i had my first individual session on tuesday. i was supposed to see this child in the afternoon, but found him screaming outside of my office in the morning instead. good morning, a-pants! you see, he had thrown his shoe into the trash. an earth shattering predicament for anyone who isnt tall enough to see the top of the trash can. to be fair, when the inside of a container isnt visitble, the trauma of losing something in said container is pretty intense. i mean, the child didn't know how deep it was, what it was filled with, or if it was even really a trash can. it could have landed in china, for all he knew. poor tiny human. and when his teacher assisted him in retrieving lonely shoe, he promptly threw it back in once again. so she left it there. i would too. and the child commenced to scream, cry, and rock the garbage back and forth in his futile attempts to tip it over.
so here i am, planning my lesson for wednesday, when i hear "my shoe!!!!!!!!! my shoe!!!!! why!!!!" and look out my door to see a five year child throwing himself at the trash can and having a complete and utter meltdown regarding his ill placed footwear. i knew that if i just walked over and fished out the shoe for him, i would be reinforcing his antics. so we took time to calm down, step away from the abused trash can, and breathe. then the shoe was able to take its rightful place on tiny little foot. following the dramatic reunion, we went into my office and colored. and i say we, because yes, i colored as well. it was a good day.
on wednesday, i went into the kinder through second grade classrooms to do an introductory lesson. i amended the lesson that i had prepared a week before, and included a segment where i read a book to the little dudes. however, i knew that i had to reinforce good listening behaviors before i attempted to read a book to five to seven year olds. so i scoured my counseling books, and found this adorable bunny face that had good listening skills listed on it. oh, happy day! i set about coloring him, gluing him on cardboard, attaching him to a stick, and behold, mr. bunny was born.
i elected not to use mr. bunny with my second graders, i had a feeling they might be too cool for that. my first graders took mr. bunny in stride. it was comparable to how you might act if an attractive person of the opposite sex (or same, depending on how you roll) asks for your number. you're excited, but you don't want to seem too excited. "ok, yeah, sure, mr. bunny, pretty cool, i dig it." very cool customers, my first graders are. however, the best thing that i have experienced thus far in my school counseling career was the response i got from my kinders to mr. bunny. they lost it. they went absolutely bananas over mr. bunny. one little munchkin cried when i had to inform her that i was not able to let her bring mr. bunny home so that he could keep her other bunny company. i mean, i'm sure they'd have some nice conversation, and mr. bunny is an excellent listener, as is displayed on his little bunny face. but alas, i could not. i tried to explain to her, the best way i was able, that mr. bunny had to come with me to the other classrooms to help the other children, but this child had no sympathy for them. let them have poor listening skills! she wanted mr. bunny! another little one wanted to know why mr. bunny was on a stick, and if this was painful for him. at least we know this child has empathy. i don't think i answered that question and am wondering now as i write this to you, oh-excited-about-weekend-readers, if that was damaging to the child. hopefully the question of mr. bunny's comfort is not haunting the poor little being as he tries to enjoy his weekend. and hey, if it is, i know a pretty good counselor....
the last activity that i did with my miniature people was to have them color in an outline of a person and to construct it as a picture of themselves displaying a feeling (we had just read an entire book on feelings, so they had some material). i told them that this would be a good way for me to get to know them, and that they could feel free to draw themselves however they would like. the babies seemed to have a really difficult time with this. consider the following exchange as an example:
child: "you mean, i can give myself green pants if i want to?"
me: "yes, you can give yourself whatever kind of outfit you would like"
child: "but what if i don't actually have green pants? can i still make them green?"
me: "if you want them to be green, go for it"
child: "but... they're green. who has green pants?"
and so forth..
suffice to say i am loving my job and am thankful i took this leap of faith into unknown territory. oh, and of course, thank you, mr. bunny.
be thankful,
andie.
Mr. Bunny is awesome...but where I am from, we call it the Magic 5! You have 5 fingers, so I made a paper mache hand using an exam glove. Each finger is a different part of magic five. They are all also on velcro so if a kid is not doing what is "expected" I remove the part of the 5 that they are not doing. They hear the velcro, look over at the hand, see what they have to fix, and I didn't even have to say anything! Ahhh, the mind of a child is amazing! I also stand in front of them when we are lining up and say, "Magic 5,4,3,2,1." and they all get in line as fast as possible! It is hilarious!
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