Ms. Chandler's Counseling Corner
Summer 2021
Hello Families!
Toolbox was fun to work on this year. It was a brand new curriculum for the elementary schools and I was proud to be the one to start it with your kids. We covered the Breathing tool, Personal Space tool, Empathy tool, Garbage Can tool, and the Listening Tool.
I have attached some links for you regarding activities for the summer. The ones that I provided are free and they are throughout Arizona, and locally as well.
I hope you have a fabulous, relaxing, cool, and safe summer!!
Verbal Survey of Toolbox
I asked a few classes between Kindergarten and third grade which tool they enjoyed learning about the most, and their favorites were the Personal Space tool and the Garbage Can tool. After asking them which one they liked, I asked them which one was the hardest to understand and put to use. The younger grades said the empathy tool, which makes sense because empathy is a hard concept to understand. I reminded those classes that they show empathy all the time: when a student doesn't feel good and they tell the teacher, when a student falls down and they help them up, when a student is crying and they give them a hug or tell them that "it's okay"...
Hands down, the students loved the activities that I provided. Their favorite one that we did was from the Personal Space tool. I provided string and we created our own personal space bubble. The students then had a chance to work on asking for space appropriately and how much/little space they could tolerate.
The books that were apart of the curriculum were also a huge hit! Some students even said that the books were their favorite part. Amazingly, some of the books that I provided to correlate with a tool, were also read in the classroom for social and emotional learning. That was impressive!
If you see your students using the tools at home or outside of school, reinforce them! This will only help with their understanding!
Sara Chandler
Email: sara.chandler@lhusd.org
Website: https://www.havasu.k12.az.us/
Location: Lake Havasu Unified School District, AZ, USA
Phone: 928-854-7280