February 6th to the 10th School Counseling is about helping students realize their potential! "Liberty and Learning for All"
In honor of National School Counseling Week, here is a list of five social-emotional skills that school counselors help students build through out the school year.
Friendship: Developing friendships is an integral part of your child’s social development. One of the best ways to build friendships is by having fun together. Plan play dates or sleepovers and let them bake cookies together. As your child learns how to develop healthy friendships, it can build self-confidence and compassion that can last his entire life!
Empathy: Empathy is the ability to understand and care about how someone else is feeling. Elevate empathy in your child by asking her how she thinks people are feeling in real-life situations, on television or in books. What would you want if that were you? What would you need? How do you know? Practice switching places, role-play different scenarios, and watch your child’s empathy stretch and grow.
Sharing: School-age children can be possessive with their belongings and reluctant to share a treasured item, even for a short time. Read books about sharing such as The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister and It’s My Birthday by Pat Hutchins. Both stories teach that while sharing might seem like you’re giving something up, you can actually gain more in the long run. Take advantage of every opportunity you have to model the value of sharing in your home. Teachable moments can pave the way for you to talk with your child about the benefits of sharing with friends.
Kindness: From Aesop’s fables we’ve learned that “no act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.” How do you encourage kindness at home? Notice the kind things that your child is already doing. Affirm him or her when you see them do something nice by saying, “It was so kind of you to help Jimmy without being asked.” Kind acts spark a helper’s high in the brain that makes us want to do that again! And since kindness begets kindness, we advise that you repeat regularly.
Service: Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is: What are you doing for others?” What did you and your family do to serve others yesterday? And how will you follow that up today? Like kindness, acts of service don’t have to be great to be grand. Start small. Let your older child help a younger sibling tie her shoes. Ask him to set the table or fold laundry. Give her a broom and teach her to sweep. Small tasks get bigger as children become more responsible, so allow them to do more accordingly. Nurture that servant heart now and you’ll have someone who serves with a smile … for good!
National Random Acts of Kindness Week February 13-16 2023
Random Acts of Kindness come in all forms, large and small, and how you choose to perform yours is entirely up to you. Sometimes it’s the smallest act that makes the biggest impact, something as simple as saying please or thank you can turn a day around, and make a life seem that much better. Even just smiling at someone and telling them to have a good day could have a profound impact. Random Acts of Kindness Day encourages you to get out there and be the light you want to see in the world. On Random Acts of Kindness Day, help yourself by helping others, the smile on their face and yours will prove it’s all worth it.
“Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.” (Mark Twain)
“No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.” (Aesop)
“Remember there’s no such thing as a small act of kindness. Every act creates a ripple with no logical end.” (Scott Adams)
“Kind words and actions can seem so small, but their effects are truly endless.” (Author Unknown)
February 24th
We are wearing pink today because we are sending a loud non -confrontational message to Stand Up to Bullies! (You try ignoring a crowd of pink shirts!) We are trying to motivate passive bystanders to become Upstanders and to come together as a school community to Stand Up to Bullying!
The color of the STAND UP pledge shirts is based on a campaign started by Travis Price and David Shepherd in Canada, two senior students who took a stand against a freshman student being bullied for wearing a pink shirt. They decided to take a strong stand against a younger student being bullied for wearing a pink polo shirt to school on his very first day of school. Bullies made fun of him and his shirt, called him names and threatened to hurt him. When David and Travis heard the news, they decided to take action. They went to a nearby store and bought 50 pink shirts to wear to school the next day to show their support for the victim and to stamp out bullying at their school. To show their support toward their fellow peer, they bought dozens of pink shirts to send a message to the bully.
Now isn’t that a great way to show that you are an UPSTANDER!! This act of leadership provides a great example for those who are "on the fence" about displaying their own personal stance against bullying.