Student Funnies :: How they spend their recess

Me: Sorry guys. I can't keep you for recess. I have another group coming in.

2nd Graders: That's ok. We have plans for recess.

Me: Oh, you do?

2nd Graders: Yeah! The girls are chasing us.

Wouldn't want to miss that!

New Product :: Social Emotional Trivia Games

All right...so it's getting to that time of year when I really start running out of new ideas for my social skills and counseling groups. I feel like there's only so many ways we can go over controlling anger before I (and they) are ready to pull our hair out. It seems like at least once a week someone asks me, "but can't we play a game on your computer?"

And really, they have a point. I mean, there are so many websites that have reading and math games, but far fewer that have counseling and social work games. So, I made these!  They're Jeopardy-style trivia games in Powerpoint format that cover a whole bunch of different topics. Even my squirmy kids pay attention :)

Each has 24 editable questions to help kids learn about a variety of social and emotional skill topics:

- Anger Control
- Bullying
- Feelings
- Friendship
- Peer Pressure

The questions are just "think and answer" questions either. I made sure to make it interactive, so they'll be drawing, acting, thinking, and talking! And while I don't have a Smartboard, a few lucky people I've talked to do and they've been able to use this on their as well for a whole class.

So hop on over to my store and pick them up for yourself!  There's also a version for Divorce that's free if you'd like to try it out first!

New Product :: Holiday Social Emotional Activity Pack

Need some holiday-themed activities? Check out this activity pack! It's got lots of fun social-emotional learning activities that will be sure to keep your students' interest!

This activity pack contains several social skills, anger management, and social emotional activities in a fun holiday theme! It contains the following 10 activities:

- Emotion Matching Candy Canes


- 24 “Naughty or Nice?” School Rules Cards


- Compliment Skiing Activity


- Positive Thinking Skiing Activity
- “I’m Unique Because…” Snowflake Class Activity
- “The Children Were Nestled” Positive Thoughts Activity


- Christmas, Hanukkah, and Holiday Wishes Sheets
- “Don’t Have a Meltdown” Snowman Activity w/ 35 Coping Strategy Cards (strategies also available in Coping Skills Bingo Game)

Activities are presented in PDF format in color and in black and white and include answer keys when applicable!

Sale :: Cyber Monday + Tuesday!

Visit my TeacherspayTeachers store today and tomorrow and enter the code "CMT12" to save 28% on everything!

Student Funnies :: My Portrait

One of my students is a very good artist. She drew me the following picture of myself today. I do have to say, she gives me much to much credit for being able to walk in heeled boots and grow Repunzel-esque hair!  Nonetheless, it is proudly hanging in my room now, even if there's no way I can possibly live up to it!

Student Funnies :: My leg...

Student: My leg is swollen. I have to go to the hospital after school to get it x-rated.

Me: Oh, I'm sorry to hear that!

Me (thinking): I didn't realize hospitals were doing that now. They really are becoming full-service!

New Product :: Graphic Organizer Pack

I don't know you, but one of the more frustrating things about working with students with ADD or ADHD is how difficult it is to teach them executive functioning skills, you know, things like problem solving, prioritization, planning, organization, and working memory!

And I think part of the difficulty for me was that I wasn't really ever trained how to teach these things! I mean, I'm a social worker! I'll give you charts, coping strategies, visual schedules, blah blah blah...but teaching a kid organization?  Can't they just LEARN to keep their desk clean and take notes like everyone else?

And right there's the key...they CAN'T just learn "like everyone else."

By the nature of ADD and ADHD, these students' brains can be a place where information gets misfiled, forgotten, and confused (if it even gets through their ears to begin with!) We can't just tell a student with attention difficulties information and expect them to process, store, and remember it. School is often an auditory place, but it's just not going to happen! Even students that make medication that may help them focus don't necessarily "magically" gain executive functioning skills.

So this is where I came in. Ideally, executive functioning skills are taught to every student, in the context of a great general curriculum. But we all know that ideally and realistically aren't always the same thing. So I ended up with tons of kids who couldn't organize information in their brains and as a result had a really difficult time learning.

After a lot of trial and error, I learned that graphic organizers are HUGELY helpful for kids with ADD and ADHD (and really, most kids!) The only thing is, most graphic organizers were SUPER boring and very specific for a certain subject. I wanted general graphic organizers that I could use for everything from academic subjects to relationships and life situations.

So I made my own :) I put some of them into my Organization Activities for Students with ADHD, but here are 26 of them! In addition to being usable for any subject or situation, they're also super colorful and can hold students' attention a lot easier than plain old boring black and white.

One thing I did (that saved me tons of colored ink), was print them in color and laminate them. Then, students can fill them out in my room with dry erase marker, I can make a copy to keep or give to them, and then erase them for the next week or the next kid.

Here is what's included:

- Lined 3-Column Chart
- Unlined 3-Column Chart
- Answer Organization Sheet
- Cause & Effect
- Lined 2-Column Chart
- Unlined 2-Column Chart
- 4-Step Cycle
- 5-Step Cycle
- Fact & Opinion
- Cause & Effect Fishbone
- Idea Web
- 4-Section Wheel
- 8-Section Wheel
- Triangle Chart
- Inverted Triangle Chart
- Main Idea Web
- Positives & Negatives
- The Five 5’s Table
- 5 Senses Chart
- 3-Step Sequence
- 6-Step Sequence
- Story Parts Organizer
- 2-Part Venn Diagram
- 3-Part Venn Diagram
- Organization Web

Enjoy :)