Twenty years ago, a kind volunteer made this quilt for me as a school counselor, from the handprints of our son’s first-grade class family.
This week, I was invited to Mrs. Quigley’s first-grade class to talk about being an author, so I brought it along as a object for the lesson, to remind them that their hands and hearts are a huge part of their story, that they are a part of a whole, and that there are other hands and hearts in their stories. Who are they? I asked. Family, friends, siblings, grandparents, teachers, school counselors, principals, neighbors, coaches, teammates.
I had the pleasure of showing them my three books, talking about realistic fiction, then reading Knit Back Together aloud.
It was especially satisfying because my illustrator is their Art teacher, so they were super excited to see her artwork on the pages of our book. They knew exactly what she was doing with how the colors portrayed feelings, warmth, angst. One first grader even said, “Oh, she took away the color from this page because Levi is feeling empty inside.” How profound is that?
After we read, I gave them each a heart sticker, a page from the book to put on their writing journals …
… as a reminder to always write from the heart.
It left my bucket overflowing to share my stories with these Can-Doers.
Oh, and this past week I updated my Facebook page, so click {here} for all things SEL and charACTer education.
Barbara Gruener 