Counseling with Penguins

I am planning next weeks lessons and decided that it would be a good week to incorporate penguins in our lessons (it is freezing here in Illinois).  I've planned lessons covering the topics of self-esteem, empathy, problem solving, diversity and anger management.  These are three books that I will be using:

Pierre the Penguin 

 Purchase Pierre the Penguin HERE.

Pink!  

Purchase Pink! HERE.

Tacky the Penguin    

Purchase Tacky the Penguin HERE.

Connections:

Tacky The Penguin Connections:

I Like Tacky Because... (Free)

Create your own Tacky Shirt (Free) by Kinder Myles

Tacky the Penguin (Free) by Kinder Kids Kafe

Tacky the Penguin (Free) by Miz Riz Elementary Resources

Tacky the Penguin (Free)

Purchase Tacky the Penguin HERE.

Pink! Connections:

My Pink Penguin (Free) by Sarah Cooley

It's O.K. To Be Different ($4.50)

Purchase Pink! HERE

Helping Pierre the Penguin Connections:

Pierre the Penguin questions (Free) by Brooke Romp

Helping Pierre the Penguin (Free) by Creative Counselor

Purchase Pierre the Penguin HERE.

More Penguin Connections:

Penguin Problems - TAKING OWNERSHIP OF MINOR ISSUES in School for Everyone ($3.99) by portable gifted and talented.

Tear Penguin (Free) by Traci Clausen  (I used this as a coping skill (tearing paper).

If I were a penguin craftivity and writing (Free) by Tools to Grow

Book for dealing with Divorce:  The Pink Penguin

Penelope the Pink Penguin (confidence, self-esteem)

Mindset Monday (Giraffes Can't Dance)

I have used the book Giraffes Can't Dance (affiliate link) to teach lessons on problem solving, perseverance, diversity and self-esteem and I recently realized that Giraffes Can't Dance is another great book for teaching mindset and "the power of yet".  Apparently I'm not the only one who made this connection as I found a FREE worksheet on TPT, made by The OCD Teacher in Room 112, where students are given the opportunity to reflect on something that they can't do yet and then write about how they can get there.  You can find that worksheet for FREE HERE.  I also found a packet that costs only $1.00 on TPT, made by Growth-Mindset-In-Action,  This packet, which focuses on growth mindset and ability, can be purchased HERE.  The Brown Bag Teacher also posted a great lesson on her blog. You can find that lesson HERE.  I plan to have my students create a bulletin board called "Giraffe's CAN Dance".  I will try to post a picture when it is complete.  You can purchase Giraffes Can't Dance HERE.

If you want to use Giraffes Can't Dance for other topic areas you can find some great ideas below:

Connections:

Exploring Diversity with "Giraffes Can't Dance" by Reed-Resources

Problem Solving/Feelings by Kristen-Brooks-Dankovich

Giraffes Can't Dance-A lesson on Kindness

Giraffes Can't Dance: Responsible Behavior, Self-confidence Development, Trustworthiness

Rudolph (Bullying, Diversity)

I found a lesson from WWW.PACER.ORG using Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer and decided to use the lesson with one of my 3rd grade classes today.  I started out showing the students the YouTube clip of Rudolph being teased for being different from his peers.  We then used the discussion questions from the teaching guide and talked about differences and shining bright.  I also showed students the YouTube clip of the misfit toys and we talked about their feelings as well.  If you don't remember the misfit toys, they are the toys who were banished to a cold island because they were unique and didn't look like the other toys.  We then used the star template included in the Activity Guide and completed the sentence, My star shines bright because________________________.

Connections:

YouTube Link: Rudolph Gets Teased by the other reindeer

YouTube Link: The Island of the Misfit Toys

Discussion and Activity Guide

Being Wendy (Careers)

I recently ordered the book Being Wendy and have been using it to plan career lessons for my 1st grade classrooms.  Last year I used Career Critters but I felt like it would have been more suitable for my kindergarten students.  Being Wendy is great because you can tie in some lessons on self-acceptance and diversity as well.  

