How Are You Peeling? (Saxton Freymann & Joost Elffers). Ages: 4-9 years. This
beautiful and funny book is a wonderful way to engage young children about ...
A Teaspoon of Courage for kids
(Bradley Trevor Greive) Ages: Under 12 years Product Description
The general feeling about the book was that it is an excellent tool for helping children and adults to ‘feel better’ and bring a smile to their faces. A Teaspoon of Courage for Kids teaches children to confront their fears which could be bullying, moving to a new town or grief and loss. The book is a fun way to identify and discuss feelings in a non-threatening manner. The pictures give opportunities for children to laugh at the pictures whilst identifying some scary emotions they have had and talk about their feelings.
Suggestions for Use: • Show child the pictures and read the captions, gradually working your way through to the positive pages at the back of the book • Ask the child to pick out a picture that reflects how they feel and discuss why they feel that way • Discuss that everyone feels tired, grumpy, left out sometimes or think that everything goes wrong but that it will pass • Ask child to draw their own version of a picture • If a child gets upset during the reading of the book engage with the child about how they are feeling and reassure the child. If used in refuge setting talk to a case-worker or if in another situation refer child to professional services if required
Grumpy Gertie (Sam Lloyd)
Ages: 3-8 years Product Description Gertie wakes up in a grump and sets out to tell everyone about it. After making the cheerful sun, flowers and fish thoroughly miserable, she feels no better. But when a cheeky monkey teaches her that by turning upside-down she can turn her frown into a smile, she makes a new friend and realises that making people happy again is much more fun. Grumpy Gertie is a clever book that little children will delight in. It has thick pages that little ones can turn on their own, a big frown/smile on each page for little fingers to explore and bright, colourful illustrations to hold the attention...the story is good too! Suggestions for Use: • The book has a cut-out frown on each page, and as Gertie turns her mood around, the child turns the book upside down, and the cut-out frowns become smiles instead • Read through the book – be sure to start with the grumpy cutout first and then turn book around to smiling cut-outs • Discuss feelings of being grumpy, encouraging child to talk about things that make them grumpy and what they can do to turn the frown into a smile
How Are You Peeling?
(Saxton Freymann & Joost Elffers) Ages: 4-9 years This beautiful and funny book is a wonderful way to engage young children about emotions and to help them know there is a difference between "sad" and "tired" and "lonely". As well as illustrations of anger, fear, surprise, joy, pride and sadness the unique photos of fruit and vegetables are excellent for counting, learning colours, judging feelings and moods, and learning about healthy foods. Product Description The book is fun, and full of life with bright, vibrant colours that make both adults and young children want to smile and laugh. The images will help children understand their moods. More importantly, it will show them that it's OK to have these feelings. On each page, laid out in signature crisp style, are wild lemons, capsicums and other fruit and vegetables that embody each emotion expressively with fabulous humour. Every page brings a smile to a child’s face with simple text with pictures that are funny and designed to start a conversation between adult and child about feelings. Suggestions for use • Feeling happy? Hopeful? Overjoyed? Or maybe you're angry today? Or just a little anxious? This funny and clever book provides all the right questions to engage children in discussions about their feelings • Ask the child what each of the fruit or vegetable is and what expression they see and if they have felt like this? • Count how many of each fruit or vegetable there are? What the colours are? Do they eat this fruit or vegetable at home? Do they grow them in their garden? Pick out the different facial expression on each page
Duck & Goose – How Are You Feeling? (Tad Hills)
Ages: 4-6 years Duck and Goose is a delightful book that uses simple text and colourful illustrations to help young children identify familiar feelings like happy, sad, scared, and proud. This almost wordless board book portrays simple emotions – scared and sad and then proud and happy. For sad the sky is gray, the flowers are drooping and duck hangs his head, for happy duck and goose are jumping, the sky is blue, big pink flowers are blooming and butterflies surround the birds. The pictures tell the story with just one word: hopeful, selfish, proud, frustrated, scared, patient, sad, happy, angry, loving. The two cling together one with eyes wide open and the other with them squeezed shut as a thunder and lightning storm rages. Duck's bill is practically dragging on the ground as he sadly walks along. The flowers droop and the sky is filled with gray clouds which all emphasize his mood. On the next page, the delightful duo is shown dancing with the butterflies on a bright sunny day. The flowers are now all open and pointed toward the sky as if to echo the joy the two are experiencing. Suggestions for use • This book can be used with children from other cultures by adding a sticker with the word in their language under the English word. • Ask the child to point out what the other pictures mean: is the sky sad, are the flowers happy? • This book combines pictures with single abstract words and requires the reader to fill in the details.
Little Jack the Wallaby
(Fiona Calvert & Judith-Rose Thomas) Ages: 4-6 years The Little Jack the Wallaby book takes the reader on an illustrated journey of bright indigenous colours and a story of his friend Jimmy who is feeling frightened and scared when he hears his father shouting at his mum. This children’s book was written specifically for the Safe from the Start project to provide both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal children a story book about feeling safe and having friends to talk to and stay with. The Author and Illustrator are both Tasmanian Aboriginal women. The illustrations using the aboriginal colours for the moon, rock carvings, pyjama jackets and blankets enables children to ask questions about the Aboriginal meaning of the illustrations. The story provides opportunities for the child to express their feelings if there is shouting in their home and that friends and family can listen and help them to be safe. Suggestions for use • A number of questions could be asked to generate discussion about Aboriginal culture. This is particularly useful in group settings in a playgroup or school. Possible questions include: • See if you can find the three Aboriginal flags in the book? • How many sunsets can you find? • What is Jimmy holding in his hand on the first page and why do you think he is crying? • Are Jack and Jimmy wearing the same colour pyjamas?
Wallaby hand puppet Ages: 3-6 years The wallaby puppet is a great toy to use together with the Little Jack the Wallaby book. Children enjoy choosing a puppet to play with after a bad time and tell what they were feeling. The puppet is often good to use when children don’t relate to stories or books. It is soft with a friendly face and can be put to bed, pretend to cry and can be hugged. This can teach a child about comfort, having a friend and that we all have feelings. Suggestions for use • Great for peek-a-boo games! • Make up stories about the puppet as the central character to talk about emotions and situations that will or have affected the child • Let the child use the puppet to clap the puppets paws and nod his head • Let the child use the puppet and talk about their emotions or situations • Make a table top puppet theatre box and put on a display for parent and/or child • Read the wallaby story and use the puppet each time the character is mentioned
Talk Ball – Feelings Ages: 2-6 years The Language Feelings Ball has been highly recommended for use in ‘activity based play’ with children that may not engage with a story book. The ball has pictures of different expressions, ie Happy, Sad, Confused, Surprised, Angry, Laughing; which can be used in a variety of activities either one-on-one or in a group setting. Counsellors working with children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds have found using the ball with children from different cultural backgrounds ideal as books are not always culturally appropriate and playing games with the ball can be creative and interactive. The ball can also be used with one of the feelings books eg: How are you Peeling and matching the expressions. This assists with and encourages the child to express their own feelings. Suggestions for use •
The language ball is a great tool to engage children that may not like reading books or children from other cultures who may not be used to books.
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The ball can be used one-on-one or in groups.
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The ball can be rolled to different children sitting in a circle who can copy the different expressions.
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The mood dudes can also be used to match happy, sad, scared etc.
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The children can copy the different expressions with crayons or texta’s on paper plates .
