School Counseling

The transition back to school after winter break can be a time of mixed emotions for students. While some return refreshed and eager to re-engage, others may face challenges as they adjust back to the structure of school life. For students who experienced difficulties during the break, such as grief, financial hardship, or family instability, this transition can be particularly stressful. School counselors play a crucial role in helping students navigate this period with care and intention. Below are strategies to support students as they return from winter break.  Conducting Check-Ins with Students Reconnecting with students individually or in small groups can help identify those who may need additional support: One-on-One Meetings: Schedule short, informal check-ins with students you identified as at-risk before the break to assess their well-being. Classroom Visits: Spend time in classrooms to observe student behavior and offer a visible presence of support. Student Surveys: Distribute a simple survey to gauge how students are feeling about their return to school and whether they need help with specific issues. Rebuilding Routines Many students struggle with the transition from the unstructured days of winter break to the routines of school. Help them regain a sense of stability by: Classroom Workshops: Offer sessions on time management and organization to ease the adjustment back to school schedules. Goal Setting Activities: Encourage students to set academic and personal goals for the remainder of the school year. Mindfulness Exercises: Teach mindfulness or relaxation techniques to help students manage feelings of stress or overwhelm. Providing Emotional Support For students who faced challenges over the break, emotional support is critical. Focus on: Grief Counseling: Offer individual or group counseling for students coping with the loss of a loved one during the holidays. Conflict Resolution: Provide a safe space for students dealing with family or peer conflicts to share their feelings and find constructive solutions. Empathy and Understanding: Normalize a range of emotions and let students know it’s okay to feel sad, anxious, or disconnected. Collaborating with Teachers and Staff Teachers are often the first to notice changes in student behavior or mood. Work closely with them to provide holistic support: Training: Equip teachers with strategies to recognize signs of distress and refer students to the counseling office when needed. Communication: Share insights about at-risk students (while maintaining confidentiality) to ensure coordinated support. Classroom Activities: Suggest classroom exercises, such as gratitude journaling or team-building games, to foster a positive and inclusive environment. Connecting Families to Resources Some challenges that students face require the involvement of their families. Counselors can play a key role in bridging the gap between school and home: Parent Outreach: Reach out to families to discuss how their child is adjusting and provide guidance on fostering a supportive home environment. Community Resources: Share information about local food banks, counseling services, or after-school programs for families in need. Workshops for Parents: Host sessions on topics such as managing post-holiday stress, financial planning, or fostering resilience in children. Addressing Academic Concerns The post-break period is a good time to refocus students on their academic goals. Support students by: Academic Planning: Meet with students to review their progress and create action plans for success. Tutoring Programs: Connect struggling students with peer or professional tutors to help them catch up. Encouragement: Celebrate small wins and remind students that it’s never too late to improve. Promoting a Positive School Climate Creating an inclusive and supportive school environment benefits all students. Consider initiatives such as: Welcome Back Activities: Organize events or assemblies to celebrate the new semester and foster community spirit. Student Recognition: Highlight positive behaviors or achievements to boost morale. Peer Support Groups: Encourage students to form groups where they can share experiences and offer support to one another. Final Thoughts Returning from winter break is a pivotal time for students, and school counselors play a vital role in ensuring a smooth transition. By focusing on emotional well-being, academic support, and community-building, counselors can help students feel valued and empowered to succeed. Through collaboration, empathy, and proactive strategies, school counselors can make the post-break period a positive and productive time for all.

