Complement the Second Step Early Learning Program with the Our Emotions and Behavior Book Series | By: Committee for Children Nora is not sharing the space station with her classmates, Dan and Henry. They are both mad and react. Dan pushes Nora while Henry takes the helmet from her. All three are sent out of the room, and each finds a different way to calm down. Regrets and apologies ensue. This story from the book Not Fair, Won’t Share may sound familiar in that it represents the regular happenings in the lives of young children and the need for skill development to help them learn to self-manage situations such as these. Sue Graves’ eight books in this series from Free Spirit Publishing emphasize learning about strong feelings and skills for managing them, and inspire children to interact positively with others and consider consequences of their words and actions. They are a resource for supporting children to better understand their own and other’s feelings, how their feelings relate to actions, and what they can do to manage their feelings and behaviors. There are other reasons to like the books too: The visuals and repeated words facilitate deeper learning about feelings and behavior. Questions and activity ideas at the end of the books extend the discussions and encourage further reflection. The narratives encourage self-awareness of one’s own and social awareness of other’s views and feelings, which are two of the five core social-emotional learning (SEL) competencies. The stories blend SEL and academics by also promoting early literacy strategies. For example, adults are encouraged to page through the books and have children use picture clues to anticipate what the book could be about before reading it. Also, at the end of each book, children are asked to tell their own story about a set of pictures and then talk about it. The entire series is rated for children ages 4–8 so these books also support Second Step lessons at the kindergarten and first grade levels. The Our Emotions and Behavior eight-book series also supports many of the strategies learned in the Second Step Early Learning Empathy and Emotion Management Weekly Themes. The table below shows how. Book Key Concepts Second Step Early Learning Weekly Themes Complemented I Hate Everything! Anger, hate, managing strong feelings, calming down Empathy: Identifying Anger Emotion Management: Managing Anger, Strong Feelings, Managing Disappointment I'm Not Happy Feelings (unhappy, sad, delighted, miserable), helping ourselves feel better, helping others feel better Empathy: Identifying Feelings Emotion Management: Naming Feelings, Managing Disappointment Who Feels Scared? Feelings (scared, frightened), different things frighten different people Empathy: More Feelings, Same or Different Feelings But What If? Feelings (excited, worried), managing feelings, thinking positively Emotion Management: We Feel Feelings in our Bodies (worried) To find out more or to place an order, check out Free Spirit Publishing Our Emotions and Behavior series.