Starting a new school can be intimidating and scary for students. I went to 9 schools by the time I was in 9th grade and I remember the feeling well! I am happy to welcome a guest blogger, Erainna Winnett, to share her clever idea for welcoming students! Erainna was a classroom teacher for 15 years before becoming a school counselor. She saw a need for newer resources in the field and self-published her first book Mrs. Joyce Gives the Best High Fives . Find out how to win a free copy at the end of this post! 

When new students arrive on our campus, I always go to their classrooms and introduce myself. I generally pull them into the hallway, tell them who I am, explain our Kindness Climate (we are part of Rachel’s Challenge), and walk them to our banner where they sign agreeing to show kindness and compassion daily. I also give them a pencil and walk them back to class leaving them with a high-five. To continue our relationship building, I send them a Welcome to Our School postcard. Students rarely, if ever, receive mail. When their parents hand them something addressed specifically to them, I believe it’s meaningful and memorable. 

Order inexpensive welcome postcards online or print at school using heavy cardstock. The first year I worked with our registrar and hand wrote a welcome message to each child the day they enrolled. This ensured they would receive the postcard the next day or the day after that. At first, about a third of my postcards would be returned undeliverable. After
talking with the post office, I discovered that most apartment buildings will only accept mail with the leaser's name. Remember, I want this to be special to the child and this particular piece of mail is FOR THEM. So, I began writing the child’s name, then c/o the parent’s name. This alleviated the problem. I’ve had several parents come into the office to thank me for just a unique greeting.

Our principal LOVED the idea but wanted to tweak it a little. She wanted to have our fourth graders (the seniors on our campus) write the welcome message. We had a contest where all fourth graders wrote a two to three sentence welcome. Next, we selected three winners and those are the messages new students receive in the mail.

One year, we were on a little stricter budget, so I addressed the postcard to the student and the teacher’s classroom name and number and delivered them when I went to introduce myself to the new student. Ensuring a successful transition for new students I think receiving this Welcome to Our School postcard is unique and lets children know they truly are welcome to THEIR new school and they’ve got a friend in the school counselor.

Thanks Erainna! What a great idea for welcoming new students with a personal touch! If you would like to win one of five copies of Erainna's book Mrs. Joyce Gives the Best High Fives, sign up for the Counselor Up VIP List! Five of our superstar VIPs will win a copy of the book on Friday, August 11 at 4:00pm, sign up before then! It's that easy - no rafflecopter, no form, just VIP treatment - and I promise to never spam you! If you'd like an editable Welcome to Our School template, I got your back too! UPDATE: This giveaway has now ended. You can check to see if you were a winner on Instagram and Facebook! 

I'm always looking for ideas that I can create ahead of time and grab in the moment. I want it to be quick but meaningful and ready for use. Enter Feelings Go Fish - print on cardstock, laminate, and get ready to use over and over.  You can even make this yourself! Just cut up two copies of multiple feelings pictures from google searches and you're good to go. If you're not so into DIY, you can purchase the cards seen here on TpT.

This can be a great ice breaker for a kid that needs some practice talking about their feelings. Each time you ask each other for a card - "Do you have a shocked friend?" - you are identifying the feeling on the card. You can also practice sharing a time that you have experienced that feeling each time you take a turn or make a pair. To help, I've created a poster that shows all the feelings on one page. Keep it posted in your room to reference each time you discuss feelings.

I think it's fun to practice tone of voice of body language to "go fish." When I need an angry card, I can use an angry tone of voice or make an angry face. The other student has to guess which feeling I am showing and the let me know if they have that card. Playing games in groups is a great way to practice turn taking, managing frustration, and communication. 

Do you teach a lot of classes? Many of the counselors in my area teach on the specialist rotation (weekly) so they need a lot of lessons. That's a lot to plan! One idea is to create stations that kids can visit multiple times over the course of a few weeks. Most kids know how to play Go Fish so this station would need very little explanation. Just make sure to laminate those cards! Use the cards again to play a memory game, flipping over two cards at a time to find pairs. 

What fun game hacks do you have? Please share in the comments, I would love to hear! I always love to be creative with items I have so I don't have to store too much. Gotta be - Productive. Organized. Effective.

National School Counseling Week is coming up next week. I can't wait to celebrate. I plan to keep up with ASCA's Photo Challenge. You can also read about what I've done in my schools or laugh at some funny memes. What are some meaningful ways you celebrate school counseling week?

Do you use hall passes at your school? We have tried a million different ideas over the years but I find that hall passes in elementary school tend to fizzle as the year progresses. Let's not even talk about passes that get taken to the bathroom. Ew. No matter what, you always have a few friends that need a note to let their teacher know exactly when they left your room. Some people are wonderers, what can we say??

One of my lovely readers suggested the idea to me to make a cute pass. I've always used post-it notes but love this idea. Something fun to keep on hand to add a little brightness to your day. Download the Back to Class Pass right here and view it below.

Love you, mean it. ​Mwah. 

Like a lot of people I know, I have jumped on the mindfulness bandwagon. I have been surprised to see how much kids enjoy the concepts of mindfulness. I have taught classroom lessons on mindfulness and used the concepts on some of my groups but I really think that the best fit for mindfulness is in individual counseling. I thought it might be fun to create a list of mindfulness crafts for kids. 

I purchased the whale string craft in the cover photo from the one spot at Target (I think it was $3) as a craft with my own kiddo. As we were working on it, I was inspired to create a similar version for cheaper to use at school. You could even use pieces of styrofoam or a shoe box. Simply draw an outline of an object and have the student place pins along the outline. Then wrap string around in random order. It's strangely soothing, even for an adult.

We can't overlook the power of coloring - it's all the rage for a reason! I love to color while talking with students. You can take it a step further and teach the idea of concentrating on what you're doing and coloring with mindfulness. I can imagine a whole group of students who are working on anxiety coloring peacefully with soft music in the background. Bonus points for beanbags and other comfy chairs.

Counselors often use play doh as a tool for communication but it's also great for mindfulness. Play doh has great textures, smells, colors, and movement to focus students' attention while practicing mindfulness. 

OK, I've never tried this one but I've heard that  it's great for kids. Arm knitting uses yarn and your arms to create chunky knits that are great for scarves. This is a great tutorial for beginners. 

• ​Encourage students to think about textures, smells, and colors.
• Practice breathing in and out with each movement. 
• Teach students how focusing on a new skill can help to "turn off" anxious overthinking.
• Help students to do a body scan before and after their mindful crafting. How are they feeling? How do they feel different?
• Role play approaching the craft with curiosity. Students may need support in thinking about what this means.
• When mistakes happen, practice a mantra. It's helpful to create the mantra before you begin. Some examples: 
  • Mistakes Happen
  • That's OK, now my craft looks unique
  • I can keep going even when I make a mistake

What do you think? Ready for some mindful crafting in your individual sessions? What a wonderful skill for students to learn that will add to their toolbox of anti-stress strategies!