The Ontario Government has identified and targeted six key learning skills for student success. Libraries can help teachers and students to understand and develop these skills by providing picture books that model these behaviours and the issues surrounding them.
Learning Skills and Work Habits Sample Behaviours: Responsibility, Organization, Independent Work, Collaboration, Initiative, Self Regulation.
The student: • sets own individual goals and monitors progress towards achieving them; • seeks clarification or assistance when needed; • assesses and reflects critically on own strengths, needs, and interests; • identifies learning opportunities, choices, and strategies to meet personal needs and achieve goals; • perseveres and makes an effort when responding to challenges.
Meet Howard B. Wigglebottom, a curious rabbit who just doesn't listen! Howard is always in trouble at school because he doesn’t listen even when told by his teacher during story time to stop bouncing around the room and sit down and be quiet. But Howard doesn’t listen. And because he doesn’t listen Howard was always in trouble.
This book is about how a young girl gets very angry at her little sister. The author goes through her emotions as she is feeling them and describes them the way a child might feel them. Sophie who is very angry has to do special things to help her calm down like run, cry, and just be by herself. After she has done these things. She is able to calm down and go back home to her family.
Blue is a quiet color. Red’s a hothead who likes to pick on Blue. Yellow, Orange, Green, and Purple don’t like what they see, but what can they do? When no one speaks up, things get out of hand — until One comes along and shows all the colors how to stand up, stand together, and count. As budding young readers learn about numbers, counting, and primary and secondary colors, they also learn about accepting each other's differences and how it sometimes just takes one voice to make everyone count.
I really enjoyed this book. The illustrations are deceptively simple for such a complex issues as bullying, self-confidence and making right choices. I especially liked the consistent use of the colour in the text. It allows for additional conversations with the kids reading it, enabling them to evaluate what is happening, make predictions and become involved in the story rather than just reading it. A beautiful book, the illustrations of the number one demonstrate how standing up and speaking up can make you feel tall and strong. The physicality of the colours express how each is feeling much better than words can, making the emotions of the story more accessible for the class. It also allows for great follow-up activities where students can draw their own pictures to show how they feel now or in various situations. "One" provides a common visual language to discuss emotions and a manner in which to share those feelings with classmates.