A Guide for School Counselors

School counselor Responsibilities during the christmas Season

Engaging Winter Holiday Activities for School Counselors

School Counselor responsibilities during Holiday Seasons

Thanksgiving presents an excellent opportunity to engage students in activities that promote emotional well-being, cultural understanding, and a sense of belonging. Here are some creative and impactful Thanksgiving-themed activities that align with the ethical and educational responsibilities of school counselors. Gratitude Journals Encouraging students to reflect on what they are grateful for is a simple yet powerful exercise. Distribute small journals or worksheets where students can list things they appreciate in their lives. Consider these approaches: Daily Gratitude: Ask students to write one thing they are thankful for each day leading up to Thanksgiving. Gratitude Prompts: Provide specific prompts, such as "Write about a person who has made a difference in your life" or "Describe a moment when you felt happy this year." Group Sharing: Create a safe space for students to share their reflections, if they’re comfortable, fostering community and mutual appreciation. (This is also a good time to approach your administration about creating that safe space - about 15 minutes at the beginning of the day - if your school doesn't already have that in the schedule.) Cultural Appreciation Activities Thanksgiving offers an opportunity to celebrate diversity and teach cultural awareness. Highlight the various ways gratitude and harvest celebrations are observed across cultures: Classroom Presentations: Invite students to research and present on global gratitude traditions, such as the Korean Chuseok or the Indian Pongal. Cultural Storytelling: Share age-appropriate stories or folktales about gratitude and harvest from different cultures. Multicultural Display: Collaborate with teachers to create a bulletin board showcasing how gratitude is expressed around the world. Gratitude Trees A gratitude tree is a visual and interactive way to engage students in expressing thanks. Here's how to set one up: Materials: Use a paper tree outline on a bulletin board or a potted tree with paper leaves. (Or, simply - branches brought in from the outside and staged as a tree.) Student Participation: Ask students to write something they’re thankful for on a leaf and attach it to the tree. Classroom Integration: Collaborate with teachers to make it a class project, or host it as a school-wide initiative. Acts of Kindness Campaign Encourage students to give back to their community during the Thanksgiving season. Organize activities that emphasize kindness and compassion: Kindness Challenges: Create a list of simple acts of kindness, such as helping a classmate or writing a thank-you note to a teacher. Service Projects: Partner with local organizations for food drives, coat collections, or other community service efforts. Peer Recognition: Establish a system where students can write anonymous thank-you notes to peers or staff members, which are later distributed. Coping with Holiday Stress Workshops For some students, Thanksgiving may bring stress, grief, or anxiety due to family challenges or financial hardships. Offer workshops to address these emotions: Stress Management Tips: Teach relaxation techniques, such as deep breathing or mindfulness exercises. Grief Support: Provide a safe space for students coping with loss to share their feelings and learn healthy coping strategies. Resource Sharing: Connect families with local food banks, counseling services, or holiday assistance programs. Gratitude Art Projects Art is a therapeutic medium for expressing emotions and fostering gratitude. Organize creative activities that allow students to explore what they’re thankful for: Thankful Collages: Provide magazines, markers, and glue for students to create collages that represent things they are grateful for. Gratitude Murals: Work with students to design a large mural depicting scenes of thankfulness, which can be displayed in the school. Letter Writing: Encourage students to write and decorate thank-you letters for important people in their lives. Thanksgiving-Themed Group Counseling Activities For small counseling groups, Thanksgiving can serve as a theme for building interpersonal skills and emotional awareness: Gratitude Circle: Have each student share something they’re thankful for and explain why. Team-Building Games: Play activities like "Gratitude Bingo" or "Pass the Thanks," where students pass around a ball and say something kind about the next person. Goal Setting: Use the season of reflection to help students set positive goals for the remainder of the school year. Conclusion Thanksgiving provides school counselors with a unique platform to engage students in meaningful activities that foster gratitude, cultural awareness, and community spirit. By incorporating these activities into your school counseling program, you can help students develop a stronger sense of connection, empathy, and emotional resilience during the holiday season and beyond.

