Teaching

“Big Ideas: Ways of Making Abstract Concepts More Tangible for Students”

One of my favourite things about picture books is their ability to communicate BIG IDEAS, BIG EMOTIONS and BIG ISSUES on their relatively small pages.

In an age of book bans it’s extremely encouraging to see authors continuing to tackle these big subjects within picture books, but is it something we are doing enough of in our classrooms?

I’m an Australian teacher who has been teaching English to students in Chile for almost a decade.  It can be challenging to explore BIG ideas with my ESL primary school students, who often need extra support when it comes to vocabulary or finding ways to describe these non-tangible concepts.  So, what I try to do is find ways to help them visualise these abstract concepts, or make them more tangible.

Here are three examples of how I’ve done that:

• Show, don’t tell

When it comes to ESL classes, students have sometimes shown anxiety when I introduce a new concept, because while they might know what it is, they haven’t heard the term before in English, and it sounds big and scary.  When starting a new unit, I’ve learned that it’s best to retain a bit of mystery, and rather than telling students what our new unit will be about, I use inquiry activities such as the Question Formulation Technique, or Project Zero’s Thinking Routines from Harvard.  One example is their Name, Describe, Act activity.

Here’s how I’ve adapted that activity for my class:

I wanted to talk about fear as an emotion (a fairly abstract concept), so I displayed an emoji on the board and the students had to try to name it, describe it, and explain what sort of actions that emoji might produce.

The great thing about inquiry activities is that the students’ answers can give you a good indication about their prior knowledge on the subject, and how much support you might need to give them in the upcoming classes.

• Food is a love language!

I’ve come across quite a few language and cultural barriers since living in Chile, but one sure way of breaking them down is through food.  Gosh, Chile has some incredible food!  From its soft, spongy marraqueta bread, to its creamy ‘manjar’ or ‘dulce de leche’ as it’s often referred to in other countries, to its colourful rainbow of seasonal berries and fruits, there’s something here for every appetite.  Food is a fantastic way to find common ground when meeting someone new, both in and out of the classroom.

Since food is so universal, I find it to be a great tool for making connections to more abstract ideas or concepts with students.  When I tutored students one-on-one, I was able to bring a few snacks for us to smell and nibble on and then compare each snack to something abstract, like an emotion or even a character from a book.

If the visual aspect of food wasn’t enough for them to make connections, the students could use their sense of touch, smell and taste to make surprising connections to those intangible concepts.  I once heard that watermelon was chosen to represent fear, because of all of those scary dark seeds that are hidden within.  Who would have thought?

For bigger classes at school where food sharing can sometimes be tricky or not allowed, you can always show high resolution pictures or videos.  The Hiho Kids channel on YouTube has a lot of cute videos of children trying food from around the world.

• Differentiation is key

If food isn’t your thing, you might like to get your students to choose how they would like to describe a concept in a more tangible way.

For example, if you are exploring ‘fear’, they could choose between one of the following options:

• If they had to write a letter to their fear, what would they say to it? Here you can always use vocabulary lists for extra support.
• How would they represent fear in a dance? What music genre would they dance to?
• What about a meme? If they had to sum up what their fear looks like in one meme or gif, what would it be?
• How would they draw their fear? What does fear look like to them?

If you’re wondering why I’ve used fear as an example in my activities, it’s because it’s something that I feel we need to talk more about.  As teachers we often have a lot of social-emotional check-ins with our students about how they are feeling, but sometimes we need to dig deeper and look at their current fears in order to understand why someone might be feeling a certain way.

Fear can be tough to explore, so I wrote a picture book about it.

Published

About the Book: In my picture book, Feeling Hopeful, Hope takes on the form of a happy, somersaulting dragon, who is hunting Fear.  Fear appears as a creature that likes to climb on children so they feel its full weight and presence.  Don’t worry though, there is a happy ending!

Far above the world, Hope the dragon somersaults through the sky, protecting those below.  But he encounters a formidable opponent in Fear.  Fear proves no match for Hope, until he meets a curious character, The Reader.  And it’s inside The Reader’s vast library that Hope finds what he’s looking for, plus much more…

This lyrical story has an uplifting SEL message and contains themes of hope, fear, the importance of reading and friendship.  While this book is marketed at a younger audience of up to six years old, I’ve used it with students up to 11 years old, and all of them have been able to make surprising, honest and beautiful connections.

That’s the beauty of working with BIG ideas, emotions and issues – they really have no age limit.

You can find a free teaching resource for Feeling Hopeful on my website at https://www.laurawippell.com/resources, which contains activities aimed at helping students visualise hope and fear.  Please feel free to reach out with comments or questions via my contact page.

About the Author: Laura is a children’s author.  In 2022, she won the Bee Ethicool author contest, which received over five thousand entries.  Laura’s debut picture book, Feeling Hopeful, is out now with Ethicool Books.  As an Australian living in Chile, Laura loves writing imaginative children’s books that make you feel local, and think global.  Laura has a background in Education, and is passionate about sharing her books with children and educators around the world.  Visit her at https://www.laurawippell.com/

Thank you, Laura, for these activities for the classroom!

“Small Things Lead to Social Emotional Learning”

In 2017, my husband and I survived Hurricane Irma in Lee County, Florida. 130 mph gusts right over our house! That same year, the Tubbs wildfire roared through Napa, Sonoma, and Lake County in California. My husband and I had moved from Sonoma county, where we’d lived 35 years, to Florida just a few years before. The fire destroyed the homes of a number of friends, including our goddaughter’s. Disasters seemed to surround us.

