3 SEL & School Counseling Topics To Teach About This April
The end of the school year is getting closer and closer, but it seems like things are getting busier and busier. State testing, Easter, and warmer temperatures have us all wishing for the days of summer. If you find yourself starting to feel that end-of-year burnout, keep reading!
Below, you’ll find 3 topics for your SEL and counseling lessons this April. The topics include activity ideas and resources that will make your lesson planning easier, while still teaching kids about test anxiety, friendship, and body safety.
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April Lesson Idea #1: Test Anxiety
In many schools, April is when state testing begins, and it can be a time of high anxiety for both students and staff members. This month, try helping your students learn about coping skills they can use to manage their test anxiety, as well as test-taking strategies that will help them do their best on the test!
These worksheets encourage students to use positive self-talk and are perfect for using with the book “The Anti-Test Anxiety Society” by Julia Cook.
Activity Idea: Before the testing begins, teach students about things they can do if their anxiety starts to rise during the test. As with any other coping skill, these strategies work best if they are taught and practiced while the child is calm. This allows the child to be more confident and comfortable with the strategies, making them easier to use when the need arises. Some great coping strategies that students can use during a test are:
Positive self-talk: Help the students come up with 2-3 mantras that they can repeat over and over during the test. Examples include: “I will try my best,” “I can do hard things,” or “I know what I’m doing.”
Mindfulness: Students can stay focused on the present moment by using grounding strategies such as noticing 5 things they can feel, touch, and see. Another mindfulness strategy that is great for test anxiety is deep breathing. Try coaching students to use 4-7-8 breathing, where they will inhale for 4 seconds, hold their breath for 7 seconds, and exhale for 8 seconds.
Physical/Sensory Coping Skills: Coping skills that are physical in nature, and include a sensory component, can be helpful to many students. Try teaching them progressive muscle relaxation (tensing and relaxing muscles one by one), hand squeezes, or leg stretches.
Pre-Made Test Anxiety Resources:
April Lesson Idea #2: Friendship
By the time April rolls around, the kids have been in class with the same people for almost an entire school year. This means that some strong friendships have formed, but cliques, exclusion, and relational aggression may have made an appearance as well. April can be a great time to give a refresher on why it’s important to be a good friend and how to have healthy friendships.
If you’re short on plan time, use this Healthy Friendship Scoot Game to get your students up and moving as they look at 30 scenarios.
Activity Idea: It can be tricky for kids to understand what a healthy friendship is. However, this is an important concept for kids to learn because when they know what makes a good friend, it’s easier for them to recognize when they or their friends aren’t treating each other right. This may seem like a basic topic, but during this time of year a refresher can be super helpful! Try giving your students different scenarios and asking them to decide whether or not it describes a good friend. The older your students are, the more nuanced this can be.
Examples For Younger Students:
Your friend always has to go first.
Your friend listens to you when you talk.
Your friend borrows your things without asking.
Examples For Older Students:
Your friend is only nice to you when other people are around.
Your friend cancels plans with you if someone more popular asks to hang out.
Your friend includes you even when they are with their other friends.
After you go through some examples, ask students to share whether or not they think the scenario describes a good friend, and why they chose the answer they did.
Related Blog Posts:
April Lesson Idea #3: Child Abuse Prevention
April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month. This makes it the perfect time to teach your students about body safety, especially if you are in one of the 37 states that require sexual abuse prevention through Erin’s Law.
Fight! Child Abuse Program: Thankfully, there are a lot of great resources out there to help teach this difficult topic. One of my favorites is the Protect Yourself Rules from the Fight! Child Abuse program. These are clear “rules” that can help kids (of all ages!) learn about body safety. The information in this program teaches about what’s okay and what’s not okay, as well as what to do if something unsafe is happening.
Key resources in this program include:
Protect Yourself Rules: Grades K-3 & Grades 4-6
Videos: Grades K-3 & Grades 4-6
Lessons & Worksheets: Grades K-3 & Grades 4-6
Kids’ Books About Body Safety:
I Said No! by Kimberly and Zach King
My Body! What I Say Goes! by Jayneen Sanders
We Are In Charge Of Our Bodies by Lydia Bowers
My hope is that these 3 ideas will help you manage your end-of-year burnout by making it easier to plan your counseling and SEL lessons this April! If you’re looking for more time-saving tips, make sure you sign up below for my weekly e-mails. Each Monday, you’ll get practical ideas and activities delivered directly to your inbox.
