Vision of Success

Help students discover how they view themselves and the world.

Discussion:

1) What does "success" and "failure" mean?

2) What things do you fear most?

(Talking about the meanings of success and failure is a great way to get your student focused on the future.)

Have students finish each sentence.

1. My greatest success:

2. A failure:

3. Something I did that helped someone:

4. Something I’ve done that I’m proud of:

5. Something I’ve learned from failure:

6. Something I didn’t like doing:

7.The funniest thing I ever did:

8. Something I did that took courage:

9. Something I’m afraid of:

10. Something I’d really like to learn:

Joining a Group

Let’s think of ways to find groups of friends that you might like to join. Throughout their lives, people participate in many different kinds of groups, teams and clubs. A class is also a kind of group. Your classmates are part of your group experience everyday at school. Some kids are part of groups that meet after school. A child’s life is filled with different kinds of groups that meet after school. A child’s life is filled ith different kinds of groups.

 Scenario: Matt has just moved to the neighborhood and is a new student at school. He is sitting at a lunch table where a group of kids are planning some activities for the weekend. He wants to be included but doesn’t know what to do.

1)    What could Matt do to become part of the group?

2)    Do you think Matt should speak first or wait until someone in the group speaks to him?

3)    What could Matt say to start a conversation?

4)    Should the group invite Matt to join them? Why or why not?

5)    Tell about a time when you had time connecting with people in a group. How did you feel? What did you do?

Rehearsing Conversations

Asking questions is a great way learn about a person. When you ask questions you show that you are interested in other people and you learn things from people’s answers that will make you a better friend.

(Play the game “I SPY” to practice asking questions.) Look around the room, think of something and then give the group a clue of what it is. If you picked a clock, you could say, “I’m thinking of something on the wall.” Everyone else asks a question to find out what it is like, What color is it? Which wall is it on? Until they guess what the person is thinking.

Students can then rehearse conversations in pairs. Have one student start by sharing one thing about him/herself such as, “I have a dog.” Their partner must then ask a question based on what the student said. The conversation should continue until the students have both asked and answered three questions. Each student should have a turn to be the person asking and answering the questions. The pairs should then share something new they learned about their partner with the rest of the group.

Using Sentence Starters and Puppets to Teach Social Skills

The paper bag puppet making activity inspired me to used puppets in another lesson. I used the following lesson with a small group of Kindergarten students today to help the students feel more comfortable as members of the group, improve social interaction skills and encourage group discussion. Each student had his or her own puppet. I found that asking the puppets questions greatly helped to take the pressure of responding off the students.

“The first step in getting to know each other is to learn everyone’s name. When you call people their names, it shows you are interested in them. Let’s go around the circle and says our puppets’ names and how they are feeling today.” (Repeat the names the students give their puppet to the group and say, “That’s ___ and she’s feeling ________”) “Look at the puppet friend sitting next to you, do you remember their name? Do you remember the name of the person sitting behind the puppet?”

 (These are the puppets I used in today's lesson.)

Let’s go around the circle and have our puppets finish these sentences:

-       In school I do best when…

-       If I were a teacher I would…

-       If children were the parents, I would…

-       If there were no school at all…

-       I get angry when…

-       I don’t like it when…

-       I like to play…

“Let’s make up a story together. We will go around the circle and each add on a sentence. One day there was a baby kitten who was very shy….”

Start the new semester in style!

Vera Bradley’s 2011 Agendas and the “On Top of Things Desk” Calendar are now on sale! This is a really cute and budget friendly way to keep the busy life of an educator orderly. The calendars and agendas come in various colors and prints, my personal favorite is Very Berry Paisley (shown below). School counselors and teachers can use the calendar as a way of seeing at a glance all the important events and dates that are coming up each month. There is even a space for notes on the side. The calendars and agendas include pages from September 2010 to December 2011. The prices on the calendar starts as low as $5 and the agendas start at $8! This is definitely going to help motivate us to stay organized in 2011!

Role-Playing: Caring Words

Teaching the use of caring words to help children in developing friendships.

Here are some words that help you be a good friend.

-       Let’s share.

-       Excuse me.

-       Thank you.

-       Let’s play together.

-       Can I help you?

-       I’m sorry.

-       May I play with the toy?

-       Please pass the toy.

Using caring words tells other people that we care about them and their feelings. Friends talk to each other with respect. Respect means caring about each other.

Puppet Making Activity (Make paper bag puppets)

We are going to use our puppets to practice using caring words. What can we do to say if…?

-       You see someone with no one to play with. (Let’s play together.)

-       You bump into someone by accident. (Excuse me. I’m sorry.)

-       You make someone cry. (I’m sorry.)

-       Child shares a toy with you. (Thank you.)

-       Child is having trouble finishing a puzzle. (Can I help you?)

-       ­Child pushes you. (Please don’t push.)

-       Child picks the toy you wanted. (May I play with the toy too? Let’s share.)

Discussion Questions: How do using caring words show that you care? How does it help you to be a good friend?

Follow-up Activity: Caring Words “Hot Potato”

We are going to use caring words to play a potato game. (Sit in a circle) To get a potato you must say, “Please pass the potato” and “Thank you” when you get it. We show we care when we say please and thank you. When you use these caring words it makes people feel good.