Attendance Small Group

Activities: My former intern, Tiffany Buckles, and I used these book in our very successful small group. You can see the data at the bottom of this post! Here is an outline of what we did:

Session 1: Introduction of group members and group rules. Read Dog-Gone School by Amy Schmidt and complete “Read All About Me” worksheet

Session 2: Introduce the term “responsibility.” Read Ready Rabbit Gets Ready by Brenna Maloney. Discuss and complete responsibility worksheet from the Character Counts Kid packets or similar packet on TPT.

Session 3: Read Time For School, Mouse! by Laura Numeroff . Introduce No excuse, Mouse! (a puppet/stuffed animal that they must tell excuses to, then the mouse said “NO EXCUSE!”).

Session 4: Introduce the topic of not staying up late. Read or watch Don’t Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late! by Mo Williams.

Session 5: Introduce the term “accountability.” Show Hurry Up, Franklin YouTube video.

As you watch have students hold up accountability cards (or simple pieces of green or red paper) when they spot accountability in the video.

Session 6: Conclusion. Work through attendance files (by Savvy School Counselor) packet together! Keep up the success by sending home parent information, like this digital flip chart on attendance.

Does it really work? Our data showed it did!

*Notes- We used the same books for K and 3rd. I was pleasantly surprised how well our 3rd graders responded to the books. Most of the members had years of attendance issues, so I can’t help but wonder if the books were more academically and developmentally appropriate for them. The members could easily understand them and I believe that made them more active and engaged.

You can read my original post here.