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| Mackenzie and Sydney at Work! |
I love the collection of children's books I have at Calvert! I am able to use so many of them for character classes while others I use for individual or small group counseling. Last week and this week, I read Odd Velvet and Jamaica and Brianna to 7-A and 7-B. These books deliver important messages through stories. Odd Velvet is about a girl, Velvet, who is thought of as "odd" by her classmates because she has unusual hobbies, wears hand-me-down clothes, and has a "pack of only eight crayons." The story starts on the first day of school and ends on the last. Within this year, the kids grew to value Velvet's "oddness" to the point where they began to want to be like her. The story leads to a discussion of compassion, uniqueness, and overcoming differences that initially got in the way of understanding.
Jamaica and Brianna focuses on the theme of friendship: specifically, friendship with its ups and downs of hurt feelings and misunderstandings. I use it as a springboard to talk about friendships, in general, and how each one takes work. We considered the question, "What is a friend?" and brainstormed answers such as," A friend listens", "A friends apologizes", and "A friend talks over misunderstandings." The work is certainly worth the effort, and Jamaica and Brianna delivers that message in a thoughtful and engrossing way. As psychologist Michael Thompson says about friendship, "Every child has a profound need for close connection. This search for the intimate, reliable connection is the basis of friendship. The need for affiliation is the basis of cooperation, collaboration, and generosity of spirit among children."
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| Katie and Elizabeth Considering Odd Velvet's Differences and Similarities |
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| Morgan Thinking about Friendships |
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