Book Description:  Wendy lives in an odd town where everyone has to wear a box. These boxes are labeled with what each person does. The teacher wears a TEACHER box. The baker wears a BAKER box. Even the doctor wears a DOCTOR box! These boxes are worn for life and Wendy has to choose hers soon. How will she ever decide on just one box? She's interested in so many things! Wendy's moxie makes her break out of her box . . . And she sets the whole town on end when she does!

Connections:
Ms. Sepp's Counselor Corner posted some great discussion questions as well as a craftivity to go along with the story.

The Corner On Character also shared some great ideas about "thinking outside the box".

If you want a lesson for older students (3-4) you could use this lesson: schoolcounseling.weebly

http://www.sparksinslp.com/blog/thinking-outside-the-box

Being Wendy Prezi

Snowflake Bentley (Perseverance)

Snowflake Bentley is a biography about the life of Wilson Bentley, a self-taught scientist who photographed thousands of snowflakes and studied their uniqueness.  While other children built forts and pelted snowballs at roosting crows, Willie used an old microscope to look at flowers, raindrops, blades of grass, and snow.  Willie's parents bought him a camera that made it possible for him to photograph the snowflakes.  His first pictures were failures but mistake by mistake, snowflake by snowflake, Willie worked through every storm.  Even though Willie didn't give up, that winter ended and he still wasn't able to accomplish his goal.  He finally accomplished his goal the second winter, but he still faced obstacles.  Sometimes the snowflakes were broken and he had to wait hours before finding one that was just right.  If the shed was warm, the snow would melt.  If he twitched a muscle, the snowflake would break.  If he didn't work carefully and quickly the snowflakes would evaporate.  Willie's work was greatly respected near the end of his life.  He came to be known as the world's expert on snow and other scientists raised money to help him publish his book.   I have used this book to teach two different lessons.  The first lesson is on Diversity and the second is on Perseverance.  You can purchase the book HERE.

Connections:

I love this folded flap book by Buzzying with Ms. B. for teaching perseverance:

Never Give Up! Snowflake Bentley lesson by the NED Show

Snowflake Diversity on TPT by Morgan Warwick (includes a lesson and worksheet)

Video Slideshow of Bentley's Snowflake Photographs

Unique Snowflakes Lesson by counseling corner blogspot

Diversity, Tolerance, and Snowflakes by Riverbliss

Steps To Success: Goals are as different as snowflakes

TPT Freebie: Snowflake Diversity (links to activities by subject)

Slideshow for Snowflake Bentley

No Two Are Alike-Classroom Sign

We Are as Unique as Snowflakes by Miss Novellano's First Grade (lesson and bulletin board)

Related Posts:

Winter Themed Freebies

How Santa Got His Job

Elmer the Elephant

The school year is in full swing and I am excited to share some more fun lessons that I have been using. I started the year reading Elmer to all of my k-2 students.  This book was a big hit!

Elmer is a cute story about an elephant who feels badly about his appearance.  He is the only elephant who isn't gray and he feels like the other elephants are laughing at him.  Elmer goes through great lengths to change his appearance but ends up discovering that his uniqueness is a good thing. Elmer's friends decide to celebrate Elmer's uniqueness with an Elmer's Day parade.

You can purchase Elmer HERE.  There are a ton of follow up books to Elmer and I just ordered Elmer's Special Day as a follow up story.

How I used this book:  I read Elmer to students.  I asked students the following questions:  Did Elmer like himself in the beginning of story?  Why or Why not?  Did the other elephants like Elmer?  Why or Why not?  Why did Elmer want to look like the other elephants? Did Elmer like himself better once he looked like the other elephants?  Did the other elephants like Elmer better?  I then had each student share a few things that make him or her unique.  Each student was given an elephant (I printed from google images) to decorate in their own unique way.  I gave them the option of using dot markers, regular markers or scraps of paper. I then displayed the elephants on a bulletin board.  Here is my board halfway completed:

(I found this bulletin board idea on Pinterest and couldn't find the original source.  If you know who credit belongs to please let me know.)

