Small Student Groups at Lunt

The Lunt School Counseling and Guidance program offers a variety of small groups for students. Each group is led by one of the school counselors, Maribeth Bush or Anne LaBossiere. We’re currently in the process of collecting names of students for participation in our first cycle of Friendship Groups, Family Change Groups, “Relaxing With Friends” Groups… and our new “Personal Space Camp”Groups. Our first cycle of groups will begin early October.

Friendship Groups (for grades K-2) are a fun way for kids in the same grade level to make new friends and practice their social skills in a safe, small group setting. Children are invited to participate in friendship groups for a variety of reasons. A few examples include: a child who is shy or often appears to play alone during free choice time or recess, a child exhibiting behaviors that unknowingly (to the child) “turn off” other kids, a child who repeatedly complains of not having any friends, a child who has a hard time initiating friendships, a child who lacks self-confidence, and/or who needs a confidence boost, or a child who is very accepting and easily befriends other children (always a very beneficial addition to a group). There are many other reasons a child might be invited to join a friendship group, but those are the most common.

Family Change Groups (for grades 1 & 2) can focus on a number of “family change” topics, such as the addition of a new baby or child into the family. However, most of our Family Change groups are for students whose parents are divorced or separated. These groups are beneficial to students by enabling them to meet other children going through a similar experience. Many students find comfort in discovering they are “not the only kid” in the school with divorced or separated parents. Students also develop a greater comfort discussing divorce and the varying feelings they might have about it.

“Relaxing With Friends” Groups (for grades 1 & 2) are designed to assist children in developing strategies to help them put their worries and anxieties in perspective so they can better relax, learn and have fun with friends. The child who might benefit from being in this group may worry a lot, have a lot of fears and/or make frequent trips to the nurse for headaches and tummy aches.

Personal Space Camp (for grades K-2) is a group designed to help students recognize and respect physical and verbal boundaries. Candidates for this group would be students who, compared to their peers/classmates, have a difficult time respecting the personal space of others, and/or tend to interrupt/blurt frequently.

Groups are held once a week for 30 minutes during the school day, for about 6-8 weeks. If you would like your child to be considered for participation in a group, please send an email to your child’s teacher or the school counselors (Maribeth Bush at mbush@fps.k12.me.us and Anne LaBossiere at alabossiere@fps.k12.me.us). You will always be notified before your child participates in a small group. We will send home a letter with your child about the group. Parents are required to return a signed consent form for group participation, which basically lets us know that you received and read the letter, and that you are in support of your child’s participation in the group. As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to call us.

Fall Into Parenting

Nancy Dix, our fabulous social worker for grades K-8, is offering a parenting discussion group for parents of children in grades K-4. The group will be talking about maintaining a positive home environment, improving communication and problem solving skills, discipline strategies, and other parenting concerns. The group will meet on Wednesdays from 6:30-8:00 pm in the Plummer Motz Library. Dates for these meetings will be:

October 1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd and 29th

Registration required: To register please e-mail Nancy Dix at ndix@fps.k12.me.us by September 25.

We highly recommend Nancy's parenting groups, so be sure to sign up to reserve a spot!

Kindergarten guidance begins

We've started kindergarten guidance lessons here at Lunt. Our first lesson is mainly aimed at introducing ourselves, explaining what guidance is, and what we do as school counselors (or as many kids call us "guidance teachers"). It is also an opportunity for us to meet the kindergarteners. The K kids also get to meet either Bonnie or Coco (depending which of us teaches their class). Bonnie and Coco are puppet friends we bring with us to the kindergarten classroom rooms to help us teach guidance lessons. We usually take only one of the two puppets each week, but alternate... one week Bonnie, one week Coco, etc... so all the K students will eventually get to meet both. I think Mrs. LaBossiere starts out the year introducing Coco to the K students she teaches, and I start out the year with Bonnie! You can see Coco and Bonnie (respectively) in the photo above.

Aside from introductions, if there's time, we read the book Froggy Goes to School by Jonathan London. We also explain the "rules" or behavior expectations for guidance, and we teach the kindergarten students the guidance "Beginning Song," which we sing at the start of each lesson, and the guidance "Ending Song," which we sing at the end of each lesson. Here are the lyrics for the songs, both to the tune of "Twinkle Twinkle."

Beginning Song

Hands go up and hands go down,
I take turns around and round.
Lots to learn and lots to do,
I can sit and so can you.
I can listen, I'll show you how,
guidance time begins right now.

