Use our monthly social-emotional check-in themes, questions, and activities to reinforce connection with your student and creatE a trusting and safe relationship.

Students who feel a connection with their tutor are more likely to engage in learning, ask questions, build motivation, and achieve better academic outcomes.

 

November’s Theme: Practicing Gratitude

“Gratitude and attitude are not challenges, they are choices.” — Robert Braathe

Thanksgiving looms on the horizon along with other celebratory holidays focused on family, friends, and togetherness. Many conversations in the classroom and around the kitchen table are about the positive things in our lives that we can be grateful for and different ways to express our gratitude.

Here are some exercises and activities you can do with your student to reflex on this month’s theme. Choose one to do each week during the month.

Let’s talk about what we are grateful for. What are you grateful for today? Activity: Make a list of things you are grateful for, big or small.

Reflection Time: How do you feel when you’re grateful? Give your student an opportunity to appreciate the positive feeling that comes with being grateful. How do they feel when someone says thanks to them? How does it feel to say thank you to someone else?

Make a gratitude tree: The trees start barren, and then you fill in leaves with expressions of gratitude over a period of time. You could add a few leaves during each tutoring session throughout November. https://www.mamasmiles.com/wp-content/uploads/spring-tree-pi-art.pdf?x70198

For K-5, use a few minutes each session this month for student to add words of gratitude to their gratitude tree. This provides a hands on, tactile gratitude exercise, helping students to reflect on what they are grateful for in their lives.

Challenge students: Ask your student if he/she can find ways to be grateful for things he/she may find unpleasant, such as homework.

Food gratitude exercise: Bring awareness that behind tangible things that they may feel grateful for, there are many people whose efforts have created those things. Gratitude concept: Our lives are interconnected with those of many people we have never met, who provide us with the goods and services we rely on daily. Our gratitude can extend to these people, as well as those we know. Let your student pick a fruit they like and together think of where it comes from and who grew it, picked it, packed it, transported it, put it on the store shelf, etc.

Use the sample script below, which uses the example of strawberries, and adapt it as needed (for example, some fruit, like bananas, may have traveled on a boat and a truck): Let’s imagine fresh strawberries. Think about what they look like, how they smell, and how they taste. Where do they grow? Imagine someone planting strawberry seeds in the soil on a farm…Imagine the sun shining on the small plants as they grow…Imagine the rain that falls on them, or maybe a person who waters them…maybe there is someone who pulls out the weeds so the strawberries can grow… Now imagine the strawberries are ripe…Who comes to pick them?…Think about how hard that person works, bending over to pick lots of strawberries…Now imagine someone putting those strawberries into containers… How do the strawberries get to a store near you?…Imagine the person who put the strawberry containers onto a truck…the person who drove the truck to your store…the person who brought the strawberries from the truck into the store…the person who put the strawberries on the shelf at the store… Who sells you the strawberries?…See if you can imagine yourself paying that person…thanking them…and then bringing home the delicious strawberries to eat…

October’s Theme: Scary feelings (don’t let anxiety and fear get in your way).

“You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.” – A.A. Milne, the author of Winnie the Pooh

It’s spooky season! While that usually means watching out for ghosts and goblins when trick or treating, it can also be a good time to check in with students about how things are going now that the school year is underway.

Here are some exercises/activities you can do with your student to reflect on this month’s theme.  Choose one to do each week during the month.

Let’s talk about what scares us. Can you describe a time when you felt really scared about something?” “What are some situations that tend to make you feel anxious?” “How does your body feel when you’re worried?” “What are some things you do to calm yourself down when you’re feeling anxious?” “Do you ever worry about things that might not happen?” “Have you ever felt afraid to speak up in class?” “What are some common fears you hear other people talk about?” “What are some positive ways to manage your fears?” and “Can you share a time when you overcame a fear?”. For younger students: “What is a scary movie monster you’ve seen?”, “What is something you worry about before bedtime?”, “How do you feel when you have to meet new people?” For older students: “What are some pressures you feel at school that might make you anxious?”, “How do you handle test anxiety?”, “What are some social situations that can make you feel nervous?”

• • • • Choose one or two questions to talk about. Key points to consider when using these prompts: Normalize the experience: Emphasize that feeling scared or anxious is a normal human emotion. Create a safe space: Let students know that their responses will be respected and kept confidential. Use open-ended questions: Encourage students to elaborate on their thoughts and feelings. Validate their emotions: Acknowledge their experiences and show empathy. Offer coping strategies: Discuss healthy ways to manage anxiety, like deep breathing or relaxation techniques.

Deep breathing exercise. Lion’s Breath, also called simhasana, is a breathwork exercise that is great for improving breathing, as well as relieving stress and anxiety. How to do it: Sit down in a comfortable position. Lean forward slightly, and place your hands on your knees or the floor. Spread your fingers as wide as possible. Breathe in through your nose. Open your mouth as wide as possible, sticking out your tongue down towards your chin. Breathe out forcefully through your mouth, making a “ha” sound as you do so. Repeat these steps up to 7 times.

• • • Use this exercise at any time during your session to easy anxiety/stress. You can make a game of it with younger students to scare away the fear/anxiety/stress.

Mindfulness exercise. The 333 anxiety rule involves observing three things you can see, three things you can hear, and three things you can move or touch. It is a grounding technique — a coping skill to manage intense emotions by steering the mind away from anxiety and toward the present moment.

• • • Start your session using this exercise to help your student get grounded and put aside anything that happened prior to walking into their tutoring session.