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

Appreciating the Teacher

Mrs. Thackeray.

My first grade teacher.  She was the BEST!  First grade is a pretty fun year in general, but I don't remember anything super fantastic about it (other than I had chicken pox and they were the worst).  What I do remember is how my teacher treated me- with kindness and compassion.  I've had several incredible teachers in my lifetime, from actual paid teachers to mentors and friends who have impacted my growth.  But I will never forget the way Mrs. Thackeray always greeted me with a smile and helped me work through difficult days with compassion rather than shame.

Did you know it is National Teacher Appreciation Week?  Every year, the beginning of May is set aside to say "Thanks!" to those special people who spend 7-8 hours per day impacting impressionable brains.  And boy, working in a school has taught me it couldn't come at a better time.  Nearing the end of the year, teachers and students are bombarded with all the "stuff" they have yet to accomplish this school year.  Every week there seems to be 50 field trips, to where, no one knows.  Teachers have "had it up to here" with behaviors that have steadily eaten away at their patience throughout the school year.  

What better time to remind all these exhausted teachers just how much they have accomplished this year?  I'm thankful everyday for these tireless, dedicated, inspiration starters.  But how often do I actually tell these wonderful people this?  National Teacher Appreciation Week of course!  Kelly and I decided to do something extra special this year for all our Terrific Teachers.  With the Cookie Monster kiddos, we made posters saying "Thanks for helping me grow!"

How cute did these turn out?!  It was great to introduce the topic to all of our groups and hear all of the different ways teachers have helped our Cookie Monster kiddos.  Our third grade group of boys have definitely challenged their teachers this year in the realm of calm compassion.  It was heartening to see the kind, colorful posters these "tough" boys made for their teacher, who is not always their favorite person.

Beyond helping our students show appreciation, Kelly and I decided to go a little further in expressing our thanks...by providing breakfast one day this week!  I got to be creative (yay!) and show gratitude to some pretty exquisite educators.  

  

Happy National Teacher Appreciation Week to ALL teachers, near and far! Especially to Mrs. Thackeray :)

Kristina

P.S.- Want to do something special for the teachers in your life?  Check out Pinterest for some great appreciation ideas!

Join the Book Club!

Howdy fellow school counselors!

I just wanted to take a minute to spread some great news about...books.  I am a true lover of books.  Big or small, short or long, pictures or no pictures.  As a lover of books, I often incorporate them into small groups and individual therapy.  Books are a great tool to help children process feelings and situations when they do not quite have the words and/or insight to express these experiences.  *SPOILER ALERT* I have some great upcoming posts about specific books and how we utilized them in the Cookie Monster room, stay tuned.

Today, I want to share a resource I recently discovered (because apparently I've been hiding in my cave of an office...).  Scholastic Reading Club.  Yes, those "book orders" from when you were a kid are still available!  I discovered this when one of the Cookie Monster kiddos trucked into our room and asked for help in picking out books.  This special firstie comes from an incredibly impoverished family and rarely has anything to call his own.  Thanks to a grant in our first grade classrooms, every single firstie gets $7 worth of books each month (which equates to 2-3 popular books or 1 super cool book with stickers, in this case).  In helping this kiddo develop an innate love of books, I also found books in the little paper fliers that would be great additions to our Cookie Monster collection.  

Since first grade teachers ROCK, I was able to order with the class and received "Bucket Filling from A to Z" for $4.  Yep, you read that right, $4.  I went on to discover, thanks to this fabulous firstie teacher, that I could log on to www.scholastic.com/readingclub and enter her teacher code to gain access to literally hundreds of books for rock bottom prices.  Most titles are only available in paperback, but you can still find a limited amount of hardback books for less than their cover price as well.  I have since gone a little book order crazy...but the Cookie Monster kiddos have definitely benefited from these finds.  Some of my most recent book orders have included The Way I Feel by Janan Cain, Your Fantastic Elastic Brain by JoAnn Deak, and The Invisible String by Patrice Karst. 

So, connect with a friendly teacher in your school and go a little book wild!

