Books and Activity Guides to Drive Your Counseling and Teaching

Susanna Palomares & Dianne Schilling

These ready-to-use lessons for grades 3 throuh 8 have been created to give you engaging, yet powerful, new tools to use in helping your students lay a solid foundation in developing critical life skills. These carefully crafted activities explore the following areas and many more:
◼ Respecting Self and Others
◼ Expressing Gratitude
◼ Being Responsible and Dependable
◼ Controlling Anger
◼ Overcoming Harmful Peer Pressure
◼ Valuing Differences
This book will be an important addition to you SEL repertoire.

Grades 3-8, 108 pages, 8-1/2 x 11, paperback, reproducible activities

Dianne Schilling

Scores of concrete, instantly usable activities, role plays, games, simulations and worksheets that teach specific pro- social skills in an enjoyable fashion. These inspiring activities engage students in learning about respect and responsibility, empathy and understanding, and true connectedness between all people. Some of the best activities we have for teaching the real meaning of Getting Along!

Grades 6-12, 128 pages, 8-1/2 x 11, paperback

Gerry Dunne, Ph.D.

With dozens and dozens of engaging Magic Circle activities you can bring even the most reticent child into the wonderful world of oral language expression and social development, all within the safety provided by every circle activity. This is a terrific resource for pre-school and kindergarten, home school and the whole range of early-years learning settings. Every activity is simple to use and perfectly suited for children in this age group.

Early Years (Pre-K/Kindergarten), 134 pages, 8-1/2 x 11, paperback, reproducibles

Susanna Palomares

You and your kids will love these fun, enjoyable, delightfully illustrated ready-to-use worksheets. Eighty-eight separate activity pages involve your students in the development of their own self-concept, confidence, awareness, and resiliency. Organized around recognized building blocks of social-emotional learning; identity, belonging, purpose, and competence, they provide quick, easily implemented experiences in vital issues. Appropriate for use with individuals, small groups and classrooms.

Grades 2-6, 96 pages, 8-1/2 x 11, paperback, reproducible activities

Susanna Palomares

Use this totally reproducible, hands-on journal/workbook to enhance self-understanding, clarify values, develop coping skills, foster positive attitudes, and heighten creativity in your students. You'll find that the thought-provoking questions and pages of striking graphics will encourage students to explore their feelings, thoughts, attitudes, values, doubts and dilemmas and to write about them. A great resource for counselors, teachers and parents! Buy one book and make as many copies of selected pages as you need.

Grades 3-9, 104 pages, 8-1/2 x 11, paperback, exercises, reproducibles

The Best from Innerchoice Publishing

Teach important social and emotional skills with this powerful emotional intelligence curriculum. By involving your students in these engaging activities, they learn how to:

• Constructively express themselves and control their behaviors
• Think through the consequences of their actions
• Learn how to take the perspectives of others and to develop empathy
• Accept responsibility for their decisions
• Develop skills for positively managing conflict, anger, and stress

The instructional strategies are appropriate for classroom or counseling groups and include a variety of meaningful large- and small-group activities, lively discussion topics, and reproducible activity sheets. This collection of the most popular and effective social-emotional activities ever offered by Innerchoice Publishing is organized into ten units. They are: • Self-awareness • Managing Feelings • Decision Making • Managing Stress • Personal Responsibility • Self-concept • Empathy • Communications • Group Dynamics • Conflict Resolution

High School, 142 pages, 8-1/2 x 11, paperback, reproducibles

Susanna Palomares & David Cowan

Sharing Circles are the EQ super-strategy and this book is chock full of them! In what better way can you develop the emotional intelligence of your students than by participation in relevant discussions about things that are important to them? This powerful and versatile instructional strategy is unusually effective as a tool for developing self-awareness, self-control, the ability to understand and manage feelings, empathy, cooperation, responsibility, communication, strategies for managing conflict and stress, and group interaction skills. A must-have addition to your EQ repertoire.

Grades 3-9, 144 pages, 8-1/2 x 11, paperback

The Best from Innerchoice Publishing

This collection of the most popular and effective activities for middle school offered by Innerchoice Publishing will help students:

• Recognize how thoughts and feelings affect behavior
• Identify emotions and how they affect others
• Regulate and control emotions and behaviors
• Make positive choices and decisions
• Identify individual strengths and weaknesses
• Examine prejudices and biases
• Learn effective stress management strategies
• Establish and maintain healthy relationships
• Take the perspective of others
• Recognize value in diversity
• Use effective communication skills
• Identify and use peaceful conflict management strategies
• Listen with empathy and understanding
• And more

Written and designed for clarity and ease of implementation, each activity includes behavioral objectives, step-by-step instructions, and thought-provoking discussion questions formulated to elicit higher-level thinking and reflection in students.
Engage your students in these enjoyable and effective social and emotional learning skills that will serve them throughout their lives.

