Self-Awareness and Discovery with Children's Books

[SharlisaThackst]

“My Big Feelings: In Five Small Tales” by Sidney Hall- This is a book about hard emotions like jealousy, frustration, and shyness. These emotions are hard to teach or even explain at times. This book allows the student to see what the emotions are and how they affect us on their level. It also shows that things can turn out ok.  

“Be You! By Peter H. Reynolds- This is a fantastic way to help students understand that being yourself is important and always ok. This book shows how different emotions help you to be yourself and no matter how different you are, you are loved for being you! It allows students to see that there are people just like them and no matter how different someone is you should treat them with kindness.  

“Giraffes Can’t Dance” by Giles Andreae and Guy Parker-Rees- If you have ever been told you could not do something or been picked on this book describes that feeling gracefully. When Gerald the giraffe tries to dance, he is told he cannot and is made fun of by the other animals. This story helps students learn how it feels to be made fun of and told you cannot do something. It then allows them to see what happens when you try and find their own way. This is a delightful book to give students the tools to keep pushing toward a goal and to build some empathy for others.  

References

Andreae, G., & Parker-Rees, G. (2019). Giraffes can’t dance. Scholastic Inc.

Hall, S. (2018). My big feelings: In Five small tales. Scholastic, Inc.

Reynolds, P. H. (2021). Be you! Orchard Books, an imprint of Scholastic Inc.