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One Plastic Bag by Miranda Paul (@Miranda_Paul) (@LernerBooks)

8/27/2015

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I chose this book for our Taking Care collection and to feature for #TakingCareThurs because it addresses Taking Care of Others, Taking Care of Ourselves, and Taking Care of our World in a very compelling true story of a young lady in a country far away. 

This is the story of young Isatou Ceesay and the recycling women of the Gambia. Young Isatou notices more and more people are discarding their plastic bags on the ground because there is nowhere else to put them. Years pass by and she barely notices the ugliness until one day she notices goats crying and missing goats at her grandmother's house. She comes to find out that the goats have been eating the bags and many goats in the village had died because of it. Isatou realizes she must be strong and do something about it. But what? she asks herself. Isatou and her friends decide to collect the bags, wash them, and cut them into a spools of plastic thread. The women spend hours working by candlelight through the night to create recycled purses. The women take them to the market to sell. At first they were mocked, but slowly people started to buy the recycled purses. Isatou makes enough money to buy her Grandmother a new goat. The garbage starts to slowly disappear.

This story has many messages for children. Isatou was "taking care of others" by helping to clean up the garbage and spare the animals harm. In addition, she spent her earnings to buy her grandmother a new goat as well. She is demonstrating "taking care of ourselves" as she models persistence, problem-solving skills, and leadership. Lastly, she is "taking care of our world" by helping to make it a healthier for her village people and beyond. What wonderful lessons we can learn from Isatou!

For additional classroom resources visit:  http://www.oneplasticbag.com/

"People thought I was too young and that women couldn't be leaders. I took these things as challenges; they game me more power. I didn't call out the problems - I called out the solutions." 
                                                                                                               - Isatou Ceesay




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Enemy Pie by Derek Munson (@derekmunson)

8/27/2015

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Enemy Pie written by Derek Munson (@derekmunson) and illustrated by Tara Calahan King (@taracalahankingis) is such a great "taking care of others" story! The story starts with a young boy having the "perfect" summer on the "perfect" baseball team until the new kid, Jeremy Ross, moves to town. Jeremy was the one and only person on his enemy list. But dad has the perfect solution to the problem - "Enemy Pie!" You may be wondering what exactly is Enemy Pie....well so did the boy in the story. Dad says it's a secret! Dad precedes to cook up the Enemy Pie. It looked and smelled wonderful! Just how was this Enemy Pie going to work? Well, it seems Enemy Pie will only work if you spend a full day with your enemy AND you have to be nice to him! Could he do it? Could he endure one day in order to be rid of Jeremy Ross forever? 

"Enemy pie is the fastest known way to get rid of enemies." "In order for it to work, you need to spend a day with your enemy. Even worse, you have to nice to him!"
 
The "full" day is filled with riding bikes, water balloons, basketball and lots of fun. "Dad, it's nice having a new friend in the neighborhood," he tells dad. Dad smiles and brings out the Enemy Pie. Oh no! Is it poisonous? "Jeremy, don't eat it!" the boy shouts. 

"If it so bad, why is your dad eating it?" Dad laughs and Jeremy happily eats the pie. 

"As for Enemy Pie, I still don't know how to make it....but I don't know if I'll ever get an answer. I just lost my best enemy." 

This story is beautifully written and illustrated. Students and teachers will just love the ending! What a great message of friendship! Kids sometimes are so quick to judge and the Dad in this story was very wise and knew if they just gave it a chance, they could be great friends! I highly recommend you add this book to your Taking Care collection!  

Official Enemy Pie website

The Illustrated World of Tara Calahan King

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The Potato Chip Champ by Maria Dismondy

8/20/2015

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First of all, let me be honest. I. Love. Potato Chips. Well, so does Champ, one of the main characters in The Potato Chip Champ by Maria Dismondy (@MariaDismondy). Champ has even dipped chocolate covered potato chips in ranch dressing! Champ loves baseball and plays on a baseball team. One day the coach announces an unusual fundraiser with the grand prize being a truckload of potato chips. Sounds perfect, right?

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Wrong. For Champ, life was perfect until Walter Norbert Whipplemore was placed on the team. Walter was different and everyone on the team liked him....except for Champ. The rivalry continued until one day, Champ has a stroke of bad luck sliding into home plate and breaks his leg. Champ is out for the season and it's not looking so good for winning the grand prize. Walter Norbert Whipplemore decides to reach out and "take care" of Champ. With an unusual twist at the end, Walter helps Champ learn an important lesson about sharing, empathy, and kindness. 

We have all of Maria Dismondy's books in our Taking Care Collection. If you are looking for a place to get started, I highly recommend buying her books, including The Potato Chip Champ. 

For some great companion lessons and activities to go along with The Potato Chip Champ, click here. One of my favorites is the "Kindness is Catching" game. 


