Small Moments, a blog about school counseling at Armstrong Elementary School
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Kindergarten, First Grade Feelings

1/22/2018

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Dear Kindergarten and First Grade Parents and Guardians,

This week, I am talking about feelings with kindergarten and first grade classes.  One of the most important parts of being a kind member of a community is recognizing how other people are feeling and why.  As part of our lesson, we are reading a story introducing different feeling words.  We are then looking at and practicing feeling faces.  Finally, everyone is choosing a feeling to write about and illustrate.  We will use this work on feelings when we discuss problem solving over the next several weeks.

Building a feeling word vocabulary is important for everyone, and you can help at home.  Try and find opportunities to introduce feeling words into the time you spend with your children.  When they are feeling good, help them instead recognize if they are excited, surprised, confident, silly, comfortable, or proud, and what has caused them to feel that way.  When they are upset, help them figure out if they are angry, sad, bored, jealous, grumpy, shy, uncomfortable, frustrated, confused, scared, embarrassed, guilty, disappointed, or lonely.  Understanding these more complex feelings is an important first step to figuring out the cause of the feeling, and if it is something you don’t like, making it better.

Thank you for your support with this important lesson.

Sincerely,

David Starr
School Counselor, Armstrong Elementary School
PH: 508-836-7760, Email:  starrd@westboroughk12.org
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2nd, 3rd Grade Including Others

1/16/2018

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Dear 2nd and 3rd Grade Parents and Guardians,

Here at Armstrong, one of the most important things we can do to help create a strong community is to include others.  All students enjoy being part of the group, and often have positive memories of times they were included. 

Given that feeling included is important to everyone, we are using our lesson this week to focus on ways to ask to join a group and to generate strategies to make others feel included.  Students are working as teams to act out different situations where including another person might be tricky or challenging.  In preparing their scenes, they are asked to consider two questions:


  • How can we ask to join in a way that is kind and flexible? 
  • How can we make it so everyone feels included? 

​Students did an excellent job of creatively finding solutions to some challenging including problems.  If you have a moment, please ask your child to describe their role play and the strategies their team brainstormed to make all students in the group feel included. 

Thank you for your support.

Sincerely,

​David Starr
School Counselor, Armstrong Elementary School
PH:  508-836-7760, Email:  starrd@westboroughk12.org  
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Personal Space

1/2/2018

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Dear Kindergarten and First Grade Parents/Guardians,
 
This week, we are reviewing personal space.  As part of the lesson, we defined personal space (the space we need to give each other so everyone feels comfortable) and discussed ways to talk to another student that is invading your personal space.  We also talked about what personal space looks like on the rug, in line, and around school.
 
If you have a chance, ask your child:
 
How can you respectfully tell another student you need more personal space?
 
Answer:  Be kind, but also clear about what you want.  Some student examples include:
“Excuse me, can you please move over?”
“You are breaking my personal space bubble.  Please give me some more space.”
 
How can you give personal space in line?  
 
Answer:  Face forward, hands by sides, just right space between you and other students. 
 
What does personal space look like on the rug? 
 
Answer:  Give me 5, space between you and your neighbors, in your square (if your classroom rug is divided in this way). 

You can even ask your child about places they can give personal space around the home, and what personal space might look like in those places.  
 
Thank you for your help reinforcing this important lesson.
 
Sincerely,
 
David Starr
School Counselor, Armstrong Elementary School

PH:  508-836-7760, Email:  starrd@westboroughk12.org  ​​
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    Author

    David Starr is the School Counselor at Armstrong Elementary School in Westborough, MA.

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