When Raccoon’s home is destroyed by lightning in One Small Thing, Mouse says, “It’s such a BIG catastrophe! And we’re so small.” Catastrophes can paralyze. Children can feel overwhelmed with concern and helplessness when they experience a natural disaster or when a calamity happens to someone in their community. One Small Thing offers examples of how each of us, child or adult, can use our energy and talent to spread kindness.

It’s especially important to spread kindness during difficult times, but it’s also important to spread kindness on a daily basis. Doing “one small thing” daily will help children understand their feelings, understand others’ feelings, and assist them in making empathetic decisions. Small actions daily will help them be ready to communicate and act when a “big catastrophe” happens.

After reading One Small Thing, you may wish to discuss a few of the questions found in the One Small Thing Activity Guide: https://marshadianearnold.com/activities-one-small-thing/.

*How did each animal feel when they learned about what happened to Raccoon
*Squirrel felt so sad, he couldn’t move. Do you ever feel there is too much to be fixed? Do you ever feel things are so hard or sad you may as well give up?
*Which animal felt they didn’t have anything to offer, that there was nothing they could do? (Mouse)
*How do you feel when something scary or bad happens?
*What makes you feel better when you are scared or sad?

After the discussion, have the children talk about “one small thing” they could do as a class.

Lead the children to try a couple of activities for others. Perhaps start with “one small thing” for animal friends.

My educator friend is planning to read One Small Thing to a class and then work with them to make Cookie Cutter Bird Feeders. There are several slightly different “recipes” online; she plans to try this one. She hasn’t tried this yet, but folks who have say this will make several cookie cutter bird feeders.

Materials Needed

• 2 cups small birdseed (Have extra in case you need to thicken the mixture more.)
• 2 packets unflavored gelatin (8 gram packets)
• 2/3 cup water
• Spoon
• Twine or Ribbon
• (Plastic Straws, if using straws to poke the holes)
• Cookie cutters – (Stars and acorns are fun.)
• Baking sheets
• Parchment paper

What to do

1. Place parchment paper on baking sheets.
2. Place cookie cutters on baking sheets. Set these to the side.
3. In a mixing bowl place 2/3 cup boiled water and 2 packet of gelatin. You can also do this on a stove in a pan.
4. Stir until the gelatin is dissolved, a minute or two.
5. Stir in 2 cups birdseed until most of the liquid is absorbed.
6. Tie a piece of twine or ribbon into a loop. (Some prefer to place a straw in the birdseed cookies to make a hole. After the cookies dry, the twine or ribbon can be pulled through and tied.)
7. Fill a cookie cutter halfway with birdseed, using a spoon. Press the birdseed down with the back of the spoon.
8. Push the tied part of string into the birdseed.
9. Fill the cookie cutter with the rest of the birdseed mixture.
10. Some place the cookie cutters in the refrigerator for a few hours to set. Others simply move on to drying.
11. Dry the birdseed cookies overnight.
12. Turn the birdseed cookies over and let the other side dry overnight.
13. Carefully push the bird seed feeder out of the cookie cutter.
14. Hang the birdseed cookies from tree branches or a bird feeding station.

Now you might have the  children brainstorm “one small thing” they could do as a class for a person. Is there an Assisted Living Residence or Retirement Community nearby that would appreciate colorful cards? You might choose a holiday like May Day and have the children draw colorful flowers on folded paper with a brief message like “Happy May Day!” or “May Basket” and their name.

These two activities seem like small things to do…but that is the point. They are small, but lots of small things add up to something wonderful. May the gentle, cozy message of One Small Thing add to the social emotional learning canon and to kindness, all around.

Educators and parents can find more activities in the One Small Thing Activity Guide on my website, here: https://marshadianearnold.com/activities-one-small-thing/.

Published May 9th, 2023 by Beaming Books

About the Book: After Raccoon’s home burns down in a lightning storm, his friends don’t know what they can do to help. Squirrel, Beaver, Mouse, Badger, and Rabbit all go back to their own homes, trying to focus on something other than Raccoon’s tragedy. But each animal discovers one small thing they can do for Raccoon–and it turns out that each small act may not be so small after all.

One Small Thing is a gentle and powerful look at how small actions can make a big impact.

About the Author: Called a “born storyteller” by the media, Marsha Diane Arnold is a picture book author of 24 books, with over one million books sold.  Her books have garnered honors like Best First Book by a New Author (Heart of a Tiger), Smithsonian Notable (The Pumpkin Runner), and Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library (Roar of a Snore). Her bilingual Galápagos Girl won the Green Prize for Sustainable Literature. Lights Out, about light pollution, has been praised by the Dark Sky community as well as the children’s lit community and was a finalist for the SCBWI Golden Kite Award for Picture Book Text.

Marsha enjoys sharing her love of story through school visits, manuscript consultations, her Writing Wonderful Character-Driven Picture Books e-course, and especially by reading to her four grandchildren.

Growing up on the Kansas prairies, Marsha lived in Northern California for most of her life. Now she lives with her husband in southwest Florida, near the Caloosahatchee River and her daughter’s family and only a short flight from her son’s family. Besides creating stories, her favorite activities are scuba diving and snorkeling, hiking, traveling, gardening, and climbing trees.

You may learn more about Marsha, her books, and her world, at www.marshadianearnold.com.

Thank you, Marsha, for these activities and the focus on kindness!