Happy Ho-ho-holidays!

Wow, it has certainly been a busy, busy year at Hedges Elementary School.  I honestly blinked and its Christmas time already!  Among all the holidays and celebrations, I've found a (little) time to make this season bright...

...at home anyways!

This has been a busy time of year around the school, especially the Cookie Monster room!  I have lots to share and hope to get back to busy blogging in the new year.  In the mean time, I wish you all a very Happy Holiday, whichever you recognize and celebrate!

Kristina

How Does YOUR Engine Run?

Well, winter has been making it first appearances in Montana…

After our month of brain activity, pun intended, we are zooming on, also pun intended, to (drum roll please)...How Does Your Engine Run?

The Alert Program's How Does Your Engine Run? Is a great tool to use when working with just about any kiddo.  The program can be utilized in almost any setting- classroom, occupational therapy, and mental health counseling.  Check out their website for more info! We are just starting our engines....

But I have high hopes for utilizing this program.  Check back for more after the holidays!

Kristina

Music to My Ears

Okay counseling (and other) friends, lets try something!  Wherever you are reading this, sit up in your seat.  Close your eyes.  And think about a song.  Any song, but specifically one that draws a strong physical response.  What do you feel like when you hear this song...ecstatic, contentment, sorrow?  For me, at the moment, that song is Katy Perry's Roar.  I feel this song all the way down to my toes and I belt it out loud in my car most days on the way home.  It perks me up and helps me melt away a long day in a matter of minutes.  It makes me feel powerful...like the eye of the tiger ;-)

Now, let's think about that.  You just simply recalled a song and thought about how it made you feel.  Imagine harnessing that power for good.  A post or two ago I shared we begin each group with relaxation.  An integral part of our deep breathing exercises is the new-fangled app called Spotify.

Spotify is an app you can download on your desktop computer, your laptop, your iPad, or even your iPhone or android device.  It is similar to Pandora, but with MUCH more versatility.  Basically its the most user friendly music player you will ever encounter.  The best part, the basic edition is totally FREE!  That means, for FREE, you can download this application to your computer and listen to almost any music you want, anytime.  For the music lover (me, me!) this is the best invention since sliced bread.  

Getting back to small groups...Kelly and I utilize spotify by creating "kid friendly" playlists.  These playlists are composed of soothing, quiet instrumental tracks.  These instrumental tunes go a long way in "setting the mood" for relaxation.  And the group that follows, as we often play soft music throughout all our groups.

If you enjoyed my PSA for Spotify, great!  If you are like me and take most gushing reviews with a grain of salt, get ready for my next sentence.  WARNING: explicit ads will be aired on any and all basic editions!!!  What does this mean for unsuspecting school counselors?  This means, that in the middle of your first grade small group while everyone is beginning to have a calm body, Kanye West will start dropping swear words at a loud decibel.  Not cool.  

GOOD NEWS: you can get rid of these ads!  You can upgrade your Spotify to an ad free edition for $4.99 per month.  To me, it is totally worth the price tag.  You can even downgrade your subscription during the summer months!

Here a few of the albums I utilize to guide our relaxation exercises:

• Calm Children Collection: Piano Music for Naptime
• Calm Children Collection: Piano Music for Reading
• Baby Music: 100% Organic Acoustic Lullabies

And for the girls' group:

• Fred Molin: Princess Lullaby (Disney Princess edition!)

In case you aren't a fan of the digital download generation, you can get most of these titles from Amazon.  Those are just a few examples of the calm tunes we listen to in the cookie monster room.  Do any of you utilize music during small groups?  I would LOVE more music suggestions!

Lastly, we finally got a poster up for Bully Prevention Month:

Kristina

Brain Games

I’m not sure about elsewhere, but its been getting a bit spooky around here…

This month in the Cookie Monster room we have been discussing…the BRAIN!  During small groups, we identified “all” the things the brain does:

The goal in teaching about the BRAIN this month is to help give children an understanding of how we develop, how the brain learns to adapt to adversity, how to have a “calm” brain, and how emotions are connected to our brain.

Next week we will making our own brains (ewww)…with playdough!  I found many helpful BRAIN ideas from the lovely Rebecca at School Counseling by Heart.  Have you checked out her blog yet, its chalk full of super fun counseling ideas!

And have you guys met Ned the Neuron?  He’s pretty “electric.” For more brainy ideas, check out my Pinterest!

Kristina

Breathe In, Breath Out

Happy October!  It's officially my favorite month of the year in my favorite season...and pretty soon it will be my favorite holiday!  Have you thought about your Halloween ensembles yet?  I braved the creepy basement and the frightening spiders to dig up my decorations this week.

Building on the info I shared in my last post about the history of the kiddos in the cookie monster room, and their constant physiological state of "fight-or-flight," I want to share about an integral part of small groups in the Cookie Monster room.  At the beginning of each small group, and often during times of "crisis," we practice relaxation and deep breathing.

