Who is Your School Counselor?

Kindergarten Lesson
Who is Your School Counselor?

ASCA Standard: PS:C1.6; Identify resource people in the school and community, and know how to seek their help.

A goal for the beginning of this school year was to create lessons to introduce who a school counselor is and for students to gain understanding of what a school counselor does.

The handout I created is based on Coral Canyon Elementary School Counseling: Meet the Counselor. I found the images through a Google Search and used Microsoft Office to add the description. On the back of my handouts, I include a brief "Counselor Connection", a letter home, on the reverse side of every worksheet I give students. Another way to introduce myself to parents and an easy way to give parents ideas to reinforce the skills we learned.

Kindergarten Lesson Meet Your School Counselor!

Using Mrs. Potato Head, I introduce the role of a School Counselor to students. The students were very engaged and liked helping put the Mrs. Potato Head back together. It was a very easy for beginning Kindergarten age to relate with the various pieces and how their school counselor is like Mrs. Potato Head. This was such a successful lesson, I have decided I would use this lesson yearly with Kindergarten age students.

Materials: Mrs. Potato Head (I used a Mr. Potato Head), Meet Your School Counselor Coloring Page, paper book, paper phone, paper "X"

Lesson: Students choose different parts from the bag and place them on Potato Head. We discuss each piece and how it shows what a school counselor does.

Feet: Walks to visit all students in their classrooms

Hands: For helping you or giving "knuckles" to say hello

Ears: For listening to you and your feelings

Mouth: For keeping our talk private and not repeating what you say unless you or someone else are being hurt or are in danger

Eyes: To see all students in our school and look for ways to help them

Book: For reading stories to your class. These stories teach us about being good friends and students.

Phone: To talk to your families or teachers

Bag: To carry many fun things that will help us learn! And of course to bring Marley in.

 

  

Where is the School Counselor and How in the World do I Find Her???

Being a School Counselor can be rather busy to say the least. Everyday I travel between two buildings on the same campus and another school 18 miles away every other week (on very rare occasions I have meetings in a third building on our campus). Between three schools, over 400 students, and numerous school staff, and a dedicated office space in one building it can be difficult to find me!

I have found a very helpful tool to let students and school staff know where Mrs. Ziegelmann is. Posted on my door is the Where is Mrs. Ziegelmann sign. I adjust the arrow to accommodate my whereabouts. This communicates to others can see where I am if they need to find me AND the sign is a way to show that school counselors have a variety of places they go!

Making your own is very easy using Microsoft Word, a scissors, and a laminator, however I saw that Vanessa at http://savvyschoolcounselor.com/ 's was selling her version on Savvy School Counselor TPT Store and purchased one instead.

Another component to the Where is Mrs. Ziegelmann is the drop box outside my school counseling office in the middle school and outside of the elementary school office. This box serves a variety of purposes; option to report bullying anonymously, self-referrals, leaving messages. Not all students feel comfortable approaching teachers or leaving me a note with the school secretary. I am hopeful this will give students more opportunities to visit with me if they need or like.