3 New Books

Bernice shared three new library books with me this week. She was right, they are really cute and right on target for helping children learn social-emotional skills. The first one I read, was Yoko Writes Her Name by Rosemary Wells. Yoko is very pleased to be able to write her name in Japanese, but the other children make fun of her scribbling. Yoko worries about this, but before long the other children come to appreciate Yoko’s secret language. This book will help children learn about and respect other’s cultures. The book shows numbers and several words in Japanese. Children who are already able to write numbers may want to try the Japanese writing. If you are fortunate to know another language or have a parent or child who does, they can teach some words from that language. It might be a good time to add a CD with other languages to your listening center. Using music and songs from various cultures would also build appreciation. Don’t forget to include some sign language in your teaching. As our community becomes more diverse, it is important to help children accept and appreciate others.

Gorgonzola by Margie Palatini and illustrated by Tim Bowers is the story of a stinky dinosaur. This funny story will help children understand the importance of personal hygiene. Use caution, if you have a child in your class who has a noticeable problem as it could be embarrassing, but for most classroom, this book will be an attention getting introduction on how to take care of one self. You can act out taking a bath or shower, make a class book about personal care, or put dolls, soap, wash clothes, toothbrushes in the water table and let the children clean the dolls. If you have plastic dinos, it would be fun to wash those, too. Providing real life activities reinforces the child’s learning.

As a child, I would have been attracted to the book, Mail Harry to the Moon by Robie H. Harris and illustrated by Michael Emberly. Just as the boy in this story, I felt life was perfect before my baby brother came along. In the end, the boy comes to appreciate his baby brother, just as I have mine! No matter how hard parents may try to prepare children for the birth of a new baby, some children still have a difficult time adjusting to sharing their parents. This book opens to the door for a class to discuss the good (and bad) things about having a sibling. After hearing this story, I wouldn’t be surprised to see children acting out the role of big sister or brother in the pretend center. Pretending is a good way for children to work out their feelings, so be sure to support this kind of imaginative play. You may be able to help them problem solve what to do when parents are busy with the new baby by joining in the play and taking the role of the big brother.

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.