Social/ Emotional Learning
Counseling Lessons - What did we discuss?
November and December
Welcome and thanks for checking out what your students have been working on in our bi-weekly (SEL) social/emotional learning classes!
Elementary
November
For the month of November students focused on gratitude; what is it and how do we show it?
Students created different projects depending on grade level. Kinder and 1st created wonderful grateful hearts and thankful turkeys while 2nd, 3rd, and 4th wrote Gobble Grams to those they feel grateful for. Hopefully they brought one home to share with you or another family member over the holiday break!
We also talked about feelings and gave names to some of those emotions that are "bigger" or more complex than just sad, mad or happy. I was amazed at the discussions the kiddos had around those lessons. They were ready to move forward with our Zones of Regulation discussions in December!
A sample of some of the Grateful Hearts and Turkeys!
December
This month we discussed emotions and feelings. We named as many different ones as we could on our own, and learned a few new ones along the way:) Once we were able to name them and understand how we may be feeling when we experience them, we put them into categories. We used The Zones of Regulation curriculum to separate our emotions into colored Zones. Refer to the image below to get an idea of what emotions fit in each zone.
Kindness Carol - Our elementary school's kindness elf!
Ask your kiddos to share what they did as a class to spread a little kindness to others this holiday season!
Intermediate
November
5th & 6th Grade
- We continued our discussion around perspectives and how to use empathy with others.
7th Grade
- Our lessons focused on friendships and values. What kind of a friend are you and how can we strengthen our good relationships?
8th Grade
- We continued working in our Junior Achievement curriculum with careers and career clusters.
- We had a successful trip to MPTC in West Bend. Students got to see some different course offerings within the MPTC campus. The feedback received from students was that they really enjoyed the trip and were surprised at all the different types of courses they could take there! Plus, they had a wonderful speaker from First Bank Financial who came and spoke to the students about future careers and creating a personal budget around your job's income.
December
5th Grade
- Our class discussions were around accepting differences. "Accepting differences and finding similarities can create mutual respect and friendship." ~ Second Step Lesson Concept.
6th Grade
- Second Step lessons focusing on disagreements and how to do so respectfully. Students had the opportunity to practice using predetermined scenarios and instructions with the skills to try and use which included: Keeping clam; active listening; considering the other persons perspective as well as explaining ones own clearly; and acting nonjudgmental.
- We started discussing emotional management - What happens in our brains and our bodies when we experience strong emotions?
7th Grade
- We used the Second Step curriculum to help guide a discussion on emotions. We watched a video on how our brain works and how it causes our bodies to react when we are experiencing different emotions. "Students need to understand that although emotions provide important information, fast, emotional reactions can lead them to act in ways they may regret!" - As stated in the Second Step curriculum.
8th Grade
- Using the Second Step curriculum, we focused our lesson around how to de-escalate a tense situation between ourselves and our friends. The steps we practiced for staying in control were: noticing our physical signs of tension; pausing and using self talk; calm down strategies such as positive self talk and taking a few deep breaths.
Parent Articles - TikTok
With the increased time at home over the holiday break, I thought I would pass along an article I recently read. Our students have been talking a LOT about TikTok lately (even more than usual) and I found the article below to be very eye-opening!