Guidance News

During kindergarten guidance we have been learning about peace and what peace means to each person. We have read books such as, “The Peace Book, Can You Say Peace?, Peaceful Pieces, and I Am Peace”. The entire kindergarten class sang “Peace Like a River” at our school wide morning meeting. Currently, we are working on our peace flags. Students finished the sentence Peace to me is.... and batiked a picture to resemble their thoughts. The above pictures show children beading their name for their Peace flag. Some thoughts from the children are, peace  to me is, my teddy bear, my bed, nature, the wind, the beach, the sun, watching the snow, my blanket, my mom, school, and many more! Understanding what makes us feel calm, happy and peaceful is an important piece of self concept. I connect this idea with the Zones of Regulation. Being in the green zone is when you are happy, calm, and feeling peaceful.

Students are working together and creating pieces to make a heart quilt. I based many of the beginning lessons on the idea of, "Alone we can do so little; Together we can do so much" -Helen Keller. Check out the guidance bulletin board at our school.

l Second Step Problem Solving Skills. Students are learning to problem solve using STEP and Kelso's Choices. Teambuilding activities are the perfect way to practice these skills.  Teambuilding in grades 1st and 2nd

Guidance in First and Second Grade: This week we are working on using Kelso's Choices and Second Steps's STEP Problem Solving method. STEP stands for Say the problem, Think of  solutions, Explore consequences, and Pick the best solution. In the above picture students had to build a house with other team members and see if their house withheld the Big Bad Wolf (my hair dryer). Students confronted many small problems working together and were able to  try and use Kelso's Choices and the STEP method to try and solve problems.