PPBF: I Am Love

Today I'm excited because I've just returned from

an epic speaking trip to Missouri and Illinois;

first, I saw this beautiful Gratitude Pumpkin idea.

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Raising Happy, Healthy Children

Happy St. Patrick's Day.

Today I'm excited because our friends at Happify have put together this amazing infographic about raising happy, healthy kids. 

Click the graphic to read the whole post:

Don't you love the part about happy toddlers?

This 365 Grateful clip from KarmaTube might inspire you, too. To combat the drudgery of her daily regime and routine that she was experiencing, Hailey Bartholomew decided to practice intentional gratitude for a year by taking pictures of one appreciation a day. Such a feel-good story about how she found herself and her family again once she sharpened the focus on her gratitude lens. So generosity and gratitude generate happiness.

Last week, a reader suggested writing notes of affirmation or inspirational quotes in lipstick on the bathroom mirror for your child(ren) to find. I know that would have tickled me as a kid! Think that's too messy? Try sticky notes. They come in so many assorted colors, shapes and sizes now that you could mix it up and make it fun.

Lunch boxes and sacks are also a great place to inspire.

I've seen messages written on bananas, napkins, water bottles.

These Window Cards from Compendium are perfect for that! 

If you're a teacher, attach them to your students' quality work or hand them out as you catch kids making good character choices. Better yet, encourage your students be secret agents looking for acts of kindness and generosity. Use each window card as a caring citation that your secret agents can give out to let a classmates know that his or her kindness did not go unnoticed or unappreciated.

You could also teach this Cool To Be Kind ditty that I wrote:

Chugga, chugga, chugga, chugga, clap, clap, roll.

Chugga, chugga, chugga, chugga, clap, clap, roll.

It’s no surprise that it’s cool to be kind;

global warming of the heart, soul and mind.

When we’re respectful,

And we listen with care,

We do our best to live with empathy, y, y, y.

When we’re generous and thoughtful,

And we serve with our whole heart,

We’re the change that the world wants to see!

Switch up the rhythm some and encourage students to write another verse. 

Have fun as their momentum helps you

get rollin' on down the line ... enJOY the ride!

Children learn what they live ... at home and at school ...

what are your secrets to nurturing happy, healthy kids?

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Friends Stick Together

Happy National School Counseling Week!

The Sally in this story - Information, Please - reminds me of my Sally, whom I still miss every day. 

She was the dearest counselor, mentor, and friend.

Today I'm eager to share two things I created this weekend.

1. I found this excite-mint gum at the new Aldi store and just had to figure out how to incorporate it into the week. Here's what I came up with; click the graphic to download a template if you want the sayings. Who knew gum could generate such excite-mint! I plan to put one in each staff member's box on Tuesday.

I went to the store with the trustworthiness pillar - the friendship pillar - on my mind. Friends stick together, so I came home with twenty packs of this gum. 

2. And this song.

I can't wait to try it out. School counselors get to help students work through relationships and find friends that fit every day.

What book or lesson might complement this little ditty in your Corner? Here's Shawna's list of her top ten friendship titles from The Picture Book Teacher's Edition that would work. Some trustworthiness and friendship faves from my shelf 
that I could use it with include:

How will you celebrate with your School Counselor today?

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Maria's Sweet New Board Book

Today I'm excited because Maria Dismondy's new book is now available 

and I'm hosting her last stop on the Virtual Blog Tour.

Ta Da ... here it is in all of its adorableness:

Geared at a much younger audience than her other titles, this newcomer targets children from birth to age three. The same thing that drew me to Maria's work in the first place - her mission to help people Be The Difference - has endeared me to 

Spoonful of Sweetness.

Using six key character words coupled with pictures of babies from diverse backgrounds, Maria's powerful parenting tool answers the question: 

What makes baby super sweet?

Thank you, Maria, for this free download.

I used the book to elevate empathy in a preK class last week and talk with our littlest learners about what babies need. 

Here's a sneak peek at a portion of the lesson:

Here are the words to our fun friendship ditty that we actually circled up for and fell down at the end of, just as if it were Ring Around The Rosey -- good times!:

Then yesterday I found this related post that totally supports why resources like this book are necessary to raise your child's social intelligence.