Ending Song

Now it's time to go my friends,
This is when guidance ends.
We had lots of fun today,
Lots of learning, lots to say.
Now it's time say good-bye
Next time you see me, please say "hi."

You can see a full outline of our kindergarten curriculum, as well as information about who teaches guidance to your child's class, by clicking on the "Kindergarten Guidance at Lunt" link on the right toward the top.

Using Teamwork To Ease a Child's Separation Issues

It is not unusual for a child to experience separation issues after an extended time with family or when faced with a new challenge. Getting back to school after summer vacation is often a time when separation issues arise.

We all experience separation issues but as adults we've figured out some strategies to assist us. Here are some ideas that have proven effective with children.

• Even when your child is having separation issues, it's best to separate from your child as far away from the classroom and school as possible, which means getting him or her on the bus. However, if you do end up driving your child to school after exhausting all your best efforts to have her take the school bus, enter the school with your child and connect with the nurse, school counselor, teacher or principal. If possible, call the school to alert the folks there that your child is having difficulty separating from you and that you will be driving her to school. If your child is complaining of physical symptoms and using them to try and avoid coming to school, the school nurse will check them out. Usually, the symptoms are not based in illness but connected to feelings. Once you have learned that your child is not ill, leave the child in the hands of one of the adults who has been designated to help your child get ready to enter the classroom ASAP. Schools are not put off by crying or even screaming children. Someone from the school will call or e-mail you with an update once your child has joined his or her class. This person will most likely discuss the need for a plan to use tomorrow morning re: the child's coming to school.

• When your child returns home from school via the bus or your pick-up (if that's the plan), recognize your child's working through his feelings and getting into a good place to enter the classroom. Provide some time during dinner for him to share some of the highlights of his day at school.

• Remind your child of her past successes with managing things that are hard.

• Express confidence in your child's ability to handle this challenge and let him know that you are feeling very good about the school, the bus driver and the people at school who supported him.

• Explain to your child that she will be riding the school bus tomorrow and make arrangements for the other parent, if possible, to put her on the bus. It's good to rotate this if you can.

• As a part of the plan, talk about who he would like to sit with on the bus. It could be a sibling or a neighbor who rides the same bus. If it's a neighbor, call the other child's parent to see if this would work out. Of course, your child could also make the arrangements for this.

• Your child may want to put something special in his pocket or back pack to share and/or to serve as a connection to home. You could even ask your child what would help him make the transition from home to school easier with the bottom line always being that he has to go and he has to take the bus. If there seems to be a problem on the bus, let the school know so that it can be looked into and addressed.

• Make arrangements with the school to have someone meet your child when they arrive. Let your child know who this person will be.

• When the time arrives to leave for school, be prepared to be firm even in the face of tears.

• Be kind to yourself. It's not easy to put an upset child on the bus or leave him or her at school. Once you have established a connection with people at school and have determined that all is well there for your child, it's easier to follow through with getting him on the bus or dropping him at the designated drop off point at school.

• Keep in touch with the school and ask them to do the same with you as needed. Parents are key to the success of the plan.

Separation issues can sometimes return after a week-end, a vacation, a child's being out of school due to illness, or an upsetting event. If separation issues do return, acknowledge that you and your child have done a great job handling tough stuff in the past and that you and s/he and the school will work together to get through this one.

With all that said, most kids who have a rough time separating are absolutely fine about five minutes after the parent leaves. However, if issues are still presenting themselves in spite of all the good work, be sure to give us a call and we'll help you figure out the next step.

Getting Started

We're off to a great start as we enter into the second week of the new school year. Here in the Lunt guidance room we've been busy scheduling classroom guidance lessons for the year, as well as scheduling lunch with first and second grade students who are new to Lunt this year. At the start of each year, we invite small groups of new first and second grade students to bring their lunch to the guidance room a day to meet other students who are new to Lunt. We have 20 new first graders this year, and 8 new second graders. We hope to start having new students to our room for lunch next week. We'll also start teaching classroom guidance lessons in the kindergarten classrooms next week (I think Anne will even be starting one this week!). We go into the kindergarten classrooms for a guidance lesson once a week for the first six weeks of school, and then once again in Feb, as well as once in June. We go into the first and second grade classrooms once a month from September through May. We hope to start first grade classroom guidance lessons next week as well.

Aside from all the "scheduling," we've also been assisting students as they transition back to school (or transition to school for the first time!). We're happy to report that most students haven't had a difficult time at all starting out the new school year. However, if at any point you find your child is having a challenging time separating in the morning, or coming to school, please be sure to let us know. To the right we've provided a list of books that might be useful to you in helping your child adjust to school.