Kathleen+Lorenzen

Annotated Bibliography Written by: Kathleen Lorenzen This annotated bibliography includes five fiction books and five non-fiction books that could be used to teach emotion, self-awareness, and social studies to preschool students according to the AZ Early Learning Standards.
 * 5 Fiction Books**

Earnhardt, Donna. (2012) **Being Frank.** Flashlight Press. 25. Scottsdale Public Library.
 * Highlights:**The title of this book is a play on words about a boy named Frank, who believes “honesty is the best policy.” He quickly discovers being overly honest all time can hurt people’s feelings and leave him with no friends. By the end he still holds true to his belief that, “honesty is the best policy…” but “it’s best served with more sugar.”
 * Related Curriculum:** Reflecting on their own characteristics and making a lesson that is practical for them we could, as a class, pretend we are invited over to a friend’s house for dinner. But, just our luck, they are serving our least favorite food. (Have students draw with markers on a paper plate their least favorite food). When we are all sitting around the table (circle time) with our least favorite food in front of us… how will we react without hurting our friend’s feelings who made us this meal? Together as a class come up with solutions to be true to us without hurting anyone else’s feelings through this interactive and realistic activity.

Germein, Katrina. (2010) **My Dad Thinks He’s Funny.** Candlewick Press. 14. Scottsdale Public Library.
 * Highlights:** This silly dad takes everyday phrases and makes a joke out of it by taking it seriously. For example, “When Mom says, ‘I’m going to jump in the shower,’ Dad says, ‘Be careful that sounds dangerous.’” Throughout the book the little boy gets a chance to appreciate his fathers humor, even though it is different.
 * Related Curriculum:** As this book relates to the emotion humor, it would be a great for a related lesson on figurative language. When he tells his dad that, “His finger hurts.” and Dad responds, “Let’s chop it off.” Whole group discuss and process questions like: Is he really going to chop his finger off? What did he mean by that? Was he serious or joking? Provide other examples of figurative language and have students process through the words to detect what is trying to be communicated. Understanding figurative language can be fun and useful!

Hodgkinson, Leigh. (2009) **Smile.** HarperCollins Publishers. 15. Scottsdale Public Library.
 * Highlights:** Sunny, a sweet little girl has lost her smile, (build on the figurative language lesson… did she really lose her smile?) and is set out to find it. Along the way she has a great day playing and exploring that she didn’t even realize her smile has been found again.
 * Related Curriculum:** There are many techniques used in the beautiful illustrations of this book. Similar to the Eric Carle books, Leigh Hodgkinson uses collaging to create characters in her story. Have students collage using tissue paper and glue, allowing time to dry, then cutting their collage into an object just as the illustrator did. Use this opportunity to explain to your preschoolers what an illustrator is and how they use different techniques instead of just “drawing.” Bring it full circle but allowing children to express how they felt when they got to be an artist… chances are they were smiling.

Pham, LeUyen. (2010) **All the Things I Love About You.** HarperCollins Publishers. 15. Scottsdale Public Library.
 * Highlights:** A mother’s love for her child is unconditional. Even when tasks with her son can be frustrating, her love for him outweighs when things are not ideal. This sweet rhythmic story illustrates the emotion love and power it has.
 * Related Curriculum:** Communicating emotions (appropriately) is a very important skill to have, and it taught and reinforced in the preschool classroom constantly. After reading this book, have students in a one-on-one, with your assistance, complete the thought, “I love you ___ because__ .” After you do the writing allow each student to personalize their love/appreciation note and give it to the person they love. To build on this activity, you could make it into a secret Santa game where each student picks a name of another student in the class and completes the sentence, “I appreciate you because _.” This follow up activity would be great for a class appreciation day or a valentine activity. Overall this is a great activity to communicate how we feel.

Seeger, Laura. (2005) **Walter Was Worried.** Roaring Brook Press. 17. Scottsdale Public Library.
 * Highlights:** Walter and other characters display emotions as the weather changes. For example, “Walter was worried when the skies grew dark.” Through beautiful illustrations the reader is able to see how emotions connect to different types of weather.
 * Related Curriculum:** Weather! This book is connected to weather so seamlessly. This book would be a great Segway for any lesson/conversation on weather while tying in emotions.


 * 5 Non-Fiction Books**

Kreiner, Anna. (2004) **Let’s Talk about being Afraid.** The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc. 24. Scottsdale Public Library.
 * Highlights:** This non-fiction book touches on the subtopics of being afraid, including: “Fear”, “What/Why are we afraid?” “Things that have hurt you,” “Imaginary creatures,” “Things you cannot change”, and ending with “It’s okay to be afraid.”
 * Related Curriculum:** Create a class book either electronically or printed of each students fear. At the end of the class book (a page for each student) make a page that says, “Together we can face our fears.” This allows each student to communicate what his or her fear is and understand it’s okay to say what can sometimes be hard for us to share.

Kingel, Cynthia. (2008) **Forgiveness.** The Child’s World. 24. Scottsdale Public Library.
 * Highlights:** This non-fiction books touches on the following topics within forgiveness: What is forgiveness, forgiveness at school, the teasers, feeling disappointed, mistakes happen, letting go of the bad feelings, forgiving yourself, and forgiveness is not always easy.
 * Related Curriculum:** Let’s role-play. Starting with the teachers (modeling) a scenario in the classroom where they need to display forgiveness. Then allow students to come up and participate in classroom scenarios. Not only will this be a great activity for the students to visualize but they will have practiced what to say in a classroom setting to show forgiveness and other emotions. Now they have the tools to communicate to their peers, while interacting appropriately.

Medina, Sarah. (2008) **Impatient.** Heinemann Library. 24. Scottsdale Public Library.
 * Highlights:** This non-fiction books touches on the following topics within impatient: what is it? What happens when I am impatient? Why do I feel this way? Is it okay? What can I do? How can I tell if someone is impatient? Am I the only one that feels this way?
 * Related Curriculum:** Let’s bake. What a great opportunity to practice patience as we wait for cookies to bake. Using math, teamwork, and fine motor skills we can create a batter then touch on the fact that we must wait to eat the cookies despite the fact we want this yummy treat now. Focusing on patience is more positive than impatience.

Medina, Sarah. (2007) **Jealous.** Heinemann Library. 24. Scottsdale Public Library.
 * Highlights:** The main contents of this book are: what is jealousy? what happens when I am jealous? why do people feel jealous? what can I do? how can I tell? Can I help when someone is jealous? I feel better now! and what are these feelings?
 * Related Curriculum:** Let’s make necklaces! Not only is this a great way to practice fine motor skills by stringing beads on a string, but it allows us all to be creative as we make a patterned necklace (or not patterned). After we finish instead of being envious of what a classmate has made, let’s give appreciation for their work and ask them how they made their necklace. This short show and tell will help students process that being happy for our friends helps eliminate jealousy.

Pryor, Kimberly. (2009) **Tolerance.** Marshall Cavendish Benchmark. 32. Scottsdale Public Library.
 * Highlights:** The contents of this book include: What is tolerance, being tolerant of family, friends and neighbors, ways to be tolerant, and personal set of values.
 * Related Curriculum:** Let’s talk about tolerance in our history and briefly talk about war and what happens when people are not tolerant of each other. Then make a classroom list of things we can accept about our classmates to focus the social studies lesson to our classroom to make it relatable for them. Things on this list can include, how our classmates look, talk, act, etc.