Teacher Appreciation Week!

Can I start out by saying how hard it is to say no to your kiddos when they want a puppy? Haha! At church on Sunday, someone brought their dog and our kiddos just about fell in love. Unfortunately, our little guy has asthma so it's pretty hard to have an animal but they sure had fun pretending.

 Teacher Appreciation Week is next week!!! I remember as a teacher how much I loved this week. It wasn't just about getting fun gifts but it was nice to know that someone appreciates the hard work that teachers do. This year has been so busy but here are simple Teacher Appreciation ideas that I did at my school. You can print all of the labels for free here: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Teacher-Appreciation-Printables

We have about 60 staff members so I had to make sure things were cost efficient. Here are some pictures of the finished projects.

For the "Write" one, I tied the tag along with bright colored pens and for the "Keeping it all together" I put different colored paperclips in baggies and just stapled on the tags. I am excited to pass them out next week! It didn't take me too long to put together and it wasn't too much money.


I also worked on a quick, little Summer Safety tip board in english and spanish!! I am excited that a lot of our spanish speaking parents will be able to read it!

I hope this helps you if you are stuck on ideas. I have Career Day this Friday so I am looking forward to posting about that this weekend! Have a wonderful week and know that you are amazing and do make a difference! : )

Counselor Communication and End of Year Fun!!!

Wow! I can't believe the end of April is already here! I am not only prepping for the end of year but I am already looking to create new ideas for next school year. Crazy, I know!

Next month, I am doing a little hodge podge guidance lesson. Part of it will be over summer safety and the other part will be over end of year/school changes. It may sound silly but there is so much I want to go over with my students with so little time.

I created a little end of year activity I will be using with my kiddos and I can't wait. It even has a little autograph page for a keepsake for the ones who couldn't buy a yearbook.

You can purchase it in my TPT store, here: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/End-of-Year-Book 

Don't worry, though. I made a freebie, too. I am also using this with some of my younger ones or for any classes where we start to run low on time. This is a "Year of Change" activity that is simple and great to use after using a cute end of year story.

You can get your free copy here: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/A-Year-of-Change

On another note, literally (haha), I was thinking of what I could do when I wanted to give a quick note to a kiddo who was doing an awesome job in guidance or who was showing great character. I love giving handwritten notes but sometimes it's nice to have one handy that I can just give out. So I created encouragement notes. I am so excited to use these. I printed some off and have them on my little clipboard so that when I am walking down the hall and I see something awesome, I can just jot down their name and pass them out!

I love the font because it makes them look handwritten and a little more personal. You can find them here for sale in my TPT store: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Encouraging-Notes-Counselor-Pack-of-6

I also have blank ones available for teachers to use or administrators which can be found here: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Encouraging-Notes-Blank-Signature

If you would like a full page for a note, I also have this for FREE!!!!

Get it for free here: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Sweet-Note-from-School-Counselor

Magic Wand...

I don't know about y'all, but I love me some solution focused therapy. In a school setting, it is the most realistic theory to use for counseling. It's amazing to see how the good ol' "magic wand" question can open so much in a session. I like to use it with kids as young as 1st or 2nd grade depending on the child. I usually do play therapy with younger ones but with some this has been amazing, as well. I created a great visual/activity for the magic wand question and it looks like this:

You can get one in my TPT store here: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Magic-Wand-Question
I have also been working on Career Day which I feel is one of the days that I get to plan and see how excited the kids are to experience it! It's one of my most fav days as a counselor. To prep the kiddos for Career Day, I am doing guidance lessons on Careers this month. I created a ABC Career book to do with my younger kiddos, which you can get for free here: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Career-Day-Book

I also found these great books to use!

These are also some great sites to explore with your students:
http://www.careerkids.com/
http://kids.usa.gov/teens-home/jobs/index.shtml

I would LOVE any other resources that some of you may have because I am a little scarce in this area. Please feel free to share below or comment on Stylish School Counselor's facebook page! Have a great week!

Small groups and a Tattle ear!

I just wanted to quickly share some things I created today! I had a super busy day as I know all of us school counselors probably did! I am really starting to wrap up planning our campus Career Day which I sooo look forward to. Luckily, we have the next two days off so I will be doing that, studying for my LPC exam, and doing fun Easter activities with my kiddos!

Here is a link to this little number....it is a Tattle Ear. Weird, right? When I was a Kinder and Firstie teacher, I had tattlers like there was no tomorrow. So one afternoon I thought to myself, "I wish I had a big ol' ear to just listen to all of these tattles." Then it came to me...simple and sweet. I printed out a big ear and told the kids that it was our tattle ear and when they have a tattle they need to go tell it to the ear. They loved it and after awhile the tattling wasn't too crazy like it had been before. Of course, I did this after I explained to my students the difference between tattling and reporting.

You can get your very own FREE tattle ear here: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Tattle-Ear



I also have a small group planning sheet that I wanted to share that has helped me have some super organized sessions. You can find that for free here: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Small-Group-PlanningSchedule


I created these counseling rules, too, which are very simple and easy to read. You can find these in my TPT store. http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Counseling-Rules-Simple-of-Confidentiality

I hope you enjoy the freebies and that they may be useful in your counseling program or classroom.

