Counselor Pocket Chart

A 1st grade teacher friend recently gave me one of her extra pocket charts (it's her very 1st year as a teacher and she had several given to her).  As I happily took the pocket chart, I already had an idea in mind of how to use it. I thought of a previous post on "I statements" from blog buddy Tabitha from Scrapbook of a School Counselor and how she used whiteboard sentence strips for "I statements".  I thought why not use similar statements on a pocket chart?

Pocket chart

Here's what I did:

-I started out with 2 "I statements","I feel" and "I like to"; I typed these statements in Word.  I cut and glued the "statements" onto sentence strips and trimmed the edges with wave trim scissors.

Printed "I statements"

"I statements" cut, glued onto sentence strips, trimmed with wave trim scissors

-I typed (feeling & action) words into a Word document and printed onto mailing labels.  I put the mailing labels onto colorful index cards (I put words on both sides of the cards).  I also made some blank cards so that students can write a feeling/action with a dry erase marker.

Here's a list of feelings words I used:  Happy, Awesome, Sad, Down, Angry, Upset, Fantastic, Great, Ok, Not Sure, Really Angry

Here's a list of action words I used: Play, Run, Play Outside, Read, Write, Hang out with friends, Hang out with family, Listen to music, Draw.

Feelings words printed on mailing labels

Feelings/Action cards

-I laminated the "I statements" and index cards.

-The pocket chart is now ready to go:

Finished product!

I LOVE this counselor pocket chart idea for students to express how they're feeling and what they like to do! I'm now thinking of other ways to use the pocket chart.  Do you have any ideas to share?  I'd love to hear from you.