2nd Steps Social Skills

Spring is here!

Spring is here, but have you ever had butterflies in your tummy?

This week's Social Skills lesson concentrated on handling those "butterflies in our tummies" and Managing Worry.

Worry and anxious feelings may not be as obvious as some other feelings, and may not result in disruptive behavior, but they can be serious.  Building skills to calm down when you're worried can help us cope positively with school issues and some outside situations that can be stressful at times.

Today, we learned that Counting and speaking to a grown-up can help us when we are worried.

• We reminded ourselves to:
• "Stop"
• Name our feeling
• Do belly breathing
• Do positive self-talk

• We can also count up, or back, or count something in the room, and even talk to an adult to help us calm down.

Here are some scenarios you can practice.  Remember, if you are worried, you can manage it!

• Someone stepped in front of you in line.
• A friend teases you about your new haircut.
• The teacher wants to talk to you during recess.
• A classmate repeats everything you say to annoy you.
• Your family's car has a flat tire and you will be late to sports practice.

2nd Steps Social Skills

SELF-TALK FOR CALMING DOWN    

This week we talked about how to use positive self-talk to calm down when we are anxious about something.  This is important because when children have strong feelings, they have a harder time thinking clearly and paying attention.  Negativity makes strong feelings even worse.  Positive thinking helps divert children's attention and helps them manage their feelings better.

Here's what we practiced:

If we feel angry about something, we do the steps for calming down.
1.  Put hands on tummy and say, "Stop!"
2.  Name my feeling.
3.  Take belly breaths.
4.  Use positive self-talk.

The positive self talk means we are speaking quietly to ourselves and thinking positive (GOOD!) things.  We know it's OK to feel the way we do, but we look "on the bright side" of things and don't let negative thinking weigh us down and make us feel worse.

Here are some scenarios you can practice at home.  Remember to practice the steps for calming down, but focus on POSITIVE self-talk.

* Someone cuts in front of you in line.  You start to think negative thoughts.  What is something positive you can say to yourself instead?
* It's almost your turn to read in front of the class (or, for adults, in front of your workplace).  You start to think negative thoughts about being embarrassed or messing up.  What is something positive you can say to yourself instead?
* You are trying to finish work and people around you are super loud.  You start to think negative thoughts about how inconsiderate they are  and how you can't concentrate.  What is something positive you can say instead?

DR. SEUSS CELEBRATION - Friday, March 2nd

Here we are by our Seasonal tree - still no snow sticking this Winter, but we stopped by before Spring arrives in a few weeks!

We thoroughly enjoyed our Dr. Seuss celebration.  He has been so helpful to many students in inspiring them to read and to pass along important messages about our world!  We missed Kelcie and Isaac who couldn't be with us in school for our celebration, but we know they will love seeing our blacks, reds, and whites!

MARCH MCMONTHLY NEWS

IN LIKE A LION,

OUT LIKE A LAMB?

March started like a lion even though we’ve had much lamb-type weather this winter.  You will be amazed at how fast time will fly in first grade this coming spring! 

We kicked off the month with Dr. Seuss’ birthday and had a great time participating in “Read Across America” in many ways in honor of Dr. Seuss.  The children showed their spirit for all of our Dr. Seuss activities by wearing red, white, and black clothing as “Cats in the Hats,” some crazy hats, headbands, mismatched socks, and, of course, by reading.  We thoroughly enjoyed having the extra Dr. Seuss books in the classroom that the children brought from home and shared with one another.

LANGUAGE ARTS

We continue to review short vowels, long vowels, and we are learning tricky sounds that look a little different and “don’t follow the rules.”  We have learned to be very resourceful as we figure out tricky words.  We are increasing our writing skills and focusing on complete sentences, proper punctuation, and story details.  We have been enjoying non-fiction writing, are wrapping up our own awesome “All About” stories, and will move on to studying how authors we love inspire us to write more .

MATH

We now begin to enjoy a new understanding of geometric shapes and have fun with different units of measurement (perhaps we can help cook more now!)  By the middle of the month, we will return to focus on the parts and total in addition and subtraction stories by using strategies such as doubling, counting on, counting back, and more.

BIRTHDAYS

Mon., March 12:  Paige Domenici

Tues., March 27:      Owen Smith

Thurs., March 29:   Ashley Long

Sat., March 31:     Turner Brode

REMINDERS

Fri., Mar. 1:  Red, white & black clothing day, crazy socks, or hats

 (Class Spirit Day in honor of Dr. Seuss’ birthday and Read Across America Day)

Mon., Mar. 5:   Progress Reports home

Mon-Wed., March 7-9:   Conferences, 1:30 dismissal

Fri., Mar. 9:            Scholastic orders due

March 12-30:   Pennies for Patients, School-wide Fundraiser

SPECIAL NOTES

• Thanks for the continued box tops.  The collection continues through May.
• Thanks for your generous support in the Daffodil Drive.
• Continued thanks to our Room Moms, Missy Almy and Allison Melich, and all families for all the work you do with your children supporting our first grade learning!

FEBRUARY WORDS

any

ate

blue

by

fly

from

funny

give

live

many

may

our

out

of

pretty

SECOND STEPS PROGRAM

Our latest Social Skills lesson included tips for how we manage strong feelings.  We remembered the first steps in Calming-Down when we have a strong or uncomfortable feeling:

• Put your hands on your tummy.
• Say "Stop."
• Name your feeling

Then, we added belly breathing to the steps.

• That's when you take two belly breaths and catch your breath.

(It's OK to feel that the way we do, but now you're calm enough to move on.
Remember to use positive self-talk and think of a kind way to solve the problem.

It's important that we practice these steps to calm down, so that our angry feelings don't get us in trouble when we act impulsively, without thinking.  We also know that it's never okay to be mean or hurt someone else.

Here are some scenarios to practice at home:

• Someone called you a mean name and you feel angry.
• Your shoelace keeps coming untied and you feel frustrated.
• Starting today, you're going to attend a different school and you feel worried and scared.
• Someone cut in line front of you and you feel angry.
• It's your birthday tomorrow, you can't sleep, and you feel over-excited.
• A friend on your team doesn't score a basket, and you feel angry and disappointed.
• A friend yells at you because you missed scoring in the soccer goal, and the other team won.  You feel sad you didn't make the goal and upset because your friend yelled at you.