Elementary School Counseling

What is an Elementary School Counselor?

The elementary years are a time when students begin to develop their academic self-concept and feelings of competence and confidence as learners. They are beginning to develop decision-making, communication, and life skills, as well as character values. It is also a time when students develop and acquire attitudes toward school, self, peers, social groups, and family.

Elementary School Counselors provide education, prevention, early identification, and intervention to all students. It is our goal to help every student achieve academic success, develop an understanding of career opportunities, and develop social/emotional skills in response to issues they face.

Classroom Guidance

School Counseling Curriculum

Lessons and activities are designed to help students attain the desired competencies and to provide all students with the knowledge, attitudes and skills appropriate for their developmental level. At the Elementary level, School Counselors provide classroom lessons on the following topics:

• Academic planning and support
• Decision making and conflict resolution
• Character education and social-emotional skills
• Friendship concerns and issues
• Career and college planning
• Study skills and organization
• Problem-solving and coping skills
• Identifying interests, strengths, and learning styles

BKW Connections Program

The Berne-Knox-Westerlo Connections Program is a prevention program designed for students who struggle with socialization, anxiety, aggression, trauma and/or academics. The main objective of the program is to enable the child to successfully interact with parents, peers, and teachers, and function effectively in a school and social environment.

The BKW Connections Program can assist families with managing stress, addressing financial problems and learning coping and parenting skills. The program can also assist students with academic support, learning appropriate behaviors, and increasing social and emotional development.

Referrals to the BKW Connections Program are a joint effort between St. Catherine’s Center for Children, Albany County Department for Children, Youth and Families and the Berne-Knox-Westerlo Central School District.

The program provides an afterschool program from Monday through Thursday where students are provided a snack, homework and free time each day. The students receive one-on-one homework help and have time to socialize with peers and engage in group activities.

The program has a case planning and clinical component for each family. The families are seen bi-weekly in their home settings for assistance and ongoing assessment of needs from the Case Planner and the Clinician.

The BKW Summer Program is six weeks long and runs from early July to mid August from about 8 a.m. to 11 a.m., Monday through Thursday. The organized activities continue to be aimed at social development, building confidence and learning coping skills. During the summer program, the students enjoy a variety of guest speakers, daily sports and outdoor activities, games and crafts, and an annual field trip and picnic.

For more information or referral forms, call or email:

• Jolene Zido
  Phone: (518) 872-2030 ext. 5912
• Brittany Hennessey
  Phone: (518) 378-5315

Kindness and Compassion

Performing simple acts of kindness and compassion encourages your child to think of others and makes them feel good about themself a one-two punch that also helps to prevent bullying. Try these ideas to inspire your youngster to be a kind and compassionate person.

At Home

What do kindness and compassion look like? Use these activities to help your child spot kindhearted actions in their daily life.

Make a Reminder

Look up compassion and kindness in the dictionary together. Then, have your youngster collect quotations about these qualities from books or websites. Example: “Always try to be a little kinder than necessary.” -J.М. Barrie.

Ask your child to invent their own sayings, too, such as “Be a ray of sunshine and brighten someone’s day.”

Next, let them use their favorites to create a place mat. They can write the quotes graffiti-style on construction paper. Slip the paper into a plastic sheet protector so their place mat lasts longer.

Tip: Suggest that your youngster spread the compassion message by making a place mat for each family member.

Catch Kindness

Show your child how much kindness happens around them every day — they’ll see ways they can be kind, too. Have them make a label to stick on a clean, empty jar. It might say “Be kind” or “We’re a kind family.” Place the jar in an easy-to-reach location along with slips of colored paper and a pen. Now tell everyone in the family to add a note to the jar when they “catch” someone being kind. For instance, “Dad made soup for me because I didn’t feel well” or “Jeremy cleaned up the dog’s muddy paw prints so Mom didn’t have to do it.” Once a week, read the slips aloud. Then, start a new batch.

At School

When students are kind and compassionate, there is more learning and less bullying. These ideas can help your youngster be a caring classmate.

Welcome Someone New

Have your child think about what it feels like to be the new kid. You might remind them how they felt on their first day somewhere. Maybe they were afraid the kids at basketball camp wouldn’t like them or that they’d have no one to play with at an after-school program. Then, help them think of ways to make things better for a new student. For example, they could sit with the classmate on the bus or invite them to join a kickball game at recess.

Share a Compliment

While your youngster doesn’t have to be best friends with everyone in their class, they do need to be nice to them. Encourage them to focus on each person’s strengths instead of reasons they might not like them. Try prompting them with questions like “Who is a good athlete?” or “Who draws cool pictures?” Suggest that they use those answers to give compliments. For instance, in art class, they can tell a classmate that they likes their painting. After a spelling bee, they could congratulate the winner. They may be surprised to see that a few nice words will encourage others to be kind, too.

Around Town

When your youngster regularly puts others first, kindness and compassion becomes second nature. Take advantage of big and small opportunities for them to make a difference in the community.

Pay it Forward

Make it a family policy to do two kind things for each one done for you. Be sure to let your child know that even small things count. Someone might hold the door open for them to enter a restaurant, for example. To pay the kindness forward (twice), your youngster could hold the door for another person and offer to get an elderly couples order when its called. For times when they can’t pay it forward right away, your child can watch for chances to catch up during the day.

Encourage a Can-Do Attitude

In tough situations, your youngster may want to show compassion but feel that their actions won’t make a difference. For instance, they might want to help a neighborhood family who lost everything in a house fire. Remind them that while some things are too big for them to fix completely, there’s still plenty they can do. Then, brainstorm ideas together. Their list could include everything from donating clothes from their own closet to bigger things like having a yard sale to raise money for the family.