Kristina

Have YOU Filled a Bucket Today?

Howdy Friends!

I don't know about you guys, but this school year feels like a runaway train all of sudden...everything is picking up speed and it will be over before we know it!  In light of that, I thought I better share some of the great work our cookie monster kiddos have been doing despite all the state testing and summer fever.

A few months ago (my how time has flown by!) I posted a book review of my weekend finds.   One of the books I invested in was "Have You Filled A Bucket Today?" by Carol McCloud. This is a great book for discussing empathy and practicing kind words.  We utilized this book in several different ways including saying kind things to other group members, sharing times outside of group when others filled our bucket or dipped into it, and sharing ways to help someone whose bucket is low or empty.  Here are a few ideas on how to fill a bucket from our third grade boys:

• help people
• be kind
• give hi-5s
• say please & thank you
• smile

A great companion book is "Bucket Filling from A to Z" also by Carol McCloud, and Caryn Butzke.  This book is a great way to help small groups have open dialogue about all the different ways someone can be a bucket filler, or a bucket dipper.  While reading this book, our 1st/2nd grade group identified several similarities between the scenarios in the book and what really happens at school and home.  

An unknown bonus of this book was its help in developing a sense of insight and personal awareness.  As we worked our way from A to Z, the Cookie Monster kiddos were able to relate to situations we read about- both in being the victim of bucket dipping and in recognizing how to fill a bucket by "treating others as you want to be treated."

After reading both of these uplifting books, each group created a few bucket filling statements to share with the ENTIRE school!  We created a master list of all the kind, encouraging things we might want to hear...and then we made those super awesome words into cards...and then we hung them up in the hallway and invited the whole school to pick up a bucket filling card when they felt their buckets were too low!  Some of the kids wrote jokes to make the person laugh, some traced their hands to give hi-5s, and some simply drew a bright picture and wished the person a good day.  

The best part of this project, all of the Cookie Monster kiddos left small groups feeling good with their buckets full.  For more bucket filling ideas, check out the bucket fillers website!



Kristina

You Have Brains In Your Head, You Have Feet In Your Shoes...

HaPpY (belated) BiRtHdAy Dr. SeUsS!!

We celebrated in style in the Cookie Monster room.  It was a good day had by all...here are a few of our crafts & activities:

During craft time, we practiced positive social skills like sharing, using kind words, and showing patience for peers who worked more slowly.  I can't take credit for all the fun though, check out my Pinterest C S C T Boards to see more fun ideas for counseling and other activities!

Kristina

You're awake. You're awesome. Live like it.

Heidi Ho friendly bloggers!

As our month focusing on KINDNESS comes to an end, I realized there is someone I think you should meet.  I met him several months ago and he has had a BIG impact on the Cookie Monster room.  So, without further ado, I introduce....

found on: http://www.rantlifestyle.com/2014/01/29/20-reasons-kid-president-better-president-obama/

Kid President.  This kid rocks, literally.  He is kind and insightful and he truly wants everyone to be the best they can be.  Look him up on YouTube!  Then find him on facebook, twitter, and instagram!

Kid President has been teaching the Cookie Monster kiddos a lot, especially about Kindness and how to treat others.  So far, we have learned 20 things we should say more often, how to change the world, and how to be good gift givers.

Here are some things we have learned from KP in his most recent video "A Letter To A Person On Their First Day Here":

• The world is about kindness and caring
• Food is delicious
• Hugs & Smiles & Kisses are Great!
• It's OK to make mistakes
• Be a bucket filler, not a bucket dipper
• Sometimes people are nice, and sometimes they aren't
• The world is awesome & so are you!

P.S. If you want more inspiring, uplifting, or just plain laugh out loud videos check out Kid President's YouTube channel, Soul Pancake!


Kristina

Book Review!

Happy (almost) Valentine's Day!

To celebrate this lovely upcoming holiday, I invested in some book love over the weekend.  A trip to Barnes & Noble never fails to brighten my mood, spark my creativity, and fill my bucket.  And speaking of buckets...my mission in this big, book-loving store was to find books and other tools for teaching empathy.  Good News: I hit the jack-pot!  

