21st March Common Courtesy Day

How appropriate at this troubled time in the community. Common courtesy has almost disappeared at the shops when it comes to people wanting something for themselves. How sad. I think we need it more than ever at the moment, so now that we've moved on in the library from hand washing and germs, I'm moving on to Common Courtesy!

What does common courtesy mean?
It is politeness that people can usually be expected to show!


Common Courtesy Day is a great way to remind ourselves that the world is better off when we show gratitude and graciousness in both big and small ways.

So what books to put in this display? I could put any books about manners, but some are definitely better than others because some are far too didactic. Below are some that warrant reading and sharing. The reader will laugh at the despicable behaviour but once recognised they will know it is inappropriate.

Magic Little Words by Angele Delaunois and Manon Gauthier is the gem to get you started. It presents one word and its meaning on each double-page spread and because there is not  much text it allows for lots of talk.

Hello, Goodbye  by David Lloyd and Louise Voce is very simple and for very young children, but greeting each other  is an important concept.

The Elephant and the Bad Baby  by Elfrida Vipont and Raymond Briggs is a classic that many children will know but will be happy to tell you what the baby and the elephant did wrong.

Please Mr Panda by Steve Antony has a storyline similar to Elfrida Vipont's but has other concepts to explore besides manners.

"Say Please, Little Bear" by Peter Bently and Rob McPhillips. Daddy bear is the kind of parent you hope every child has. He enjoys having fun with his child, but expects exemplary behaviour.

The Magic Word  by Mac Barnett and Elise Parsley. Here humour takes over, but the underlying message isn't lost.


One Word from Sophia  by Jim Averback and Yasmeen Ismail. Sophia tries all sorts of negotiations, but in the end only needs one word.

My Little Gifts  by Jo Witek and Christine Roussey.

Norris the Bear Who Shared by Catherine Rayner.

Betty Bunny Wants Everything by Michael Kaplan and Stephane Jorisch

Rude Cakes by Rowboat Watkins

Yuk! said the Yak by Alex English and Emma Level

Tea Party Rules by Ame Dyckman and K.G. Campbell

We Don't Eat Our Classmates by Ryan T. Higgins

No Slurping, No Burping! by Kara LaReau and Lorelay Bove

You're a Rude Pig, Bertie by Claudia Bolt

All Mine! by Zehra Hicks

How Do You Do, Mr Gnu? by Billy Coughlan and Maddie Frost

Me First! by Michael Escoffier and Kris di Giacomo

Give Me Back My Book! by Travis Foster and Ethan Long

Plankton is Pushy by Jonathan Fenske

10th October World Mental Health Day

This week is Mental Health Week. Yesterday was World Mental Health Day and mental health is certainly something that teachers need to be more aware of than we were in the past. Every class has children who struggle with anxiety, who worry excessively, who have anger issues and who appear especially despondent or unengaged, but the good thing is that because teachers now worry about emotional intelligence as well as academic and social intelligences, they plan for the teaching of it and have much better protocols for identifying and remedying these concerns.

Teachers program for and conduct Circle Time in their classrooms. They encourage students to talk about their feelings, to express their feelings through play, drama and art. They read and discuss wonderful stories that highlight feelings and strategies for overcoming feelings.

In the last couple of years four books have been published about feelings which allow for children to understand that everyone feels a gambit of emotions and that this is normal. These are:




















* Feelings: Inside My Heart and in My Head...
 by Libby Walden and Richard Jones.
* In My Heart A Book of Feelings  by Jo Witek
* The Great Big Book of Feelings by Mary Hoffman and Ros Asquith
* A Book of Feelings by Amanda McCardie and Salvatore Rubbino


While these are certainly not the only books that may be useful, these do cover more than one feeling in one book. There is a myriad of purpose written series about emotions with one emotion per book.

With the young children I teach I like to look at the expressions a fish can have in Mies Van Hout's illustrations in her book Happy and then discuss the emotion illustrated by connecting it back to themselves and when they have felt this way.


Another approach is to read a picture book where a character is having a particularly sad time and look at what happens to the character before discussing this situation. Two recent books that do this are:
* Mr Huff by Anna Walker,    and
* Willy and the Cloud by Anthony Browne.


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4th October Jo Witek (4/9/68)

It isn't Jo Witek's birthday today, but I have just learned that it was her birthday a month ago and she isn't already on my birthday list, so I am adding her now. Also I have just bought her new book ready to use in the library with my preschoolers this coming term. It is called Brave As Can Be.

Jo Witek is an author, journalist and screenwriter who lives in France. Her three picture books available in English are illustrated by Christine Roussey, a French illustrator who also lives in Paris. The three stories, Hello in There; In My Heart  and Brave as Can Be feature the same small girl.

In each book she 'tackles' big issues for preschoolers, getting a new sibling, feelings and being brave. The sibling title doesn't work as well with a large audience, but is better one on one with a child who is awaiting the birth of a sibling. The feelings title is very popular in my library. It includes multilayered die-cut pages featuring decreasing rainbow coloured hearts, big white expanses, and a cute girl who explores her emotions stated as similes... "My heart is like a house, with all these feelings living inside." My heart "is as heavy as an elephant", "like a plant reaching toward the sky".  It has wonderful vocabulary for empowering young children when talking about emotions.


Jo's new book on bravery empowers young children to confront  scary situations head on, but in a playful manner. No doubt there will be more winning titles to come!

Happy New Year

Happy New Year ... no birthday just food for thought. As always I am looking for ways to use literature with children to increase their empathy and I need to get at the boys young before they stop reading any fiction because I believe that it is reading fiction that develops empathic readers. Therefore I really savoured Elizabeth Farrelly's article in the Sydney Morning Herald and began to think about what I could do differently this year in classes to make a bigger impact. There goes my thinking time for the next three weeks!

I thought I'd share two books though today that will make you smile and which offer a myriad of avenues for getting very young children to look closely at feelings, theirs and others'. Both are by European authors and illustrators but available in English. Both appear simple because of their minimal text but they are deceptive and thus somewhat ageless.

Happy  by Mies Van Hout. Have you ever seen so much expression on a fish? This Dutch author's website is available in English and she has ideas for what to do with her book. One of the teachers at my school has used it very successfully for art  and in circle time. My staff had great fun sharing and comparing the French and English version of this book and deciding whether the translation was precise. We now need the original Dutch version and a Dutch speaker to translate so we can discuss it some more.

 In My Heart: A Book of Feelings by Jo Witek and Christine Roussey.   This cover illustration doesn't do this book justice. It has beautiful die-cut pages which show the heart decreasing in size. I haven't seen the original French version of this book.



Happy birthday Olivier Dunrea. His series about Gossie  is ideal for preschoolers and talking about feelings too.