Tag: social-emotional

New Picture Book Included in National Ag Curriculum

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Lack of Rural Teaching Resources

Parents, homeschoolers, and preschool teachers often struggle to find picture books about rural agricultural areas where their students live. Because of this, educators must change what is available or go without. This causes extra work and leaves children missing out on important information about their home.

Efforts are being made to ensure citizens are agriculturally literate. This is necessary to have a society that values agriculture, makes informed decisions about the food they eat, and advocates for agriculture among other initiatives.

Picking up apples from Apples for Cider

More Resources About Agriculture Needed

Parents and teachers want books for kids living in non-urban areas. They seek books related to local happenings. These educators want resources that speak specifically to the farming happening around their community. For example, kids living in rural areas see apple farming happening all around them. Their parents and teachers want picture books that cover life about orchards.

A New Picture Book with an Ag Theme

picture books about rural agricultural areas

To tackle this issue, my picture book, Apples for Cider, is an agricultural resource for parents and teachers. It helps them bring their rural agriculture community into their homes. They can also integrate it into their classrooms. Apples… is one of many needed picture books about rural agricultural areas. Plus, the book is now part of the National Agriculture in the Classroom Curriculum Matrix. The Apples for Cider picture book is now a Companion Resource attached to three Matrix apple lessons:

Additionally…

The Apples for Cider Parent/Teacher Reading Guide will also be available for download. The Guide is another way to help educators when using a picture book to extend learning. The Reading Guide includes various prompts for discussion and activities including a:

  • Social-emotional learning activity
  • Collage-making activity
  • Apple cider guide and
  • Pastiche discussion and activity
Get a free Apples for Cider Reading Guide here

Find Out More!

What has been your experience with finding picture books with agricultural themes? tell us in Comments below

My Future Story Documentary, a fun and inspiring goal setting and planning activity

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A Favorite Goal Setting Activity

A picture of the My Future Story Documentary goal setting worksheet

One of my favorite mental health/social-emotional learning activities I developed is “My Future Story Documentary.” It teaches a goal setting and planning skill I wish I had learned when I was in grade school.

My Future Story

Back then, my future story was to sing, dance and act on stage. My mother pointed out New York City was probably the best place to pursue these goals but she didn’t think I should go. In her mind, NYC was a scary place and that was enough to stop me from moving forward with my idea.

In the “My Future Story Documentary” goal setting resource, one crucial step is for the “filmmaker” to identify their “Supporting Film Crew.” These are friends, family members, teachers, coaches, and clergy, etc. who support the maker’s future story, an important part for turning dreams into reality. And, like in my case, they may not always be a friend or a family member.

An aws Studios.art illustration of a adolescent ballerina - if only they had a goal setting activity like My Future Story.

Goal Setting and Support

My mother (whom I love dearly) may not have embraced my dream, but Marion, her best friend, did. Marion, who herself dreamed of performing and later became an award-winning ballroom dancer, noticed my talent. Though, I never shared my dancing and acting dreams with her. The “My Future Story Documentary” activity prompts students to identify supportive adults and share their dream with them.

It’s tough when immediate family are unable to be supportive. Nevertheless, there are many success stories where dreamers found support elsewhere.

Get the “My future story documentary” activity here!

Now as a picture book author/illustrator and mental health curricula supplier (with no regrets!), my supports are everywhere —family, friends, and colleagues — and it’s great!

What about you? What is your success story and who was your supportive “crew?”  

Give them a shout out in the “Comments” below!

You May Need Permission to Practice Mental Health

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You have my permission to practice mental health!

It’s national “May is Mental Health Month” and what better time to take a mental health day! Plus, you could use the national celebration and month-long recognition of mental health as an excuse to take your deserved, though often neglected, time off! But for those of you who may need permission to practice mental health, I have a free Gift Certificate for you!

Get Your Free Gift Certificate

While in my studio the other day, I spied a Christmas present I made a few years ago for my work colleagues. And I thought how it’s also a perfect mental health activity especially in honor of the national recognition month.

I am giving everyone who subscribes to my free blog a free downloadable aws Studios Gift Certificate! This certificate entitles each holder “permission to” practice mental health such as doing something they might need permission from someone else to do.

Remember permission slips we needed from our parents to go to an away game on the bus or to a doctor’s appointment during school hours? My Gift Certificate is like that except you don’t need your parents! I am giving you permission to do mentally healthy things for yourself.

So, like taking a mental health day, some people may need this type of “permission” to encourage them to follow through and take a day off. By taking a mental health day, you are practicing good mental health and taking time to focus on your social and emotional well-being.

Of course, the aws Studios Permission Slip is good for anything you may need to give yourself an extra healthy nudge like taking a nap in the middle of the day, or not going through with something you really don’t want to do. There are numerous things we can give ourselves permission to do.

What will you give yourself permission to do? Let me know in the comments. Thanks for spending time at the Studios and don’t forget to get your Gift Certificate!

Strong Suits™: A Game to Boost Social Emotional Learning

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Making Social Emotional Learning Fun

 Strong Suits™, a game for communication skills, engages young players in a fun card game. In it, participants identify and communicate their strengths, personality, and individuality. In addition, this quick and easy game builds mental/social-emotional health skills. These communication skills include self-confidence, resilience, self-knowledge, self-respect, and the respect of others. The game, designed for 2 or more players, works well played at home or in groups in the classroom. Along with its ability to work for camps and after-school programs.

This image shows an abstract illustration of a diverse group of people with different interests and vocations. Because groups are often diverse, a game for communication skills is not only engaging but critical.

Get Strong Suits™ in the new aws Studios Store!

