Today’s episode we talk about 10 creative ways to use a plain piece of paper as a powerful school counseling tool
Creative Paper Activities:
1. Mind Mapping:
– Visual representation of thoughts and feelings
– Great for brainstorming and organizing ideas
2. Goal Setting:
– Fold paper into sections for short-term and long-term goals
– Create a roadmap to visualize progress
3. Art Therapy:
– Encourage self-expression and emotional articulation
– Activities like “I am” statements with watercolors
4. Scribble Drawing:
– Eyes-closed scribbling turned into a masterpiece
– Promotes creativity and finding beauty in the unexpected
5. What If Scenarios:
– List and analyze “what if” thoughts
– Differentiate realistic concerns from exaggerated fears
6. Journaling Prompts:
– Use prompts or quotes for reflection and emotional processing
– Option to draw responses
7. Collage Creation:
– Reflect interests, values, and aspirations with cut-out images
– Enhances self-awareness and pride
8. Origami:
– Therapeutic activity promoting mindfulness and relaxation
– Simple projects like paper boats and cootie catchers
9. Letter Writing:
– Write letters to themselves to express thoughts and hopes
– Revisit letters to track personal growth
10. Timelines:
– Chart significant life events or future goals
– Explore identity and experiences
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Transcript
Carol: You're listening to the counselor Chat podcast, a show for school counselors looking for easy to implement strategies, how to tips, collaboration, and a little spark of joy. I'm Carol Miller, your host. I'm a full time school counselor and the face behind counseling essentials. I'm all about creating simplified systems, data driven practices, and using creative approaches to engage students. If you're looking for a little inspiration to help you make a big impact on student growth and success, you're in the right place because we're better together. Ready to chat? Let's dive in.
Carol: I am so excited. The 2024 summer Counselor Conference registration page is open, so consider this your official invitation to join us this summer. The conference happens on July 26 through 28th. This virtual conference conference offers over 40 sessions and two amazing keynote sessions, and the sessions cover topics so helpful to school counselors, including sessions on group and individual counseling, organization, working with students with ADHD or anxiety, grief, autism, data collection, and so much more. All sessions are pre recorded and available for viewing until June 2025. We also have live q and a speaker channels, networking events, tons of free resources, and the opportunity to earn three graduate credits through the University of the Pacific. If you are looking for relevant PD that's super affordable, this is it. So why don't you join us? Just go to wwmrcounselorconference.com to register. We'll see you inside the conference. Hi everyone, it's Carol. Welcome back to another episode of our podcast. Today I thought we would talk about something simple that we can do when we have a kid that walks into our office and we're like, I have nothing planned for them. You know that kid. You know those situations. Tell me I'm not alone, because I don't think I am. Anyway, we have those kids that come in and we're thinking, oh my gosh, I need something to give to them. I need something to do with them. I have to keep this conversation moving, and I need a little something, but I'm not prepared. Well, today we are going to talk about paper and ten creative ways to really utilize a plain old piece of paper as a powerful school counseling tool. So paper might seem really ordinary, but really, its potential is limitless. There are so many things that we can do with a plain old piece of paper. It is one of my favorite go tos, and I'm hoping that after this episode you will. If you don't already love it, you will come to love that plain old white sheet of paper. First, you can do some mind mapping. You can take a blank sheet of paper and create those mind maps with students. You want to have them really represent their thoughts, their feelings, and their connections to different topics or issues visually. And so to do this, you can start off with, I like to just start off with a picture of either a brain, let them draw a brain or even a little stick figure of themselves. And then maybe we'll put, like, a little question mark over their head. And from there, we just start drawing lines to what's in our head. What are we thinking about? What are all those thoughts that are up there? Personally, I like to do mind mapping, too, especially if I have a whole host of things to do, because it just helps me to really settle my thoughts and I just let it all flow out. And that's the great thing about mind mapping. It doesn't matter what the thought is, if it's in our mind, we just want it to come out. And so that can be a really powerful starting point for kids and talking to them about what's going on or what's holding them back from certain things or why they're getting so upset about something. But mind maps are great. Another easy thing to do with a piece of paper is for really goal setting. And here you're just going to take that paper and you're going to fold it into sections, maybe fold it in half, like the long ways, and then fold it again two or three more times so that they have between six and eight little spots on their paper. And then have them put in some short term goals and some long term goals. You can even make. Let them make a roadmap on their paper pointing to all those goals. So maybe in the middle of the paper, they draw a road, and on each side you put the stops along the way. So goal setting is really for a blank piece of paper, really easy thing to do. I also do a lot of art therapy with kids because I find letting them really express themselves through art is really helpful, especially if they're struggling to maybe articulate their emotions verbally. And I love to do smart therapy with our kiddos that maybe we're working on some self esteem, and so we'll just start writing on there all these things about us. I like to do the little I ams, I am courageous, I am strong, I am brave. And then add a little watercolor, and if you really want to make it pop while the water color is still wet, add a bit of salt, and it just takes on a whole new form with little bubbles and is pretty cool looking. But kids really love art therapy, and you can do so many ideas with just a piece of paper. I also like being able to, if I working with a group of kids, to have them close their eyes, grab their favorite color of marker, well, they