Planning the entire school year out as a school counselor can be challenging and honestly even a little overwhelming! As a school counselor, your job is to deliver high-impact and engaging counseling services across all three tiers of support, while also measuring the effectiveness of your program and making sure students are engaged. Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered with elementary counseling curriculum and monthly lesson plan ideas for the whole school year.
Monthly Lesson Plans for Elementary School Counselors
Hi, I’m Rachel Davis! I’m a former school counselor with over 8 years of experience in the classroom. I specialize in creating easy-to-implement resources for busy school counselors, and I am the counselor and curriculum designer behind Bright Futures Counseling, a community designed to offer counselors the support they need to feel confident serving their students well.
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August
Use a Mission: Meet the Counselor lesson to introduce yourself and clarify your role at the beginning of the school year! Divide the class into groups and have them solve 5 missions to uncover the role of the school counselor. As students solve each mission, they progress to the next one. I love using a timer to give this lesson an escape room feel.
At the beginning of the year, many younger students struggle with leaving their parents. You can use this Separation Anxiety Small Group to help students learn new strategies for dealing with anxiety when it comes to leaving their caregivers to attend school. If you work with a lot of first-generation students, you may want to try a newcomers group this month as well.
Use these activities in a one-on-one setting with students who lose control when experiencing strong emotions. The curriculum consists of 5 activities and 5 journal prompts to help students learn the self-control strategies and coping skills they need to be successful socially and academically.
Use a needs assessment at the beginning of the school year to survey teachers and assess student needs. Send teachers a paper copy or digital Google Form to see what topics your counseling curriculum should address. You can edit the questions to reflect your school’s needs. In addition to the questions, leave a free-response section so teachers can share their thoughts and suggestions regarding the previous year’s program. If your site has a highly involved parent community, you could ask them too.
September
The beginning of the school year is the perfect time to introduce and review emotional recognition. In this feelings and emotions lesson, students will define and give examples of each emotion. Additionally, they will identify triggers that cause them to feel certain emotions.
Some students may need more support in terms of identifying and managing emotions. Use this Emotion Recognition Small Group to help students identify and describe different feelings, recognize emotions in themselves and others, and select appropriate coping skills to regulate their emotions.
Use these activities in a one-on-one setting with students who struggle with low self-esteem. The curriculum consists of 5 activities and 5 journal prompts to help students learn the strategies they need to build self-confidence and increase self-esteem.
Using referral forms at the beginning of the year and throughout the year as needs arise is essential for determining your caseload. You can send these referral forms to teachers, and put a digital form on your school website so parents and teachers can easily submit them.
October
October is Bullying Prevention Month! Use this bullying prevention lesson to teach students the different roles in bullying and what it means to be an upstander. They will also learn what is and what is not considered bullying (this is especially helpful for those students who think EVERYTHING is bullying).
Many students struggle with social skills. Use parent and teacher referrals to determine who would be a good fit for the group. Prepare students for social situations by teaching them how to make and maintain friends by using effective communication skills, how to respond to socially difficult situations, and how to practice reading non-verbal communication.
Use these activities with students who are losing control and getting in trouble for the inability to self-regulate strong feelings. The curriculum consists of 5 activities and 5 journal prompts to help students learn specific coping skills. You can divide this individual curriculum into 5 sessions or split more in-depth activities into 2 sessions to lengthen the amount of time you meet with the student.
Set up these organization tools once you receive your caseload so you can stay organized, develop an efficient calling system, and track data from student visits. I suggest setting up your caseload digitally using a Google Sheet so you can easily see the student’s teacher, area of need, and referral information. Then print counseling logs to keep in student folders.
November
At this point in the school year, the academics are getting more rigorous and students may feel overwhelmed. Teach a perseverance lesson to encourage them not to give up and to reach their maximum potential.
Use this small group with elementary girls (grades 2-6) during first semester to help build students’ self-esteem. This small group helps students practice self-reflection, communication, goal setting, and more with each week's self-esteem-building activities.
Use these activities in a one-on-one setting with students who struggle to manage their emotions when they feel angry. This tier 3 individual curriculum consists of 5 activities and 5 journal prompts. Divide it up over 5 sessions or split more in-depth activities into 2 sessions to lengthen the amount of time you meet with the student.
Using a counseling hub will help you organize all of your data in a central area so you can ensure no students slip through the cracks! Use a counseling log and caseload spreadsheet to track students served. Your caseload sheet will show all of the students you work with, and your log will indicate when exactly you met with them.
December
Empathy is a nice topic to touch on around the holiday season. Use an empathy class lesson to help students develop self-awareness and practice perspective-taking.
By December, you have likely identified some students who struggle with making wise choices and using positive coping strategies. Starting this self-control group mid-year will help prepare students for the upcoming semester by developing habits and thought patterns to take accountability for their choices.
Use this individual curriculum with students who have lost a loved one. This loss could be death, separation, incarceration, or even the death of a beloved pet. The curriculum consists of 5 activities and 5 journal prompts. Divide it up over 5 sessions or split more in-depth activities into 2 sessions to lengthen the amount of time you meet with the student.