Navigating ethical responsibilities

Guiding Families with Integrity and Compassion

As Halloween approaches, we're continuing to bring creative ideas that can help your students learn, grow, and have fun in the process. Games/Play Therapy These games focus on promoting teamwork, problem-solving, communication, and emotional intelligence—all while enjoying the Halloween spirit! 1. "Spider Web of Compliments" Game Objective: Build community and self-esteem through positive reinforcement. What You’ll Need: A ball of yarn or string How It Works: In a group setting, have students sit in a circle. The first student holds onto the end of the yarn and tosses the ball to another student, giving them a compliment as they do so. This process continues until a “spider web” forms between the group members. Not only does this activity promote positive communication, but it also visually represents how interconnected we are and how kind words can build a strong, supportive community. 2. "Trick or Treat for Kindness" Challenge Objective: Encourage acts of kindness and empathy. What You’ll Need: Small treat bags or containers Slips of paper with kind acts written on them (e.g., “Hold the door for someone,” “Compliment a classmate,” “Help a friend with their work”) How It Works: Hand out treat bags to students, and have them draw one kindness slip to complete during the school day. At the end of the day, students can reflect on their kind acts and share how it felt to brighten someone’s day. You can turn this into a week-long challenge, tracking how many acts of kindness students can accomplish leading up to Halloween. This activity subtly shifts the focus from receiving (trick-or-treating) to giving. 3. "Mummy Wrap Relay" Objective: Foster teamwork and communication as students work together to “mummify” their teammates. What You’ll Need: Toilet paper or white streamers Instructions: Divide the class into small teams. Each team selects one person to be the “mummy,” while the rest of the team works together to wrap them up using toilet paper or streamers. Set a timer for 2-3 minutes, and see which team can wrap their mummy the fastest and most creatively. After the relay, discuss how working together made the activity easier and more fun. This game emphasizes collaboration, communication, and teamwork. 4. "Ghostly Gratitude Hunt" Objectives: (1) Practice gratitude by searching for hidden “gratitude ghosts.” (2) Continue to build relationships between you as the counselor and the students. What You’ll Need: Small paper ghost cutouts A space to hide the ghosts (hallways, classrooms, cafeteria, playground etc.) Markers for students to write on the ghosts (Teachers can help you provide these in classrooms) Instructions: Hide small paper ghosts throughout the school. Then, either through a letter you share with teachers or through your large group/classroom lessons, explain that you've hidden these ghosts throughout the school to the students. Their job is to find the ghosts as they are walking through the halls, eating lunch, in special area/related arts, etc. When they find a ghost, they are to write or draw something they are grateful for on it and give it to their teacher. (Ask the teacher to then put it in your mailbox.) As you gather all the ghosts, create a “Wall of Gratitude” to display outside your office. In the next large group/classroom session, discuss why it’s important to practice gratitude, especially during the excitement of holidays like Halloween. This activity promotes mindfulness and appreciation, helping students reflect on what they’re grateful for. Art Therapy 1. "Emotional Pumpkins" Activity Objective: Teach students to identify and express their emotions. What You’ll Need: Pumpkin printouts or mini-pumpkins (real or artificial) Markers or paint A list of emotions (or emotional vocabulary cards) How It Works: Have students draw or paint faces on pumpkins to represent different emotions—happy, sad, angry, surprised, scared, etc. This visual representation helps younger students make connections between feelings and facial expressions. Once finished, invite them to share a time they felt each emotion and how they managed it. You can also extend this activity by discussing coping strategies for when students feel overwhelmed by strong emotions. 2. "Monster Emotions Masks" Objective: Help students identify and express different emotions. What You’ll Need: Paper plates or cardstock Paint, markers, and crayons Craft sticks (for handles) Scissors and glue Decorations like googly eyes, feathers, yarn, etc. How It Works: Students create masks by decorating paper plates or cardstock to look like monsters that represent different emotions—happy, sad, angry, scared, etc. They can use paint, markers, or crayons to add colors and details to their masks. Attach a craft stick to the bottom of each mask so students can hold them in front of their faces. In a group, have students hold up the mask that represents their current emotion and explain why they feel that way. This activity helps students identify and express their emotions, making them more aware of how they feel in different situations. 3. "Witch's Broom of Wishes" Objective: Encourage students to reflect on their hopes and dreams. What You’ll Need: Brown construction paper for the broom handle Yellow or orange paper for the broom bristles String or ribbon Markers and crayons How it Works: Cut out long, thin rectangles from brown construction paper to represent the broom handles. Cut strips of yellow or orange paper to create the broom bristles. On the bristles, have students write their wishes for the future—these can be personal, academic, or community-based wishes. After decorating the broom, tie the bristles together with string or ribbon, and display the brooms in the classroom. Reflecting on hopes and dreams can inspire students to take steps toward achieving them, fostering a growth mindset. 4. "Bat-tastic Coping Strategies" Objective: Help students identify coping strategies to manage stress and emotions. What You’ll Need: Black construction paper or cardstock Scissors Markers, crayons, or paint Googly eyes (optional) Instructions: Have students cut out bat shapes from black paper or cardstock. On the wings of each bat, ask students to write coping strategies they can use when they’re feeling upset, stressed, or overwhelmed (e.g., “take deep breaths,” “talk to a friend,” “draw or write,” “listen to music”). After decorating the bats with googly eyes or other craft materials, hang them up in the classroom as a reminder for students to use their coping strategies when needed. Teaching students to develop and use healthy coping strategies is crucial for managing stress and emotions effectively. Story Activities (A type of Bibliotherapy) "Haunted House of Worries" Discussion Objective: Encourage students to confront and manage their worries and fears. What You’ll Need: A simple haunted house template or a hand-drawn house on a whiteboard Sticky notes or cut-out ghosts How It Works: Ask students to write down or draw one of their worries or fears on a sticky note or ghost cut-out. Have them place their "worry ghosts" inside the haunted house. Afterward, discuss ways they can "scare away" or cope with these worries, symbolizing how they can overcome fears in their daily lives. Have them write a story - using themselves as a character - sharing some of the ways that you discussed as well as more creative ideas that the "author" adds to "scare away" these worries. This activity helps students see that while everyone has fears, they can face and conquer them with support and strategies. 2. "Costume Role-Playing" for Conflict Resolution Role-playing can be a powerful tool for teaching conflict resolution and allows for students to see a specific part of the story - the character - as you develop their Bibliotherapy skills. Objective: Practice perspective-taking and conflict resolution skills. What You’ll Need: Simple costumes or masks How It Works: Choose some common conflict scenarios (e.g., disagreements on the playground, sibling rivalry, or sharing issues). Have students role-play the scenarios while “in costume,” either wearing masks or simple Halloween props. This playful approach allows students to explore how it feels to be in someone else’s shoes and practice resolving conflicts using positive communication and problem-solving strategies. Final Thoughts As you prepare for this spooky season, consider how these activities can create a positive and engaging experience for your students, while supporting their emotional and personal growth.  Wishing you a hauntingly happy and productive Halloween season with your students!