grab their marker first, close their eyes, and they hold their marker above the sheet of paper, kind of like right in the middle. And with their eyes closed, I have them drop it to the paper and then start to scribble. After a couple seconds, when I see they're filling up their paper with scribbles, I'll ask them to stop. We'll take a look at it, and then they have to start to describe what do they see in their scribble. And I have them take a few more colors and add some more details to that scribble and turn that scribble into a masterpiece. And at first they look at me like I'm a little crazy. Like, how am I going to take this scribble and turn it into something? But their results are pretty amazing, and you'll be surprised at what a little time and encouragement can have them create. But it's about finding the beauty and things that sometimes we don't see beauty in. And then having them talk about that. It's a really great lesson and super easy to do. I also like to do, well, the what if. So if the kid is struggling with the what ifs, well, I can't do this because it's too hard. Well, what if it's too hard? Well, then this will happen. And then we just write down all the what ifs, and then we go back through the what ifs and we say, you know, which of these is realistic and which of these is really maybe a little bit out of our control or a little to the extreme, and we start to narrow it down a little bit. So that's another great project for kids to work on all the what ifs and narrowing those down to maybe it's not so bad after all, and maybe I can work through that, or maybe I can do that because I'm really, really pushing it a lot here, and these things won't actually happen. I'm just imagining them in my head. We could also use paper for journaling prompts, a little piece of paper with a prompt or a quote, and them just use that as a starting point for reflection and self expression. It's really great for emotional processing. So you can use a piece of paper for journaling prompts. And then, of course, they can always draw their prompt as well. Kids also love to create collages. So with this, you might need a couple extra things, maybe a glue stick or two, some magazines that are maybe in the lounge, and or some newspapers and some scissors. But you're going to have them create collages that can really reflect their interests, their values and their aspirations. And those collages usually are pretty awesome, and kids are usually pretty proud of them. And I love when I walk by lockers and I see their collages hanging on either the inside or the outside of their locker when I go by. So create a collage. If you know origami. Kids love origami. And if you can teach them something simple, it's really a pretty therapeutic activity. You're also helping to promote mindfulness and concentration and even relaxation. My boss does a really great frog, and he will make frogs and the kids will watch him, and then he will touch the tip of the frog's head and the frog will hop. And you wouldn't believe how much he could get kids to start talking just by making origami frogs. But when you teach kids how to do origami as well, they're really learning how to concentrate on something as well. And so I am not all that fancy with my origami at all, but I do love a good cootie catcher, and I do love to make paper boats and hats and things like that. And it's really surprising how many kids don't know how to make paper boats these days. So even teaching them something simple like that, really great at really promoting that mindfulness, that concentration, and once again, being able to just relax. Because when kids are using their hands, the conversations really can start going. Letter writing is another way to use a sheet of paper, because when you ask kids to write letters to themselves, express their thoughts, their fears, the hopes they can seal those letters up and then revisit them later to really track their progress. And so I like to also have kids write letters to themselves. And I'll ask them, do you want me to keep this and you can come back and look at it, or do you want to save it somewhere special? And a lot of times they'll want me to hang on to it because they don't trust themselves to save it. So it's really neat when they come back and they read that letter to themselves. So having them write some letters and timelines, I use a lot of timelines with kids from charting significant events in their lives and maybe exploring how these events have shaped their identities or their experiences. But also I use them in classes as well. Where we are talking about, where we want our future to be, what we want it to look like, and what what is included in our future. So creating timelines, really simple and effective technique. And last but not least, we are up to number ten. Just a basic visualization exercise. So I always have some sort of guided guided visualization or guided journey. And I will ask the kids to really draw or write what they heard, what they saw in their mind, and maybe even the smells or the feels that they had while they were going through that visualization. I can also have them visualize their own experiences, their own ideal future, their own dreams, their own aspirations, and they're creating these pictures for me. So I hope that these ten quick little ways to use paper were helpful. So I'm going to run through them all again, just so you remember what they are. But mind mapping, goal setting, where we're folding the paper and we are creating our spaces for our short term and our long term goals. Art therapy as really like a problem solving worksheets with the what ifs, some journaling prompts, collage creation, origami therapy, letter writing timelines, and the visualizations. Anyway, I hope these ten strategies really help to demonstrate how versatile a simple piece of paper is and how powerful it can be. So whether you're really facilitating self reflection, you're trying to foster their creativity, you're working on goal setting. Paper is really a powerful ally, so I hope you give it a try. And I hope it becomes one of your go to's and your counseling office too. Anyway, until next time, my friends, have a great weekend.
Carol: Thanks for listening to today's episode of Counselor chat. All of the links I talked about can be found in the show notes and@counselingessentials.org podcast. Be sure to hit, follow, or subscribe on your favorite podcast player. And if you would be so kind to leave a review, I'd really appreciate it.
Carol: Want to connect?
Carol: Send me a DM on Facebook or instagramounselingessentials. Until next time. Can't wait till we chat. Bye for now.