ABC's...Not Just For Kinders!

Is this school year really almost over?  While I am ready for the summer, I am not sure how it got here so fast.  Time flies when you're having fun...right?!?!  To wrap up the school year, I wanted to do a little something with my IEP counseling students that was fun, but would also make them think.  I decided to do an alpha lesson titled A Year in Review.  Feel free to click the image below to use this with your students.  This will give you a little sneak peak of a packet I am working on. 

I decided to keep the form generic so they could really think about what they learned in all aspects of their school day.  I told them their answers could be about core content, behavior, friendships, themselves...you get the picture.  I then gave them a time limit to try to think of something they learned within the year that started with each letter of the alphabet.  I told them they could answer in any order.  Not any one student was able to complete the alphabet, but this activity really made them think.  Once the time limit was up, the students shared what they came up with.  From there, we identified the most important lesson learned academically and behaviorally and the hardest lesson learned academically and behaviorally.  Using the ABC's is not just for kinders.  The older students love it too!

 

Here are a few examples that students came up with:

C - Coping skills for when I start to go into shut down mode

I - Ignore people that are trying to distract me

S- Set good examples

M - Math is still hard

B - Basketball

C - Calm down when I get mad

D - Don't listen to rumors

A - Ask for help if I need it

 

And the list can go on and on, but you get it.  Have your students try it.  You'll be surprised what all they have learned.  When you think they weren't listening, they were!