Groups Galore

We have begun our heavy time of the year leading small groups because we finished Parent Teacher Conferences last week.  We started with some of our first and second grade groups this week, will do groups at all the grades next week, and finally at the end of October do the pre-assessments and begin our intervention groups.  We have 1.6 counselors and a population of over 730. Last year over 300 students participated in a small group with a counselor. That was 46 groups! For each group we lead we have a binder with the session plans, assessments, books, and activities. Examples of session plans for two of our groups can be found in the Group pages on this blog. We try to pre- and post-test all our groups.  For each group, students have a folder where we save all work done in group until the final session. We run 3-4 session" Lunch Bunch" groups for any kindergarten student whose family want them to participate.  We are able to pull groups during instructional time in Kindergarten - grade 2. All our grade 3-5 groups have to be done in conjunction with lunch. Our most popular groups have to do with self-regulation or emotion management.  Every group has a catchy title related to the topic. For example, this picture shows my emotion management group preparation for the first session of "Smiling Faces" for first graders. We are scheduled back to back with groups and lessons which requires everything to be laid out an ready when we leave for the day in order to be able to deliver this level of direct service.