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This flexible resource combines character education with analogies to powerful stories from nature. The heart of each of the book’s 25 lessons is an engaging story, written to kids, describing a particular animal or plant and its distinctive qualities. Busy classroom teachers will like the accessibility and flexibility of these character education lesson plans. Kids can read a story individually or in groups, or follow along as the teacher reads it aloud.
Accompanying each story, teachers will find several activities; most of them quick, easy, and requiring few supplies; that further investigate animals or plants and the connections between their qualities and human behaviours. Every lesson examines several main character traits, providing starting points and sample questions for discussing and exploring analogies between events in nature and human acts of character.
Features include:
"Building Character with True Stories from Nature is filled with fascinating depictions and insightful analogies to support character development . . . This book should be a staple in every school’s social-emotional learning curriculum."
- Linda Kreger Silverman, Ph.D., licensed psychologist, director of the Gifted Development Center
"Creatively weds character education with analogies from nature to help teachers promote both deep learning and positive character development in students . . . this synergy is just what education should be."
- Marvin W. Berkowitz, Ph.D., director, Sanford N. McDonnell Leadership Academy for Character Education for School Principals
"Lewis introduces fascinating aspects of the natural world—its constructive and destructive power—to young students in a way that reaches beyond knowledge acquisition. She shows teachers how to build bridges to the inner worlds of children with analogical thinking, reflective questions, and thoughtful conversations that nourish not only their understanding but their agency. If you want to use learning as a way to develop your students’ character, intrinsic motivation, and an ethically grounded relationship with the world, this is the guide you need."
- Diane Stirling, professional development coordinator of CHARACTERplus® and coauthor of Character Education Connections for School, Home, and Community
"Barbara Lewis weaves factual information with down-to-earth, applicable activities and discussions to encourage students’ appreciation for nature, while building their power to observe and to understand people and their world as multidimensional. Throughout, Lewis is respectful of children’s capacity to discuss important issues and form their own opinions."
- Silvia Blitzer Golombek, Ph.D., senior vice president, Youth Service America