I will be creating some more freebies and activities over my little break so I hope to post them for you! Have a wonderful rest of the week, fellow counselors!!

Bully Police!!!

I am back and refreshed!! I had a wonderful spring break full of picnics, sunshine, and plenty of cuddling with my sweet little family. I was so excited to go back to work and get started on some projects like Career Day planning but it was so stinkin' hard to leave these little cuties.....

Last week was fast and furious and I felt like the whole school was in spring break mode on Monday but that didn't last long! I was finishing up guidance and I used the book Have You Filled a Bucket Today? Have I ever mentioned how much I love this book?

I read this book and also found some great resources from the author. I was in heaven with all of the free printables! You can find those here: http://bucketfillers101.com/free-resources.php

I used these with my Put Ups and Put Downs activity. It was a nice review and I related the Put Ups to filling people's buckets and Put Downs to being bucket dippers. The kids loved the activity and I even had a student come tell me they were being a bucket filler all day! Melts.my.heart!!!


Now on to what you came here to see.....my Bully Police. It is nothing extravagant and nothing genius but oh.so.amazing!!!!  The second semester I came back rejuvenated and ready to tackle the issue of bullying. I kept thinking of what I could do that would be effective and not just for a short bit of time that would quickly fade. I remember thinking about Education Go Get It Week and how about 80% of my students said they wanted to be police officers. I thought, why not have bully police? It could be a group of kids who are leaders in the school who help report bullying and who are visible in their grade levels so that kids who may be scared to report bullying could go to them. I started out by creating Bully Police applications which you can find here for free: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Bully-Police-Application

My Character Council members were automatically Bully Police since they were leaders with outstanding character. I did a trial run with them first and talked about it with the kiddos in guidance and on the announcements....before I knew it, the Bully Police was a hot  topic all around the school.

At first, I didn't think I would have many apply but I had almost 200!!! I didn't want to turn anyone away (even the bullies who may change from the experience) so I set up a rotation schedule. While they were waiting for their turn, students had to be on their best behavior to show they have what it takes.

All Bully Police are known to their classes and grade levels. They are even getting badges!!! Each member is given Bully Reports which you can find here: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Bully-Police-Tickets

They write the incident they see or students can report to them. The tickets go in a bucket in the front office which I check frequently. I just put a label on a bucket. You can also find the label here:
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Bully-Report-Label

Honestly, it is that simple. I rotate students weekly and there have been no issues with the bullies retaliating because they know I am behind them! I won't lie....I am surprised at how successful it has been and I am excited to see how much it will grow next year. I hope this helps for those who have asked and I hope this will be helpful in helping to create Bully Police at your campus!! 

Have a great week! I know I will be enjoying this 3 day work week!!! I am sure I will use it to study for my NCE! : (

Put Ups and Put Downs Freebie!!!

I have a freebie! I actually made this after a lesson today and used it the rest of the day and the kids loved it! It's just a quick activity to reinforce self esteem and how put ups and put downs can affect us. You could use cute buckets but since I did this last minute, I just taped ziploc baggies to the dry erase board and we were good to go!

You can get it here for free! http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Self-Esteem-Activity-Put-Ups-and-Put-Downs

Have a Happy Friday tomorrow!! : )

Who's Got Character? I do! I do!!

Today our district Character Counts! team visited schools who were finalists for the Character Counts! Award and we were one of them!!! I was so stinkin' excited and so were our kiddos. Although this is my first year as an elementary counselor, I have been thinking of ideas to implement for a successful character program for awhile now. Some of the things that we have implemented at our campus are:

*Caught In Good Character: Teachers, parents, and students can write who has done something based on the six pillars of character (trustworthiness, respect, caring, responsibility, citizenship, and fairness). I read them at announcements and post them in the hall. The kids LOVE this!!

*Character Council: A service group that does different projects that shine our character and spread kindness to others.

P.S. We even got lil' shirts and the kids were so rockin' them today!

*Bully Police: This is a program where we have Bully Officers in all grades that report bullying that they see. I will do a separate post on this and add the printables for free...but let me tell ya'.....this has been golden!

*Character Word of the Week: I read a character word of the week each day and I do word checks in the hall to see if the kiddos have been listening. I also announce on Thursdays that whichever teacher emails me the character word of the week first, wins a small prize. Love it!

*Teacher of the Month: We vote for Teacher of the Month based on a character word.

We are doing much more but I thought I would share some of the things I was doing on my campus. I don't know if we will win but it was such an honor having them visit our school!


I also just finished a little unit on Self Esteem, which you can find here:
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Self-Esteem-Pack

It's a pretty short and simple pack! Don't worry I will definitely be posting some freebies though this week. I am also so excited about this new addition to my office which has already been put to good use today! My sister was cleaning out my niece's playroom and I knew this would have a home with my students!

I hope you all have a great rest of the week. I am super excited about spring break and enjoying it with these sweet kiddos!

Don't forget to like Stylish School Counselor on facebook with the link at the top of the page!