What Do You Do With a Problem? by Kobi Yamada is an inspiring book about confronting problems in a child’s life.
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In the beginning of the book, the character describes how he has a problem. He isn’t sure how it happened and doesn’t want it, but there it is! The boy struggles with how to deal with this problem by ignoring it, shooing it away, but nothing worked. Then he starts to worry about his problem and it became bigger and bigger. The boy worried about what would happen to him because of his problem. Would it take away his things?
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What was going to happen? The boy tried avoiding it and hiding but the problem never went away until he decided to face it. After facing his problem with some fear, he realized that his problem held an opportunity to learn and grow. The main character became brave and stronger as a result of this problem and became able to deal with problems in the future.
What Do You Do With a Problem? is a book that I use with my 2nd and 3rd graders in a variety of way. As adults, we do learn that in order to resolve our problem, we need to face it head on. We can avoid and hide from the problem as much as you want, but the problem will not go away.
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After reading the book we discuss a problem that the boy may have had. Why was the problem getting bigger when he ignored it? Why did he worry? What does worrying mean? The term worrying in itself can be a helpful discussion with children since children and adults worry but just about different things. We then begin our discussions on the steps of problem solving and do some follow up activities.
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Below is a way to help start the conversation with your student:
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1. WHAT IS MY PROBLEM?
2. HOW DOES MY PROBLEM MAKE ME FEEL?
3. HOW CAN I FACE MY PROBLEM?
4. WHAT DID I LEARN FROM HAVING THIS PROBLEM?
What Do You Do With a Problem? by Kobi Yamada is an inspiring book about confronting problems in a child’s life.
​
In the beginning of the book, the character describes how he has a problem. He isn’t sure how it happened and doesn’t want it, but there it is! The boy struggles with how to deal with this problem by ignoring it, shooing it away, but nothing worked. Then he starts to worry about his problem and it became bigger and bigger. The boy worried about what would happen to him because of his problem. Would it take away his things?
1.
What was going to happen? The boy tried avoiding it and hiding but the problem never went away until he decided to face it. After facing his problem with some fear, he realized that his problem held an opportunity to learn and grow. The main character became brave and stronger as a result of this problem and became able to deal with problems in the future.
What Do You Do With a Problem? is a book that I use with my 2nd and 3rd graders in a variety of way. As adults, we do learn that in order to resolve our problem, we need to face it head on. We can avoid and hide from the problem as much as you want, but the problem will not go away.
​
After reading the book we discuss a problem that the boy may have had. Why was the problem getting bigger when he ignored it? Why did he worry? What does worrying mean? The term worrying in itself can be a helpful discussion with children since children and adults worry but just about different things. We then begin our discussions on the steps of problem solving and do some follow up activities.
​
Below is a way to help start the conversation with your student:
​
1. WHAT IS MY PROBLEM?
2. HOW DOES MY PROBLEM MAKE ME FEEL?
3. HOW CAN I FACE MY PROBLEM?
4. WHAT DID I LEARN FROM HAVING THIS PROBLEM?
CHECK OUT THE BOOK - In my Heart by Jo Witek
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This book helps children understand the physical and the emotional
of our feelings. It covers a range of emotions, which includes happy,
sad, brave, shy, anger and more. It gives them the language that
empowers them to identify and explain their own emotions. It also
happens to be beautiful written and illustrated.
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For my 2nd - 3rd grade lessons, we begin by having the class list as
many feelings as they can think of as I write them on the whiteboard.
Usually their feelings list is limited to the happy, sad, mad, glad,
feeling words. I will then read 'In my Heart' and we will see if there
are more feeling words we can add to the board after the story.
Usually brave, proud, shy, frighten, afraid, lazy, calm, hurt/broken,
hopeful, and silly are then added to the whiteboard.
I will then give the class a printout of a feelings wheel. We will walk through it and color in the appropriate areas to discuss synonyms and how there are more intense & descriptive words for our basic feelings. The students can then either receive 1 of 2 worksheet options.
OPTION A: A printout of a large heart that looks like a puzzle. The students make a key to the side of the heart by listing all of the feelings they currently have in their heart. They are then asked to assign a color next to that feeling word and will color in their heart with all of their current feelings. This is a great way to assess how each student is feeling. While they are completing this activity I walk around and ask questions such as, "What feeling do you have most of?" or "Tell me about this feeling."
OPTION B: The students receive a worksheet with several characters labeled with various emotions. They are asked to draw a face on each character to match the labeled emotion.
For my Kindergarten and 1st grade lessons we begin the lesson by introducing a single emotion to the class. Use either basic emotions such as mad, sad, scared, joyful, peaceful or more specific feeling words such as optimistic, lonely, embarrassed, surprised. Your choice of word will depend on the class' developmental level or connection to other teaching material.
Side note - I have found it useful to start with the movie characters from the film 'Inside Out,' by utilizing this short clip called Guess the Feeling. I pause it after each feeling is guessed and we discuss how we can see and feel emotions with the help of clues from the way our body behaves. We talk about how our face looks and what our body is doing when we feel each specific emotion. At this time I invite students to practice making faces and using body movement to display what the chosen emotion "looks like." It is very helpful to use mirrors to practice or to take a photo of each child showing the emotion. Then we can brainstorm a list of things or situations that make them feel the chosen emotion.
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After this discussion we continue playing the YouTube video until this process is completed for each emotion. [My lessons are only 30 minutes and it usually takes us 2-3 lessons to complete this].
It is important to note that throughout the lesson I emphasize that feelings are normal: some feel pleasant and some feel unpleasant. I also remind them not to judge our own feelings or other people's feelings because they aren't right or wrong.
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HAVE YOU FILLED A BUCKET TODAY
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This book is great for classroom guidance lessons about kindness but even better if the classrooms adopt this to use as a daily rewards system in their classrooms!
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After reading the book we have a discussion and then complete an activity.Discussion questions include:
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We all have an invisible bucket, what does the word invisible mean?
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Who all has a bucket? (everyone - you, me, teachers, janitors, lunc
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Can you fill or empty a bucket with words? (both depending on the words said)
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What words or actions fill up a bucket?
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What words or actions are bucket dippers?
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There are countless resources on TPT to use for activities. My favorites have been sorting worksheets where students cut out bucket filling and bucket dipping statements/pictures and then they have to glue them in the correct category.
I also have created several bucket filling and dipping statements that I have cut out into tiny strips. Students pick out a statement and have to identify if it is a bucket filling action or a bucket dipping action by placing the piece of paper in the correct container. I usually have a small trash can and a decorated bucket for containers.
Sometimes, depending on maturity and developmental levels, we create teams of 2-3 who pick out the pre-cut out statements and then act it out for the class. The class then has to identify if their skit is a bucket filling or bucket dipping situation.