Why use Books for Social Emotional Learning?
Research shows that reading stories is an effective method for social-emotional learning. Using books therapeutically, also known as bibliotherapy, helps foster social-emotional growth in children. Children participating in bibliotherapy are able to develop insight, a deeper understanding of self, solutions to personal problems and the development of life skills. These SEL books are perfect for speech therapy, home or classroom sessions. Deciding which books make the cut was challenging but I’ve chosen books that cover a wide variety of social emotional skills and I provide ideas for activities and/or curriculum tie-ins. Spoiler alert: there are multiple books from the wonderful, Julia Cook. You might also like these book-related posts:
- social emotional books with a winter theme!
- neurodiversity books
- books for children with selective mutism
Picture Books for social emotional learning: older students?
Are you still hesitant to use picture books with older students, in speech therapy? Don’t be, especially books for social emotional learning. Picture books are great for use when we have a specific lesson to teach! Reading a picture book to a group puts all your readers on a level playing field and the pictures will help them make predictions and inferences.
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Books for Social Emotional Learning: Bully Beans by Julia Cook
Illustrator: Anita Dufana
Learning how to stand up to a bully is an important social emotional skill and a valuable one to teach in speech therapy. All children are susceptible to bullies. Most children don’t know what to do when bullying happens to them or someone they know. Bully B.E.A.N.S helps children identify bullying, and offers clear and impactful action strategies for both targets and bystanders.
Activity ideas: Serve jelly beans to students while you read it! Sort or role-play how bystanders can handle bullies and how targets can handle bullies.
Books for Social Emotional Learning: A Flicker of Hope by Julia Cook
Illustrator: Tammie Lyon We all have grey days. HOPE is our children’s window for a better tomorrow. In terms of resilience and well-being, hope is an important predictor of success. This creative story reminds children that dark clouds can be temporary and asking for help is always okay. We all have times when we need to borrow a little hope from someone else, especially during these “pandemic times.”
Activity ideas: Tie it in with the cloudy spring weather! Compare and contrast the images of a lit candle and a rain cloud during your speech therapy sessions. Have students identify the “hope builders” in their lives.
Firenze’s Light: A Children’s Book about Gratitude,Compassion and Self-Appreciation
Author: Jessican Coolaco, Illustrator: Angela Li.
We can all benefit from encouragement to let our lights shine. Firenze is a firefly that dicovers the power of her light in this story of friendship and self-appreciation. Firenze’s friends love her light, but Firenze doesn’t think it’s so great. How can she when it’s nearly impossible to play fun games like hide-and-seek?! When Firenze’s light and a new friend’s artwork unexpectedly combine, she must decide whether she will keep her light hidden or find the courage to let it shine. Readers will find encouraging, kind characters inspiring self-appreciation, gratitude, kindness and compassion. Firenze’s Light shows readers how to embrace rather than reject differences.
Activity ideas: Read it in the dark with a flashlight and encourage your students to shine from within. Tie it in with a unit on insects in your speech therapy sessions.
Books for Social Emotional Learning: Don’t Feed the Worry Bug!
Author, Illustrator: Andi Green
2019 Child Mind Institute Pick for Best Children’s Books For Helping Kids Understand Anxiety
Meet Wince, a big worrier! From cookies to homework to the weather, Wince worries about everything. And when Wince starts to worry, his WorryBug appears. At first the WorryBug is small and non-threatening, but the more Wince Worries the more his WorryBug grows. Don’t Feed The WorryBug is great story to start the conversation on worry and anxiety. We all worry, it happens, but the key is to not let those worries grow to the point it ruins your day.
Activity Ideas: Tie in with a unit on bugs. Have students identify what makes their worry bugs grow bigger?
Join In and Play (Learning to Get Along®
Author: Cheri J. Meiners You have to make an effort, and you have to know the rules—like ask before joining in, take turns, play fair, and be a good sport. This book teaches the basics of cooperation, getting along, making friends, and being a friend. Includes ideas for games adults can use with kids to reinforce the skills being taught to generalize the skill outside of the classroom or speech therapy session.
Activity Ideas: Tie in with practice using different ways kids can ask to join in and play with an existing group/game. Sort games you can play alone and games that are more fun with others.
Sally Sore Loser: A Story About Winning and Losing
Author: Frank J. Sileo and Illustrator: Cary Pillo. Sally loves to be first at everything! She is first in line at school. She is first out the door at recess. She is first at dinner finishing her mac n cheese! Unfortunately, Sally dislikes losing and this can lead to hot tempers and hurt feelings. She even gets the nickname Sally Sore Loser from her classmates at school. With the help of her teacher and her mom, Sally learns the rules for being a good winner and a good loser, and that the most important thing is having fun.
Activity Ideas: tie this book in with game day at school or spring outdoor recess games or lessons on sportsmanship and character traits.
Books for Social Emotional Learning: The Great Compromise (The Leader I’ll Be!)
