Listening With my Heart by Gabi Garcia

 This very cute and special story is right on theme for social emotional lessons. It is a multicultural book about a little girl named Esperanza. This book teaches children about being kind to themselves and working on self-compassion. It is a perfect story for young learners!


I would classify this book as a contemporary realistic fiction book. It has realistic emotions and topics present, and also can be very relatable to children. Their is wonderful representation in the story, and students will be able to make connection to the characters. 


Motivational activities: 

This story would be a good one to teach about different cultures. Students could take a paper home to their parents or guardians and interview them about their own culture. Then students can bring in the interview paper and share with the class about their backgrounds! You also can do a "be kind to your mind" type of thing where you give students scenarios and they have to think about positive things they could do or say to themselves. An example could be if they mess up in a spot they play, students could respond with something like "tell myself all I can do is do my best".


Possible questions:


  1. What have you learned about different cultures?
  2. What aspects of culture are in this story?
  3. Why is it important to be a good friend to ourselves?
  4. What does it mean to listen with your heart? 

I love this story and love Gabi Garcia books in general. One of my all time favorites of her is I Can Do Hard things. 

Garcia, G., & Russell, C. (2020). I Can Do Hard Things / Yo Puedo Hacer Cosas Difíciles (Bilingual English and Spanish): (Bilingual English and Spanish) Mindful Affirmations for Kids/ Afirmaciones Conscientes Para Niños. Skinned Knee Publishing.


References:

Galda, L., Liang, L. A., & Cullinan, B. E. (2016). Literature and the Child. Cengage Learning.


Garcia, G., & Tan, Y. H. (2017). Listening with My Heart: A story of kindness and self-compassion (1st ed.). Skinned Knee Publishing.









Comments

  1. Educators UniteMay 6, 2022 at 12:47 PM

    This book is a very good book and it is an excellent way to teach your students how to channel their emotions. You can have different pictures up that display emotions and when their emotions are displayed then you can have them tell you how they are feeling.

    You can also do an activity that has a jar and pictures of emotions on it, then fold them into hearts and then have the children share what the emotion that they pulled from the jar looks like.

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