Kiddos in the Cookie Monster room are often identified by teachers and school staff as "hyperactive" and "unable to focus."  Based on the understanding of the traumatic, violent, and inconsistent backgrounds of these kids, this outward behavior is absolutely understandable.  Living in a constant state of "unknown," these children have learned to be ever vigil about their surroundings.  

This practice of calming the body is utilized for several purposes.  One of the most important purposes of relaxation is to help these small children, who live in a consistent heightened state of fight-or-flight, learn a safe coping skill.  Another major purpose of relaxation is to help prepare the group for learning.  Although these children attend school, they often struggle with education due to history of trauma and inconsistency.  Relaxation is a tool we utilize to help these children safely calm their mind and body to prepare for learning about topics such as emotions and empathy.  This is the goal, a calm body and a ready mind. 

We begin each group with relaxation to help build consistency.  In our previous location, we had space to spare and the kids each used a foam mat to lie on.  This was superb!  In our new room, we have little space to spare.  The lack of space has forced Kelly and I to get creative with our relaxation.  In an effort to meet the kids where they are physically and emotionally, we utilize several resources to help guide our relaxations.

A great sight for guided imagery and mindfulness, Kids Relaxation provides us with scripts to read while the kids practice deep breathing- slow in through the nose, filling up the belly like a balloon, slight pause, and nice and slow out through the mouth.  Our groups also enjoy the Happy Tree guided imagery!  A great Pinterest find was this great muscle tensing/releasing exercise.  We use this relaxation on days when the kids appear stiff or energetic.  The brief, kid-friendly exercises help the kids relax their entire body – from toes to nose!  Recent finds include:

• the ever amazing Yoga Pretzels.  These cards can be used in (possibly) never-ending ways.  We have used them to guide breathing, do brief stretching, and self-expression activities (check out the Nature Kids card).

• Go Noodle!  A fantastic sight for short brain breaks.  I originally learned of this site in an email from our principal, Mrs. Miller.  She encouraged teachers to utilize this for upcoming standardized testing.  After a short registration, users can demo activities with a “class mascot” before creating permanent groups.  Our kids absolutely love stretching with Maximo, the funky monkey with a mustache.  Our morning group has been practicing breathing with Airtime, they like learning about the new destinations we “breathe” to.

Last but not least, Relax Kids created an entire School Relax Pack.  This pack is packed with great ideas to help kids take a “time out” from brain draining days.  The packet includes brief breathing and stretching activities teachers (or counselors!) can use to help children refocus during testing or long days.  I especially love the positive affirmation cards that come with the FREE school pack!

Kristina

C-S-C-huh?

Happy fall y’all!  It’s been a rainy one here in Montana but I hope somewhere the leaves are turning golden in the brisk fall sunshine.

I wanted to take time today to share more about the program I work for.  In Montana, there is a program labeled Comprehensive School and Community Treatment.  This program is administered by various agencies throughout the state which contract with the Office of Public Instruction (OPI).   Comprehensive School and Community Treatment, or CSCT for short, is designed to be an outpatient clinic built into a school system.  CSCT in each school is comprised of a two-person team, a licensed therapist (Kelly) and a mental health worker (me!).  The teams work with children identified as Seriously Emotionally Disturbed (SED) who qualify for state/federally funded health insurance.

So, what does SED look like in a school setting?  Currently, the kiddos in our program struggle with maintaining attention, impulsivity, aggression (toward self, peers, or authority), depression or inability to engage in class activities, and inability to recognize boundaries or other social cues.

The diagnoses for the kids in our program are often comprised of:

• Oppositional Defiant Disorder,
• Post Traumatic Stress Disorder,
• Dysthymic Disorder,
• Major Depression, and
• Generalized Anxiety Disorder. 

These diagnoses can be precipitated by any or all of the following:

• a childhood history of abuse and/or neglect,
• witnessing violence between caregivers,
• witnessing drug use/abuse,
• a sense of shame by caregivers,
• lack of empathy by caregivers,
• inconsistent structure and stability throughout childhood,
• unmet infancy needs,
• harsh and inconsistent discipline,
• lack of boundaries between caregivers or siblings,
• lack of relationship with caregiver, and
• a consistent and pervasive fear of physical and emotional needs being unmet

So, how do kids get referred to CSCT? Students are often referred to our program by teachers, parents, or the principal with a majority of referrals initiating with teachers.  This school year, our new principal, Mrs. Miller (#mrsmillerrocks), shared a referral form she utilized at her previous school.  The form consists of questions about struggling students- how are they struggling?  what classroom interventions have been utilized? how does the teacher define "success"?  what would a change in behavior look like? etc.  Teachers fill out the form, turn it into the principal and a carefully constructed team of teachers, administration, and counselors meet to discuss options to assist the student.  Not every student identified qualifies or is the right fit for our program, however, our numbers of participation are quickly rising this year.

