As a teacher, you are always looking for new ways to introduce your students to social-emotional concepts and support your current Social Emotional Curriculum. Little Spot books can be an excellent addition to your curriculum. These books are designed specifically for K-5 and address many topics that are relevant to building emotional intelligence.
Here are some tips for incorporating Little Spot books into your social-emotional curriculum.
Choose the right book for the right lesson. Little Spot books cover a wide range of topics, from making friends to dealing with emotions like sadness or anger. When planning your lesson, consider which book would best fit the theme you are addressing. You may even choose to align it to your Character Strong Character Trait of the month. For example, if you are teaching about empathy, the book Little Spot Feels Empathy would be a great choice.
Read the book aloud to your students. Reading the book together can be an excellent opportunity for students to practice active listening and follow along with a narrative. Encourage students to ask questions or give their own thoughts on what's happening in the story. Practice all of those reading strategies and make connections to the book.
Discuss the themes and concepts. After reading the book, engage your students in a group discussion about the lesson in the story. You could ask open-ended questions like, "How do you think Little Spot felt in this situation?" or "What might you do if you were in Little Spot's shoes?" or “Did this story remind you of anything in your life?”
Use Edpuzzle to read the books aloud to students a second time. Make sure to add questions to check for understanding and assessing Reading Literature Standards.
Find and use Little Spot Feelings Kahoots to incorporate technology fun into your story debrief and assess student comprehension.
Assign Google Slides reflection sheets, or use Seesaw to interact with the books. There are lots of Little Spot Seesaw assignments in the Seesaw Community Library.
Make a Podcast recording of you reading aloud the book and have students listen to it again on there. You can address your listening and speaking standards via the podcast as well.
Use the book as an inspiration for hands on activities. Little Spot books often have activities or games included that are related to the story. You could also create your own activities as appropriate. For example, if you are working on emotional regulation, you could play a game where students have to identify and label different emotions of Cartoon characters.
Incorporating Little Spot books into your social-emotional curriculum can be a fun and engaging way to teach important concepts. I know my 2nd graders love Little Spot books and I hope that your kiddos will too.
Stay Techie,
Michelle Lewis
2nd Grade Teacher
Whitmore Charter School of Arts & Technology
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