My Many Colored Days Bulletin Board

For Dr. Seuss' birthday March 2 I frequently turn My Many Colored Days into a bulletin board or door decoration. The books associates moods and emotions with colors and animals which is depicted on the display. This year we added the animals because I found the outlines on line at many_colored_days The outlines are the last few pages of this pdf. If you look at the Bulletin Board page you can see how we used this in the past along with our Empathy theme in November.

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss

I am sure all elementary counselors use some of the many books Dr. Seuss wrote. The ones I use on a regular basis are: Horton Hears a Who!, The Lorax, Oh, the Places You'll Go!, The Sneetches, and The Zax. 
My Many Colored Days is my favorite by Dr. Seuss because it is useful in expanding students understanding of a variety of emotions. Being able to name or label emotions is key to self-regulation. To learn more about this read labeling-feelings-is-so-important
The book can be used for a variety of lessons or group sessions on feelings and there are many activities to choose from including those described here my-many-colored-days or many_colored_days

Self-Regulation Resource 6-inch Voice

I work with two groups of first grade boys who have limited self-regulation, including volume control, even when they are in a small group and remind them of our rules. My most successful session was based on this great book by Julia Cook. They were not able to estimate 6 inches which I had guessed so my worksheet has a ruler then they draw their hand (pinky to thumb) and write about where they should be using their 6-inch voice. The books has a built in "practice" for the 5 levels of volume from whisper to outside. I wish I had used this in my second session so I could refer to it each week. I plan to use a replica of the handout as a reminder for my next session.

Appreciating Happy Experiences

The MindUp Curriculum from the Hawn Foundation teaches the physical, emotional, and cognitive benefits of reliving happy experiences fully and mindfully. Remembering a happy memory releases the "feel-good" chemicals in our brain that flooded it at the time of the actual experience. When teaching that appreciating happy memories can help overcome sadness and insecurity, I use the delightful children's book Harry the Happy Mouse (2015) by n.g.k. Harry helps a Frog, but asks the Frog to repay the kindness to someone else. The book follows the good deed as it moves through other characters, who each selflessly help someone else, making themselves feel happy in the process! There are coloring and games that go with the book at harrythehappymouse that I have used with English Language Learners. But for my tier 2 first grade group my activity sheet for this session comes comes from a resource I have used for close to 10 years from MARCO colorful-counseling-with-cd/ by R. Sheritz Sartori & R. Hood Herrman. The Happy Memories sheet is from the Loss section of this worthwhile resource. My first graders in my Emotion Regulation group which we call "All Feelings are OK" enjoyed writing, drawing, and sharing 3 happy memories. They were visibly happier when they left the counseling office than when we began group!

Personal Safety Resource

Its hard to listen to the news for a week without hearing a horrifying story about sexual abuse. This week 60 Minutes told the story of one of the US Olympic Team physicians sexually abusing female gymnasts under the guise of "treatment." Parents struggle with how to talk about sensitive topics without scaring their kids. Sunny's Time to Tell by Julie Mendenhall available at https://youthlight.com does a great job of giving children strategies to handle difficult situations and how to know when and whom to tell. Julie is an elementary school counselor. She provides an Appendix that serves as a guide for educators using this resource in school and "Tips for Parents" as well. For more resources for kids, parents, and teachers go to childhelp.org/hotline/ 

Kindness Rhyme for Kids - You Are Amazing!

This is a good short video that emphasizes being kind to self. I use it in grade 2.

Effects of Kindness on the Brain

There is science behind teaching children to be kind, about empathy, and practice compassion.

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin proved that training students in compassion that involved practicing on loved ones, themselves,strangers, and finally someone they had conflicts with for 7 hours makes them more likely to act with compassion edu/brain-can-be-trained-in-compassion