Lesson Connections:
Celebrating Diversity with Elmer
Elmer Lesson Pack (With outlines of Elmer)

A lesson on Diversity (The Crayon Box that Talked)

My third graders are finishing up their "crayon lessons".  We started with The Day the Crayons Quit and then did a lesson on Making Friends is an Art! and we are now using The Crayon Box that Talked to talk about cooperation, teamwork, diversity, getting along and acceptance.    There are many different options for using The Crayon Box that Talked.  You can purchase The Crayon Box that Talked from Amazon, you can view the YouTube video of the story HERE, a Vimeo version here or you can print a copy of the poem version HERE.

Lesson:  I started my unit on cooperation by reading The Crayon Box that Talked.  We then had a group discussion on working as a team and being unique.  We talked about the feelings of the crayons in our first story, The Day the Crayons Quit and we also talked about Brown from Making Friends is an Art and students had a really great discussion on what it would be like if we removed brown from our boxes of crayons, markers or colored pencils for the remainder of the school year.  The main idea of our conversation being that all students are unique and have something special to contribute to the class.  I then gave each student a piece of paper and told them that they were to draw the most beautiful picture that they could...using only ONE crayon.  We ended up with pictures like this:

Once everyone had completed their pictures we had another discussion.  Students talked about the challenges they faced trying to make something beautiful with only one crayon. Students eventually came up with the thought that school wouldn't be as fun if they didn't have classmates with their own unique qualities.  

The next step was to create a class picture.  I used puzzle pieces that I found free on TPT.  You can find those HERE. Each student received a puzzle piece and they were instructed to write their name in the middle of their piece and to decorate it using all of the colors.  Finally, I took all of the pieces and put them together to make a class picture with the heading "We all Fit Together".  I haven't had time to hang the completed puzzle yet but I found some examples on some other blogs:
Playing in Prep shared this classroom puzzle:


I found this one on Miss Beadles Class Blog:

More Connections:

The Crayon Box that Talked (free)

The Crayon Box That Talked Writing Papers (free)

The Crayon Box That Talked Writing Activity (free)

The Crayon Box that Talked Activity for Back to School (free)

We All Fit Together: Diversity Sign for Display (free)

The Crayon Box that Talked ($1.00)

Related Lesson:
Making Friends is an Art! (making and keeping friends)
The Day the Crayon's Quit (Empathy)

Follow Counseling Connections on Facebook!

A lesson on friendship

One of the books that I use in small groups is The Sandwich Swap.  The Sandwich Swap leads to great discussions on how we can be different, but still be friends.  The story is about two girls who are best friends, but that friendship is tested when each girl tells the other that her lunch seems gross. Salma and Lily come from different cultural backgrounds and their lunches reflect that they have differences. The Sandwich Swap is a great reminder that we need to embrace and appreciate each other's differences.  If you want to use this book in a classroom setting you can find an entire lesson plan along with scenarios at Read4Health.  You can also find a script for a skit along with some other lesson ideas HERE.  I especially like the writing part where you have students write about a time where they thought they weren't going to like something but ended up liking it after they tried it.

You can purchase The Sandwich Swap HERE.

Description from Amazon:  Lily and Salma are best friends.  They like doing all the same things, and they always eat lunch together.  Lily eats peanut butter and Salma eats hummus-but what's that between friends?  It turns out, a lot.  Before they know it, a food fight breaks out.  Can Lily and Salma put aside their differences?  Or will a sandwich come between them?  The smallest things can pull us apart-until we learn that friendship is far more powerful than difference.  In a glorious three-page gatefold at the end of the book, Salma, Lily, and all their classmates come together in the true spirit of tolerance and acceptance.

Connections:

I haven't used this lesson yet but plan to download it and use it to go along with The Sandwich Swap.  I love that you create PB&J friendwiches while learning about important friendship traits and that yucky toppings (gets jealous bacon, has a bad attitude lettuce, gives put downs onion, etc...) ruin the sandwich.  You can get it for $4.80 on TPT and it is 67 pages long, including a game and a bulletin board idea!

