Social Emotional Learning (SEL) at Home during COVID-19

Hi Families,
During these days at home keeping your family safe and virus-free, it's a good time to practice daily social-emotional learning (SEL)!
Below are helpful links for things you can do at home to teach skills at the start of each day and/or to take a break from academic learning.  Have fun.  

Feel free to email me with any questions at melissa.hopkins@leominsterschools.org

Mindfulness exercises for children and teens

SEL YouTube video

Spanish video of SEL at home

CASEL Home Resources and Websites

SEL Resources from Edutopia for home

Resource on how to talk to your kids about the corona virus
How to talk to your kids about the corona virus

Webinar on managing your child's strong emotions by a Harvard Medical School's Clinical Psychologist


Art webcasts daily and archived to watch past episodes that started 3/16/20
Lunch Doodles with Mo Willems
and
Draw Every Day with Jarrett K

Leominster Public Schools promote Social/Emotional Learning!

On Friday, October 5th, the entire Leominster Public School District participated in a Social/Emotion Learning (SEL) Professional Development

What is SEL?

Social and Emotional Learning is the process through which children and adults acquire and effectively apply the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions. (CASEL)

Teachers and staff viewed and participated in an SEL presentation and had dynamic discussions on how we can strengthen our students' learning experiences. We also shared and discussed how to incorporate SEL into lessons and everyday activities. 

Below are two great resource for parents to encourage and support their child's Social/Emotional Learning Development. 

Social/Emotional Development Parent Toolkit

CASEL: What is SEL?

JA Guidance Bibliotherapy library

New & Improved Guidance Library full of awesome bibliotherapy books! 

BIBLIOTHERAPY:  the use of reading materials for help in solving personal problems.

Mrs. Russo, our School Adjustment Counselor worked very hard this summer to get our library organized and updated! Our teachers and families are welcome to check in and out books based on their needs. 

We encourage families to utilize our library! If you'd like to check out a book, please contact a member of our Guidance Staff:

Karen Russo, Adjustment Counselor

Katie Gingras, Guidance Counselor

Melissa Hopkins, School Psychologist 

Categories:

• Anger/Self-Control
• Anxiety
• Peer Pressure
• Conflict Resolution/Cooperation
• Diversity
• Family
• Feelings
• Friendship
• Grief + Loss
• Health/illness
• Honesty 
• Tattling
• Listening
• Manners
• Respect/Responsibility
• Safety 
• Self-Esteem
• Sharing

Trasition Tips for Back to school

It's that time of year again for school to start.  Here are parent tips for helping your child(ren) transition back to school and have a positive successful start.  

click on the link below

Back to School Transition: Tips for Parents  from the National Association of School Psychologist (NASP)

Internet Safety

Here is a list of websites to help promote safe online behaviors for your children and students

Be Internet Awesome 
Family Online Safety Institute-7 steps to good digital parenting
Common Sense Media Website

Shoe tying videos

Shoe tying is a life skill that can be frustrating for many kids (and parents), but will help them throughout their school day and at home.  

Here are 2 tutorial videos for teaching shoe tying that work well. Practice, practice, practice


Shoe tying video for students with attention issues and/or learning issue

Easy shoe tying trick

Grief and Loss Resources

Our JA community is deeply saddened by the death of first grade teacher, Mrs. Rosa,  this past week.  She battled a very difficult illness, Pulmonary Fibrosis.  

We will be talking to her first grade classroom on Monday and providing support to the students through this difficult time.  The teachers of all the other classrooms have been given information to share with their students as well and support for them.  She had many students over the years and was cherished and admired by many.  

We have tips for what to say and what not to say that we will share with families on Monday. This is an excellent quick resource for parents and educators from the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) that outlines how to cope with grief/loss and what to do and what not to do/say and there are several links to other online resources on the bottom of the page.  
Dealing with Loss webpage 

We also have book title suggestions that can be helpful in understanding death and helping cope with the loss of a loved one.  Please don't hesitate to contact us with any questions or concerns at 978-534-7765 (Guidance Department: Karen Russo, Katie Gingras, and Melissa Hopkins) as our email is not up and running yet.