Welcome Back Roadrunners!

I hope you all have had an exciting summer!  I am thrilled to continue working with your kiddos here at Lee Elementary as their school counselor.  It has been so nice to see so many familiar faces and meet many new ones at Friday's "Meet & Greet."

I will be doing lessons the first few weeks of school on getting to know the counselor, breaking the ice activities, the word “confidentiality” and also share with students the ways that they can notify me that they would like to visit.  It’s important to discuss with students things they may want to come talk to me about.

I work with every student individually, in small groups and in their classroom throughout the year.  As part of my effort to maintain consistent and clear lines of communication with parents, I will inform you if your child is repeatedly requesting to see me.  The goal is to meet with your child regularly at first and then slowly decrease services to an “as needed” basis or give you referral options.  My goal is to help your child be successful both academically and socially through scheduled counseling opportunities so please feel free to contact me with any background information you’d like to provide.

If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact me at jsepp@austinisd.org or (512) 414-1782. I also have a website, http://mssepp.blogspot.com with very helpful information about classroom lessons, learning about myself, counseling services, counseling calendar, frequently asked questions, helpful tips & useful links, online safety, No Place for Hate, SEL program, college & career info, state testing and Austin ISD’s mission statement.  Also, you  can follow me on twitter @RRCounselor.  I am happy to work with you to make your child’s time at Lee successful!

Summer Reading Camp

Check out our own PE coach in a local YMCA commercial, Coach Huff!

100 Things to Do This Summer

Summer Camp Lists

Summer is creeping up on us fast!  Below are links to some great summer camps in Austin that focus on teamwork, leadership and social/emotional skills with children:

http://campguide.austin360.com

https://www.sunshinecamps.org

http://www.austinchronicle.com/calendar/summer-camps/

School's Out for Summer!

Starting June 5th the children are home, the sun is out.  Relaxation sets in...and then a few days later, the exclamations of "I'M BORED!" can be heard throughout the household.  What's a family to do?  Here are some suggestions of activities:

• Create a Family Ideas Jar: each person writes different activities and ideas on paper slips and puts it in the jar.  Draw one out every few days for a family activity. (Ex: movie & popcorn night, library, museum, camp-out, picnic, collect old toys/clothes to donate, etc.)

• Embrace Nature: make rubbings of textures in nature, hike, catch fireflies, camping, plant seeds, bird feeders,take pictures of plants and bugs that you might want to learn more about and then look them up together, Free Fun in Austin

• Exercise Journal: record what they did and how they felt afterwards (Ex. biking, walking, hide and seeking, tag, basketball, hula hoop, catch, jumprope, etc.), this relieves stress and burns off excess energy

• Indoor Activities: homemade playdough, creative snack ideas (ants on a log), board games (practice important skills such as taking turns, sharing, wining, losing, etc.), imaginative play, music, art, 10 things to do when you're stuck inside

• Online Activities: Creative Apps

My Summer Looks Bright

My last visit to kindergarten for the year centered around what we'd be doing over the summer.  I read aloud Mark Teague's How I Spent My Summer Vacation to get their creative juices flowing.

Then we brainstormed exciting things that we wanted to do over the summer.  Students wrote a list of these on one shade of their sunglasses, then drew a picture on the other shade.  They glued it onto their paper and sketched their head behind the glasses.  Here is the sheet & sunglasses I found from Elementary, My Dear.