Materials

1. The song, Listen to Your Heart, from Red Grammer's recording, Bebop Your Best.

2. Scrapbook. I bought mine at a dollar store.

3. Camera for your classroom

4. Different shapes and sizes and textures of heart stickers

5. A marker or computer to type out the story for the classroom book.

6. Pictures of the following actions to go along with the character traits mentioned in this song:

• Caring – a picture of a child washing their dog

• Cooperation – 2 students playing with blocks or a puzzle together

• Sharing – one child is sharing his/her crayons with another student.

• Endurance – kids finishing a race ( I used a wheelchair race)

• Courage – a parent helping a child learn to ride the bike without training wheels.

• Responsibility – a student working on his/her homework

• Enthusiasm – a crowd cheering

• Truthfulness – a mom talking with her child. The child is holding scissors and the family cat is behind her missing some fur.

• Patience – students in a long line waiting their turn

• Perseverance – a boy/girl trying to tie shoes.

• Respect – students saying the pledge to the flag

• Compassion – one child visiting another at the hospital.

I found pictures on Google images. If you would like to have the pictures that I used you can email me at maria@redgrammer.com  and I will email the file to you.

Preparation

Make a story book titled Listen to Your Heart by using the follow sentences for the story:

• Caring can be… taking the time to bathe your dog.

• Cooperation can be… working together.

• Sharing can be… letting a friend use your crayons.

• Endurance can be… finishing the race.

• Courage can be… learning to ride a bike without training wheels.

• Responsibility can be… doing your schoolwork.

• Enthusiasm can be… cheering for your team.

• Courtesy can be… holding the door open for someone.

• Truthfulness can be… telling mom you cut the cats hair.

• Patience can be… waiting in line.

• Perseverance can be… trying to tie your shoes.

• Respect can be… saying the pledge to the flag.

• Compassion can be… visiting a sick friend.

Put the first part of the sentence (the character trait on left side of the book by typing it on or putting it on with marker, and the rest of the sentence on the other side of the page with the picture that matches. I like to type it rather than use marker so that the students read the words the way they would see it in a story book.

Next

1. On each page put the message, “Listen to your heart”. I wrote out the words “listen to your” then put a heart sticker for the word heart. Make the message look different on each page i.e. different color or write it around the picture. Put it on the top or on the bottom. Mix it up so that the kids are looking for the message on each page. The hearts should all be different as well.

2. Be sure to have a title page and a dedication page so that you can teach the children about the different parts of a book.

3. On the last page begin to add some heart stickers.

Lesson

1. Play the song Listen to Your heart. Explain to the children why listening to your heart is important to learning to do the right things in life. It helps you build good character. Play the song again and list the characters that Red sings about in the song.

2. Read the book you made to the class. Read a second time and ask the children to find the special message on each page. Talk about the pictures and have the children start to connect the character trait with the picture.

3. As the school year goes on and you “catch” your students doing a character trait that is in the book take a picture of that student in action. Add the picture to the page of the book that you made. You can start to cover the pictures that are in the big with the pictures that you take of your students.

4. Each week re-read the book to your class and talk about the added pictures of the students. The idea is to have the original pictures covered up by the student's pictures by the end of the school year. Also, by the end of the school year the students will have a better understanding of the character traits. The book makes for a great display at open house.

5. You could have the students take turns in June bringing the book home to share with the family.