And Kid President talking to newborns {here}.

It's never too early to start teaching, reinforcing, and modeling character to our infant children. I'm glad that Maria cooked up this delicious title and I see it as a great gift for all of those friends and families who are adding a bundle of joy to their fold, just like Maria and her family, who just welcomed 

a blessed baby boy to their family.

If you'd like a Spoonful of Sweetness, please leave a comment below with your best parenting tip between now and January 30th at noon central. The Gruener Generator will draw one name from all of the entries and Maria will send you a signed copy.

This giveaway is now closed; congrats Lisa 

and thanks for that parenting tip!

I appreciate my friendship with Maria and I am grateful for her partnership and her passion for character and kids.

Maria Dismondy is a #1best-selling children's book author, former teacher, and highly sought-after speaker. Spoonful of Sweetness is her 5th children's book. Maria has a passion for spreading an anti-bullying message and making a difference in her writing, public speaking, blogging and charity work. She lives in southeastern Michigan with her husband and children. Visit her online {here}; you'll be glad you did!

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The Kindness Patrol

What you focus on, you get more of. 

Maybe that's it. 

Maybe that's why I'm noticing 

so much more kindness lately.

Ordinary things, like when I was reading third-grade thank-you notes to Dennis Lee for coming to our school and found one in the stack addressed to me, thanking me for opening the Counselor Cafe this year. 

And extraordinary things, like when I commented that I love these shirts and would like to have one, a cyber-friend whom I'm never met in person said, "what size?" How kind is that?

Turns out, her school has connected with the Josh Stevens Foundation. Do you know Joshua's story? Above all, he was kind.

His kindness campaign didn't end when his earthly journey did.

I wrote a little ditty that I'm planning to teach

when we focus on kindness in peace class next week.
We'll use the hand-jive motions ... or the melody to the chorus of that late 70's song called Cruel To Be Kind.

A Kindness Patrol? Sign me up!

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The Colonel's Character Call

I think I might be destined to participate in a flash mob because I love the element of surprise. I actually pitched the idea of putting one together for our first-day back this year, but nothing came of it. Perhaps one day ...

Think about the character traits involved to pull this off.

Here's one that's kind of fun because it's done by British Army Musicians. 

So unsuspected.

I actually wrote some lyrics to a character song using the Colonel Bogey march a few years back; why not try singing along.

Then let your little poets come up with the next verse
or just repeat the first one. Your choice.
Have them march around during the counter melody part.

Could it be a brain break in the making?

Happy Monday.

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Responsibility - What's At Stake?

Our focus pillar of character this month is responsibility.

Click the song to hear my Firsties singing it with me!

In grades one through three, we're looking specifically at the word stakeholders, what it means and who they are. 
Yesterday as I was describing a stakeholder as 
someone who cares about your decisions, 
someone who might be affected by your choices, 
someone who has a stake in your story, 
a second-grade girl summed it up with, 

"So you mean pretty much anyone who's involved?" 

Yeah, that works.

And I'm going retro and using one of my favorite storytelling mediums from my childhood: the felt board! I just got it last week as we were moving some old stuff out to make room for the new stuff. What a find. 

First, we examined a problem poster and talked about who, besides the two bears, the stakeholders in this situation might be: the characters behind the scene, like the librarian, the principal, the teacher, the counselor, the other bears who won't get a book, and both of the bears' parents. Well, you get the picture.

Then we moved in to The Story About Puffy. I just found the tale in this book and bought the velcro; my artistic Anna drew the pictures to bring the story to life.

We're basically talking about a dog whose owner (my bear puppet, Boris) forgets to put him in one night so Puffy goes searching for a warm place to sleep and wreaks havoc in the neighborhood along the way. After the story, we retell it and count the stakeholders. Have students stand to represent each stakeholder; it's eye-opening when they see how many stakeholders there are when just one child, I mean bear, forgets to bring his dog in off the porch. Just look at all of the stakeholders in that one little responsibility that Boris, my bear, didn't take seriously. It was absolutely precious to hear that curly-haired first-grade boy say to me, 
"Just look at all of those stakeholders!"

