Category: 12 Character Traits: 2020

When I posted about our Family Focus: Gratitude and Thankfulness kickoff, I got LOTS of questions about the book we used to kick off this month in our house. So today, I’ve got some information for you about Giving Thanks: More Than 100 Ways to Say Thank You by Ellen Surrey. If you are looking for a way to inspire your children to think of all they are grateful for, who they may want to thank, and unique ways to express gratitude to others, then this is the book for you!

Okay, so we all know that it’s important — and hard — to stand up to people we don’t know well, or strangers we don’t know at all, when they are doing something wrong, hurtful, or mean… But let’s be honest for a minute. It’s just as important, and often much harder, to stand up to our friends when they do wrong. And unfortunately, children’s books about standing up to our friends are often much harder to find! For an elementary audience, you all know that I love The Hundred Dresses (you can read my full review of this gem here). Today, I’ve got a delightful picture book aimed at younger readers and listeners about doing the right thing when your best friend is trying hard to pull you off track — Hunter’s Best Friend at School by Laura Malone Elliott, illustrated by Lynn Munsinger.

On Sunday night, we had our next Family Focus Trait family meeting about being upstanders. During this meeting, we read the book Say Something by Peggy Moss, illustrated by Lea Lyon, and we went through a few role plays in which we practiced what we might say or do to be upstanders. If you don’t know the book Say Something by Peggy Moss, please read on to learn about it, as I think it’s a valuable book for both home and classroom libraries!

Our school as a delightful birthday book program, through which you can make a monetary donation to the library and the librarian will use that money to buy new books for the library. These books are designated “birthday books,” marked with a special birthday book note in the front, and given to your child first, to keep for as long as he/she wants before they are entered into the regular library rotation. Our new five-year-old received her birthday books on her birthday (our librarian even makes housecalls for students who are learning at home or have birthdays on weekends!!!), and they are delightful! Today, I’m sharing one of her birthday books (a book that was completely new to me, so that was unusual and exciting): I’m Sticking With You by Smriti Prasadam-Halls, illustrated by Steve Small.

Okay, there is just enough time left in September for me to highlight one more book from my list of picture books that model including others. And y’all, this one is a must-read. Though it was originally published in 1993, I didn’t discover it until a few years into my teaching career, but once I found it, I read it to my students every single year. And now I revisit it frequently with my girls. If you don’t know Yo! Yes? by Chris Raschka yet, please read on to learn more about it — and then find a way to get your hands on it!