If you took a poll of teachers in your building, they would probably say that tattling is one of the most annoying things that they deal with every day. It's a fine line between tattling and warning. You want kids to tell you the important stuff and to keep quiet when Johnny slurps his juice box.

I love the book "A Bad Case of the Tattle Tongue" by Julia Cook. It's fun and interesting and includes some concrete rules for knowing when to warn an adult and when to "mind your own beeswax." 

I usually begin by watching this youtube video to introduce the concept and get the kids' attention.

I always have a hard time explaining what a counselor does to kids. It seems like every explanation sounds like all I do is deal with problems. OK, so maybe some days I feel like all I do is deal with problems but, in reality, a comprehensive counseling program does so much more. 

To demonstrate the whole breadth of what a counselor does, I have been using stones in our intro lessons. Here's how it goes:

Who in here feels like they are pretty strong and they can handle anything? (Lots of enthusiastic hands raise in the air.)

Choose a student. Bonus points for a student with a good sense of humor that won't mind failing a little. Ask the other students to list stressors that kids deal with. As each is listed, place a stone in the volunteer's hand. Divorce. Stone. Homework. Stone. Tests. Stone. 

I do this with very little explanation. As the stones pile up, the volunteer will naturally try to shift their hands and alter what they are doing to accommodate more stones. After a while, they will no longer be able to take any more stones and stones will start falling on the floor. 
 
I might keep going for a few more stones to add a little drama with stones falling all over the place. I then explain to the kids how stones relate to stress and how counselors can help:

Sometimes you have a lot of stress in your life.  When we teach our lessons in your classroom or in small groups in our office, counselors can help you learn new ways to handle stressors like (volunteer) moved his hands to hold more stones. Just like the stones,  in real life you can try to hold it all, change the way you handle it, and try different ideas but if it gets to be too much and you need some help, a counselor is there to help you.

This is a great conversation starter about the types of activities a school counselor does, how to write a note to see the counselor and all of the information we share in an intro lesson. The kids all want to try to hold the stones and are bummed when we only have one volunteer to demonstrate!