As a teacher I feel that reading aloud to children is vital to help them develop their skills. When school was closed due to COVID-19, I knew I had to do something to connect with my kiddos and continue to provide an example of reading. That’s when I decided I was going to do Story Time every Friday using Flipgrid. Now that it is summer break, I plan to continue. With that being said, this past Friday I read The Way I Feel. I also feel with everything going on in the world today, this is a relevant book to help talk with kids about their feelings.
Quick Rundown:
Author and Illustrator: Janan Cain
Age Range: Pre-K to 2nd grades
Blurb: “Feelings come and feelings go. I never know what they’ll be. Silly or angry, happy or sad-They’re all a part of me!”
About: Each turn of the pages will take you to a new feeling that you and children have experienced at one time or another. It is so colorful and relatable.
Favorite Quote from Book: “If someone says ‘hello’ to me, I suddenly feel so shy.” (I may experience this when I first meet someone.)
Activities to try with the book:
–Looking at Faces: Something I have done with my students is shown them the opposite page of the words to see if they can infer what emotion is being displayed.
–Take Your Picture: Take photos that show the different emotions you feel. Some need help with identifying emotions based on nonverbal communication. This would be a good exercise to practice. You can expand this to identify scenarios when you may feel each way. Also discuss how we may not feel the same as others and that’s okay! For example, I feel excited when I play kickball but someone else may feel nervous when they play.
–Zones of Regulation: The last two picture books, I said I use the books with this curriculum. This will be the last that I mention it but I think you can see that picture books can be used to help students understand the zones and what child doesn’t enjoy hearing a story read and connected to what you’re currently discussing? For this book, go back through the book and put each feeling into a zone.
Interested in The Way I Feel? Click the picture below to go to Amazon.
Reading Through the Library 