Then we sang the little poem above that I wrote from an idea 
my friend Angie Morrison shared with me.

Who are the stakeholders in your decisions?

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Unrivaled Therapy

Sadie, a trained reading dog, visited our school this week and she was a huge hit! 

A keeshond from Holland, this breed is especially friendly with children and Sadie is no exception. She and her best friend Phil Johnson helped with my small group counseling classes. After hearing all about Sadie and her job visiting hospitals to cheer people up and reading with third graders to help melt anxiety away, we read Good News Nelson, Jodi Moore's new headliner about caring, responsibility, and friendship.

Before we dismissed, we shared our good news in song using the tune of Frere Jacques/Are You Sleeping? with Where is Thumbkin? hand movements.

Hands behind your back:  

Nelson's got news, Nelson's got news.

Right thumb up and out in front: Such good news!

Left thumb up and out in front: Such good news!

Nelson showed he cared and 

ended up with two new friends.

Right thumb slides back behind your back: That's good news!

Left thumb follows suit: Such good news!

Then, we took turns:

Who's got news? Who's got news?

Such good news, such good news!

We had a great Thanksgiving break and now we're back at school.

That's good news; such good news!

Then as it was a specific student's turn, we added their name and sang the first two lines together, then stopped singing and let him/her fill in their good news, ending with a choral that's good news! . . . or great news! . . . awesome news! . . . delicious news! . . . we switched it up just to keep it fresh. Here's an example:

Drew's got news, Drew's got news

Such good news! Such good new!

My teacher came to my house and saw our decorations.

That's fun news! Such fun news!

Singing about our good news with one another and loving on Sadie -- that's unrivaled therapy.

If you want to share your good news about little people doing big things, visit Jodi's new blog about being KIND: Kids Inspiring New Directions.

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Do A Ditty & Sing A Song

Many of you know that I LOVE to seal the deal with a little ditty (my attempt at poetry!) or song at the end of each guidance lesson.  The kids know it, too, and they ask for it specifically on the rare occasion that I don't have something musical-related as their launch.  So today I'm linking up with Melissa over at Dilly Dabbles and posting a K variation of one of our signature songs.  Just look at how hard they're concentrating on getting their fingers to work and snap along with the music.  My friend Michelle up in NJ actually has her Kindies sing the original version at the link below every day to launch them into greatness!

Entitled Kids With Character and set to the music of the Addams' Family, this specific version was at the end of a respect lesson.  

(Notice how we incorporated the movements to the hand-jive during the verse):

Character counts! (snap, snap)

Character counts! (snap, snap)

Character counts! Character counts!

Character counts! (snap, snap).

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

makes Westwood a great place to be!

We speak and act respectfully; 

We're kids with character.

Click {here} for the lyrics to more Ditties and Songs that we use to infuse Meaningful Movement and Music.

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The WoW Awards

WoW! Today marks post #365 for me at the Corner - 
one a day for an entire year! 
To celebrate this milestone, I'm linking up with author 
Maria Dismondy 
for Make A Difference Monthly. If you haven't met Maria, you simply must do yourself a favor and visit her beautiful website to learn more about her and her books! She is a sweet, sweet soul so I'm happily partnering with her to teach fairness.

Click here to go there!

I haven't written a lot about my puppets because, even after twelve years with them, it still feels kind of weird to the adult in me to have these conversations with myself while pretending to talk with a piece of cloth on my hand. But the kids LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my puppets, so I do it. For them. And guess what?  My puppets are actually very funny. If anyone ever asked me about my secret to student engagement, I'd totally say two words:  

Puppet Power.  

My students are SO enamored with these fur balls that they've been known to ask about them during fire drills! 

Kids:  Mrs. Gruener, where's Seymour?

Me:  Uhhh, in my office . . . . . (gulp!)

Yeah, try explaining that one.

Anyway, the kids' favorites are Seymour the seal, Boris the bear, Pillar the Caterpillar, Junior the Giraffe, Hammy the pig, and Rainbow the Toucan. Here's a picture of part of the seal family and Pillar from a few years back; their beauty is timeless. Me? I've aged a bit . . . one of my own children actually built that little play house for them.

