Use easy conversation starters to help support your students’ learning from this week’s book.

Helping children understand the perspective of others is vital for reading comprehension and important to help foster empathy and compassion. This second read focuses on the characters’ thoughts and feelings. The first read focuses on explaining the key events of the story and pushing in target vocabulary which helps children understand the story and builds comprehension. First, watch read alouds of the book and see how you can tie the story into activities for your students. Create an engaging and literacy-building lesson plan for your Pre-K students around one of our favorite books: Julián Is a Mermaid by Jessica Love. What I Am from Sesame Street and Will.I.Make the most of story time with the children you teach.Reading Is Fundamental support materials.Our Selves, Our Classroom, Our Families video from the Teaching Channel.Identity Self-Portraits activity from Teaching Tolerance.I Can Do Anything lesson plan from Scholastic.Jessica Love on The Children’s Book Podcast.How do you describe yourself? How do your friends and family describe you?Īdditional Resources for Teaching About Exploring Identity.are some of the things you like to do together?.Do you have a special friend who you feel comfortable just ‘being yourself’ around? What.How do you feel when you make your own choices without wondering what others will say?.Does what other people say about how you express yourself affect how you express yourself?.

How do you like to or want to express yourself?.

What makes you happy: What do you do? Who are you with? How do you feel?.

How would you describe yourself? What makes you you?.

Questions for Discussion or Reflective Writing Have them generate a list of “shoes to walk in,” research a related issue, and come up with ways they can communicate their new understanding. Have students talk about the expression “walking in someone else’s shoes.” Ask students to think about how they can use their imaginations to learn about and understand the experiences of others. When kids pretend to be other people, they are experimenting with new ideas and behaviors and exploring the elements of identify. The joy of pretend and dress up activates imaginations and exercises language skills.

Julian is mermaid