PPBF: The Way I Act

Today I'm excited because of a text I got last night while I was away. It's from the Assistant Principal at our school and it said this:  An elderly lady came by the school after hours tonight and said she wanted to drop off some candy for the "military boys" and when asked if she had grandkids at our school, she said no, that she had extras because of no trick o treaters last night and that she'd seen the message on our sign.

That's the spirit behind Operation Gratitude, to give our surplus to those who serve. Last year we sent 346 pounds. I am blessed to live in a place where a grandma would email me and offer to partner with us to send our surplus stash to the soldiers and then another granny would bring by her extras, just because she saw the sign. Generous ...

That'd be a great page for today's pick for PPBF!

Title:  The Way I Act
Author:  Steve Metzger
Illustrator: Janan Cain
Publisher: Parenting Press
Date: January 2011
Suitable For Ages: 4 - 9
Themes: Character, behavior, manners, attitudes
Brief Synopsis:  This book targets thirteen specific character values and personality traits, giving examples of each in a clever verse with beautiful, boldly-soft illustrations.
Opening Page:  Curious - What planet is the biggest? Where do while geese fly? I want to learn about the world, I'm curious, that's why!

Resources:  
Information from the author {here} 
Learning About Feelings Lesson from Education World {here}
Book Review by the Caffeinated Autism Mom {here}

Why I like this book:  It's kind of like a charACTer dictionary for kids with behavior words and explanations that are simple and easy to understand. I used it just this week to help a third-grade student who was in the AP's office for discipline set behavior goals. I asked him what his favorite page was, and after he showed me, I invited him to predict which was my favorite and asked him to explain why. He picked responsible as likely my favorite because "kids with character are good at doing the right thing." While I would have to agree with him that this is, indeed, a very important page, I'd have to say that there's actually a tie between compassionate and trustworthy for my two faves! The perfect follow-up ACTivity would be to encourage students to make their own The Way I Act books by picking out traits that they consider strengths as well as selecting a few attributes that they could work on and improve upon in their own lives. Oh, and as a bonus in the back of the book, there's actually a Note To Parents from the author and illustrator that'll give you five concrete ways to help kids turn these traits from simple words into actual actions.