Elementary School Counseling Lessons

Our school counselors present lessons to our students in kindergarten through third grade each year. These are lessons that all of our students will have a chance to experience, mostly through classroom presentations delivered by our counselors. You’ll notice some repeating themes - identifying career interests, learning how to problem-solve and to identify feelings, and learning how to focus attention. The work that our counselors do typically revolves around the social-emotional development, academic growth, and college and career development of our students. The intermediate (grades 4-6) and secondary (grades 7-12) counselors will continue working with our students on lessons like these and many others. If you have any questions about these elementary lessons, please contact your child’s school counselor:

Rachel Garno (Leary and Winslow)  rgarno@rhnet.org

Diana Theodorou (Fyle and Crane)  dtheodorou@rhnet.org 

Kindergarten: 

• Students will learn how our interests help us to learn about careers that we might be good at (career development).
• Students will learn what it means to stay focused and learn how to use their eyes, ears, and brains to pay attention (academic development).
• Students will learn how to identify feelings by paying attention to physical cues in their bodies (social-emotional development).               

1^st Grade:

• Students will continue learning to identify their interests – things they like to do at school, at home, and in the community – and how those things may relate to career interests (career development).
• Students will learn more about identifying feelings – this time, identifying the feelings of other people (social-emotional development).
• Students will begin to learn how to solve problems – the emphasis is on learning how to calm down and to identify what the problem is (social-emotional development).

2^nd Grade:

• Students will continue learning to identify their interests as related to potential careers (career development).
• Students will learn more about ways to focus their attention, including the importance of careful listening (academic development).
• Students will learn about strong emotions and how they can lead to negative consequences if not managed correctly (social-emotional development).

3^rd Grade:

• Students will continue working towards identifying their interests and potential careers (career development).
• Students will continue to investigate the ways that people express their feelings (social-emotional development).
• Students will learn more about the problem-solving process – this time focusing on being able to describe a problem in a non-blaming way (social-emotional development).