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The Smile Group is a group that will be focused on improving social skills in kindergarteners.

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Category 1: Mindset Standards-
M 1. Belief in development of whole self, including a healthy balance of mental, social/emotional and physical well-being.
Category 2: Behavior Standards-
B-SS 1. Use effective oral and written communication skills and listening skills
B-SS 2. Create positive and supportive relationships with other students
B-SS 3. Create relationships with adults that support success
B-SS 4. Demonstrate empathy
B-SS 5. Demonstrate ethical decision-making and social responsibility
B-SS 6. Use effective collaboration and cooperation skills
B-SS 7. Use leadership and teamwork skills to work effectively in diverse teams
B-SS 9. Demonstrate social maturity and behaviors appropriate to the situation and environment

(American School Counseling Association, 2014)

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The Smile Group will be advertised in the following ways:
- Teachers and parents (of students participating in the group) will receive a flyer before the sessions begin to explain what we will be working on during our group. This will assist teachers and parents to practice our skills inside and outside of school.
-  Halfway through our sessions I will send out a feedback survey on how students are utilizing their new skills in and outside of school. I will also ask for suggestions if there is something they would like for me to address in our last few weeks together.
- I will take photos each session and post to twitter to showcase our skills we have been working on,
- I will record one of our role play sessions to send out to administrators and teachers.

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The participants in The Smile Group will be referred to me from the kindergarten teachers. I will also look at discipline referrals to choose the students to participate in my group. When I have gathered the names of these students I will go talk to each student about what The Smile Group will involve in hopes to peak their interest to want to be a part of our weekly group. I will ask the students if they would want to join our fun group and see if they have any questions. After the students have received the information and are excited about our group, I will call parents to explain to them the purpose of our group and receive their permission for their child to participate.

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Parental consent is required when meeting with students in a small group setting. Before I can begin the sessions for our group, I must receive a form similar to the  one attached with the parents agreeing to allow their child to participate. I would have received assent from the student when I was telling them about The Smile Group.

(Missouri Professional School Counselors and Counselor Educators, 2015)

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A resource, such as the one below, all for the foundation of the small groups to be set. It lets counselors see what expectations to set up in their groups.

Predetermined Rules for The Smile Group:
- Understand and respect confidentiality
- One person speaks at a time
- Use kind words and responses
- While students are not required to share, students are required to actively participate when we are practicing our newly learned skills

Rules Determined by The Smile Group:
After reviewing the rules that are non-negotiable, I will allow for students to have the opportunity to think of rules and guidelines that we could add to our chart. Rules they might consider could be our campus rules that they practice every day. I would place all of these rules on an anchor chart that I will display at every session. If we are all in agreement of the rules, we will each sign our name to the paper with the understanding that we must follow the rules we are agreeing to.

(Missouri Professional School Counselors and Counselor Educators, 2015)

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Stage 1: Building Trust-
-When working with such young students I think the best way to build trust and relationships is getting to know more about the child. Asking them questions about things they like and relating to their passions helps for them to connect with you and look forward to seeing you.
-Young students will not know what the word "confidentiality" means so to explain this will require several examples. After giving examples of what it means, I would give students scenarios and two choices and see if they are able to choose the best confidentiality answer. While explaining this we would talk about that whatever is said during our group stays in the group unless their is a situation where they share that someone is hurting them, they want to hurt someone else, or have thoughts of hurting themselves.

Stage 2: Performing-
-Each week we will complete an activity that will wrap up our skill for that session. I believe that changing up the activities and keeping them fun will be a way to keep their interest.
-The activities that students complete will allow for me to informally gauge how the students are doing with their new skills.
-Throughout the days when we are not meeting, I will do walkthroughs on the students throughout different parts of the day to see if they are implementing their skills that they have learned in The Smile Group.

Stage 3: Closing-
-As the sessions come to an end, I will share with the group that even though we are not meeting weekly anymore, we are still The Smile Group.
-I will explain to them that I will continue following-up on their new skills by coming to see them in their classrooms.
-I will provide monthly check-ins with the entire group so that we can all come together and know that we are still their for support if they need it.
-I will review their expectations and our signed agreement that we will still obtain confidentiality.

(Missouri Professional School Counselors and Counselor Educators, 2015)

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The most effective leadership style for me to exhibit during The Smile Group would be the participative or democratic leadership. This style will allow for higher student input and deeper conversations. A democratic leader helps students to feel that they are an imperative part of the team to allow for them to feel important. This will allow for higher quality contributions to the group.

(Cherry, 2020).

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The Smile Group will be developing socializing techniques. Yalom describes this as "social learning or development of interpersonal skills" (Yalom, 1995). The Smile Group is a group of kindergartners working on much needed social and interpersonal skills such as, team work, empathy, cooperation, accepting responsibility, and being kind. These skills will allow for students to be successful in their educational, career, personal, and social and emotional development.

(Yalom, 1995)

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The Texas Education Code Section 33.005 (2) explains that school counselors will use responsive services to meet the needs of students that are in need of intervention due to their educational, career, personal, and/or social and emotional development is at risk.

This supports my role in The Smile Group because we are meeting to intervene on their social and emotional development. The students that are in my group are students who teachers referred due to problems in the classroom or students who have had multiple discipline referrals.

(Texas Education Code, 2019)

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ACA Code of Ethics A.9 details important aspects of group work. A.9.a states the importance of screening participants who will be in group counseling. Counselors need to select group members whose needs and goals are compatible with the goals of the group.

This supports how I determined the members of The Smile Group. The participants in The Smile Group are all there for the same reason, they are in need of social skill support. It was determined that they should be in this group based on teacher and discipline referrals.

(American Counseling Association, 2014)

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American Counseling Association. (2014) ACA Code of Ethics. Retrieved from https://www.counseling.org/resources/aca-code-of-ethics.pdf

American School Counseling Association. (2014). ACSA mindsets and behaviors for student
success: K-12 college and career readiness standards for every student. https://www.schoolcounselor.org/asca/media/asca/home/MindsetsBehaviors.pdf

Cherry, K. (2020). What Are Prominent Leadership Styles and Frameworks You Should Know? Retrieved from https://www.verywellmind.com/leadership-styles-2795312

Missouri Professional School Counselors and Counselor Educators. (2015). Professional school counselor small group counseling guide: A professional school counselor’s guide to planning, implementing, and evaluating school-based counseling groups. Retrieved from https://dese.mo.gov/sites/default/files/guid-respon-serv-small-group-counseling-guide-2015.pdf

Texas Education Code (2019) Acts 2019, 86th Leg., 1st C.S., ch. 352, 2019 Comprehensive counseling programs §33.005. Retrieved from https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/ED/htm/ED.33.htm

Yalom ID. (1995). The theory and practice of group psychotherapy (4th ed.). New York: Basic Books.