Grade 6-9, 186 pages, 8-1/2 x 11, paperback

Susanna Palomares

This activity guide is a collection of the most popular and effective social and emotional learning activities offered by Innerchoice Publishing. It provides relevant student friendly activities for classroom and counseling groups. For optimum impact SEL is not a single program or group of activities but a coordinated framework across classrooms, counseling groups, homes, communities and districts, but here is a tool that you can use in dong your part to contribute to this framework.

Grade 2-8, 108 pages, 8-1/2 x 11, paperback

Susanna Palomares, Sandy Schuster, and Cheryl Watkins

Today, more than ever, all students need a safe place to share their feelings and concerns with supportive peers and an attentive, caring adult. This unique, easy to implement, and highly-effective discussion process, based on years of experience in teaching and leading discussion groups worldwide, provides you with a proven and highly acclaimed way to reach young people of all ages. Through participation in Sharing Circles, you'll help your students to get to know who they are, how they function, how they relate to others, and to learn to believe in themselves. Most importantly, it provides the safety net of social bonding with others – perhaps the most important link to violence prevention, safe schools, and the development of emotional intelligence. Connect with all your students through this simple yet profound process.

Grades K-12, 182 pages, 6 x 9, paperback

David Cowan & Susanna Palomares

Here is a collection of powerful, small-group discussion activities called Sharing Circles. This proven interactive process will bring focus to vital life skills in the following areas:

• Self-Awarenss • Feelings and Wellness • Relating to Others • Learning and Creativity • Decision Making and Problem Solving • Acting Assertively.

With specific discussion topics at hand you can tailor the conversations you have with students to optimize learning and to make the greatest impact as an education professional. The book also provides the teacher and/or counselor with detailed background information and a solid theory base, plus comprehensive instructions in the Sharing Circle process.

Grades 4–12, 132 pages, 8-1/2 x 11, paperback

David Cowan & Dianne Schilling

This straightforward, delightfully illustrated, fully reproducible handbook gets teenagers to stop and focus on their own development. Enjoyable activities ask them to look at who they are, what they want to be (and be like), their dreams, aspirations and interests. It encourages them to take stock of their own “developmental assets,” observe other people to find out what works and doesn’t work in life, and learn important intrapersonal and interpersonal skills. Activity sheets cover these vital areas:
• Knowing Yourself, Counting Your Assets
• Understanding Your Emotions • Building Health and Fitness
• Communicating Effectively • Controlling Self-Talk
• Being a Great Friend • Setting and Achieving Goals
• Getting Involved in the Community
• Making Decisions and Solving Problems • Managing Conflict
• Being Assertive (Self-Determination) • Taking Leadership Roles

Grade 7-12, 152 pages, 8-1/2 x 11, paperback

Susanna Palomares, Dianne Schilling & David Cowan

This timely and practical curriculum guide is designed to help students develop the skills and attributes needed to be successful in high school, college, and later in adulthood – at work, at home, and in the community. A complete, relevant, and up-to-date life skills and leadership program, Preparing Students for Success and Leadership in College and Careers, guides students in learning to set goals, build career futures, work collaboratively and improve inter-personal skills.

All Ages, 272 pages, 8-1/2 x 11, paperback, reproducibles

Gerry Dunne, Ph.D.

Make an impact on your people whether teens or adults! Directions for a ten-hour class in five, two-hour sessions for teens and/or adults are provided in detail in this guide for leaders. Geared to the Anger and Conflict Management: Personal Handbook, the Leader’s Guide offers numerous experiential activities to create a safe, yet lively, class. Explains how to help participants gain maximum benefits from their Personal Handbooks.

Adult, 64 pages, 8-1/2 x 11, paperback

Gerry Dunne, Ph.D.

Enjoy the savings from buying this Personal Handbook 10-Pack.

