On Tuesday, March 27 all coats and clothing that are left in the lost and found will be donated to Forest Trail Elementary’s clothing drive. Please encourage your child to stop by the lost and found to claim missing jackets or sweaters before then! We make every effort to find the owners of jackets with names in the them, so please make sure to always label your child’s jackets with their first and last name.
Report cards were posted yesterday, so I would like to remind you of a resource we shared earlier this year- the Parent Toolkit (http://www.parenttoolkit.com/). This website has resources and information on topics ranging from academics to health & wellness. Perhaps my favorite section of the website is the one dedicated to Social Emotional Learning. There you can find developmental milestones, strategies to support your child’s social and emotional growth and many great articles. Yesterday we also said goodbye to Ms. Ashorn as she leaves to pursue her new and exciting career opportunity. We will miss her terribly, but appreciate her two years of service here at BPE and all that she has taught us!
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On Wednesday, we had a group of first graders help us introduce the March Life Skill: Problem Solving. To kick off this skill, first graders helped lead the school in a chant to remember our handy problem solving strategy: STEP. Ask your child to teach you the chant! S- say the problem, T- think of solutions, E- explore consequences, P- Pick the best solution. S-T-E-P, We use STEP at BPE! As we practice being independent problem solvers here at school encourage your children to practice these same skills when solving problems at home, too!
It is with mixed emotions that we share the bittersweet news that Amy will be leaving Eanes ISD at the end of March. An amazing career opportunity has presented itself and it is one she could not pass up. She shared news with our staff and campus leadership mid-February and feels so fortunate to have their support as she steps outside of her comfort zone to grow professionally. Amy will be joining Vida Clinic, a school based mental health clinic that serves kids, parents and teachers who have experienced trauma. Though the timing isn’t ideal, it is a once in a lifetime dream job that will allow Amy to truly use her degree and licensure to provide a clinical approach to address trauma in schools. It also takes her back to her roots and passion of working alongside populations that are typically economically disadvantaged, thus limiting their access to mental health services. She is excited and terrified about what lies ahead! Amy’s last day at BPE will be Thursday, March 22. This week we wrapped up our February counselor lessons about integrity. In each class we read the book The Empty Pot. This story explores what integrity looks like, and how uncomfortable and challenging it can be at times. Above all, this story illustrates how much courage it takes to have integrity and that doing the right thing is always best! After reading the story, students explored a number of scenarios and had to determine whether or not students were showing integrity. Students in fourth and fifth grade viewed this video of Jack Sock displaying true integrity through sportsmanship. We discussed how integrity doesn't always lead to reward and glory, but that we must do the right thing even when there is not incentive. Third through fifth grade students also spent three minutes in each class practicing mindful thinking time. We used the Tao Mix 2 app to listen to calming sounds while we reflected in silence. Students utilized this time to clear their minds and/or focus on positive thoughts. We introduced this strategy as a way to help manage stress and train ourselves to slow down, relax and feel comfortable alone in our minds. Project Kindness began this week. Jars are dispersed throughout the school filled with kind and inspirational messages to help spread kindness. Kids are encouraged to use these notes to lift their own spirits and brighten the days of others. As students utilize these notes of appreciation, we also encourage them to replenish the jar so that students may continue to pull from them all the way until spring break! We encourage you, as parents, to use this as an opportunity to talk to your kids about how to practice empathy, compassion and kindness- to look for individuals who may be in need of an uplifting message and then act on it. We are optimistic about this opportunity to grow our community of kindness. Our Fifth Grade No Place for Hate Student Council created this video (scroll to the bottom of the page view) to provide a little more information about Project Kindness!
This week we celebrated Valentine’s Day, a day to share love, appreciation, kindness, and compassion which lines up perfectly with the launch of our final No Place for Hate activity: Project Kindness! This week, students in each grade filled out slips of paper with inspirational messages, compliments and other uplifting comments. Starting Monday, February 19, these notes will be placed in jars around the school. Students are encouraged to draw slips from these jars anytime they feel compelled to lift someone’s spirits, or even brighten their own day. Next week students will also watch a video to further explain how to utilize the jars and we will share that video in the next counselor corner as well.
This week we introduced our February Life Skill, Integrity. Students will be earning a sheriffs badge for doing the right thing, no matter what. On Wednesday morning at assembly, students watched a video made by 2nd graders to teach us what integrity is. Counselor lessons this month will also explore integrity and the responsible decision making used to to tell the truth, even when it is hard. You can watch our outstanding Second Grade Students’ video by clicking here. Our No Place for Hate Student Council is continuing to prepare for our final activity, Project Kindness, which will kick off on Monday, February 19 and run until spring break!
January has been a busy month learning about empathy and practicing empathy. Students have a few more days to add a heart to the lifeskills board before we introduce our February Life Skill of Integrity. Second grade students will be presenting during Assembly on Wednesday and students will begin to earn a Sheriff’s Badge for times they show Integrity.
We are looking forward to a fast and busy month in February. We are excited to introduce our final No Place for Hate activity: Project Kindness…. Stay tuned in the coming weeks for more information! The District’s SEL Focus for the third 9 weeks is Social Awareness and Empathy and the BPE Life Skill for January has also been Empathy. Ms. Ashorn and Miss Edwards visited classrooms to reinforce these skills through the monthly counselor lesson. Students explored perspective taking through reading We’re All Wonders (K-2) and The Potato Chip Champ (3-5). Students practiced using the Mood Meter and putting themselves in each character’s shoes. We also discussed opportunities characters in the book could have used empathy.
After reading the book, students played a game allowing them to use their social detective/social awareness skills. They looked at pictures of young people expressing different emotions and tried to guess what they were feeling. We discussed how to read facial expressions and body language to decide how someone is feeling. Today we hosted a parent coffee to discuss how to promote positive peer relationships and provide children with effective problem solving strategies. We reviewed the power of modeling empathy as parents as well as explicitly teaching it to our kids. We discussed importance of empowering children to problem solve on their own and shared the STEP strategy for solving problems: Say the problem without blame, Think of safe and respectful solutions, Explore consequences (if…., then….), Pick the best solution & make a plan. While there is far too much information to cover here in our counselor corner, we have posted the slides to our SEL website. You can view the slides here.
The District’s SEL Focus for the third 9 weeks is Social Awareness and Empathy. At BPE we are reinforcing the development of social awareness and empathy through our January Life Skill. On Wednesday, we watched a video recorded by a group of 3rd graders to introduce what it means to show empathy and how students can earn a heart to put on the life skills board. Students learned that empathy means figuratively putting ourselves in others’ shoes to understand how they may be feeling.
One of our greatest tools for teaching empathy as educators and parents is to model empathy ourselves. Other tips for teaching empathy at home are included below. For more in depth information, take a look at these articles from Harvard and Parenting Science.
Friday, January 19, join us in the library for a parent coffee to learn how to support and empower your child to have successful peer relationships. We will cover information on how to help students better understand the different type of conflicts: from teasing to mean moments or ongoing conflict and bullying. We will also address some problem solving and conflict resolution strategies. |