5 activities to start off the year!

It comes with as much excitement as it does impending stress of the morning routine of getting yourself and your family out the door and to school on time (no, just me?)...the start of the school year!

This year comes with some significant changes for me, so I wanted to keep some things consistent, and I am planning to use some of my "go to" activities for the beginning of the year.  I thought I would share them with you all today.

At the start of the year, I run all of my "first" groups/sessions the same way:

1.  A quick introduction/catch up (Because you NEED to know how a 3rd grader's first sleep away camp experience was ASAP!!)
2.  A review of expected behaviors & group structure
3.  A review of my reward system
4.  A fun activity to kick off the year!  Here are my favorites that require little prep:

1.  Create art to share about summer
For my youngest students, I ask them to draw a picture of their summer, or have them fill out a very general activity like this one.  This works for kids who are hesitant to talk or share, at first, as well.

2.  A "Getting to Know You" board game
I love a good "Getting to know you" board game.  I have a bunch of blank game boards that I use, and pick a bunch of "getting to know you" questions.  Kids roll a dice, and then answer a question about themselves before they can move.  One secret I discovered last year: letting kids pick a lego figure instead of boring old game pieces makes any board game 1000x more exciting!

3.  Turn a board game into a sharing game
I also use "getting to know you" questions with typical board games such as Jenga or Candyland (here is a key I made for this game)

4.  "All About Me" Art
This all about me activity is my favorite.  I use it with 2nd graders and older and over the course of a few sessions.  I like it because it's cartoon-ish, and lends itself to drawing or writing.  This also gives me a few talking points for students making "connections" with each other later in the year.  Here is a more basic one for younger kiddos as well.

5.  2 Truths and a Dream
This one is fun for a "larger" (3+ students), and a group who is older, or a student who could use some support in telling the truth.  You model, and then have each student take turns telling three things about themselves-two that are true now, and then one that is a dream.  So I might say, "I have two daughters, this summer I traveled to Italy for a month, and I woke up at 4:45 this morning.  Which one is my dream and which are truths?"

What do you do during your first sessions of the year?

Ways to get kids talking about their day

One of the concerns from parents that I hear year after year is, "I never know what is going on in school!  My child never tells me about their day!" As a parent, I can understand their concern-why aren't they talking?  Do they hate school?  Are things too hard?  Are they not happy?

As a school psychologist, I've been there.  There is nothing like a "so how's your day going?" at the beginning of my session to elicit a "horrible" or "I don't know" response, that can affect the rest of our session.  So, I try to pass along this wisdom to those parents, and remind myself in these instances, that there are lots of ways to find out about your child and student's day, without really asking them.  What are your favorites?

Here are mine:

1. What's the best thing that happened today?  The worst?
2. What did you play at recess?
3. Tell me about something funny that happened today.
4. If you could design the perfect school day, what would I look like?
5. If you got to be the teacher/principal tomorrow, what would you change in class/school?
6. Tell me one book you read (or your teacher)
7. How was lunch?
8. Tell me one thing that made you feel happy/sad/mad today.
9. Was anything at school really hard today?
10. What do you hope to do in school tomorrow?

Other things I like to tell parents:

• Model sharing about their day around the dinner table.  Take turns talking about the best part of their day, something silly that happened, etc.  Even if the child can' think of anything at first, hearing examples from others is a valuable tool.
• The Rose and Thorn:  One of my coworkers told me this analogy and it stuck.  I always tell my kids we all have a million things that happen throughout the day, so we can always think of some small good and bad thing that happened.  Sharing these and modeling is also a great conversation starter...This morning, I spilled my coffee, but I got to leave work on time and play with the babe for a little longer!
• Relate it to what they know.  Do I spend my free time playing Minecraft?  No, but I know what a creeper is.  Have I ever sat down to watch any of the Star Wars movies in full?  No, but I do "Yoda" meditation with one of my students every week.  Use what kids are passion about to get them talking, and let the conversation flow from there!  Anytime a kid is talking, you are doing good.

