by schoolcounselingbyheart | Jan 1, 2013 | abuse, children's literature, classroom lessons, personal safety
It has been deeply gratifying to hear from so many people about how they have used the sexual abuse prevention lessons and resources that I have written about in various blog posts. I am passionate about the topic of sexual abuse prevention – I have seen such amazing changes in children who are able to report and avoid abuse – and am so glad to be able to help others as they do this important work. To make it easier for people to more easily locate all the posts I’ve written about sexual abuse prevention, I’ve put them all together, with a little help from a friend. (more…)
by schoolcounselingbyheart | Dec 5, 2012 | abuse, children's literature, classroom lessons
My first grade sexual abuse prevention lessons revisit and build upon the skills and concepts covered in kindergarten. (See Kindergarten Lessons for Sexual Abuse Prevention.) For this series of three lessons you will need the books I Can Play It Safe by Alison Feigh, Your Body Belongs to You by Cornelia Maude Spelman, and Do You Have a Secret? by Jennifer Moore-Mallinos. For the activities you will also need some coloring pages, a Good Secrets Box, and Secrets Cards. (Find links for these resources below.) (more…)
by schoolcounselingbyheart | Nov 30, 2012 | bullying, children's literature, classroom lessons
This year I decided to rework our fourth grade bullying prevention unit so that it builds upon the visually rich and thought-provoking book Goodbye Bully Machine by Debbie Fox. We’re in the midst of it now, and it’s going really well. I’ll share all the lessons and resources once we’ve completed the unit, but am so excited that I wanted to share this piece of it right away! Today our fourth graders put on a play based on the book, and you can see it in this video. (It runs a little more than 6 minutes.) (more…)
by schoolcounselingbyheart | Nov 25, 2012 | abuse, children's literature, classroom lessons
Many people have asked if I would share the sexual abuse lessons that I teach in grades K-5, and I am most happy to oblige. Deciding how best to teach about sexual abuse prevention can be a daunting task. It is such an important topic, but so loaded – because of the content, because of the potential for concern from parents, for cultural reasons, and perhaps even because the issue of sexual abuse may hit close to home for the person who is teaching about it. But despite this, kids MUST be taught how to respond to situations in which they are being groomed for abuse or abused! Otherwise they will not know what to do! We spend a lot of time and effort teaching them how to (more…)
by schoolcounselingbyheart | Oct 6, 2012 | children's literature, classroom lessons, conflict resolution
Teaching kids how to resolve conflicts is at the very center of the counseling program at my school. When I started at my school in the dark ages 1996, it was as a long-term sub. Being a sub had its challenges, but one of the major advantages it provided was that I had the opportunity to assess the skills and needs of our students and how the counseling program addressed those skills and needs. Here are my findings in a nutshell: They had some skills, many needs, and there was no program. When I was hired to fill the position permanently, one of the first things I did was develop (more…)
by schoolcounselingbyheart | Aug 26, 2012 | abuse, children's literature, classroom lessons, individual counseling, personal safety
When thinking about perpetrators of child sexual abuse, many people picture an image of a creepy stranger. Parents and schools generally do a pretty good job of teaching their kids about “stranger danger.” But this is not where most of the danger lies. The vast majority of sexual abusers are known to the children they target, so it is incumbent upon us to teach kids not only how to respond when an uncomfortable or dangerous situation arises, but also how to recognize when danger is approaching. (more…)
