Small Groups Starting Soon

Small groups will be starting as soon as the students return from fall break. The goal of the small group program is for students to work together and support each other as they strengthen their skills in a specific area.  At this time, I will be offering the following groups…

KidSkills
This group is for kindergarten and 1st grade students, and will focus on strengthening basic social skills that children learn in the first few years of school. These include self-confidence, waiting your turn, playing with others, and being ok if you don’t get your way or if you lose a game.

G.I.R.L.S. (Girls in Real Life Situations)
This is a group for 4th and 5th grade girls to discuss topics of friendship, communication, dealing with emotions, and self-confidence.

Boys Only!
This is a group for 4th and 5th grade boys to discuss topics of friendship, communication, dealing with emotions, and self-confidence.

S.O.S. (Study and Organizational Skills)
This group is for 4th and 5th grade students, and will focus on skills that will help them succeed in the elementary and middle school classroom. Students will finish this group with a notebook that they can refer to in the future.

I chose these topics based on the needs that were identified by the teachers in the grade levels. If you would like for your child to be involved in one of these groups, please let me know as soon as possible. If you would like to see a specific group added, please let me know that as well!

Welcome back!

I’m a little late with this message, but welcome back to ILE! I am very excited to start teaching this year. I’m doing new curriculum in almost every grade, and I hope the kids enjoy it!

You may hear your child talking about having to practice things during recess. Instead of just taking their time, I’m having them come to my classroom and we will work on whatever it is that they’re having a hard time doing. For example, if they’re not raising their hand in class, then they’ll sit in their seat, raise their hand, and I’ll call on them. These are things that I think should be habits, and if it’s not a habit, then we need to work on it to make it one!

I am looking forward to a great year, and please feel free to contact me if you have any concerns about your child.

5th Grade Internet Safety

During the past two meetings, the 5th grade classes have been talking about internet safety and cyberbullying. We have talked about both facebook and myspace, and how important it is that the students make their information private (so only their approved friends can see it). We’ve also talked about the importance of keeping information private when you’re in a chatroom or talking with people you don’t know, because it is very easy to give out too much information on accident.

This week (the second of our internet safety weeks) we are learning about cyberbullying. Students will watch a video that explains what it is, as well as some of the consequences. That video is located HERE, and is called “Cyberbullying-Video.” Two good resources on cyberbullying are WiredSafety (for parents),  STOP Cyberbullying, and WiredKids (both sites are for parents and children). This lesson is a bit heavier, because we discuss how serious cyberbullying can be, both on the side of the bully and the victim.

Small Group Update

We are currently in the middle of our second week of small groups. The schedule for groups is as follows:

2nd Grade: Tuesday 2:45
3rd Grade Boys: Thursday 2:45
3rd Grade Girls: Monday 2:45
4th Grade: Tuesday 8:45
5th Grade: Thursday 1:15

As a reminder, these groups meet every week! The students get weekly reminders, but it would be a great help if parents could remind them as well. Groups are 30 minutes long, and we lose a lot of time if the students are 10 minutes late. A schedule of group activities will be listed on the Group page of this blog.

Divorce Small Groups

Starting the week after fall break (October 17), I will be facilitating  small groups focused on Divorce and Remarriage. All parents will be receiving a permission slip for their children to be involved in this group. Any student that has experienced divorce and/or remarriage is invited to attend this group, no matter how longit has been since this experience. The groups will be separated by age (one for each grade 2nd-5th), and will also be separated by gender if there are enough participants to do so. These groups will meet every week for 30 minutes for 9 weeks (ending at winter break).

If you would like your child to talk and do activities with other students their age who have experienced divorce/remarriage, please return the permission form (in this week’s Wednesday folder) by Thursday, October 9th. You can also contact me by e-mail. Please let me know if you have any questions!

Welcome Back!

I am so excited to be starting a new school year at Indian Lake Elementary! I have seen 4 classes so far for classroom guidance, and I’m looking forward to seeingall the other students in the next two weeks.

