"We'll share stories from the heart. All are welcome here."

Content Area Connections:

Language Arts:  Identify the main message about belonging and inclusion. Describe how the illustrations and words show students learning and working together. Ask and answer questions about events that happen throughout the school day. Retell the sequence of the school day using details from the text and images.
Social Studies: Build classroom community,  essential qualities to learn and work together, how people build strong communities, seeing different events from different points of view, characteristics of responsible citizenship, how citizens solve problems and work together, how diverse groups impact their community
Social Emotional Learning (SEL): Recognize actions that make others feel welcomed and respected (relationship skills). Demonstrate empathy and kindness toward classmates with different backgrounds (social awareness). Reflect on ways students can contribute to a positive classroom community (responsible decision-making).
Art: Observe how the illustrator uses color, pattern, and character expressions to represent diversity and community. Interpret visual details that show cooperation, celebration, and belonging. Create a classroom mural or collage that represents the many identities, cultures, and interests that make up the class community.

Primary Source Connection: 

• Children’s lives at the turn of the 20th century - primary source set
• Classroom in Utah from 1905
• Riverton Elementary 1910
• Elementary school cafeteria
• Kids singing National Anthem 
• One room school house

Other Books: 

• The Day You Begin
• Separate Is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez and Her Family's Fight for Desegregation
• All Because You Matter
• I Am an American: The Wong Kim Ark Story