This week Mrs. Cheatham and Miss Edwards visited fifth grade classrooms to introduce 5th grade leadership! Fifth Grade Leadership is an opportunity for fifth grade students to help their BPE community by volunteering their fitness/recess time to help teachers and other adults around the school. Fifth grade students who complete three or more leadership jobs will earn a Leadership Pin in the spring. The leadership section of our SEL Website is still under construction, but by the end of next week all leadership jobs will be posted here. While fifth graders are responsible for keeping track of their jobs, parents may find it helpful to use this webpage to help their fifth graders stay on track.
Next week we will introduce our first Life Skill of the school year and begin our classroom counselor lessons. As always, we will keep our website updated with information about what we’re doing in classrooms and include some of that info here in the Counselor Corner, as well. Our hope in providing this information is that we equip parents with language and topics to help carry on the SEL conversation at home! Sincerely, Addie Edwards & Jennifer Cheatham
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Welcome back, BPE families! We are so excited to be your counselors this year and are thrilled that the district has made Social Emotional Learning (SEL) a priority again this year. The district is supporting the SEL initiative by continuing to implement Second Step, an SEL curriculum, to all grade levels and classrooms. In addition to our counselor-led classroom lessons, teachers will use the Second Step Curriculum to teach and embed SEL skills in their classrooms. We are optimistic about the growth our students will experience in 5 SEL Competencies: Self Awareness, Self Management, Social Awareness, Relationship Skills and Responsible Decision Making.
BPE will also continue our monthly Life Skills and the Wirht Wall of Fame. For the first nine weeks of school, our District SEL competencies will be Relationship Skills and Collaboration. During September, students will be focusing on RESPECT. Teachers and staff will be on the lookout for students showing respectful behavior and acknowledge students with a Bobcat Head. We also have some fun, new additions to our Life Skills program this year- be on the lookout for more information! We look forward to sharing more about these SEL skills and other important information in the Counselor Corner of the newsletter! You can also visit our website, bpesel.weebly.com, to learn more about what the counselors are doing at BPE. Sincerely, Addie Edwards & Jennifer Cheatham It has been a joy getting to know all the wonderful families and students at BPE this year and I look forward to starting another fantastic school year with you all in August! I hope everyone has a fun, safe and relaxing summer. I will be out of the office for summer break beginning the afternoon of Friday, June 1 and will return Wednesday, August 1.
Today is the FINAL day to submit input using the 2018-2019 Class Placement Parent Input Form. This form is available for you to provide input about your child’s personality and learning style for next year. Our intent is for each student to be set up for success academically, emotionally, and socially. Please refrain from making specific friend and/or teacher requests, as they will NOT be honored. This form is completely optional and certainly not necessary. However, it is an opportunity for parents to provide input on the best learning environment for their child if they feel inclined.
I am thrilled to announce that BPE has officially received the No Place for Hate designation for the 2017-2018 school year! Our No Place for Hate student coalition, which was made up of fourth and fifth graders, worked so hard and sacrificed time to help make our school a more inclusive, kind, and respectful community. Though we have received this designation, our work is not done! Each year we will have a new coalition of students to help make our campus even more accepting and respectful in order to continue to receive this designation. Check out this video that some BPE kindergarteners helped me make to talk about our All Star life skill! You can also visit http://bpesel.weebly.com/life-skills.html and scroll to the bottom to view the video. In lieu of lessons on responsibility in third grade, we spent the month of April focusing on how to manage stress and anxiety, particularly as it pertains to test taking. Though we geared our discussion toward test taking, we also discussed other circumstances when these tools/strategies might be useful, such as before a big event such as a performance or competition, or whenever our body starts to display signs of stress. Some strategies we discussed included visualizing, muscle relaxation, deep breathing and positive self talk.
As a reminder, the 2018-2019 Class Placement Parent Input Form is currently available for you to provide input about your child’s personality and learning style for next year. Our intent is for each student to be set up for success academically, emotionally, and socially. Please refrain from making specific friend and/or teacher requests, as they will NOT be honored. This form is completely optional and certainly not necessary. However, it is an opportunity for parents to provide input on the best learning environment for their child if they feel inclined. All parent input is due next Friday, May 11, 2018. Our April life skill was responsibility. Responsibility is an important life skill because it covers so many aspects of life- from responsible decision making, to being responsible for our belongings, words, and actions to being responsible for our Earth. In kindergarten through second grade we read What If Everybody Did That? While reading, we discussed how our actions- big or small- can have a major impact, either for the good when make responsible decisions or for the bad when we act irresponsibly. After reading the book, we played a game to act out, ask questions and brainstorm ways of showing responsibility.
As a reminder, the 2018-2019 Class Placement Parent Input Form is currently available for you to provide input about your child’s personality and learning style for next year. Our intent is for each student to be set up for success academically, emotionally, and socially. Please refrain from making specific friend and/or teacher requests, as they will NOT be honored. This form is completely optional and certainly not necessary. However, it is an opportunity for parents to provide input on the best learning environment for their child if they feel inclined. All parent input is due Friday, May 11, 2018. Class placement is a carefully thought-out process with each individual child's needs carefully considered by many stakeholders. Beginning today, you may fill out the 2018-2019 Class Placement Parent Input Form to provide input about your child’s personality and learning style for next year. Our intent is for each student to be set up for success academically, emotionally, and socially. Please refrain from making specific friend and/or teacher requests, as they will NOT be honored. This form is completely optional and certainly not necessary. However, it is an opportunity for parents to provide input on the best learning environment for their child if they feel inclined. All parent input is due Friday, May 11, 2018.
For class placement purposes for the 2018-2019 school year, a form will be available for you to provide input about your child's personality and learning style beginning next Friday, April 20th. Please check back next week for more information.
On Wednesday I introduced the April Life Skill: Responsibility. Visit the Life Skills section of the BPE SEL webpage and scroll to the bottom to see the video outlining responsibility. I look forward to seeing lots of names on the life skills board this month!
Today we recognized our first group of fifth grade leadership students. These students completed four or more leadership jobs this year and earned a leadership pin in assembly to commemorate the work they have done. We are so proud of their leadership and their willingness to give up recess time to help support students and faculty around BPE. We look forward to recognizing many more students each week until the end of the year! This past month our counselor lessons focused on the March Life Skill: Problem Solving. In each class we read Rulers of the Playground as a fun way to launch our discussion of problem solving. As part of our Second Step (SEL) curriculum, we use the STEP model for solving problems: Say the problem without blame, Think of solutions, Explore consequences, and Pick the best solution. To help support students in using these STEPS and to effectively communicate with one and other, we use a tool called the Peace Path in kindergarten through third grade, and a script in fourth and fifth grade. These tools help students to use assertive and respectful language to communicate their needs. In each class we also took time to practice utilizing the peace path/script. Visit the SEL Lesson section of the website to see what these tools look like!
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