Mission Trail Elementary
Mrs. VanGaasbeek's Counselor's Corner
Something that I believe some adults forget is that kids need direct instruction in order to be kind, responsible and confident. Students need to be taught exactly what we expect from them. We must have explicit lessons and modeling of these types of behaviors. My job is to teach students about social and emotional concepts, in the same way we teach math or reading. As we enter fourth quarter, in kindergarten we are working with self-control. The students are working on controlling urges by using the mantra “STOP, THINK, then ACT.” For first graders we have started a unit on self-awareness. We are learning what our strengths are and how we can offer those to others. This also makes us note qualities that we need help with because as we are become more self-aware. In second grade, we continued with our lessons about responsibility. We are working to understand we need to make good choices, even when we don’t want to. All of these skills will continue throughout the rest of the year with your child. With practice, modeling and more instruction, these skills will become embedded to utilize throughout their lifetime.
Choose Love Movement
As we are gearing up for our Seven Days of Kindness Challenges later this month. I want to offer the calendar of simple acts of kindness to try to complete for each day. Set this as a daily goal and check in with your family to see how these kind acts made you and others feel.
Go Screen Free
- Attached you will find a tear off poster brought to your from Big Life Journal. It is full of ideas to get kids away from screens. I will have a new poster for the several weeks to encourage unplugging from electronics and plugging into their social and emotional well-being.
- Activities such as these have been proven to increase self-esteem, expand social skills and create bonds that cannot be achieve from a screen.
- These interactions will produce serotonin which will stabilize moods and boost happiness. The increase in this hormone will help with sleeping, eating, and digestion as well.
Encouragement Works Wonders
- We all do it. We get down on ourselves and allow negative self-talk to sneak into our brains. As we mature we are more capable of being able to wade through those feelings and thoughts in order to turn them around. However, as a child, it is much more difficult since they have not had as much practice with it as their parents. Below is another resource from Big Life Journal of replacement statements when you child says “I’m bad at this!” if you have a polished response it can offer more encouragement than added discouragement.
Additional Resources
- If you need food or clothing, fill out this anonymous request form, and your items will be delivered to MTE's loading dock within a week. You will create your own ID number on the form, which you'll then use to identify your items in the loading dock. This process is completely anonymous.
- IF YOU DID NOT RECEIVE A COMPLETE ORDER, please contact me. There is a request that has not been picked up. I will be happy to help connect you with the goodies!
Back Snack Program
- We are excited to offer a great community resource through our partnership with Community for Kids.
- Community for Kids is a local non-profit organization that has the mission “to alleviate food insecurity for students in the Blue Valley Community by providing weekend food packs”.
- Here’s how it works: If your family would like to participate in the program please email Quisha Mitchell, MTE’s social worker, at qmitchell@bluevalleyk12.org to express your interest.
- After providing consent, any child in your family ages pre-school through middle school is eligible to receive a weekend food pack throughout the school year each week.
- There is no cost to participate in the program and participation is voluntary.
Dinner Table Discussion
- What made you laugh the most today? What did you say or do to others to make them laugh or smile? What is a goal for you to do tomorrow to make someone’s day brighter?