Books Teachers Love: September 2016

Welcome to the September edition of Books Teachers Love! Each month on the 15th, a group of bloggers and I come to you with read alouds and ideas that will be useful for the upcoming month. You also have a chance to win a choice of FOUR books from us!

This month, I am coming to you with a book called, "Kindness is Cooler Mrs. Ruler." My elementary school is taking on the theme of "kindness" this year. I am diving in with all my might and doing all I can to come up with fun ways to encourage students to be kind. In our world right now, a little kindness is exactly what we need.

The reason I fell in love with this book is because I just connected with it so well. I also knew students would too. At the beginning of the story, the kids are worn down, on each others nerves and just not being nice to one another. Their teacher has a nice chat with a few of them about being kind. She gives them a kindness challenge and then before long the entire class is involved. There is ONE student though, who just hasn't bought into the whole kindness thing... so persuading him and showing him the benefits of kindness is a big part of the book. As you can see... the kids are happy at the end of the story. :-)

This year, I will be using this book to encourage students to actively show kindness, to think of their actions and to think of others. I want students to know that they need to be kind to everyone... their friends, teachers, family members and anyone they come across in the community.

The challenge that Mrs. Ruler gave a few students in her class was the do 5 acts of kindness for their family. Then, they had to share it out to their classmates once they completed 5 acts of kindness. This is something that could EASILY be completed in the classroom! I created printables so students could draw pictures of their acts of kindness. I included a printable for family, friends and community members.

As the year goes on, I will pull out these printables and challenge my students to show kindness. I will begin with family first. When it is a student's day to share, they'll get the super awesome microphone that you see above and they'll share with their classmates the kind things they did for their family. Mid year, I will send home the friends printable. End of the year, community. I want to encourage kindness all year long. <3 p="">

Once students share, I will ask them to pick ONE of their acts of kindness and we'll make a heart that tells everyone what they did. This is something that Mrs. Ruler did in the book. Such a fun way to tie it together. I may also 'catch' acts of kindness and have students make hearts with those too. ;-)

You can find all of these activities HERE for free. :-)

My hope, is that students realize how easy it is to be kind, they'll think of others and realize that kindness doesn't just make the other person feel good, but it makes them feel good too.

Brainstorming acts of kindness with your students before you send them off is very, very important! I plan to make an anchor chart before I send home each challenge. If you need extra ideas, the book has 100 acts of kindness is the back! Hello!? AWESOME!

Thanks for reading along! 

Here are other posts you may like right now too about some other books I've written about:

Bad Apple: A Tale of Friendship

The Paper Bag Princess

Frog and Toad Are Friends

 Now, it's time for the giveaway. Make sure to hop around and check out everyones posts so you know which four books you would love to win!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

An InLinkz Link-up