Teens/Adults, 96 pages, 8-1/2 x 11, paperback

David Cowan, Susanna Palomares & Dianne Schilling

Being in control of anger and able to manage conflict are vital skills we all need to successfully navigate our ways through life. This is becasue both anger and conflict are natural events in life. This is a powerful tool to use with kids just as they are in the most opportune times of their lives to develop these learnings. Give your students these skills with engaging, fun, and impactful activities and experiences.

Grades 7-12, 160 pages, 8-1/2 x 11, paperback, reproducibles

David Cowan

This powerful book offers specific and dynamic approaches that show how to: handle difficult encounters skillfully, diffuse and contain confrontations, and train staff to prevent and productively resolve conflicts. It is written to use as a personal resource or as a training guide. A must for every educational leader who is concerned about enhancing group interaction.

Grade 4 - Adult, 182 pages, 6 x 9, paperback

Linda Williams, Dianne Schilling & Susanna Palomares

This award-winning activity book provides you with a wealth of creative ideas for helping your children develop empathy and compassion, recognize the real-life consequences of acts of violence, deal effectively with anger, communicate clearly, resist negative peer pressure, and exercise sound judgment and self-discipline when confronted with tough decisions. You'll find creative and energizing activities, individual worksheets, stories, songs, and stimulating discussion questions. A wealth of ideas for engaging students’ minds and touching their emotions.

For songs and music please visit us on Amazon.com.

Grades K-8, 202 pages, 8-1/2 x 11, paperback

Terri Akin, Gerry Dunne & Dianne Schilling

Kids make choices daily and in many different ways—freely, wisely, impulsively. Occasionally a poor choice leads to a good outcome, but as anyone who has suffered the consequences of a foolish mistake can attest, good outcomes usually come from wise, thoughtful decision making. Focusing on key ingredients like self-esteem and personal strength, the authors provide essential health and safety information while teaching vital decision-making skills. Activities are fun and engaging, yet packed with important information and skill practice. Topic areas include: Self-Esteem, Decision Making and Problem Solving, Assertiveness, OTC Drugs, Smoking & Marijuana, Stress Management, Peer and Gang Pressure, Media Influences, Resistance and Refusal Skills, Anger Management, Role Models & Support Systems, Health and Safety.

Grade 5-9, 181 pages, 8-1/2 x 11, paperback

Jeanne C. Bleuer, Susanna Palomares & Garry Walz

Help your students learn that they can be in charge of their own achievement by giving them the awareness and tools to do so. In addition to enriching learning lessons, you’ll find particular value in the Achievement Potential Survey, a self-assessment that has each student identify the perceptions, abilities, and behaviors that are contributing to their underachievement.

You’ll receive complete instruction for how to help your underachievers develop an action plan based on their unique set of strengths and weaknesses. Help these students identify, learn from, and build on their assets, barriers, and concerns as they learn how to manage each so that they’re experiencing high levels of achievement and success.

Grades 5-12, 120 pages, 6 x 9, paperback

Sally Elliot

This is an essential guidebook for group counseling. Packed with easy-to-implement activities, practical information on group dynamics and everything you need to do before, during, and after each counseling group - how to gain support, how to establish purpose and recruit students who will benefit, knowing the right amount of structure to provide, establishing and enforcing appropriate rules, and more. Group Activities for Counselors includes more than 100 group sessions and 80 reproducible handouts covering topics such as self-concept, friendship, divorce, death, communication, resolving conflicts, racial issues, sexual harassment, problem solving, study skills, and more. Created for use in grades 4-12, the activities in this book utilize a variety of strategies to encourage students to explore and share their feelings, ideas, experiences , and insights. These group activities are designed to strengthen the closeness and synergy that develops as a group coalesces, at the same time offering you the convenience of being able to select relevant group activities at your discretion.

Grades 4-12, 188 pages, 8-1/2 x 11, paperback

Terri Akin, David Cowan, Susanna Palomares & Dianne Schilling

Too often children are left vulnerable to thes potentially debilitating emotions. In this book you'll find effective experiences for helping children understand and cope with these three intense emotions which, left unmanaged, can lead to deep psychological disturbances and/or inappropriate acting-out behaviors. With this collection of activities and ready-to-use blackline masters, you can help children explore, understand and express their feelings in safe and acceptable ways. Special emphasis is placed on learning to make positive behavioral choices in response to feelings of grief, fear, and anger. This easy-to-use, yet powerful collection of experiences and information can have far ranging beneficial effects—both as an effective prevention program and a tool for immediate intervention.