 
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If You Plant a Seed by Kadir Nelson(@KadirNelson)

8/20/2015

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If you have never read a book by Kadir Nelson (@KadirNelson), than you need to quickly get a hold of this book or any others of his. Not only are the words beautiful, but the illustrations are breathtaking. 

The story line in If You Plant a Seed is a simple message, but packs a powerful punch: 

"If you plant a seed of selfishness, in a very short time, it will grow, and grow, and grow into a heap of trouble. But if you plant a seed of kindness, in almost no time at all, the fruits of kindness will grow, and grow, and grow, and they are very, very sweet." 

I've always told my students that kindness is contagious! Your students (young and old) will delight in the beautiful illustrations and the very important message of "taking care of others" in this book!  Why not commit to #TakingCareThurs this year and begin planting some seeds of kindness! 




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#pb10for10 - Picture Books that promote "Taking Care of Others" for #TakingCareThurs

8/12/2015

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I just stumbled across #pb10for10 yesterday, so my post is a little late. Thank you to the founders of this August 10 for 10 picture book event. What a great idea! I love reading and sharing books with others. 

I decided to share 10 books from our Taking Care collection. Three years ago I founded a "Taking Care of Others" initiative at our school as a way for teachers to spread the message of the importance of taking care of others by reading books with themes of kindness, compassion, and friendship. We started with about 50 books and the collection has grown to over 160 books now. In year two, I added "Taking Care of Ourselves" as it is important to also take care of our own habits of mind as our actions impact others as well. I then added books with themes of persistence, growth mindset, believing in yourself, and more. Since I am limited to only 10 books, I decided to share 10 new books to our collection. All of these books have themes of taking care of others. I will be writing a detailed review of all of these books and a new book every Thursday, so come back and visit soon and read about other books in our collection! 

A brief highlight of the books is as follows:
  • Dare, Tough, and Weird by Erin Frankel - a trilogy of books that examine bullying situations from three different perspectives - the bullied, the bystander, and the bully. 
  • The Girl and the Bicycle by Mark Pett- a  wordless picture book exploring the relationship between the young and the old. A beautiful "story" of "taking care of others." 
  • The Prince Who Was Just Himself by Silke Schnee - a story about a boy who was "different" (he had Down's Syndrome) who was able to reach out and "take care" of the terrible wicked knight, Scarface, in the story changing him forever. The beautiful prince was just himself. 
  • Stick and Stone by Beth Ferry - a classic friendship story. 
  • Red by Jan de Kinder - Tommy is relentlessly bullied for blushing and his "red" cheeks until one day Lisa decides to stand up for change. 
  • Yeti and the Bird by Nadia Shireen - everyone will love this fun story about the biggest, hairiest, scariest Yeti anyone had every seen until Bird comes along. Did Yeti take care of Bird or did Bird take care of Yeti?
  • Chocolate Milk, Por Favor? by Maria Dismondy - one of Maria's newest books. She is a champion for "taking care of others!"  Learn how chocolate milk and soccer turn out to help the students "take care of each other" and discover the real meaning of friendship and how to celebrate diversity. 
  • If You Plant a Seed by Kadir Nelson - a beautifully illustrated and written book on the simple truth of kindness.... "if you plant a seed of kindness, in almost no time at all, the fruits of kindness will grow, and grow, and grow and they are very, very sweet." 

This year I'm hoping to spread this initiative through the #TakingCareThurs project. Will you join us by committing to reading a picture book every Thursday or the first Thursday of the month with themes of friendship, kindness, and compassion for taking care of others? Use the hashtag #TakingCareThurs to share your selection. Click here to read more. 
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The Wonder of Wonder (#thewonderofwonder)

8/6/2015

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NOTE: This post is a little longer than normal because it chronicles the story of how the "Taking Care of Others" initiative was founded at our school. Thank you for taking the time to read it! 

Wonder
is the grandfather of all "Taking Care of Others" books! If you haven't read Wonder yet and you are as passionate about the importance of teaching children empathy and compassion toward others, you need to stop reading this post now and rush over to your local library and pick up a copy! 


Several years ago I was sitting in a SIP (Shared Involvement Process) meeting at our school with administrators, teachers, and parents when one of the parents brought up a point that she would like to see more clubs at our school. In that same meeting, our school secretary brought to us a request from our local Active Faith program to run food drives every month to collect for those in need. That night a light bulb went off in my head that maybe I could form a club for 4th graders to supervise the collection of the food drives. The next morning the Dolsen Helping Hands Club was born. That spring my secretary gave me some paperwork to fill out to collect a stipend for running the club. A stipend? I told her I couldn't collect money for running a charitable club. That night again another light bulb went off and I asked myself, "What if I take the money and reinvest it back into books for kids that have important messages of friendship, empathy, and compassion?" The next morning the Dolsen "Taking Care of Others" initiative was born! I would buy books with these themes and then as a whole school we would commit to reading these books to the students having important conversations about what it means to "take care of others." And so the search began for books with these very important themes. 

