Friendship Lessons | SEL Activities | Character Education with Picture Books

Description

Are you ready to Move Mountains with your students and their character education goals this year? We have created the perfect picture book companion to help students learn about friendship, the qualities of a good friend, making new friends, and more.

Incorporating SEL activities into your classroom and integrating them with other subjects has never been easier!

Grab the beautiful picture book Rescue & Jessica by Jessica Kenskey and Patrick Downes and pair it with Moving Mountains for the perfect SEL literacy resource.

This resource includes EVERYTHING you need to implement these lessons. Just grab a copy of the book (you can also find fun read-aloud versions on YouTube), and you’ll be set to go!

A Note on SEL: The term “SEL” is not incorporated into this product. Each book focuses on specific personal growth skills and themes for your classroom for community building, personal growth, and character lessons.

What’s included in this set of SEL (and character education) activities?

• 2 SEL Class Objectives
• 5 Days of Complete Lesson Plans for SEL Integration
  • Literacy Integration
  • Talking Points and Big Ideas
  • Characteristics of a Good Friend
  • Where to Find and Make Friends
  • Friends to the Rescue — Supporting Others
  • Conversation Starters
  • Communicating with Friends Activity
  • Reflection and Other Printables As Needed

• Before, During, and After Reading Discussion Prompts
• Morning Meeting Greeting Cards
• 5 Peaks and Pits Social Scenario Cards
• Extension Activity Suggestions
• Companion Book Suggestions
• Slide Decks for selected activities (see preview)

What are the class goals and SEL objectives for Rescue & Jessica?

• We will be able to define and identify the characteristics of a good friend.
• We will be able to communicate how to be supportive friends to one another.

How Can I Incorporate These Lessons Into My Classroom?

• Morning Meeting
• Literacy or Science
• Read Aloud
• As guidance or counseling lessons
• … any way you can dream up!

Our mission with Moving Mountains is to equip teachers with high-quality supplemental lessons that accompany exceptional picture books and teach students critical interpersonal skills. Our goal is to foster a strong classroom community and inspire lifelong learners.  It is our vision that through these lessons, students will become more self-aware about their place and purpose in their classroom community and beyond.

More about Moving Mountains:

❤️ Each book has been carefully selected to appeal to a wide age and grade range (2nd-5th grade) while being easily accessible to teachers. The accompanying lessons were designed with a specific character trait or personal skill in mind. Activities and objectives have been designed to fit within these skills, but please remember that there are many themes and relevant learning opportunities in each book.

❤️ Each week includes multiple lessons and activities. Depending on your classroom setup and the amount of time you have to devote to each book’s lessons, you may pick and choose which ones work best for you and your students. 

❤️ While the weekly activities are different to accompany each book, some consistent components include Peaks and Pits Scenario Cards, Morning Meeting Greeting Suggestions, Extension Activities, and Companion Book Suggestions.

Why did we create Moving Mountains? Moving Mountains has been a dream of mine for several years – As a current educator, I am passionate about bringing picture books into my classroom, particularly during my morning meeting with the aim of helping my students develop their personal goals. Each week, I choose one focus book and a specific skill or skill that it teaches. Throughout the week, we discuss the book and complete different activities relating to it. I have seen incredible growth in my students’ social and personal skills using this method, and I have dreamed of creating full units that are ready to go for teachers! Moving Mountains was born from the need for excellent, ready-to-use companion activities. I have teamed up with Andrea Burns from BookishBurns to create these units for you. I hope you love them as much as we do!

What makes Moving Mountains different from other book companions? We carefully designed these activities to fit the unique elements of each book. With very few elements repeated throughout different books, your students will never tire of seeing the same template activities over and over again. This has also enabled us to create specific, SEL skill-based activities aligned to each book and maximize the impact of these beautifully written picture books.

Why use picture books to teach reading and SEL skills? Simply put, picture books bring SEL skills to life! Picture books are short but beautiful authentic texts that help students see character traits and skills from different perspectives. We can use picture books to explicitly teach these important skills. Instead of telling students what it means to work as a team, we can SHOW them teamwork through character interactions in picture books and allow them to form their own definition of teamwork. Picture books have concrete stories and characters to reference as they continue to think about these skills. As an added bonus, picture books are highly engaging to students!

Teaching With a Mountain View has received express permission from the authors of Rescue & Jessica to use the book’s cover image on this page.