Great ICE BREAKERS!

Trying to think of a way to get to know your students better? Need an idea?

These are some of my favorite ICEBREAKERS among many many more, but these are great for individual and small group counseling! I've used all of these in every internship and the students absolutely loved them.

ALL-ABOUT-ME-ROBOT

This ICE BREAKER is great for students in intermediate grades and works well in small group counseling. The students simply write and color in the different sections of the robot and share at the end of the session. School Counselors should also be asking questions and facilitating this process. Gaining Rapport is the goal! I have used this numerous times in small groups when getting to know each other. The students love love love this one!     

MARVELOUS ME M&M ICE BREAKER

This ICE BREAKER is great for primary grades and can be comprised of tons and tons of different questions. Each student gets a bag of M&M's and questions that correlate to each color of the M&M's. Again the School Counselor should be working along with the students and even completing the ICE BREAKER too. Ensure the students eat the color of the M&M's as they go through the ICE BREAKER or else they will eat them all at the beginning! The students eat this one up, literally! ;)   

POPSICLE STICK ICE BREAKER

This ICE BREAKER works well for students K-12 because the questions can be altered for each grade level. School Counselors should have the students choose the popsicle stick themselves and read it or depending on the grade level the School Counselor can read the question aloud. Each student chooses a stick and passes the popsicle sticks along. I have used this with Kindergarten students and even Seniors in High School, both whom love the ICE BREAKER. Throw some silly questions into the pile and even answer some yourself, again gaining rapport is key! 

Beauty Pressures

      This DOVE Commercial would definitely be good to utilize in counseling groups and on school websites for parents, teachers and staff to see. It is important that we discuss the beauty pressures out there and make an impact, so self-esteem isn't as big as of an issue in the future. The more advocates and educators for this the better!

      In several of my internship experiences, I have found that even students as young as 6 years old have already been exposed to the pressures of the beauty industries. It is amazing listening to their stories and what has already sunken in. I worked with a group of second grade girls on self-esteem and their constant fears of not being pretty enough, thin enough, tall enough and so forth. They battled each other daily on who "looked the best" which caused immense fiction amongst the group of friends. They would argue and down each other all based on their looks. Some of the girls even disclosed that the harassment would be the worst at lunch time in the cafeteria. During these times they would be made fun of if they ate and for what they ate if they chose to. I WAS SHOCKED to hear these things were going on, but the fact of the matter is as school counselors we must not only advocate but EDUCATE students on these issues. Our group lasted over 6 weeks long, where we talked about self-esteem, body image, made goals and talked about appropriate behaviors.
     
      By the way, it can be misleading sometimes that self-esteem is gender bias and prominent in females, but the fact is that males are also effected by these stigmas and should be informed also! 
   
      Sidenote: DOVE Commercials are my favorite! Youtube has several that are just simply amazing :)