School Counseling Activities for The Good Egg

One of my favorite school counseling children’s books is The Bad Seed. It’s a fantastic book about a bad seed who does some bad things, but we learn that some bad things happened to him. He learns that we all have the power to change and that we don’t have to be defined by what happened to us. The author, Jory John, just released another amazing title, The Good Egg, and it’s another must-have title for your school counseling library! In this story, a good egg is so concerned with cleaning up the messes of some bad eggs that he starts to crack under the pressure. But he learns that he isn’t responsible for them and learns how to practice self care along the way. Keep reading to find The Good Egg activities you can use with your students in school counseling!

This post contains affiliate links to Amazon for books that I adore!

The Good Egg Activities

What’s in my control?

In the story, the egg focuses all of his energy on helping others and making sure everything is going right. When the eggs around him are misbehaving and causing lots of trouble, he tries to intervene and get everyone back on track. But… they don’t really listen to him. Have any students like this? They want to control everyone else’s behavior and feel responsible for making sure everyone else is doing the right thing or doing things the right way? I know I do, and I can’t wait to introduce them to this book.

To help students understand that they aren’t in control of or responsible for others’ behaviors, I like to talk about what’s in and out of our control. I usually trace students’ hands and then have them write the things that are in their control inside the hand and things that are not in their control outside the hand. With this story, you could always use an outline of an egg instead of a hand!

For some students, it may also be helpful to use a plastic egg for the demonstration. Write things that are in their control on strips of paper and place them inside the plastic egg. Things that are outside of their control don’t go in the egg. Then, they can keep the egg for a reminder of what they can and can’t control!

Self Care Activities

In the story, the good egg leaves his carton behind when his shell starts to crack from the pressure of keeping everyone else in line. He goes out on his own and learns to truly take care of himself. After picking up some vital self care skills, he feels like he can go back to his carton. He takes these skills home and is able to take care of himself instead of taking on the pressure of taking care of others.

To help students with self care, I like to do a self-assessment first. I have students think about what they are currently struggling with and how they are dealing with it. Then we take a look at their strategies and see if they are healthy or less healthy ways of managing pressures. I have students choose 1-2 strategies from the healthy list to practice throughout the week. I remind students that not all self care activities work for each person and it takes practice to find self care activities that work for them!

Self Care Self Assessment

If students are unfamiliar with the concept of self care, I think it’s helpful to introduce it in a fun way. Self care BINGO is perfect for introducing students to a variety of strategies. Students can also see that self care looks different for different people.

Self Care BINGO

Get the Books

If you don’t have one of Jory John’s books yet, you need them ASAP! Pick up both books on Amazon with these links – you won’t regret adding either one to your shelf! And find activities for The Bad Seed on my blog with this link.