Counseling Connection

September 2024

I LOVE the beginning of the year excitement! The joy I see on the students faces when they find out who their teacher is...who is in their class...hearing how much fun the year is going to bring...it's the best!

I am thankful for another year at Young and the opportunity to spend time with your awesome kids! Please reach out if there is anything you need or I can help with!

Our students and staff have been working really hard to teach and learn procedures and routines to make it a successful year!

Guidance lessons will begin the week of September 3rd. In Kinder-2nd we will review my role as the School Counselor, as well as talking about skills for learning and the strategies we can use to get the most out of our learning experiences every day!

3rd-5th will be discussing how to be respectful to one another and the adults in our lives. As well as, the impact of being honest and sincere. How do those character traits make us better humans and more successful? Hopefully your Youngster can answer that question after our lesson! 💛

We will celebrate "Start with Hello Week" September 16th - 19th! During this week we will work to ensure that we create a culture of inclusion and connectedness! We strive for every student and adult in our building to have connections with others. We will celebrate this week with activities each day- check them out below! Remember, Friday, September 20th will be a student holiday.

Check out these fun ways to connect and spend time with your children/family!

• Make a "Back to School" bucket list with your child of things they want to accomplish this year! (see below 👇)
• Go outside (when it's not 100+ 🥵) and create some dinosaur shadow drawings
• Make a card or craft for Grandparents for Grandparent's Day! (9/8)
• Make a homemade pizza together on National Pepperoni Pizza Day (9/20)
• Go to a football or soccer game! 🏈 ⚽️
• Write a letter to someone together and mail it to them

Jenny's Hope

Mrs. Beverly Ross, a local Marriage and Family Therapist and owner of Wise Country Christian Counseling, founded a group for families and children who have lost a loved one. They typically run this group twice a year, so if you are interested please use the information below to sign up. I have heard so many wonderful praises about this group!

Groups will begin on Monday, 9/9 at 6:15PM, and are for families who have lost loved ones to death. The groups will last 8 weeks and are completely free to attend. These groups are for children ages 5 and up along with their guardians. Please call the office at 940-627-1618 or email britt@wiseccc.org to register.

This year at Young we are focusing being great humans by improving our manners and building our character traits!

In September we are talking about the importance of being honest and sincere, loyal, having a positive attitude, upholding integrity, and being trustworthy.

Additionally, some manners we are encouraging are how to be patient and not interrupt, making eye contact, how to apologize, and filtering our thoughts to avoid making hurtful comments.

I OFTEN encourage reading with your child to parents because it has so many benefits! Not only does reading together improve your child's language development and vocabulary, but many children's books have an underlying social-emotional theme that can lead to fantastic discussions!

Below are some books that highlight some of the character treats and manners for September: (many can be found at our local library!)

Honesty/Trustworthiness:

• Lying Up a Storm by Julia Cook
• Pig the Fibber by Aaron Blabey
• The Boy Who Cried Big Foot by Scott Magoon
• I Didn't Do It! by Sue Graves
• Otis by Loren Long

Positive Attitude:

• Positive Ninja by Mary Nhin
• Preston's Positive Thoughts by Janelle French
• Catching Thoughts by Bonnie Clark
• The Magic is Inside You by Cathy Domoney

Loyalty:

• How to Grow a Friend by Sarah Gillingham
• Otto and Pio by Marianne Dubuc

Integrity:

• The I in Integrity by Julia Cook
• Integrity Ninja by Mary Nhin
• A Bike Like Sergios by Marybeth Boelts

How to Apologize:

• How to Apologize by David LaRochelle

Not Interrupting:

• Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein

Filtering Thoughts:

• I Can't Believe You Said That! by Julia Cook
• Being Frank by Donna M. Earnhardt

Courtney Cordova, M.A.

Counselor

Young Elementary

Email: courtney.cordova@decaturisd.us
Website: https://www.decaturisd.us/domain/551
Location: 379 Buchanan Road, Decatur, TX, USA
Phone: (940)-393-7446