What is Wellness Workshop? 

Wellness Workshop is a new class this year that is taught by our School Counselors: Dr. Trigiani and Ms. Rinker to our students in kindergarten through second grade. The class is held during each grade's specials block and focuses on overall wellness. Dr. Trigiani and Ms. Rinker give students tools to regulate their emotions, be kind to and interact with others, and talk about how they are feeling. 

What does it look like in action? 

On this particular day, Ms. Rinker was teaching a lesson to Mrs. DeOrnellas's first grade class. The lesson topic was "Making a Difference". 

After a check-in and read aloud, Ms. Rinker had the students participate in a hands-on activity about filling buckets. The idea of filling buckets comes from Carol McCloud's book, Have You Filled a Bucket Today? A Guide to Daily Happiness for Kids. 

From the author's website: "Through simple prose and vivid illustrations, this heartwarming book encourages positive behavior by using the concept of an invisible bucket to show readers how easy and rewarding it is to express kindness, appreciation, and love by 'filling buckets'. This updated and revised 10th Anniversary Edition of this best-selling, award-winning, 32-page picture book will help readers better understand that “bucket dipping” is a negative behavior, not a permanent label. It also explains that it’s possible to fill or dip into our own buckets."

Following the read aloud, students participated in an activity where they were tasked with identifying activities as being "bucket fillers" or "bucket dippers". See the slideshow below for more details!