Happy Friday; how's April going in your corner so far?
Everything's coming up roses here. Can you smell them?
It's one of the reasons why I like springtime so much.
Title: Peaceful Hearts
Author and Illustrator: Andrea Team
Publisher: Independently Published
Birth Date: 2018
Suitable for: all ages.
Themes: mindfulness, emotional regulation, hope
Brief synopsis: Wrap your peace-filled heart in a huge hug as you practice calming anxious feelings with your breath. Bad things are going to happen, so are sad and scary things. But there's always hope, kindness and love, too.
Opening page: We are all born with free and brave, open, peaceful hearts.
Resources:
Use peacefulheartts to follow the book tour on Instagram;
the tour brought them from CA to Texas yesterday.
Consider putting in a serenity spot like our
Kindness Rocks Peace Garden.
Or create a Peaceful Hearts Tree like this treasure,
that the book's author helped create adjacent to our playground.
There was something so soothing and hopeful
to experience those hearts blowing in the wind.
Ask your learners which words they would put
on a Peaceful Hearts tree like this.
Why I like this book: I'm drawn to the beauty and simplicity of this text. A former Art teacher, Andrea Team wrote it with young parents and tuck-in time in mind, seven years after a school shooting at the school where she used to work. But it truly transcends age to consider the feelings that fill our hearts, then work with intention to honor and take good care of them.
Oh, and the illustrations are breathtaking; your students will need lots of time to breathe them in. Offer them some crayons, markers, or paint and a blank canvas because they'll likely want to draw a Peaceful Hearts page of their own.
There's so much magic in our breath; it has the power to calm, to soothe, to heal, but it's up to us to take something that happens to us automatically, without much thought, like breathing, and make it intentional.
By focusing on it.
By using it to regulate us.
By unleashing its power to comfort us.
Try backward breathing by exhaling first, then inhaling.
Try rainbow breathing. Or box breathing.
Then check out these 25 Mindfulness Exercises for kids.
Loved reading the book and doing some finger tracing
via Skype with Mrs. Mac's Kinders in Canada this morning.
This book will be available on Amazon soon;
in the meantime, here's a sneak peek inside its cover.
Can you feel it? Enjoy that peaceful heart as
you head on over to Susanna Hill's blog
to check out today's other PPBF picks.
I love that there are now so many books being written about mindfulness. It's such an important topic and "way of being".
ReplyDeleteThis book does look beautiful. Looking forward to finding it in my neck of the woods. Thanks for the rec!
ReplyDeleteThis looks lovely!
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful find! I love the idea of helping children develop a peaceful and loving. The pictures you shared of it being used at school on trees and as banners were a magnificent idea!
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