If you’ve just started school or are seeing the first day come over the horizon at the end of the month, you’re probably building community in your new classroom by learning about and celebrating each other. Add Bodies Are Cool by Tyler Feder to your collection of identity-affirming read alouds for primary readers!
Feder’s playful illustrations celebrate bodies of all shapes, colors, and sizes. She shows care to include all different skin colors, genders, and abilities on each spread. Each page highlights a different part of the body and the many forms it can take in sing-song rhyme. I can hear crowds of kindergarten or first graders shouting along with the final line of each page, “Bodies are cool!”
Pair this with other identity-affirming texts like The Best Part of Me: Children Talk About Their Bodies in Pictures and Words by Wendy Ewald and then set out to write your own as a class. Take pictures of eyes, feet, ears, and teeth and celebrate the many ways your class’s bodies are cool! Best of luck in the new school year!