Author: Julie Cook and Illustrator: Kyle Merriman
Cora June and her classmate, Wilson, are locked in a battle of wills. Each one desperately wants to be the ultimate decider.
They scream at each other about whether to play dodgeball or soccer at recess. They get into a tug of war over a Popsicle. Each wants to dictate where to go on the next class trip! Can these two opinionated, wanna-be leaders compromise or agree to anything?
Using rhymes and relatable situations, this story offers valuable lessons about the power of compromise and why the best leaders are never afraid to negotiate. The Great Compromise is part of The Leader I’ll Be! book series.
Activity Ideas: Tie it in with discussions about great leaders who have compromised or a unit on conflict resolution. Sometimes we have to do things for the good of the group.
Bubble Gum Brain!
Author: Julia Cook, and Illustrator: Allison Valentine
Do you have bubble gum brain? That means you like to chew on your thoughts, flex, bend and stretch my brain, and expand the way you think! You make mistakes that help you learn.
Do you have brick brain? With me, things are the way they are…and they’re probably not going to change much. I am the way I am…and that’s just how it is.
Meet Bubble Gum Brain and Brick Brain: two kids with two VERY different mindsets. Bubble Gum Brain likes to have fun adventures, learn new things, and doesn’t worry about making great mistakes. Brick Brain is convinced that things are just fine the way they are and there’s not much he can do to change them, so why try?
When Bubble Gum Brain shows Brick Brain how to peel off his wrapper, Brick Brain begins to realize just how much more fun school…and life… can be!
Activity Ideas: Tie it into units on growth mindset or flexible thinking. Compare and contrast a brick and chewing gum or write words that describe each.
Books for Social Emotional Learning: A Tale of Two Beasts
by Fiona Robertson
Great story to show children that different people have different perspectives on the same things, and that we should be considerate of how our actions might make others feel. This is one of my favorite stories for introducing perspective-taking. It’s an adorable story of a girl who finds a strange beast in the forest and “rescues” him. She feeds, walks, and clothes him. He runs away. Then it’s the story from his point of view in which a strange girl kidnaps him from his home and tries to feed him squirrel food, forces hot clothes on him, and drags him on a leash, so he escapes. It has wonderful pictures and has a happy ending for everyone.
Activity Ideas: Tie it in with a unit on animals and perspective-taking. Do thought bubbles where students describe what the girl and the beast are feeling and thinking.
Can I Play Too? (An Elephant and Piggie Book)
by Mo Willems (Author, Illustrator)
I love Mo Willems and this is one of my favorite social emotional books! How do you play ball with a snake? That is the surface issue in this story, but the deeper one is helping everyone to have fun together, even if it appears that one of the group can’t play. Gerald and Piggie try a number of ways to play ball with the snake, and their new playmate is game to try, as well. Nothing they try seems to work but they all persevere until a solution is found that makes all of the playmates happy.
Activity Ideas: Tie in with spring games or handling problems at recess. Sometimes we don’t just have to find a game we can all play but a way we can all play it! Pick a common game, like tag, and have students generate how they could change the game to accomodate a child in a wheelchair.
Books for Social Emotional Learning: Train Your Angry Dragon
by Steve Herman
This book specifically speaks to kids about emotions, patience and anger management.
The premise of the book is how in the world to you control your pet dragon when he gets angry and wants to burn everything around. It is a perfect picture book to teach your students about anger management but lighthearted enough to enjoy.
Activity Ideas: Have students generate synonyms and antonyms for the word, “angry.” Have students generate ways of dealing with anger or role-play how to give an apology.
Books for Social Emotional Learning: Lying Up a Storm
by Julia Cook
This story is told in the first person by a little boy named Levi. Levi considers himself a very honest person–most of the time. He then goes on to recount various things that happen to him throughout the course of his days. And he explains how he felt and what he really wanted to do initially to diffuse his difficult situations.
At first, he thinks that telling little lies here and there is fine and not a big deal, especially because it seems to solve his problems very quickly.
He soon realizes that is not really the case. His mother explains to him that there are consequences to his lies and those consequences will be much worse than just facing up to the truth to start with.
There is a guide in the back of the book for parents, teachers, and counselors that offer tools to help children learn the value and pathway to truthfulness.
Activity Ideas: Tie it in with storms, clouds and spring weather. Have students analyze the title. What kind of “storm” did Levi’s lies create?
Cliques, Phonies & Other Baloney
Author: Trevor Romain , Illustrator: Steve Mark
Revised classic provides a humorous take on cliques, exclusion, and real friends – updated to include online socializing and social media. This book uses humor, fun cartoons, and kid-friendly language to explain what cliques are, why being phony is baloney, why true friends don’t exclude others online or in real life, what’s more important than popularity.
Activity Ideas: compare and contrast cliques and true friends. I’ve used this book as a source for oral reading for students practicing speech sounds at the level of oral reading.
I hope you’ve found at least one social emotional book for your classroom or speech therapy library! If you found this content helpful, please consider joining my newsletter and get access to a free subscriber’s library of activities!
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