This giveaway is now closed. Congratulations to our winners! We’re giving away copies of ABC Ready for School: An Alphabet of Social Skills to five lucky readers! This friendly and reassuring alphabet book helps young children consider, explore, and discuss a wide range of skills related to school readiness.
To Enter: Leave a comment below describing how you help children learn social skills. This giveaway is now closed.
For additional entries, leave a separate comment below for each of the following tasks you complete:
Each comment counts as a separate entry—that’s four chances to win! Entries must be received by midnight, March 23, 2018.
Each winner will be contacted via email on or around March 26, 2018, and will need to respond within 72 hours to claim his or her prize or another winner will be chosen. This giveaway is in no way affiliated with, administered by, or endorsed by Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest. Winners must be US residents, 18 years of age or older.
We welcome your comments and suggestions. Share your comments, stories, and ideas below, or contact us. All comments will be approved before posting, and are subject to our comment and privacy policies.
© 2018 by Free Spirit Publishing. All rights reserved.
I hope to model good manners…yes, thank you, & please to my grandchildren…and treat them as I would want to be treated by them….I’m excited to get my copies of Celeste’s ABC book…ordering some today….thank you Celeste…
I try to always model good manners, truly respect and listen when interacting with children.
I am a Mental Health Consultant with Head Start. I use Free Spirit Publishing books in a Social Skills group that I lead.
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I’m a school counselor working with multiple grades. A big portion of my work is social skills through individual, small group and classroom work.
Yes, another resource to share with staff to use in the classroom. A change of materials is sometimes a great new incentive for our kiddos to learn.
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I am an Early Childhood teacher in a school district. I use to different social/emotional program with my students. To start learning about themselves and how to handle their emotions, I use Conscious Discipline. To work on cooperation and working together, I use Sunshine Circles. Both of the programs work well with my typically developing as well as special education students.
I attempt to model behaviors and allow kids to be in situations to interact with other kids! I have also used social stories – kids love reading! This would be a great resource!!
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As a public librarian, I teach even young kids to interact with me in checking out books, giving them a sense of independence from their parents. We have communal toys where they must share, take turns, and not lose their temper if someone knocks the blocks down! Most importantly, they come in droves to story time where they learn patience, working as a group, and waiting their turn to put felt pieces on the board. Our library does not have a book focused on school social skills, yet many patrons would benefit from having your book in our library. If it is a great book, than many parents and grandparents will buy it to have at home once they encounter it here. Thank you
I’m following Free Spirit on Twitter and Pinterest and Facebook.
I help young children learn social skills through role play, practice and more practice!
Playtime
I help students learn social skills through many different groups – I screen my students and they complete a pre-test to see if they need basic foundational skills for social skills, making/keeping friend skills, conversational skills, etc. I am always seeing a higher need for social skills. I help students as early as kindergarten all the way through 5th grade.
Building social skills is key in raising up our children! I love building my little girl’s confidence in her ability to do beyond what she imagines!! Reading is one of our absolute favorite things to do! Been reading to my girl since she was in the womb! And every night it’s a must before bedtime!! Adding this gem to our collection would be icing on our sweet cake!! Whoohoo!!
I help my two year olds learn social skills by allowing plenty of free play in our centers, reading books on the subject matter, as well as conducting large group activities to foster these skills.
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Every day presents an opportunity to learn social skills. Saying please and thank you to learning to be a good sportsman
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I believe Social skills starts with confidence. Building confidence in our children. As a homeschooling mama, one of my biggest priorities for my young children is building confidence in themselves, in their school work, and in their character.
I’d love to have a copy of this book to help build confidence in my childrens learning ability with letters, and confidence within myself as their teacher, and supporter. This would be a great book to build on the fundamentals I’ve already began to share with them.
Through play at my daycare
This is my second year as a teacher for Special Education. My students are visual learners and I help them learn social skills by interacting woth one another in their environment. I believe that the more you talk to children and help them interact with their peers, the more knowledge that they will gain.
