During the school year I will be visiting with first grade classrooms to introduce a variety of topics. All of these lessons will be presented in alignment with our Character Education program and/or along the guidelines of the Virginia Standards for School Counseling Programs.

• Following Directions - A very important lesson! Our class time will be spent focusing on what happens--in school and at home--when we don’t follow directions. Our classroom demonstration will illustrate the chaos that arises from a crazy chef with no directions to follow! We will discuss ways to improve our own ability to follow directions.
• Friendships - What does it mean to be a good friend? How do you go about making friends? We will read an “opposite” story titled “How to Lose All your Friends” by Nancy Carlson, then create our own pictures and story ideas with positive ways to make friends.
• Bully Situations - Do you know what to do when someone teases you? Can you get yourself out of an uncomfortable situation? We will practice 4 ways to handle “bully pressure” and the students will take turns demonstrating their ability to resist the pressure of a bully.
• Diversity - “Are we different or are we the same?” The students will discuss the importance of getting to know people on the inside and not letting what we see about each other discourage us from being friends. We will create a class brochure which explains our comparisons.
• Let’s Make Healthy Decisions. Think Ahead! - “What’s going to happen if I do that?” In this lesson we will review the power of “predicting” the outcome of a situation before we act. We will make predictions about both bad and good outcomes to select social situations and learn about the power of the “yellow caution light” when making good choices.

If you would like more information on any of the above topics, please don’t hesitate to contact me.