As I searched for books I kept coming across the hashtag #choosekind which ultimately led me to Wonder by R.J. Palacio (@RJPalacio). I read it that summer and was blown away by the story and the messages embedded in the book. I don't want to share too much of the story, as I encourage you to pick up the book and just immerse yourself in the story. I will only share what is printed on the inside cover: 

"August (Auggie) Pullman was born with a facial deformity that prevented him from going to a mainstream school - until now. He's about to enter fifth grade at Beecher Prep, and if you've ever been the new kid, then you know who hard that can be. The thing is Auggie's just an ordinary kid, with an extraordinary face. But can he convince his new classmates that he's just like them, despite appearances?"

That year I decided to wrap our whole "Taking Care of Others" initiative around the core message in Wonder - #choosekind. The entire 4th and 5th grade classes participated in a read aloud of Wonder.  I was even able to connect with a local real life Auggie - Peter Dankelson and his mother, Dede Dankelson (@ddankelson). They came out and gave our students a very special presentation - Beyond The Face is a Heart. Peter and his mother work to help kids develop empathy for children with craniofacial differences. Our Helping Hands Club then sold bookmarks at our school to raise money for Children's Craniofacial Association. That same year we also had the honor of participating in a shared read aloud experience of Wonder with a sister classroom and their teacher (@Catherine_D2013) in Canada. Their class also got the opportunity to Skype with Peter. The year was amazing and the whole experience is something I will never forget. I realized that year that I HAVE TO CONTINUE spreading this message to others schools and teachers and in the summer of 2015 the idea for the #TakingCareThurs Project was born. I hope you too will pick up a copy of Wonder and become inspired to start a "Taking Care of Others" #choosekind movement at your school or to participate in the #TakingCareThurs Project. Kindness is contagious...it only takes a spark. I hope you will light the spark! 


Some of my favorite quotes from Wonder:

“Courage. Kindness. Friendship. Character. These are the qualities that define us as human beings, and propel us, on occasion, to greatness.” 

“It’s not enough to be friendly. You have to be a friend.” 

“We carry with us, as human beings, not just the capacity to be kind, but the very choice of kindness.” 

“Do people look the same when they go to heaven, mommy?"
"I don't know. I don't think so."
"Then how do people recognize each other?"
"I don't know, sweetie. They just feel it. You don't need your eyes to love, right?” 

“My mom smiled at me. Her smile kind of hugged me.” 

Resources for Getting Started:

Random House: http://choosekind.tumblr.com/

CCA Kids: http://www.ccakidsblog.org/p/choose-kind-challenge.html

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First Things First....It's All About the Kids!

8/6/2015

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I’d like to launch my blog series for #TakingCareThurs by acknowledging some of those that have worked before me to spread this very important message to kids. Stephen Covey’s 3rd Habit is “first things first,” which is about prioritizing. The priority of this blog and project is the kids…plain and simple. And if I can help you find resources that help kids, than that’s what it’s all about! 

This post is a thank you to a couple of individuals who helped me to build our Taking Care of Others/Ourselves collection at my school (to read more about how it all began, click here). As of this post, we have 165 books in our collection! Please visit these their blogs and get ideas for books from them too! If you find others, please send me a note as well. 

  • Be the Difference - Maria Dismondy (@mariadismondy), author and blogger, former elementary school teacher, who believes in empowering children to positively handle tough situations through the timeless messages in her books.   http://mariadismondy.com/blog/
  • Books That Heal - Roxanne (@Books_Heal_Kids), elementary school counselor who believes in the healing power of books in kids’ lives.  http://booksthathealkids.blogspot.com/
  • The Corner on Character - Barbara Gruener (@BarbaraGruener), school counselor, character coach, author -http://www.corneroncharacter.com/
  • Pennies of Time - Sheila (@Pennies_of_Time), founder and president of Pennies of Time focuses on supporting others in their goal to have a service and kindness oriented family - http://penniesoftime.com/childrens-book-gallery/

Thank you Maria, Roxanne, Barbara, and Sheila for being a champion for kids and helping me get started! 

Stay tuned for more ideas for books and resources for getting started with #TakingCareThurs! To read more about the project, click here. 

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    #TakingCareThurs

    Teachers (and parents, of course!) have the potential to make a huge impact on the lives of their students/kids. Join me and commit to reading a picture book every Thursday or the first Thursday of the month if you can't commit to weekly with "Taking Care of Others" or "Taking Care of Ourselves" themes in order to help our students/children learn important traits like empathy, compassion, friendship, persistence,  grit, and more! Join me weekly as I blog about our book of the week. Make sure to tweet your weekly choice using the hashtag #TakingCareThurs so we can share books and learn from each other. 

    Disclaimer: I am not a counseling professional. The books presented here are suggested solely upon personal experience with the books and my students. 

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