So, what do you do exactly?  When kiddos are referred and accepted into our program (meaning they are struggling academically, in the home, and with peers AND are currently enrolled in Medicaid), they receive individual, family, and group counseling.  Smalls groups are conducted daily (usually with Kelly and I together) and individual and/or family therapy is conducted weekly (usually only by Kelly).  I truly enjoy creating lessons for small groups and can't wait to share more small group ideas and activities with all of you!

Whew, that was a mindful, I mean a mouthful, of information.  I specifically wanted to share this information to help create a better understanding of the population our program serves...so in future posts when I share how certain activities do not go according to plan, you might have an idea why ;-)

I hope you all have a cozy, warm week!

Kristina

Welcome to the Cookie Montser Room!

Hello again!  Sorry for the delayed post, its been a whirlwind few weeks ending in a nice long weekend and the first hints of fall.  Part of the delayed posts came in the form of a last minute change in the location of our counseling room.  Kalispell has been experiencing higher numbers of enrollment for younger ages…must have been something in the water 5(ish) years ago.  This increased influx of Kinders led to a sudden addition of another Kindergarten class at my elementary school.  Thus prompting the move of several other rooms, including our counseling room (otherwise and henceforth known as…the Cookie Monster room) 

Here is what our room looked like after Kelly conducted a thorough purging…

A little disorganized, but lots of potential.

And here is the product of a little rearranging…

I absolutely LOVED that I got to be a part of the creative vision for this room.  Although it is a little under half the size of our amazing old room, it feels so cozy and inviting.  I have high hopes for conducting small groups in this space!   And the best part, I got to be crafty with our new space!

There are more changes to come in the cookie monster room, look for more colorful changes in the next few weeks!

Simply Magnificent

Last school year (2012-2013) was my very first as a school counselor.  In the program I work for, each school in my district, from elementary to high school, is assigned a two person team (a licensed therapist and mental health worker- a.k.a. me).  I can't wait to introduce you all to Kelly in later posts.  She is a truly gifted therapist I have been honored to be paired with.

On my first day of training, my supervisor presented the middle and high school teams with a journal.  He explained that this journal was meant to be an inspirational tool for these teams to create small groups around.  This journal looked awesome.  I couldn't believe that a) creating therapy groups could look this cool and b) there wasn't a cool journal for the elementary teams!  But, have no fear, my ability to "google" is well honed.

I learned that this amazingly colorful space to express feelings was created and published by a non-profit organization called Art with Heart.  I also learned, Art with Heart makes several great books aimed at children dealing with "emotional stuff." The book I (finally) purchased was Magnificent Marvelous Me.

I chose this book based on its description from the website and ages/developmental levels it targeted.  And I'm so glad I did.  This book provided year long inspiration for small groups.  SPOILER ALERT: I'll share how some of these inspirations turned out in future posts!  Here's a somewhat quick (being brief is not my forte) rundown of my favorite parts of this book (although a strong case could be made for every single page being my favorite...):

• The Introduction and Dedication Pages.  Counselors, bust out your art therapy skills.  These pages provided so much insight into these children's relationships, with others and with themselves.
• The Family Pages.  These pages helped me to understand the difficult family dynamics of each of these children.  And it provides insight for their individual therapy sessions.
• The Feelings Pages.  These pages were great for introducing feelings to the younger groups.  And provided interesting discussion for the older groups.  For children, so many feelings are categorized simply as: mad, sad, glad.  But what kids feel is anything but simple.  These pages were great additions to other lessons on emotions.

Since discovering this great tool, Art with Heart has created their own Magnificent Marvelous Me! preschool group.  Check out their Facebook page for more info!  I would love to hear if any of you have found this company/book as helpful as me. Share your ideas below!

Thanks, Art with Heart, for providing this amazing tool,


Kristina

It's official, I am a blogger.

Welcome to A Crafty Counselor blog!

My intention in beginning this new, creative, and technological adventure is to create a sharing space for school counselors near and far, with my own creative spin.  Over the past year, my first as a school counselor, I gained much insight from pouring over countless counseling blogs (like http://schoolcounselorscrapbook.blogspot.com/).  I utilized these blogs to gather small group ideas, and to learn I am not the only school counselor trying to get creative.  Some ideas I utilized just as I found them and others I put my own spin on.  

As I am sure you will soon learn, I like to put "my own spin" on a lot of things.  Sometimes, this works in my favor. Other times, I can certainly say I learned a thing or two...like when I have three first graders melting down or turning into human pretzels in their chairs.  In lieu of the latter, I must warn you, I don't intend to hold back in my blog.  When things go wonderful, I can't wait to share what worked with all of you.  When things don't go according to my plan, I can't wait to share the things I learned with all of you!  One of the most important things I learned over the past school year: there is no experience or interaction you cannot learn and grow from.  I am so very grateful for the opportunity I have been given to influence these emotionally confused children.  Little do they know just how much they end up teaching me.

With that being said, welcome to a new school year and a new blog.  I hope both turn out to be great adventures!

Kristina