May's Virtue is Compassion

May's book is "How to Heal a Broken Wing" by Bob Graham. It is a tender story about a boy who finds a bird with a broken wing. There are many people around, but no one stopped to help the bird, except for the boy. He and his parents take the bird home and nurse it back to health. Once the bird is well enough, he sets it free.














May's Virtue: Compassion

April's Virtue is Justice

When we began looking at this month's Virtue we found that choosing a book was difficult. The difficulty began with actually defining Justice for children and then finding an age appropriate read aloud that communicated the definition.  

We decided early on that this month would focus on Social Justice and wanted to create lessons that helped children understand the idea of basic human rights. We are fortunate to have many of our human rights met, so helping children to see that we can help others around the world enjoy what we have, was the goal. 

We found "Listen to the Wind" by Greg Mortenson, a book about a man who helped build a school for a village in Pakistan. It is written from a child's point of view and has beautiful artwork. It communicates how the villagers contributed to bettering their own community by assisting in the building of a school. Going to school is a basic human right, so having a school built is Justice.

If you have other book suggestions that you have found helpful in teaching Social Justice for young children (4-6 yr olds), please comment below, we would love to hear about other stories for this Virtue.




April: Justice

March's Virtue is Forgiveness

This month's book is "I Forgive You" by Nicole Lataif. It explores the need to be forgiven, as well as the importance of forgiving others through illustrations of common childhood scenarios. A special emphasis is placed on God's willingness to always forgive when we are truly sorry.




March: Forgiveness

February's Virtue is Honesty

February's book is "Doug-Dennis and the Flyaway Fib" by Darren Farrell. It is about two friends and one tells a fib. He then discovers that when you tell a lie, sometimes things can get out of control and that it is better to tell the truth from the beginning.



To access the lesson plans for this book, click on the link below:

February: Honesty

January's Virtue is Courage

The book "If I Never Forever Endeavor" written by Holly Meade is about a little bird that is afraid to fly. The bird considers it's options for overcoming it's fears which makes it a great story to show how courage is about trying to do something even if it is scary or difficult.




To access the lesson plans for this book, click on the link below:
January: Courage

***The original link for "David is Brave" has changed.  Please click above for the revised package with the updated link.  The Bible story is now called "David and Goliath"***

December's Virtue is Humility

The book for this month is "Fool Moon Rising" by Kristi and T. Lively Fluharty. It is about the moon and how important he feels he is. This book recognizes that God is the source of all that we have and that we should show appreciation to God for these gifts.

Click on this link to access the lesson plans:

December: Humility

November's Virtue is Peacemaking

November's book is "Field of Peace" by Joyce Meyer.  This story about a baseball team shows how important it is to make the choice to get along with others.

                                                         
Click on this link to access the lesson plans:

November: Peacemaking