Tom Percival has taken on the task of making conversations around emotions and regulation of those emotions more easily accessible to children.
In a year like no other books like Ruby’s Worry, Perfectly Norman, Ravi’s Roar, and Ruby Finds a Worry have allowed me to initiate and continue conversations with my kindergarten students. They identify with the characters and have been pushed to think about coping strategies and how to implement them in our daily life together in the classroom.
I know the importance of these books, these conversations. You know the importance too. Do you know what surprised me? These two:
I looked up to see my kids begin to gather with these books comparing the facial expressions of the characters in each book, identifying the characters by name, and making connections to their own lives.
“Ruby worries like me but now we don’t let it grow.”
“Ravi roars like I do sometimes but I know that’s coming now so I roar less.”
“Norman’s wings are like my fingernails, sometimes I hided my fingernails afore but now I not have to hide them.”
Repeated exposure to these books has increased my students’ knowledge of the language around emotions, their understanding of the things that can lead up to these emotions, and coping strategies that can help to navigate these emotions.
I encourage you to dig into Tom Percival’s collection and see how your students can learn and grow as people and learners because of these books.
