The POWER of POSITIVE talk!

At Woodland this week I am talking to our 5th graders about the power of positive talk (both self-talk and peer talk) and how our words are so impacting and powerful!

We discussed the findings of Dr. Masaru Emoto and his experiments with water found in this virtual children's book:

http://www.creatingconsciously.com/books/emotowaterbook.pdf

and I showed them my rice experiment and the results.

Here's a peak:

I encourage you to look at the link above for more about the water and to understand how it is all tied together--it's pretty neat!  It all goes to show that our words MATTER and we need to make them POSITIVE!

Ask your 5th grader about the power of positive talk :)

Making ART with TEAMWORK!

This was a fun lesson I did last month with the 4th graders at Woodland Elementary.  It was the first of my three lessons surrounding our bully prevention movement.

The topic was TEAMWORK--with the objective: When we work as a team and work to encourage each other and build up our peers up, bullying can't happen.

We discussed the words TEAM and TEAM PLAYER and how they helped to influence our positive school environment and aid in bully prevention.

Then the fun part!

I handed out large poster size pieces of paper to groups of 3 or 4.  Each paper was blank except for a random scribble---each of them were different.  Some had big squiggles, some small lines, some circles and loops---really just scribbles!

The object of the activity was for the students to work together to come up with an idea of what the scribble would be turned into.

Each student had a different color so we could tell who contributed what to the final product.

The catch was that before I gave them their markers to add to the scribble, they had to work in their teams to all come to an agreement of what the picture would be.  Some would see the scribble as a spaceship with balloons around it, others--an ice cream cone in a pool.  :)  Some groups took 2 minutes to come to a compromise, others almost 10 minutes.

They definitely had to use their team player skills and think about how to compromise and encourage each others ideas--even if they differed from theirs.

Here were the finished projects--remember they all started as scribbles!

(sorry the picture is bad quality)

Teaching kids about the tricks of advertising

Today I taught one of my Life Skills lessons (a regular curriculum us district counselors utilize) and the topic was "Advertising".  As soon as I went in the classroom and told my 5th graders what we were going to be discussing, hands shot up and they excitedly asked, "are we going to watch the video we watched last year? You know, the burger one?!" (We use the curriculum in 4th grade too--different lessons/same topics). I let them down gently, and I could tell they were disappointed to not see it again.  While I was a little taken a back at their let down, I was also really excited that they remembered it!  

I found this video on you tube and use it for my 4th grade lesson on Advertising to start the discussion about the truths and ticks of advertising.

I love that it has stuck with them and made such an impact!  Kids get a kick out of it!

Being a piece of the PI!

At Weaver Lake, we have been working hard to "be the change" at our school.  Our bully prevention/positive support team has come up with a fun and rewarding way to incorporate more POSITIVE interactions (PI) into our day.  We developed the  PI slip:

 

With these slips we are focusing on only positive character traits we catch kids doing and nothing academically related (though we surely care about that too!).    We actually created some blank slips for staff to fill out for other staff members as well, because hey--who doesn't like a compliment or pat on the back?!

These slips are being handed out like hot cakes and collecting on our school walls to make a beautiful collage of positive interactions between students.  It brings such an overwhelming joy to see so many kids making choices to have those positive interactions with their peers.

This is just the beginning our PI adventure and can't wait to bring you more news on how our school is doing, PI day, and upcoming reward days!

Everyone can be a piece of the PI :)

January's Bully Prevention theme: UPstander!

The bully prevention theme this month at Woodland Elementary is UPSTANDER!

 UP-stander:  A person who stands up for his or her beliefs; does what they think is right even if they are alone; NOT a bystander.

Back in October, we celebrated Unity Day (National Bully Prevention Day) by going big.  I mean BIG!.....

This was the stepping stone to our proactive approach to stomp out bullying and stand UNITED as a school and community.

By being Upstanders we are focused on making bad situations into positive ones and assertively (and respectfully!) stand up for ourselves and others!

Here are some ways to implement UPSTANDER into your conversations:

Language Arts:

Have students write a narrative about a time they witnessed bullying or mistreatment of another, and how they made the choice to be a bystander. Have the students share their stories in small groups and then re-write them, changing their role to upstander.

Current Events/Social Studies:

Look through news articles for upstanding citizens ahd have students discuss why that person is an upstander and not a bystander.

Technology:

The application “Awesome Upstanders” is like a bully prevention version of Donkey Kong (school friendly).  I even played the first level and it’s quite addicting J  You could install it on your device or simply have students play it on this website (http://awesomeupstander.com/).  For students that like video games and have a little down time in the classroom after a test, assignment, etc.

Remember Mcgruff the dog?  We’ll he’s back in style and talking to kids about handling bullying situations, being assertive and standing up for yourself and others.  Here is a 5 minute video that would be fun introduction to a conversation about these things:

http://mcgruff.org/#/Videos

Math:

This could be a cool math related visual activity to demonstrate bystander vs. upstander.

http://pinterest.com/pin/573223858790769030/

You could certainly do it digitally as well.  Whatever fits your classroom the best!


Books

These books can lead into a great morning meeting discussion about being assertive upstanders!

·         The Juice Box Bully: Empowering kids to stand up for others by by Bob Sornson and Maria Dismondy

·         Stand Tall Molly Lou Melon by Patty Lovell

·         One by Kathryne Otoshi

·         Bully B.E.A.N.S.  by Julia Cook

·         Say Something by Peggy Moss

Welcome to Counseling Goodies!

Welcome to my site!  I hope to bring other educational professionals some fun things I've been doing with my students that you can easily do with yours!  And parents, this will also hopefully give you a glimpse of what your kiddo might be up to when I visit their classroom!  I'll also show off some projects, videos and pictures they complete (they are very talented)!  Stay tuned for these counseling goodies! :)