Counseling
In our community, we will:
- Work to be safe
- Inspire Kindness
- Show Respect
- Embrace Responsibility
We are now in year five of our school wide positive behavior system (PBIS). We are continuing to focus on Who’s Wise Words of kindness, respect, responsibility and safety at school. You may notice Who’s Wise Words posters around the school and may have heard your children talking about “positive pellets”. Positive pellets are distributed by staff in the building when we notice students following one or more of Who’s Wise Words by showing kindness, respect, responsibility, and safety.
Over the summer I was fortunate to join a team from Marion Cross that attended the BEST Institute in Killington to continue building our multi tiered system of supports (MTSS) at MCS. Our focus this summer was on implementing restorative practices within our MTSS framework. A restorative approach involves principle-based processes and practices that can be applied to help things go right as well as respond when things go wrong.
March 28, 2025
Welcome to another exciting week in Class Counsel with Ms. Keel! We’ve been busy exploring our emotions and learning how to navigate them like pros! Let’s dive into what we’ve been up to and what’s coming next!
Last week
Last week in Mrs. Freeman's Kindergarten class, we put on our social detective hats and searched for clues to identify when someone is feeling mad. We also practiced the on and off strategy to help us regulate our bodies and brains. In Miss Anderson’s Kindergarten class, we reviewed all the feelings we've covered in our unit and the clues we use to make smart guesses about how others feel.
In First Grade, we focused on ways to regulate our emotions and began discussing feelings of frustration. Second Grade wrapped up the Zones of Regulation and is gearing up to watch the movie Inside Out, where we’ll see what happens when feelings take over! In Third Grade, students learned to differentiate between feeling content, happy, and excited through various clues they could see and hear.
Fourth Grade practiced the first STEP in problem-solving: stating the problem respectfully. In Fifth Grade, Mrs. Dustin’s class completed the Puberty Workshop and had a blast testing their knowledge with a round of Jeopardy! Mr. Burkhart’s class just finished the last of the Puberty Workshop videos and will be competing in Jeopardy next week. Meanwhile, Mr. Frey’s class viewed the video Boys and Puberty, which covers the physical and emotional changes experienced during puberty for those born male at birth.
Next week
Next week, Mrs. Freeman’s Kindergarten class will learn about feeling calm and try out some new strategies to help regulate our bodies and brains. Miss Anderson’s Kindergarten class will kick off the Zones of Regulation. In First Grade, we’ll wrap up our lesson on feeling frustrated and review what we’ve learned so far.
Second Grade will start the movie Inside Out, while Third Grade will review and wrap up our unit on Emotion Management. Fourth Grade will move on to think of solutions in our problem-solving STEP.
In Mrs. Dustin’s class, I have a surprise. We’ll start watching Inside Out 2, where Riley navigates the life changes that come with puberty and being a teenager. Mr. Burkhart’s class will test their knowledge in Puberty Jeopardy, and Mr. Frey’s class will watch the last video in the Puberty Workshop series, along with a video about hygiene, which you can view at this link. In Sixth Grade, we will continue to explore how emotions and how they affect our decisions.
Things to know
If you’re interested in learning about setting healthy boundaries online and off with young children (toddlers to tweens), Cindy Pierce, author, comic, and storyteller, is giving a presentation on April 7th at Artistree. Follow this link for more information.
Until next time!
Thank you for being such an amazing part of our learning journey! Let’s keep supporting each other as we explore our emotions and grow together. Have a fantastic week ahead!