A data wall is a great tool to use at the end of each quarter, semester, and school year. You use a data wall to display student growth and program progress. Complete the templates with your own data, then cut and paste onto a bulletin board to showcase your program's progress. If you prefer a digital version, you can make a copy of the virtual data wall to display on your school website.
January
Use this goal-setting class lesson in January as students are focusing on fresh starts and resolutions. This guidance lesson comes with a counselor's guide and outline to facilitate an icebreaker, discussion, activity, and reflection. Use the self-assessments to collect data before and after the lesson.
I also recommend teaching a cooperation lesson in January to review expectations and norms after returning from a break.
Start an executive functioning group in the second semester to help students prepare for testing season and develop the skills they need to have a strong finish to the school year. This group is designed for upper elementary students in grades 4-6 who need help with organization and time management skills.
You may receive referrals for students who would benefit from practicing a growth mindset. The curriculum consists of 5 activities and 5 journal prompts. Divide it up over 5 sessions or split more in-depth activities into 2 sessions to lengthen the amount of time you meet with the student. Guide the student through these activities in a one-on-one setting.
Send behavior surveys to parents and teachers before and after groups and individual sessions to track student progress. You can use the data to assess how the student's behavior is changing as a result of the skills they are working on in counseling.
It is important to survey both parents and teachers to see how the student's behavior differs in the home and school setting. For distance learning, send out the digital Google Forms version.
February
Try incorporating a kindness lesson around Valentine’s Day. Use this tier 1 lesson to help students define kindness, make goals for showing kindness in the future, and develop new social skills they can use to show kindness to others. An alternate relevant topic to teach in February is friendship.
Many students struggle with navigating and maintaining healthy friendships. I love using a relational aggression group to dive deeper into skills for assessing social media behavior, making and maintaining friendships, developing empathy, and determining how to attain positive attention.
Use these empathy activities with students who struggle to understand how others feel or don't seem to care about others’ emotions.
I recommend having students complete their self-assessments during the first and last session of their small group or individual session to track student progress. If you’re working with younger students, you can survey them by asking them the questions directly and writing down their answers.
March
It’s a good idea to revisit emotional recognition and self-regulation strategies in the second semester. A self-regulation lesson helps students develop a new language they can use to describe their emotions, levels of energy, and feelings. In this lesson, students will learn to associate each emotion with a color and temperature, and a corresponding self-regulation coping strategy.
As testing season approaches, form an academic skills group to help students be more successful in school by focusing on preparedness, executive functioning, and test anxiety.
Use these individual counseling activities with students whose parents are going through a divorce. The curriculum consists of 5 activities and 5 journal prompts. Divide it up over 5 sessions or split more in-depth activities into 2 sessions to lengthen the amount of time you meet with the student.
Continue to send self-assessments before and after you start and end sessions. You can use them with groups or individually.
April
Many students experience anxiety, especially around testing season. This tier 1 anxiety coping skills lesson teaches a brain-based approach to anxiety that empowers and prepares students for the changes that they feel when experiencing anxiety.
The class lesson may not be enough for students who are experiencing more extreme anxiety. Form an anxiety small group of these students, based on referrals, to review the brain/body connection and practice how to prevent anxiety through problem-solving, grounding techniques, and calming tools.
Use this activity with students who have anxiety, excessively worry, or may be experiencing anxiety about testing and need more than the tier 1 lesson or tier 2 group support.
Use a motivation assessment survey to determine what motivates your students and to help with behavior intervention plans! Students choose between reward options to see if they are motivated by attention, leadership, physical rewards, or creative outlets.
May
It’s never too early to introduce students to potential careers! Use this career exploration guidance lesson to introduce students to various career clusters and interests so they can become familiar with potential future careers.
As students form friendships throughout the year, conflicts are bound to occur. Take a proactive approach to your frequent flyers by forming a conflict resolution small group to help students determine why conflicts arise in their social interactions and how to identify the size of different 'problems' so they can use appropriate conflict resolution techniques.
Use this individual counseling lesson and activities with students who are processing traumatic events. The curriculum consists of 5 activities and 5 journal prompts. Divide it up over 5 sessions or split more in-depth activities into 2 sessions to lengthen the amount of time you meet with the student.
You will love using an end-of-year report to showcase all of your data! Gather all of the data you’ve collected throughout the school year (self-assessments, behavior surveys, etc) and organize it in charts and graphs to show a summary of services provided. This is a great way to showcase your services to key stakeholders like your admin and parents, while advocating for your role.
June
This fun, low-prep, classroom guidance lesson with activities will keep students engaged and give them the tools they need to navigate the ever-changing technology landscape safely.
These end-of-the-year counseling termination activities offer a fun way to wrap up and terminate your school counseling group and individual sessions.
This solution focused counseling curriculum is designed to be used with students in a tier 3 individual setting. Through engaging activities, crafts, and games, students will learn the strategies they need to tackle problems and identify solutions using a solution focused counseling lens.
Revisit your data wall at the end of the school year to show progress since you last tracked data. You can also use this to showcase the impact your services have had on students and to advocate for your role.
Final Thoughts
Planning an entire year of guidance counselor lesson plans doesn’t have to be overwhelming. I hope these monthly lesson plans help you feel confident and prepared to tackle your school year!