Other social emotional learning activities and games currently on the shelves at the aws Studios Store:

  • “Circle of Community™” – a fun team-building activity that works well with groups or teams. The activity presents well in the classroom or in the home! “Circle…” shows teams/groups how to work together. This includes keeping conflict to a minimum. This gives groups/teams a better chance of reaching their goals or going for a win.
  • “Reframe It™” is a fun game that builds empathy and an understanding. In particular, it does this exploring child and parent behavior or why kids and parents do what they do! The engaging and interactive game offers players a chance to think about modifying their reactions to challenging behaviors. And it offers ideas on how to alter the environment for more positive behaviors. In addition, this game for Parenting Educators and their parent groups works with pre-teens and teens.
  • “DIY Hardcover Picture Book,” on how to craft your own hardcover picture book.

To purchase this and other activities and a game for communication skills and social emotional learning at the aws Studios Store, you will need to make a FREE Teachers Pay Teachers account. Anyone with a FREE Teachers Pay Teachers account can purchase materials at the aws Studios Store!

And be sure to Like the aws Studios Store, give me a Rating or Review or Ask Me a Question! Check it out here!

Swept into Mental Illness? Assess Your Mental Health

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Beware the media!

aws Studios is all about helping you have mental health! Saturated with issues of “mental health,” the media is often reporting on mental illness and its treatment,  not mental health. At large, the focus on anything related to mental health is actually a focus on the “downstream” area of mental health – the place where mental health becomes illness requiring treatment. At aws Studios, the focus is upstream, on your mental health skills not mental illness!

Upstream? Downstream? What Does it Mean?

This image of a river running in front of a mountain illustrates the public health concept of catching health problems early - upstream - before they become more dangerous and costly downstream.
From the NYS Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services, Albany, NY circa 2011. Artist unknown (if it’s yours, I’d love to know and give you credit)!

In explaining the overall health of people in a community,  this parable about a river “slowly filling with drowning people” (representing illness) is often used. Due to their overwhelming numbers, many are unsavable. They are the end of the river, in the “downstream.” By taking a look “upstream,” we can see what is getting them into the water unable to save themselves in the first place — do they need lifejackets or, better yet, swimming lessons or a fence to keep them slipping into the river, etc.?

If we use this parable to represent mental health, there are actions that, for the most part, could prevent “overwhelming numbers” of “drowning people” or mental illness. For some, mental illness is inevitable due to genetics. But for most, mental illness can be prevented and reduced or “cured” for those experiencing its symptoms. The upstream area of mental illness includes acquiring and maintaining the skills associated with mental health and implementing and enforcing policies that support both mental health and skill building.

How are Your Mental Health Skills?

The skills of mental health or social-emotional learning include self-management, relationships, and resource management:

Self-Management:

is the development of self-awareness and self-management skills such as the ability to take care of ourselves, building and maintaining resilience and identifying and managing our feelings or emotions.

Relationships:

include the development of healthy relationships to promote mental health such as building and maintaining communication skills, skills of empathy, compassion and acceptance and the ability to express gratitude and forgiveness.

Resource management:

Is to know what, when, where and how to ask for help for yourself and others.

So, what do you think? How are your mental health skills? Do you have them down pat or might they need a little tweaking? Like all areas of health, our mental health will take a bit of managing and checking in on, on an ongoing basis.

Check out the aws Studios mental health skill building activities here and give your mental health a boost today!

Reframe It!™: A Game for Parents Looking to Solve Behavior Problems

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Reframe It!™ game reduces anxiety and boosts social emotional mental health!

Reframing is a social-emotional mental health tool or strategy that helps to understand the function of human behavior. The American Psychology Association defines reframing as “a process of reconceptualizing a problem by seeing it from a different perspective.” This, then, creates possibilities for parents and others to solve child problem behaviors. Reframing shows how to foresee behavior and bypass it while building empathy and reducing anxiety.

As a parent, I loved learning about reframing. It showed me ways to try to get to the source of my child’s behavior problems. I was able to predict what might happen and diffuse their triggers.  It also helped me improve relationships with family members and friends. Reframing showed me how by to see behaviors from another’s perspective.  I enjoyed learning and teaching reframing so much that I developed “Reframe It!™,”* a game that teaches reframing. It shows a way to see why children or adults behave the way they do. The games also helps to build compassion for others and ourselves.

Reframe It!™ is a fun game!

“Reframe It!™” is a game for parents and others who are parenting to help them understand child behavior and behavior problems. The game can also help parents understand their own behavior, building self-compassion.  With reframing, we gain an understanding of “the function of behavior,” or why people – children and adults – do what they do.

An aws Studios.art cartoon illustration showing a bunch of celery reframing two onions with behavior problems

Reframe It!™ offers players:

  • A chance to think about ways to modify their reactions to challenging or problem behaviors
  • Ways to predict difficult behaviors and then
  • Make changes to the environment or situation to bypass potential problems.
  • For example:

A parent learns that sibling conflicts often arise from children seeking attention or they are bored or jealous. The parent sees the connection and plans ahead to give each child positive attention regularly. Or they change the environment by helping the child engage in a personally stimulating activity.

Reframe It!™ objectives include helping parents:

  • Learn about reframing.
  • Learn how to reframe behaviors to understand the function of behavior.
  • Begin a practice of reframing to help plan for and modify behavior/reactions and the environment.
  • Build empathy.
  • Build an understanding of personal behavior and “why we do what we do.”
  • Enter into discussions about behavior, stress, family roles, tasks, conflict or anger management, etc.
  • Increase comfort in communicating with each other.
  • Improve parent-child communication.

More about reframing here, here and here!

Click here to purchase Reframe It!, a downloadable pdf for $12.00

* Reframe It!™ is a trademark of aws Studios and was developed using the child and parent behavior reframes in Intervening with troubled families: Functional family therapy and Parenting Wisely. D.A. Gordon, author. 2003.