Mindfulness Monday (Moody Cow)

Moody Cow Mediates by Kerry Les MacLean is a great book that I have been using with students from Pre-K through 5th grade.  Peter the cow, is having a bad day.  He missed the bus, crashes his bike and scrapes his knee.  He is so angry that he picks up a baseball and throws it through the window.  His grandfather uses a jar of glitter as a representation of Peter's anger and teaches Peter to settle his angry thoughts.  Grandfather uses a gong to start and end the meditation.  For school purposes I chose to change the word "mediation" to "mindfulness".  It works just as well and students are already familiar with mindfulness.  You can purchase Moody Cow Meditates HERE.

Connections:

Directions for making a Mind Jar

Gong sound effect on YouTube.

Lesson Plan (connects thoughts to feelings):  Moody Cow Mediates Lesson

Cow Feelings on TPT by Preschool Printables

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)

Impulse control

As the school year comes to an end I find that students become more impulsive so I included this book in my recent Amazon order.  I am always looking to enhance my counseling library and this looks like a great addition.  

What Were You Thinking?: A Story About Learning to Control Your Impulses

Description from Amazon:  This hilarious book for grades k-6 teaches children about learning to control their impulses.  Third-grader Braden loves to be the center of attention.  His comic genius, as he sees it, causes his friends to look at him in awe.  But some poor decision-making, like ill-timed jokes in class and an impulsive reaction during gym that left a classmate teary-eyed and crumpled on the floor, force the adults in Braden's life to teach him about impulse control.  There are 4 downloadable activities that you can purchase for $5.00 that go along with this book but I have not purchased them yet so I can't give any feedback.  You can download them HERE.  You can purchase the book HERE.

Impulse Control Connections (These are resources that are currently FREE on TPT)

FREEBIE Impulse Control Activity

Impulse Control Game

Under Control Activity - Stop and Think (impulse control game)

Related Posts
It's Hard to be a VERB!
Executive Functioning

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Executive Functioning (new books and freebies)

I just placed an order for some new books and I am very excited about them!  Julia Cook is one of my favorite authors and I was very happy to see that her newest books are about executive functioning.   I also love that the characters are the same in both books.  I currently use the R.J. series and my students love hearing multiple stories about the same character.  This time around we meet some new characters:  Cletus and Bocephus-cousins who are will teach us a thing or two about organizing, planning ahead and prioritizing.   It sounds like Julia may be adding more books to this series as well:)  I have also provided connections to executive functioning freebies on TPT.

The first book on executive functioning is I Can't Find My Whatchamacalit!!.  

I Can't Find My Whatchamacallit!!

Description from Amazon:  Cletus and Bocephus are cousins, yet they are nothing alike.  Extremely creative Cletus, can't find anything in his room.  He is constantly losing things and is very disorganized and messy.  Bocephus, on the other hand, is the most organized, uptight person on the planet.  If Bocephus ever misplaces anything...he totally freaks out!  After Cletus's mom refuses to let him play with Bocephus until his room is cleaned, Bocephus steps in to help out his disorganized cousin.  "Cletus..Ther's a home for everything.  Every watchamacallit has its spot.  Lets sort through your stuff and put it where it goes.  I'm organized...Cletus you're not!"  This story book is the first in the Executive funcioning book series.  It highlights the importance of being organized in a creative, applicable way.  It also spotlights unique differences and strengths that live in all of us.  This book will teach children to understand, develop, and apply organization and vital executive functioning skills.  

The second book in the series is Planning Isn't My Priority...And Making Priorities Isn't In My Plans!

Planning Isn't My Priority (Functioning Executive)

Description from Amazon:  Cletus and Bocephus are Back!  While working on their science fair project on meal worms, they learn to appreciate and understand each other's strengths and weaknesses.  Creativity needs structure and structure needs creativity...and Cletus and Bosephus BOTH need to know hot to plan and prioritize!  "You learn from mistakes and use what you learn, so you don't make those mistakes again.  Every time you play a video game, you plan and prioritize to WIN!"  Planning and prioritizing are two of the most difficult executive functioning skills for people to master.  Planning effectively is the thinking skills that helps an individual develop strategies to accomplish goals.  It allows a person to think about completing a task before it is started.  Life is all about making choices.  Prioritizing effectively helps a person make the best choices possible.  This book will help teach children to determine the necessary steps, in order, towards fulfilling a goal which is a vital executive functioning skill.  Children who possess effective prioritizing skills can learn to manage not only daily responsibilities, but also how to prepare for future success.