OK, so on to the lesson. See the seal with shades? That's a pint-sized Seymour. Let's say I use Seymour to set the scene. I get the kids settled in my office and tell them that Seymour is going to give out the WoW awards today.  Those kids hear the word award and they suddenly sit up straight, hands in their lap, flat and forward, crisscross applesauce!  So I ask them what they might get a WoW award for . . . and they start listing off all of the positive behaviors that we might notice, basically all of the bucket-filling things we do and pillar practices we want to see. Seymour can even be making a list if you've got a white board handy 

(and can write with a seal on your hand).

Then it's Seymour's turn to pick. He randomly gives the award to a kid with glasses, just like him. When we ask Seymour how he selected his WoW winner, he flat out tells them that it's because the kid's wearing glasses, just like him. (If there aren't any students with glasses, then he picks someone with a white shirt, just like him.) Well, you can imagine the shouts of "that's not fair!" that fill the air, a refrain that sets us up beautifully for a talk about how knowing the criteria up front makes things so much more fair. It is SO cute to listen to my little leaders telling Seymour how the cow ate the cabbage when it comes to being fair.

To conclude, we put their criteria for a WoW award on a poster board that I give to the teacher with a class set of Character Honor Roll pencils so that she can give out her own WoW awards as she catches students WoWing her by playing fair, following the rules, taking turns and sharing (along with any other other good-choice behaviors that they put on the list!). Such a great visual reminder that good character is in their hands! And speaking of hands, for months after that lesson, the kids would give me a secret hand signal spelling out WoW using the sign language letters.

Seal the deal with this little ditty I wrote, using the hand-jive motions:

Gotta be fair, you've gotta be fair;

Gotta take turns and you've gotta share.

You've gotta be fair, just gotta be fair.

Gotta play by the rules, all the time and everywhere!

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R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Mrs. Limmer's Respect Bubble Map

Kind of makes you want to belt out a tune with Aretha, doesn't it?  The first graders across the hallway (fondly known as Respect Route!) are working on their Character Books so I snuck in there with our character cam and caught some of the action as they were mapping their thoughts about respect. Just what exactly is respect?  How do you show it? What does it look like? How does it sound? How does it feel? Our students know it as the Golden-Rule pillar because respect means Treat Others Like You Want To Be Treated.

After the students finished their Respect Bubble Map, they went to work writing and illustrating a respect page for their Character Book.  Next came Trustworthiness and this week their focus is Responsibility. Caring, Fairness, and Citizenship remain; I can't wait to see how their character creations turn out! It's such great fun to be right across the hallway from these budding authors and illustrators because their teachers are borrowing from my Books That Teach collection and I'm reminded about all of the valued titles on my shelf that bring these virtues to life.

Click image for a book review.

Ilene Cooper's gem addresses how universal the Golden Rule is and how many cultures into which we find it integrated. Here are six examples:

Aristotle:  We should behave to others as we wish others to behave to us.

Buddhism:  Hurt not others with that which pains thyself.

Christianity: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Confucius:  What you do not want done to yourself, do not do unto others.

Hinduism:  Do nothing to thy neighbor which thou wouldst not have him do to thee thereafter.

Judaism:  What you dislike for yourself, do not do to anyone.

Kids love to do the hand-jive motions with this little ditty I wrote:

R-E-S-P-E-C-T; 

you've got to give it to get it

yeah, that's the key.

We live by the Golden Rule, you see

at Westwood Elementary.
(feel free to substitute your school's name.) 

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Wee Sing Wednesday

Singing is a snap when you've got eager students who like to move, so we seal the deal with a ditty and a dance almost every time classes come to my office. Here's a clip that'll walk you through 
my signature song called Kids With Character.

Check out how happily engaged these kindies at my school are as they learn to snap their fingers and figure out the hand-jive motions while wee sing about character! 

Set to the tune of the Addams' Family, the version that they're singing goes like this:


Character Counts! (snap, snap)
Character Counts! (snap, snap)
Character Counts! Character Counts! Character Counts! (snap, snap)
R-E-S-P-E-C-T makes Westwood a great place to be.
We speak and act respectfully,
We're kids with character!

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