KelLey moOn ElBert County SECONd StEPPrOGrAm

After 24 years of teaching preschool in Elbert County, Kelley Moon says she definitely noticed the impact of COVID on the district’s youngest students.

“After COVID, especially that first year we came back with new students, many of them had not been anywhere. This was their first time back with a group of people,” said Moon. “Since then, kids have had a harder time with their emotions and managing how to interact with other students and people outside of their families. We’ve had to reteach those social skills that may have been lost during that time.”

One thing that has been especially helpful for Moon’s preschoolers at the Paul J. Blackwell Learning Center is the Second Step program designed to help students understand their feelings.

“It helps them learn, when they are having strong feelings, how to talk through them and calm down,” said Moon. “It also helps them learn how to play fair and talk to their peers to problem solve, which has helped with classroom management. We’re helping them to help themselves.”

The program, which the school implemented five years ago, is used schoolwide and is practiced every day. In Moon’s class, the 10-minute daily lesson is included in the morning activities.

“Each week, there’s a program all laid out for you and you have all of the materials you need, which is very helpful,” said Moon. “There is a large photo that goes with each week. We ask the students, ‘What do you think is happening in the photo? How do you think the child in the photo is feeling?’ There are also puppets – a girl and a boy puppet – that go along with it. The kids get to name them at the beginning of the year and we act out skits with them. They enjoy it.”

The Second Step program is used by all of the school’s preschool teachers and everyone is typically studying the same lesson on any given week schoolwide.

“It actually helps me manage the class,” said Moon. “I can remind them what steps they need to calm down or help themselves feel better. Or, if they are having a conflict with another child, we can talk through what we can do to fix the situation.”

Moon said she also incorporates a little yoga in the mornings to help students start their day.

“I love teaching preschoolers because this is their first experience with school,” said Moon. “We’re teaching them how to get along with others, how to be successful, and laying that groundwork.”