What are your favorite ways to get conversation flowing?

Enemy Pie is delicious!

I use the book Enemy Pie several times throughout the school year, but about once a year, I use the worksheets provided on this blog to turn the book into several weekly lessons.  It's such a cute story and friendship problems are something all kids can related to in some capacity.

A few years ago, I made actual enemy pie with some of my social skills summer campers.  Okay okay, it wasn't actually enemy pie from the book, it was primarily chocolate, but it was delicious!

I did it recently again with a girls group I have to celebrate the end of our friendship unit and it was so much fun!

We started off crushing up some delicious Oreos,

We put some "mud" (aka Chocolate pudding), in our cups...

And topped them with with "dirt" (the Oreos) and worms (gummy ones!!).  I've also used rock candies in previous years.

Before we weren't allowed to really have "outside" snack parties in school, I would use this activity for my students to invite a friend to group for a fun activity.  It's still great though, and I think I have as much fun as the kids do!

Structuring counseling and social skills sessions...what works!

I do a LOT more sessions with students individually and in small groups this year than I ever have.  I often go for a few hours without a break in between to catch my breath.  I thought I'd start a resource to share ideas for small groups in schools. To start out, I thought I'd start with the basics, scheduling and structuring groups.  I have been following the same format for 4 years, and I have no plans to change it anytime soon!

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The Check-In

Preparing for, and running small groups is something I am continuing to improve.  They are ever changing, constantly rescheduled, and I'm always trying to find a way to improve them.  I'm found a few things I do help them to be successful:

1.  Planning ahead (I always strive for it)
2.  Making a "plan" and writing it on my whiteboard for students
3.  Check-ins

I start every single group with a "check-in".  It's something my kids have come to expect, and some of them will even fire off their number when they walk in!  If I need the number for data, or when I'm starting to teach this skill, I use a paper form, but after a while, a poster visual is all my kiddos need.

It's super simple to use:  Ask your students to think for a minute and circle (or just keep in their mind) how their day is going so far.  Give them a minute.  Go around in a circle and have them say which number they picked and why.  The why is really the most important part.  It's how I find out things that are going on at the playground, at home, or at school, that my students otherwise might not mention when I ask them "How's it going?"

You can click on the image above, or visit my TpT store for this download.

What do you find effective for check-ins?

Social Skills: Whole Body Listening

I use Whole Body Listening (WBL) language every single day.  "Listen with your eyes", "Whole Body Listening Check!".  It's also a great beginning of the year classroom introduction lesson.

I usually begin the lesson by asking what kids know already about WBL, and then read Whole Body Listening Larry at School.  I usually stop after each part and either talk about an example or we practice using that skill to listen.

After reading the book, we review all the parts of the body we use to listen as a group using a visual, and then talk about this activity (you can find on my TPT store) that is simple and easy to use.

I go over the directions:  draw the parts of your body you use to listen and send the kids back to complete it individually.  I use heart cutouts to make things fun.  Depending on the group/age level, you can remove the words at the bottom.

Fun, easy activity.

Ipad Apps: What I use everyday

iPads are such and amazing tool for our students, and I just love that mine love social skills apps as much as they do.

I use my iPad daily for exciting things like data tracking and keeping track of my calendar, but I also like to pull it out every once in a while to use with my students.  I don't like to use it every session for most of my kids, but for my non-verbal kiddos, technology like these are a lifesaver.

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Facilitating Friendship Skills: Friend Files

While many of my students were vacationing and beaching, I spent my summer in the comfy air-conditioned office of one of our schools (no complaints there), helping my little sunshines learning social skills and more.  One of my favorite things I have done since working as a School Psychologist is running a week long "social skills" camp, that focused a lot on friendship skills and getting along with others.  My first summer working, I needed an activity that facilitated my little sunshines asking questions to each other to learn about what their friends liked.


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