Just One Drop Of Kindness

Readers, we have a winner! To everyone who commented last week, we entered your names and our Super Wheel randomly selected Meghan, who now has a signed copy of Moon's First Friends coming her way.

Thank you, Susanna, for partnering with me

to put your newest treasure into Meghan's hands.

Today's picture book pick will make a splash in your character building.

Title: One Drop of Kindness

Author: Jeff Kubiak

Illustrator: Liliana Mora

Publisher: EduMatch

Birth Date: April 29, 2019

Suitable for: all ages

Themes: empathy, kindness, love

Brief synopsis: Because of some struggles that seemed insurmountable, Gus struggled with making good choices. He attended a school whose nickname MEAN School pretty much aligned with how he chose to communicate and who he chose to be. Things weren't very pretty in his world until a world changer showed up and showed Gus a Truly kinder, more beautiful way to show up every day.

Opening page: The sign read "The Kindness Academy of World Changing Students." By the looks of it, you could sense it was a glorious and magical place of learning. Yes, this was THE school to be in! It had everything that a child could imagine - play, mindfulness, coding, cooking, welding, STEAM, student choice, and of course, no homework! But it wasn't always like this ... 

Resources:

*Listen to the author's episode of Character Speaks {here}.

*Hear the author's story on Teach Better Talk {here}.

*Download a Color The World With Character sheet {here}.

*Compare and contrast with The Invisible Boy by Trudy Ludwig.

*Dance The Bunny Hop using this ditty that I wrote for Jeff:

K-I-N-D-N-E-S-S;
Every drop of kindness can 
make a splash!

Invite your Kindness Crusaders to write the next 'hoppy' verses.

*If you've got a fence, colorize it with Solo cups.

Why I like this book: 

I love that it's written by an elementary school Principal.

I love that Gus represents real children with real issues. 

I love that Gus intentionally chooses to do better.

And I love that every single page bears this beautiful phrase:

One drop of kindness is all it takes to fill a heart with love.

Just one.

One happy thought.

One kind word.

One planned deed.

And guess what?

What we appreciate, appreciates.

And those ripples from that one drop of kindness?

I have it on good authority that they'll eventually touch.

And when they do, the world will change for good,

just like Gus' school transformed

once he began to color it with kindness.

In the back of the book, a bonus: 

An activity and discussion page

and a sheet of kindness cards.

For enrichment, invite students to come up with a mantra, slogan, adage, 

or quote about kindness and put it on a poster, like this:

Visit the Ripple Kindness Project's Kindness Tree gallery

for inspiration to beautify your school with a kindness display.

Check out this climate changer; I predict you'll love it.

Perfect Picture Books Friday (PPBF) book share is on summer hiatus, but we'll keep posting about books as we find them. 

Happy June.