As a school counselor, we see many kids who struggle with their parents' divorce and the changes it brings to their family. It seems that kids are often overlooked in the divorce process. Typically, kids are quiet about their feelings and the people most in tune to their struggle, their parents, are also grieving and struggling with the loss of the marriage and family structure as they know it.  I have created a 6 session group to help guide your students through this difficult time. As always, I strive to share everything you need to implement here on the blog. If you would like to have all the plans, printables, and activities, please visit my Teachers Pay Teachers store to purchase.

Lesson 1: Introduce Your Family

• Draw a picture of your family. This may include more than one house, more than one parent, or any combination.
• At work discussion: What kinds of things do you like to do at mom/dad/grandma's? Where do you sleep when you stay here? Who are you friends that you see when you stay with mom/dad/grandma?
• Share Family Portraits with the group

Lesson 2: Kaleidoscope of Feelings

• Fill a large container with water. Allow students to put drops of food coloring in the water while they talk about their feelings about their parents' divorce. 
• Alternative: use a mandala coloring page and color your feelings

Lesson 3: Bubbled Up Feelings

•  Blow bubbles as an icebreaker. Practice calm breathing as you slowly breathe in and blow out bubbles.
• Bubble Calm page- students write what helps them to feel calm in the bubbles on their page. 
• Students practice bubble calm with bubbles. The slower you breathe, the bigger the bubbles you can make.

Lesson 4: What's Buggin' You?

• Bug Tac Toe Icebreaker
• Bug Spinners - write people that you can talk to on your spinner. Cut out arrow and attach to bug with a brad. Spin your spinner and practice what you would say to them. 

Lesson 5: The Fortune Teller

• Write 8 things you wish adults would ask you about on your fortune teller
• Cut out and fold to create fortune teller and practice with group members

Lesson 6: Group Wrap Up

• Add your story to the Changing Families Binder to share with kids who see the counselor in the future

This is a great, easy way to help kids to cope with their family's change. What do you do to support students through divorce? Any great tips? You can check out all group plans and printables on Teachers Pay Teachers, this group is also part of a bundle. 

Have you seen this quote going around on social media? I just love it. It would be a great gift to give the teachers in your life. One of my friends asked me to make it into a poster for her, so here it is. You can download for free on Teachers Pay Teachers. 

Do you have a school counseling website for your program? I've been surprised to see that not everyone does. When you are thinking about using a service, what is the first thing you do? I check the website. If you don't have a website, you are missing out on being the person that parents, teachers, and even students turn to in order to find the support they need. 

​You can check out my old school website at cpescounselor.weebly.com. 

What are the important things to include?

This is what your stakeholders see when they first log in. Make it simple, easy to understand, and professional. The two most important things to include on your home page is a brief description about your program and your contact information. Many people have probably come to your website looking for your contact info, don't make them hunt it!

Make sure to include a picture on your about me page! Parents have surely seen you in the building but may not know your name and position. You want to help to put a face to a name. It's also nice to include your profession background and a little bit about you personally. 

Here's where you get to share about your wonderful program. You can share your curriculum, how to request individual counseling, and what groups you provide. You may need to explain what a comprehensive counseling program is. I like this video to help explain.

You have lots of options for additional pages on your website. It might be helpful to think about what questions you are often asked. Do parents call asking for book recommendations? Do teachers ask for social skills resources?
Some ideas you could include:

• Parent Resources: book lists, links to parenting websites
• Student Resources: middle school information, anything that you show or share during a lesson, pbskids.org information pages
• FAQ page
• Blog: I embedded this in my school website long before I started counselorup.com - I used it to share what we were doing in our classroom lessons, school events, etc.
• Announcements

Do you have a school website? What's your best website tip? Share here so others can see your great pages, leave a comment below. I've also created a printable checklist for creating (or updating) your own website. 

Happy school counseling week! Thank you for everything that you do to help kids, schools, and parents. You truly make a difference. In keeping with tradition, I have created some fun memes. Feel free to pin, share, text them around to your friends. If you do, please link back to this post.

P.S. There's a FREEBIE at the bottom of this post - Happy School Counseling Week!

One of my favorite ways to celebrate school counseling week is to give out stickers! You can read a whole post on how I do that here. You can also download some super cute stickers for FREE on my TPT store.