Character Education

By. Teresa Marchant

Great read aloud books can help build a community in your classroom. For some school districts, character education has been put on the back burner.  However, many teachers integrate these concepts into other lessons. These are my favorite books that can be used to build lessons around kindness, community, and internet safety.

We’re All Wonders by R. J. Palacio I love this book! This is the picture book version of the popular book, Wonder by the same author.  It helps students understand we all have something to offer and we need to be kind to one another.

Something’s Wrong by Jory John and Erin Kraan This is a hilarious new publication.  A bear named Jeff receives an odd gift from his grandmother.  He tries the gift on then leaves his house. Jeff meets several other animals along the way to his friend’s house. The illustrations will have you in stitches!  Not one animal tells him what’s wrong, until he talks to his trusted friend.  This is a great book to teach the concept of being an upstander!

Goldilocks for Dinner: A Funny Book About Manners by Susan Montanari and Jake Parke. You will enjoy this silly new book!  Not only can you use this to re-teach nursery rhymes, but to use it as a springboard for a discussion about good manners. This could also be used for a lesson on prepositional phrases.

One by Kathryn Otoshi-This is a great book to use when teaching about bullying. I use this for bullying and cyberbullying and the importance of doing what is right when no one is looking.  It could also be used to reinforce the idea that we can all get along and still be unique. These books don’t necessarily need to be read by you- give  audiobooks or ebooks a try!  Finding great books and additional resources can help us to explicitly teach about kindness. With so much chaos in our communities, we need a healthy dose of kindness to counter the mean comments our students often hear from others around them.