Executive Functioning Connections:

These connections are all free materials that I have found on Teachers Pay Teachers.

Executive Functioning Organizational Level Chart (FREE)

Executive Functioning FREEBIE

Executive Function Web - Target = Activity

Executive Functioning Student Task Analysis

Executive Functioning: Assignment Planner (Google Slides)

Helping Students that Struggle with Executive Functioning

What's In My Backpack?

End of the Day Checklist - Free

  

Mindfulness Monday (Color Breathing)

It's Mindfulness Monday!  If you haven't checked out my other mindfulness posts be sure to click on the links at the end of this post.  Today's post focuses on mindfulness and colors.  I am making connections to a book, a breathing exercise, yoga poses and coloring sheets.  

The Books:

I like to read A Color of His Own before I teach Color Breathing.  A Color of His Own is a cute book and can be used to teach lessons on self-acceptance and friendship as well.  The main character in A Color of His Own, a chameleon, is feeling sad and lonely because he doesn't have a color of his own. He attempts to be like the other animals and stay one color but he keeps changing colors. There are some great art activities to go along with this book. Check out these watercolors from Deep Space Sparkle:

You could also use the book The Mixed Up Chameleon.  This story has a similar story-line with the chameleon wishing he were like the other animals at the zoo.  He ends up discovering that being yourself is the best way to be.

The Breathing Exercise:

Color breathing is a form of visualization, in which you imagine yourself inhaling and exhaling colors.  Color breathing is a simple stress relieving activity and it's easy to teach. You can find a Color Breathing exercise HERE or a Color Breathing script HERE.

The Yoga Poses:

Get some ideas for yoga poses to go along with the first book at amazingkidsllc.com.

For $5.00 you can buy a yoga lesson plan off of TPT to go along with the second book.

The Coloring Sheets:

Chameleon Mandala Coloring Pages by Red Ted Art

Coloring Pages (Yoga for your brain)

Related Posts:
Mindfulness Monday: Coloring
Mindfulness Monday: Anger

Mindfulness Monday (Pebble Breathing)

Mindfulness Monday (glitter jar)

Mindfulness Monday (It's Hard To Be A VERB!)

Mindfulness Monday (Test Anxiety)

Mindfulness Monday (Breathing Ball)

Mindfulness Monday

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)

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Attention Seeking

I've been sitting in a lot of meetings lately and one behavior that seems to keep coming up is negative attention seeking.  Some students misbehave because they are trying to attract the attention of their teacher or their peers.  These students don't care if the attention they receive is negative attention or positive attention.  There are some great interventions for attention seeking behaviors at http://specialed.about.com.  I use a lesson from www.projectwisdom.com to talk to students about attention seeking behaviors and I supplement this lesson with the book Millie Fierce.  Millie Fierce is a great example of a student who uses negative attention seeking behaviors.  Millie feels that she is ignored because she is too plain.  Millie decides that she will start being fierce (cutting in line, painting the dog, stealing birthday cake) in order to get attention from others.  Millie gets attention, just not the kind of attention that she was hoping for.  Millie's actions end up being hurtful to others. and the meaner Millie gets the more others stay away from her.

Description from Amazon:  Millie is quiet.  Millie is sweet.  Millie is mild.  But the kids at school don't listen to her.  And she never gets a piece of birthday cake with a flower on it.  And some girls from her class walk right on top of her chalk drawing and smudge it.  And they don't even say they're sorry!  So that's when Millie decides she wants to be fierce!  She frizzes out her hair, sharpens her nails and runs around like a wild thing.  But she soon realizes that being fierce isn't the best way to get noticed either, especially when it makes you turn mean.  So Millie decides to be nice--but to keep a little of that fierce backbone hidden inside her.  In case she ever needs it again.
Connections:
Negative Attention Seeking Lesson Idea:  www.projectwisdom.com.
Books:  Mollie Fierce; Let's Talk About Needing Attention