Tuesday, June 19, 2018

Coping Skills 101

This year in our county, we chose to focus more on coping skills at the elementary level.  The county required that all counselors teach 2-3 lessons (that they provided) on coping skills in the 3rd, 4th and 5th grade classes.  I loved the lessons and felt like they were very valuable life skills that could help students be more resilient and successful in the future.  I also felt like these lessons could help to prevent a lot of the social/emotional issues that we see come up at our school. 
I decided to also implement a modified version of these lessons at all grade levels k-5.  In k-1 I taught a few less coping skills, and then in the higher grades, I taught all of the coping skills.  We also practiced all of the skills in the classroom, including doing some mindfulness activities and some breathing exercises from Go Noodle. 
I have found these lessons to be SO beneficial.  It seems like we reference our Coping Skills poster so often in classroom lessons and in individual and group counseling.  I even gave my Assistant Principal a poster that she could use with students when they are in the office for discipline issues. 
My wonderful intern needed to complete a project for her internship.  Her task was to design a program or project that would benefit the school and enhance the school counseling program.  I knew exactly what I wanted her to do!  She tirelessly created over 40 posters for all my classrooms.  So next year, I will again review these coping strategies with all of my students, but now, every classroom in the school will have a copy of the poster to reference. 
Do you teach coping skills in your classroom lessons?  I would love to hear your ideas!