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Growing Your Heart

February 08, 2022

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February is a month full of hearts, red and pink colors, and emotions.  A great way to build language and learning with your child is by reading books incorporating emotions.  The development of emotional vocabulary and concepts often requires complex reasoning and imagery.  To process emotional words, a child must draw upon previous experiences and make connections.  Emotional vocabulary/concept knowledge is perpetually in flux throughout a child’s years, growing and evolving as experiences, reading levels, and awareness skills expand.  For young children (elementary grades), I have listed four books to stimulate explorative thinking within emotions.  Grab a book and open your heart and mind with your child.

What are you Glad about?  What are you Mad about? Poems by Judith Viorst

Excerpt:  “If you had just one color to paint the whole world, Would it be orange or gray?

If you had just one message to give to the world, Would it be grrrr or hooray?”

If I had a Little Dream  By Nina Laden

Excerpt:  “If I had a little chair, I would name it Strong.  Strong would hold me when I needed rest, until friends came along.”

In My Heart   By Jo Witek

Excerpt:  “On harder days, mean words hurt my feelings, and my heart feels hurt too.  It’s fragile and delicate, but it can be haled with extra kisses.  This is when my heart is broken.”

Love From the Crayons    By Drew Daywalt

Excerpt:  “Love is purple.  Because love has its own imagination.  Love is white.  Because sometimes love is hard to see.”