Friends Stick Together Like PB&J

You could also download the FREE PRINTABLE SANDWICH from http://kidsactivitiesblog.com and have students write friendship traits on each piece of the sandwich.

This Friendship Venn Diagram with questions would be a great tool for talking about diversity among classmates:

Here is another Friendship Venn Diagram:

There is a fun activity in this Free TPT product:  Book It: Retell It, Write It, Make It!.  Students can work together to see how many words they can make out of "sandwich swap".

This would be a good worksheet to hand out prior to reading the story.  Students could fill it out as the story is read:

Listening & Making Predictions

Follow Counseling Connections on Facebook!

Spaghetti in a hot dog...Having the Courage to Be Who You Are

Yesterdays post was about one of my favorite bullying books, The Juice Box Bully.  You can read that post HERE.  I mentioned that The Juice Box Bully is a follow up to Spaghetti in a Hot Dog Bun.  I use Spaghetti in a Hot Dog Bun to talk about problem solving with my second graders.  We put Kelso's choices on hot dog buns and discuss how Lucy could have used each choice to solve her problem with Ralph.  Here are our hot dogs:

This is a great book to use in individual/small group/classroom counseling lessons.  I have used it to talk about courage, self-esteem, problem solving, bullying, respect, diversity, kindness, friendship, conflict resolution, etc...  I also love that this book comes with a reader's guide full of lesson ideas.  I have connected Spaghetti in a Hot Dog Bun to several activities which are outlined below.

Description from Amazon:  How can Ralph be so mean?  Lucy is one of a kind and Ralph loves to point that out.  Lucy's defining moment comes when Ralph truly needs help.  Because she knows what she stands for, Lucy has the courage to make a good choice.  This charming story empowers children to always do the right thing and be proud of themselves, even when they are faced with someone as challenging as Ralph.

Reader's Guide

Lesson Ideas and Comprehension Questions

Spaghetti in a Hot Dog Bun Venn Diagram

Compare yourself to a friend activity

Recipe for Spaghetti in a Hot Dog Bun

Diversity Lesson to go along with Spaghetti in a Hot Dog Bun

A Lesson on Kindness

Unique...That's Me! Activity and Lesson

Chocolate Milk, Por Favor

One of my all time favorite lessons is based on the book The Potato Chip Champ by Maria Dismondy. You can connect to that lesson here.

I just ordered Maria Dismondy's new book, Chocolate Milk, Por Favor.  I love it!  I received this book in the mail on Saturday and can not wait to use it in the classroom.  The best part is that there is a reading guide on Maria's website for FREE!  

Maria also lists the common core standards that align with each activity!

More about the book:  Johnny is a big fan of school but all that changes when the new kid, Gabe arrives.  Gabe doesn't speak any English, and that doesn't stop Johnny from going out of his way to be unkind.  What will Johnny do when Gabe starts to make new friends?  Will he join in the fun of making a new friend or turn the other way?  Johnny realizes a powerfulmessage in this story where empahty and inclusion teach us that actions speak louder than words.  Read to find out how chocolate milk plays a major role in the discovery of the real universal language. (description from Amazon)

I plan to use Chocolate Milk, Por Favor with my 3rd graders. These are the centers that I plan on using (activities can be find in the reading guide.)

Discussion Center:  How to be a good friend

Discussion Center (2):  Table Talk (I will serve chocolate milk at this center)

Writing Center:  Celebrating You!  What Makes You Different? or Developing Point of View

Reflection Center:  Asking and Answering Questions (empathy)

Dramatic Center:  Poem/Song/Skit about Diversity

Art Center:  Celebrate Diversity Poster Challenge

You can also find a coloring page here.

Fun Fact:  September 27th is national Chocolate Milk Day:)

More books by Maria Dismondy:
Spaghetti in A Hot Dog Bun
Pink Tiara Cookies For Three
The Juice Box Bully