CART Kits

In Franklin County, we are lucky to have CART kits. These kits were a Chambersburg District Library project. There are sets in McConnellsburg and Waynesboro, as well as at Coyle. The idea originally came from Pittsburgh libraries so they may be available at other libraries. These kits are collections of books, on a specific topic.

Kit number 40 is devoted to the topic of feelings. Books included in this kit are:

Will You Come Back for Me? by Ann Tompert and illustrated by Robin Kramer. This is the story of a little girl, Suki, who is unsure about starting school. As she pretends to take her bear to school and drop him off, she expresses her own concerns about being left at school. If this is a problem for your child or children in the classroom, it might be helpful for you to provide the props for him or her to role play the experience of a parent leaving a child at school. Either way the book is a good discussion started of how it feels when a parent leaves a child in a new place.
Feelings by Aliki is probably better read one on one or at least to children with a good understanding of books. The book is wonderful at helping children understand what others might be feelings in different circumstances.
The Hating Book by Charlotte Zolotow, illustrated by Ben Shecter. Two little girls have a misunderstanding and the one expresses negative thoughts about the girl. Things are finally resolved when the mom suggests she talk to her friend. A good story to help children see how misunderstandings can happen. The misunderstanding in this story is about what one person thought the other said about her. When I was a Girl Scout, we used to play a game in which the first person would whisper something to the next and the message would go around the circle. Most often by the time the message got to the last person, it was very different. Try this with your class and help them see, if you want to know what someone said, you need to ask that person.
The Saddest Time by Morma Simon pictures by Jacqueline Rodgers This is a book I hope you never need to use. It is divided into sections and talks about different people dying. There is one short section about a child dying and the classmate's reaction. The class draws pictures for the child’s parents.
Other books in this kit are:
The Knight Who was Afraid of the Dark by Barbara Shook Hazen,
Weird Parents by Audrey Wood
Let’s Be Enemies by Janice May Udry
Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney
I Was So Mad by Mercer Mayer

Remember Your Ps.

When I was growing up, children were often reminded to remember their Ps and Qs. It was a way to remind children to remember their manners and say please and thank you. As teachers, we need to remember our Ps. To get off on a good foot, remember to be present, positive and predictable.
Be Present. Be there when the children are; from the moment they walk in the door until they go home. It is so easy to become distracted by phone calls, visitors, and other distractions, but to be successful with the children, you need to be there for them. Even the best teachers and child care professionals can’t be everywhere at once and will miss some things now and then, but do your best to keep out extraneous distractions
Be Positive. We all know what a difference it is to be with someone who is positive throughout the day. It is even more important for children. Role model a positive, can do attitude so children will have a positive outlook and better self-esteem.
Be Predictable. Children will learn to trust when teachers are predictable in routines, guidance, and in what they say. Of course, there is lots of room for innovative ideas, teachable moments, and a change of pace, but when the school year is starting out children need predictability. They need it most at stressful and hectic times. They need to know the day’s routine, when it will be time to go home, where to find what they need, and what will happen if they demonstrate mistaken behavior. Once children know what to expect, they will be better able to handle the changes that must come.

Have a great school year!!

Picture Books and Feelings

For awhile, I thought I might not find enough good picture books about feelings to share, but that hasn't been a problem. There are so many, I will post one or two at a time throughout the month. I'm including both of these in my lesson plans.

How Are You Peeling? Food with Moods By Saxton Freymann and Joost Elffers
Children seem to love this book, but I would guess their focus is on the illustrations rather than the words. That’s ok because the feelings are clearly illustrated, even though they are made from food. It is a good book to attract children who need a little extra to draw them in at story time. Showing the pictures and discussing them before reading the story, may be the best way to introduce it. You may even find it valuable to draw a smiley face ( and other iconic faces) and discussing what feeling the icon represents. Afterwards, children may want to play a game, much like charades, in which a child makes a face and others guess how he or she is feeling. You may want to share the book with parents and encourage them to work with children to make faces on food. This could be a great extension for families which celebrate Halloween.

Angry Dragon by Thierry Robberecht is the story of a very angry boy who says he turns into a dragon when he gets angry. The little boy expresses his feelings as he goes from becoming angry to again being calm and able to allow his parents to comfort him. Phille Goosens illustrates the boy's feelings in a clear way. After reading the story, children will probably want to discuss how they feel when they become angry. I think the real value in the story is in helping children see they are not the only ones who have strong , hard to control feelings. Teachers may want to discuss appropriate ways to handle anger. In small groups, children could draw how they feel when angry and then how they feel when calm.

Exclude or Include?

Does every child in your classroom feel safe and included?
I always thought that I was doing a good job on this topic until I read "A Matter of Trust" by Carollee Howes and Sharon Ritchie. They write about a girls’ relational aggression being difficult for teachers to see because it is so much a part of our culture. They go on to discuss that teachers may feel they should not intervene as children work things out for themselves or they try to change the outsider to be more acceptable to the others. They conclude that a child who feels left out or bullied does not feel safe and by now we all know the problems which can come from that. When I think back to some of the scenarios that have happened in my classroom, I’m sure I have allowed some of these types of behaviors to occur. I too, have worked to make the outsider be more acceptable to the group, when maybe I should have been working to make the group more accepting to others. I know I did some excluding myself as a child when I had a club house and decided who could and could not be a part of it. ( mostly my friend’s little sisters were not allowed.)
Howes and Ritchie make an important point in saying, if children are expected to include all others, the teacher has a responsibility to see that she is not excluding children- from circle, from activities, from recess.
Do I have the answers? Certainly not, but it is food for thought, lots of thought. If you want to learn more about including, read Vivian Paley’s "You Can’t Say You Can’t Play" or maybe even re-read it. I read it when it was first published in 1992, and again a few years ago. I’ll probably go back for a third read.
Do you agree with Howes and Ritchie? Should children always have to include others? What if the other child is being mean and disrupting the play? Please join in the discussion of this topic by posting your comments.

Some Opening Thoughts

• To help our children succeed in life and academic learning, we should teach them social and emotional skills with the same intensity that we teach reading and math. -- Tricia S. Jones.
• "Just as books require white space, so do children. That is, they need room to grow." --Arnold, Johann Christoph. Endangered: Your Child in a Hostile World, 2000.
• Social and emotional abilities were FOUR times more important than IQ in determining professional success and presitge. --Tricia S. Jones.
• "These are our children, and we must teach them in ways that will give them a realistic chance of successfully managing the challenges of learning, growing, and developing." -- Promoting Social and Emotional Learning, 1997.

Please voice your comments, questions, and thoughts.