings.  Stay tuned for more posts on all our new knowledge!


Kristina