Lesson Plan Template
School Counselor: Claire Murphy
Date: January, 2013
Activity: “It’s Okay to be Different” (School Counseling Core Curriculum Lesson)
Grade(s): First Grade
ASCA Student Standards (Domain/Standard/Competencies):
ASCA Domain: Personal/Social Development
ASCA Standard: A Students will acquire knowledge, attitudes and interpersonal skills to help
them understand and respect self and others.
ASCA Competencies: PS:A1 Acquire Self-Knowledge; PS:A2 Acquire Interpersonal Skills
ASCA Indicators: PS:A1.1, PS:A1.2, PS: A1.10, PS:A2.2, PS:A2.4
Learning Objective(s):
1. Students will recognize that people are the same and different in important ways.
2. Students will appreciate and value these differences.
3. Students will learn new things about their classmates.
Materials: Smart Board technology; LCD projector; pencils; counselor created power point; I
Care Cat puppet; “It’s Okay to be Different” by Todd Parr, Little Brown and Company, New
York, 2001; “Interview” student activity page (attached); School Counseling Core Curriculum
pretest for K-1 students (attached)
Procedures:
*Establish classroom procedures for the lesson.
*Prior to lesson, administer School Counseling Core Curriculum pretest (attached) to
randomly selected students.
*Prior to lesson, collect pretest discipline data on office referrals for aggressive behaviors
and the number of teacher-mediated disputes in an average week in first grade.
*Using Smart Board Technology, introduce the lesson agenda.
*Bring out I Care Cat puppet and have the puppet ask students to stand if they can answer
“Yes” to a series of questions: Are you 6 years old? Do you have black hair? Are you
wearing a skirt? Do you have any sisters? Do you have grandparents? Do you like pizza?
*Process student answers and observe that students differ from each other.
*Remind students that it is okay to be different. Variety is the spice of life!
*Read and discuss “It’s Okay to be Different” by Todd Parr.
*Distribute “Interview” student activity page (attached). Allow students to spend several
minutes interviewing and recording the answers given.
*Collect interviews and make a book about the variety in the class.
Plan for Evaluation: How will each of the following be collected?
Process Data:
*Count the number of students attending this lesson.
Perception Data:
*Prior to lesson, administer School Counseling Core Curriculum pretest assessing student
attitudes, knowledge, skills in the areas of appreciating differences, point of view, conflict
resolution, problem-solving, and bystander responsibilities to randomly selected first grade
students.
Outcome Data: Prior to the lesson, collect pretest discipline data on the number of office
discipline referrals for aggressive behaviors, and the number of teacher-mediated disputes in
first grade.
Follow Up: Collaborate with other counselors when posttest perception and outcome data is
collected to evaluate effectiveness of the School Counseling Core Curriculum Action Plan.
Person You
Interviewed________________________________
Directions: Get with a friend, interview each other, and find out what
makes you both special. Write their answers after each question.
1. What is your favorite food?
2. Does your family have a cute name they call you?
3. What is something you do really well?
4. What do you want to be when you grow up?
5. Have you ever been to another country?
6. If you could be any animal, what would you be?
Pre Post Test
K-1
Guidance Curriculum Action Plan
2013
1. I feel safe when I am in my classroom.
Yes
Super Yes
No
Super No
2. I feel safe when I am on the playground.
Yes
Super Yes
No
Super No
3. I feel safe when I am on the bus.
Yes
Super YES!
No
SUPER NO!
4. Which does not belong in problem solving?
a. Use your brain
b. Use your words
c. Use your feet
d. Use your ears
5. What would you do if someone snatched away a toy from you?
a. Yell at them.
b. Grab the toy back.
c. Ask them to give it back.
d. Cry.
e. Do you have a different idea?
6. What would you say if you and a friend both wanted to go first in a game?
7. When you say an I Message to someone you are trying to:
a. Make them sad.
b. Make them angry.
c. Solve a problem with them.
d. Make them scared.
8. We sometimes have problems with others because:
K
a. We don’t share.
b. We don’t use our words.
c. We don’t remember to be nice.
d. We disagree with them.
e. All of these answers are correct.
9. Can you tell me a good friendship rule to follow?