Grade 3-8, 116 pages, 8-1/2 x 11, paperback

Susanna Palomares & Dianne Schilling

This timely book provides concrete and useful strategies to help students get in touch with the effects of stress in their lives, and more importantly, helps students learn what they can do about it.

Stress has an enormous impact on the ability of students to learn. The body’s defense system is built for short-term physical stressors, not long-term psychological and emotional stress, which can lead to health problems, memory loss, severe learning difficulties, and angry outbursts. Less Student Stress, More School Success includes meaningful activities and impactful student “experience sheets” designed to help students understand what causes stress, identify sources of personal stress, and learn strategies for managing stress. Activities cover relaxation techniques; the roles of nutrition and exercise; success strategies such as goal setting, time management; and positive self-talk; and tips for dealing with anger, worry, and high-stakes testing. The relevant introduction covers current learning theory and brain science basics.

Grades 6-12, 174 pages, 8-1/2 x 11, paperback

Susanna Palomares & Dianne Schilling

It has often been said, and wisely so, that the most important thing students can learn in school is how to learn. Knowing how to learn ranks right up there with reading as fundamental to academic and career success. Without learning skills, the riches of math, science, civics and social studies can never be fully tapped.

Studying, Test Taking, and Getting Good Grades falls solidly within the “how to learn” category. Borrowing broadly from a variety of disciplines, it goes beyond basic study skills to address motivation, personal responsibility, diet, exercise, the brain, and numerous other topics. It does not belong to a specific academic “content area,” yet applies to all content areas.

The book is comprised of 11 units. Each unit is a separate entity capable of standing alone. Generally, each page is also independently designed, with one concept, quiz, or activity per page. If you have a specific concept you want to address, you may duplicate and distribute individual pages to the students. However, for greatest impact, either present the book in its entirety and encourage students to complete the activities in sequence, or, if you have limited copies, duplicate and assign the units in sequence.

The material in this book can be used in a variety of settings, from school to home, and with a single student or in small to large groups. Because of the nature of the content, and because the students are encouraged to personalize much of the material, the book will benefit low- and high-achievers as well as “mainstream” students.

Grades 5-12, 122 pages, 8-1/2 x 11, paperback, reproducibles

Cathrine Kellison McLaughlin

Here are more than 185 pages of ideas, activities, strategies, and reproducibles to create an effective parent involvement program or enhance an existing program! This concise and easy-to-use guidebook makes reaching out to parents exciting and effective. It provides strategies for tearing down the barriers to parent involvement while highlighting the many benefits of participation. This book is a comprehensive guide to building and maintaining an active core of committed parents who support the mission and policies of the school, work closely with teachers, help constructively with homework, set learning goals for themselves as well as their children, and share their skills with other parents. Learn how to involve parents effectively and how to keep them involved Pre-K through Grade 12.

Grades Pre-K-12, 184 pages, 8-1/2 x 11, paperback

Susanna Palomares, Dianne Schilling & Cathy Winch

The title of this program is a strong indication of the valuable “treasures” enclosed within the 300+ content pages! This collection of group activities reproducible student pages is designed to help you develop within your students vital social and life skills practical and fun way. Treasure Chest comprises group activities, covering these vital areas:
• Life Skills —
• Learning Strategies —
• Health and Wellness —
• Emotional Intelligence —
• Diversity —
• Conflict Management —
• Character —
• Careers —
Activities can be tailored to suit the ages, ability levels, cultural/ethnic backgrounds and interests of the students.

Grades 3-8, 324 pages, 8-1/2 x 11, paperback, reproducibles

Susanna Palomares & Patricia Rowland

Make your home school activities enjoyable experiences for you and your child or children. This engaging book of stories, activities, and guided discussions (Sharing Circles) provides a wealth of fun, easy-to-use home schooling resources. Aimed at parents who want to involve their children in inviting experiences while teaching important life skills, this book enhances the social, emotional, and language abilities of all children, whether regular, gifted, or special needs while involving them in meaningful learning opportunities.
Social development is a big part of growing up, and the inspiring learning experiences provided in this book focus on developing skills in these important areas:

• Respect
• Tolerance
• Responsibility
• Kindness
• Service to Others
• Self-Control
• Wise Decision Making

This is a perfect resource for busy home-schooling families. Use these valuable life-skill and reading activities to help your kids learn important life lessons while strengthening your family values and priorities.

Ages 7-14, 152 pages, 8-1/2 x 11, paperback, reproducibles