This year I am starting a small program for new 2nd-5th grade students. They will meet for lunch 4 times during the school year, once each 9 weeks. I have also chosen returning students from their class to join them for the lunch meetings. The new students will have a chance to ask any questions they might have about Indian Lake, as well as meet other new students and returning students. The goal is for this to be a very laid back lunch, with a time for them to talk and be in a smaller group than in the lunch room. It also gives me a chance to meet the new students, and to let them know who I am if they ever need anything.

The first lunch for new 2nd and 3rd grade students is Friday, August 7 (tomorrow!). The 4th and 5th grade lunch will be on Monday, August 10. Students will come to my classroom during their regular lunch time, and will go back to class when their time is over. They won’t even have to miss any class!

As always, feel free to contact me if you have any concerns about your child. I look forward to seeing all your children in classroom guidance!

~Ms. Gunselman

Classroom Guidance May 11-15

This week 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades are doing a closure activity to mark the end of the year. Each grade is receiving a sheet of paper with their grad and the year at the top. The assignment is for them to write about things that happened during this school year that they want to remember. Some students have written letters to themselves about the year, while some have drawn pictures of their friends, or the playground, or cool activities that they did.

I have requested that the students take their picture home and keep it in a safe place for them to look back on when they get older. I love finding things that I did when I was in elementary school, and hopefully these students will be able to have a similar experience.

Classroom Guidance April 27-May 1

This week all classes in 3rd through 5th grade are watching the Susan Boyle video from Britain’s Got Talent. If you haven’t seen this video, you can find it through youtube or by googling Susan Boyle’s name. We talked about judging others, and how quickly we can make a judgment or form an idea about someone based just on their physical appearance. I have challenged the students to try and catch themselves when they are judging others because of things that are not related to each other. (For example, brand of jeans is not related to how good a friend someone is) It is possible that they could miss out on a great experience or a good friend because they let these details determine the choices they make.

Edit: Due to rain, I was able to meet with my Friday classes. Because of field day being rescheduled, this was my last time to meet with Mrs. Nangia, Mrs. Pursley, Mrs. White, and Mrs. Dillon’s classes. I can’t believe we’re so close to the end of the year!

Classroom Guidance April 13-17

3rd Grade
This week the third grade classes are talking about TCAP testing. We will talk about what the test is, why they have to take it, and what the scores mean. We also talk about how they can prepare for the test (sleep and a good breakfast!), and some general tips for taking standardized tests. I’ll also answer any questions that they may have.

4th and 5th Grade
We are continuing to talk about friendship in the 4th and 5th grades. The friendship interviews have been great so far! We will be talking about the results at our next meeting. This week we will begin talking about our interests, and how you can connect with others through the things that you have in common.

I hope everyone had a safe and relaxing spring break! Please let me know if there is anything I can do for your children.

~Ms. Gunselman

Classroom Guidance Update

Things were going well with the weekly updates, until I had classes at all different points. That was a bit crazy! At this point, all classes have finished with the Safe@Last curriculum.

This week, the 4th and 5th grades started discussing friendship. This is a big issue this time of year, and I thought it was important to discuss it in classroom guidance. You may have noticed your students bringing home a friendship interview for homework. All 4th and 5th grade classes will have this homework. I strongly recommended that the students bring it back the next day (so they won’t forget about it), but the students actually have until their next class to bring it in. The next time I see 3rd-5th grades will be the week after spring break (April 13-17). The assignment should only take about 5 minutes.

Kindergarten has been working through a book called “Storytelling Guidance.” Through this book, we have talked about differences (in the fall) and anger. Next week we will be talking about friends, and what kind of people we want to have as our friends.

1st Grade has been working hard on the Keys of Excellence. We have covered Integrity, Failure Leads to Success, Speak with Good Purpose, This Is It!, Commitment, and Ownership. We will discuss Balance and Flexibility during our next two meetings.

I haven’t fully decided what I’m going to teach 2nd grade at this point. I have a couple of different ideas, so I’ll post more once I decide what we’ll talk about.

3rd Grade is going to talk some about TCAP testing, and things to do that will help them do their best on the tests. We will also talk a little about how to handle stress, and ways they can help themselves stay calm during the testing process.

This is my plan at this point, although things could always change. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me!

~Ms. Gunselman