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Counseling Games for Kids

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There’s never enough time in school counseling. Never enough time to plan and prepare, never enough time to meet with students, never enough time to effectively use data…the list goes on. One thing I did this past summer to be better prepared for my individual sessions was create a collection of issue-specific color-coded questions. It’s the easiest way to make any game a therapeutic counseling game.

counseling games for kids

Students pick one of several games that have colors or numbers or that you can put colored stickers on (CandyLand, Let’s Go Fishing, JENGA, Chutes and Ladders, Connect Four, Don’t Break the Ice, Uno, etc.) and they respond to prompts specific to their issue(s) as we play. The prompts are written so they can be answered multiple times in different ways, so it’s totally fine for someone to land on/pull the same color/number more than once. These were the faves in my office:

counseling game for kids

For example, “BLUE” might prompt “Practice tightening and relaxing your muscles” or “3” might ask “What is 1 thing you can ask someone to get to know them better?” Here are a couple of examples:

counseling games for kids

I laminated them, then put them on a key ring that I hang on the side of a bookcase for easy use. 

 
 
Students, no matter what age, are always excited about getting to play a game. I’ve very rarely encountered any resistance to using these prompts while we play. In some games, the color/number chosen is random. In others, the students choose which allows them to direct the discussions more by selecting what prompts to respond to.

Interested in getting these ready-made? You can find them in my store – click the pic below.

Any Game counseling prompts for elementary The Responsive Counselor

3 Responses

  1. You have some great ideas! I am a new-ish counselor as well and it's helpful to read about different methods and ideas. Thanks!

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Hello, I’m Sara!

With 10 years of experience in
elementary school counseling,
I get to serve in a different way now
– by helping fellow counselors and
educators!

I value quality over quantity,
effective practices and resources,
and meeting the unique needs of all
our diverse learners.

Sara

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