I always have pipe cleaners lying around – they somehow just end up everywhere. I use them all the time, but one of my favorite ways to use pipe cleaners is to create gauges or sliders for students to self-monitor their progress in a variety of ways. You’ll just need pipe cleaners, tape, beads, and some simple printables to make these awesome pipe cleaner counseling gauges.

Pipe Cleaner Gauges for…

Goal Progress Monitoring

Help students visualize their progress toward a long term goal with a slider! In this activity, students identify long term goals and write them in the tree to symbolize how they will have to climb the tree to meet their goals. Students can move their bead or animal up the gauge as they make progress and complete short-term goals that build up to the long-terms goals they set for themselves. Seeing the animal move closer and closer to the goal is a great motivator!

Feelings Thermometers

These simple feelings thermometers help students conceptualize the escalation of their feelings as well as serve as a nonverbal communication tool with teachers or peers. As students move the bead up or down the slider, they realize how emotions feel on a spectrum. They can also place these on their desks to let teachers know how they are feeling and when they might need a break.

Conflict Resolution Steps Trackers

This slider helps students stay on track when resolving a conflict. After reading a story and learning the steps to positively resolve a conflict, students make a slider and practice resolving conflicts with scenarios. As they complete each step of the process, they move their bead or animal up the slider. Using this tool prevents getting off subject or interjecting with blaming or other resolution roadblocks.

ABC Discussion Leads

Walk students through a discussion of antecedents, behavior, and consequences with an ABC discussion slider. This gage helps students visualize the actual progression of what happened. Start the bead on antecedents as the student describe what was happening. Move the bead to behavior as the students shares what strategy he or she used to deal with the antecedent situation. Move the bead to consequences as students describe what happened after they used that strategy. And finally, move the bead to discuss as you talk about potential alternatives or different strategies he or she could use if the student faces a similar situation in the future.

Where can I find these? Download this ABCD gage from my free resource library! The goal progress and conflict resolution sliders are available in the individual lessons linked above or in my safari-themed classroom guidance unit, and the feelings gauge is here.

Do you have other pipe cleaner gauges you create to use with your students? Let me know in the comments!

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