Counseling & Wellness at CCE
March 2024 Summary
Contact us with questions, comments or concerns. We value feedback from our families!
Debbie Edwards, School Counselor dedwards2@dcsdk12.org
Stephanie Star, Wellness Teacher sstar@dcsdk12.org
Parenting Tips
Growth Mindset
Want more? Check out their website HERE.
The Implications of a Phone-Based Childhood
Every once in a while I get so fired up about something that I can't wait to share what I'm learning with everyone around me. This is one of those topics that I'm personally and professionally passionate about! Smart phone use, unsupervised screen time and social media among kids - especially elementary aged children - are major contributing factors to the mental health crisis among adolescents and young adults today.
But don't take my word for it, read or listen to what author and social psychologist, Jonathan Haidt is saying in his new book The Anxious Generation. Or, catch an interview with him on the Good Inside Podcast. He will share what research is telling us and how we as parents can still course correct to raise a more resilient, healthier generation of young people. Check it out!
March Counseling Lessons with Mrs. Edwards
March was all about careers at CCE! In each classroom we explored everything from interests at school, extracurricular interests and activities, and possible jobs and careers students might pursue in the future.
I hope you will have fun imagining with your student what they might want to do one day....
(With Spring Break and snow days affecting the schedule some of your students won't have had this lesson until the first week of April.)
Kindergarten
In kindergarten, we read "Whose Hat Is This?" by Sharon Katz Cooper and students made their own hat with a drawing of a career they might want to have one day.
1st Grade
Students got to play a Career Riddles game where they heard about different tasks and had to guess which career field was being described. They had fun learning about many different kinds of jobs and imagining what they might want to be one day.
2nd Grade
We read "Someday" by Eileen Spinelli and talked about the connection between things that students like to do today and jobs or careers they might have someday. Each second grader had a chance to write down things they are interested in doing now and dreaming about how they might turn that into a career "Someday".
3rd-6th Grade
In the older grades, students had the opportunity to take a career interest inventory and narrow down their interests into career clusters. From there, they were able to explore different jobs and careers related to their interests using O*Net.com. Students seemed to have a lot of fun connecting their strengths and interests now to something they might get paid to do in the future!
March Wellness Lessons with Mrs. Star
Because of the way our Specials schedule works, I have the privilege of seeing each class once every four weeks. This means we cover different topics in each rotation, and the lessons are based in the Mind Up curriculum. There is some overlap between Counseling lessons and Wellness lessons.
In the month of March we focused on relationship skills, looking at our interactions with other people. Students are using what they learned about themselves in the previous months to build stronger relationships.
Building Perspective-Taking and Empathy
Kindergarten-2nd grade:
Students were told that empathy means understanding how someone feels. They learned that it doesn’t have to be just about negative feelings, but positive ones as well. I explained perspective taking and empathy using stories. The goal for students was to explain how the perspective of each character in a story differs, and to explain how taking others’ perspectives can help them better understand others. We then looked at the faces of strangers and tried to determine how they were feeling. Students really enjoyed this! Students also put together puzzles that had a strong emotion, a situation, and a way to show support as their pieces, working together to find the best fit for each piece. Lastly, we ended the unit by listening to scenarios. Students identified how the person would feel in that situation, or “stand in their shoes”, and how they could help them. Students did a wonderful job identifying the feelings of these characters!
3rd-4th:
Our older students listened to read-aloud stories and were given an opportunity to “side” with a character. Each took one character’s perspective and debated with their classmates. Students were able to put themselves in the character's shoes and argue for that character with evidence from the text. They did a wonderful job! Students also had scenarios to read, determine how the person may be feeling, and come up with a way to show they care for this person. These scenarios were a little more challenging, and students worked in small groups to discuss them.
5th-6th:
This group learned about perspective taking through art. Students sat in “quads” and had an object to study and draw from their perspective. The drawings were excellent! After they were finished drawing, they compared their perspectives with others in their group, and finally took a gallery walk to see what other classmates accomplished. These students worked in small groups to discuss scenarios, determine how the person felt and name how they could show they care. These scenarios had several, more specific feelings that applied, as well as ways to help the person. Students learned that there are several ways to show support for someone!
What you can do at home to support this learning!
Kindergarten-2nd grade:
For our younger students, supporting their learning about empathy can be as simple as asking them “how do you think they feel?”. Look for places to sneak this in while watching a show, reading a book, talking about situations at school, or any conversation that applies. Don’t be afraid to ask them to have empathy for adults as well. See if you can come up with feeling words that are specific. This ties back to our previous unit on feelings. Kindergarten-2nd grade students can name feelings such as frustrated, surprised, excited, angry, proud, and many more.
3rd-6th:
Ask your kids, “how do you think that person sees the situation?”, or “how do you think that person feels?” as well as “how can you show you care?” Model for them in real situations what perspective taking and empathy look and sound like. When they have a conflict with a friend at school, talk about it with these questions in mind. When someone they know has a big celebration, use the same questions. Having these discussions outside of school gives them the opportunity to apply what they have learned in Wellness.
Parent Book Study
It's not too late to join in the discussion of the book 13 Things Mentally Strong Parents Don't Do, by Amy Morin. The author outlines practical ways we, as parents, can help raise children who are confident, resilient, happy and healthy!
Our final discussion will take place on May 14th after the PTO meeting. Even if you missed one or both of the prior meetings, join us for this wrap up discussion.
- PTO has graciously offered to shorten their meetings a bit on these dates so we can start our book study around 6:30. We will end by 7:30pm.
Where: CCE Library
Child care provided!
Can't make it to all three discussions? No problem! Read the book anyway and come when you can.
Resources for Families
- CCE School Counseling Website - click on the Resources page. Don't see what you need there? Contact Mrs. Edwards directly.
- DCSD Family Resources page includes links to academic, medical, community, mental health resources and much more.
Your Child’s Mental Health - Pediatric Symptom Checker - This questionnaire for parents, from Mental Health America, can be used to see if your child is having emotional, attentional, or behavioral difficulties. These results are not meant to be a diagnosis. Please talk with a doctor or therapist to get a diagnosis and/or access therapy or medications.