Here's a preview of my finds...

• "Have You Filled a Bucket Today?" is a fabulous book by Carol McCloud.  Several schools in our district use this book to encourage positive behavior school wide.  At Hedges, several different classes also utilize this book to teach kids about being a "bucket filler" and a "bucket dipper."  We have already utilized this book in the Cookie Monster room by practicing how to be a "bucket filler."  This week we are practicing saying one kind thing to each member of the group before ending group.  I have heard tough third grade boys say the kindest things this week, and that sure fills my bucket!

• "Stand in My Shoes" by Bob Sornson is a grrrr-eat book to introduce empathy.  I've had my eye on Stand in My Shoes for quite some time.  In a previous job, I was trained in Parenting with Love and Logic.  I think this method is a great tool to use as a parent, teacher, or school counselor.  The entire method of Parenting with Love and Logic is based on...EMPATHY!  So what better way to explain empathy to elementary learners than with a Love & Logic book written just for them? I'm excited to share this book with the Cookie Monster kiddos and become Empathy Explorers!

• "How to be a Friend: A Guide to Making Friends and Keeping Them" by Laurie Krasny Brown and Marc Brown is another fabulous book I added to our collection over the weekend.  What I love about this book: it goes over every aspect of a friendship- from compromising on activities, to handling arguments, to ways to be and not to be a friend.  I'll have more on this book soon...our second graders are working hard on this subject and they have some great ideas on "How to be a Friend."  If you want a quick activity for this book now, check out this post by Scrapbook of a School Counselor!

This last book was a special one just for me.  "The Whole Brain Child: 12 Revolutionary Strategies to Nurture Your Child's Developing Mind" by Dan Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson.  If you haven't discovered the wisdom of Dan Siegel, follow the link, I promise you won't regret it. So far in this book, I'm loving the "strategy" sections.  The information is simple but effective and easily shared with families and children.  This is a great book for elementary age kiddos, he has another book titled Brainstorm for insight into the adolescent brain.  I highly recommend both books!  

Kristina

Ever Feel Like You Want to Wreck-It?

Greetings from the Cookie Monster Room!

Before all the hustle and bustle of the Holidays, I shared a little about a program we were utilizing called How Does Your Engine Run? The month of December is busy, busy, busy around Hedges.  Keeping this in mind, Kelly and I decided to try something new...movie viewing!  I specifically chose the movie to fit with our small group discussions about How Does Your Engine Run?  During these discussions, our groups focused a lot on how Anger makes an engine rev and run a little high.  We talked about what happens to our body- mind, heart, and breath- when we become angry.  Most of the kids were able to identify having physical reactions to anger.

During this time, I introduced, or reintroduced, the groups to someone who struggles with physical aggression.  Some of you might know him as...Wreck-It Ralph!  Throughout the movie, the groups were able to identify when Ralph's engine was running high, low, and just right.  

By using an external example, the kids were able to engage in discussions about how to help Ralph use his coping skills.  The best part?  One of our Kindergarten teachers donated an actual Wreck-It Ralph doll...and yes, he can wreck-it!  During groups, the kids taught Ralph how to take deep breaths, use his words, and take some space.  

I created a few other activities to go along with the movie and posted them in Google docs. We utilized the "wreck-it" worksheet to draw a picture of time we wrecked something when upset, then we talked about what we wanted to do instead.  Using the "fix-it" worksheet, we shared how we might fix the thing we wrecked- whether it was an actual thing (my brother's game) or a relationship (saying "I'm sorry" to my brother).

I'm not sure if the cookie monster kids or their cookie monster counselor enjoyed the movie more.  But I do know it was a fun, effective tool to utilize when everyone's attention was stretched a little thin.  


Thanks Disney Pixar for another great film!

Kristina

Hap-Hap-Happy New Year!

hApPy NeW yEaR from the Cookie Monster room!

I hope this new year brings fresh inspiration, strengthened supports, and hearts full of Joy~

Kristina