This looks like a great way to get kids off to a good start-set them up for success! We use social stories and apps. on the iPad.
I love to use books and stories to teach social skills. I use the pictures in the books to point out emotions and how the character is feeling.
This book looks awesome. We teach social skills through modeling, through morning meetings and classroom circles, through Leadership Class with the counselor (that’s me!) and through our service-learning projects like our knitting club, giving children opportunities to help one another as they serve and learn.
This is my first year as “Reading Coach” in our Elementary. I visit classrooms and read books about kindness and all that goes with being a good citizen. We have some great dialogue about this subject.
I would love to read and share this social skills book with my Head Start class. My school is also following the PBIS program to teach social skills.
I’m a psychologist and I’m constantly working on social skills. The main one has been sharing with others which seems to be a common problem nowadays. Most kids snatch and don’t want to share.
We model behavior. We read books, practice on a daily basis skills, and allow children to make mistakes and learn from them. We use a lot of teachable moments and review the books and lessons we have learned.
Children will be taught social skills through stories , role play, and value education
Singing a song that encourages sharing while at play.
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I teach preschoolers, and I think this would be a great resource for me to use with my kids over the summer before they go off to kindergarten.
I teach kindergarten and think this book would be a great addition to the other Free Spirit books I use to teach social skills, such as Hands are not for Hitting and Feet are not for Kicking. I also enjoy reading alphabet books to my students to reinforce letter recognition and this would make a great addition to my collection.
We use super hero’s and power bands to share children’s strength with in the classroom!! We love tucker turtle along with other Pyramid strategies
I teach social/emotional skills by modeling, playing with my students, listening. I also use shared reading experiences, puppets for role modeling, and real scenarios in the learning environment.
I spend the first 6 weeks of every school year giving explicit instructions, reading social stories, and modeling behavior.
Working in a PreK-8 school as a part-time Learning Consultant. I get opportunities to be in classrooms especially the kindergarten and 1st grade rooms working with children on literacy and opening their hearts and minds to a world of communication using words, books and writing. Writing opens their hearts to explore feelings and views of their surroundings.
All tools from books to songs to role playing are a great way to support the day to day of living in social situations. Take each interaction positive and or negative and turn them into learning tools. We give kids many opportunities to take care of their issue directly with the person they are having an issue with and then follow up only if needed. Kids are great at sharing their true feelings when in a trusting environment.
I use Social Emotional lessons and games to help teach my Kindergartners how to handle situations. They learn about the different types of feelings, the proper way to respond to these feelings, and how to show your emotions. The students love using the egg-pressions and role playing through situations.
I have a Happy Minds after school class that focuses on Mindfulness and manners. I love so many of the books you have recommended.
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I am a Social Emotional Coach at a daycare center. I teach toddlers about Kindness and gentle hands , I love your tools.
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I help children learn social skills through modeling, role play, discussion, and friendship activities.
Awesome!
I teach ELL early Elementary and elementary students who benefit from social skills. This would also support my Social Emotional Learning strategies.
I teach in our State funded preschool GSRP program where we focus on social-emotional learning. This would help to suppplement what we do in the classroom!
I’d love to share this with my younger groups as I’m an elementary school counselor!!
Helping children with social skills needs to really be viewed as an on-going experience for them. Although you talk about it, they will still need reminders and more opportunities to do the right thing. Helping to do that is a great way of teaching them.
Lead by example and point out awesome behavior and social skills…kids love being caught being GOOD!
I help children learn social skills by using others as examples and catching them in the act.
Thank you this resource. I use social stories,modeling and puppets to provide social and emotional support for my students.
I am a dance & somatic movement educator at a pre-school. I would bring the book to life through movement activities. The program I teach is called “A Moving Experience.” It is a somatic movement education program that incorporates movement, dance, and the arts creating opportunities for children to discover more about themselves and how they interact with others and the world around them in meaningful ways. This book would fit well into this program.
This book would be a great way to prepare preschool children for Kindergarten.
Wonderful Resource! I would use this for counseling lessons and individual counseling.
This would be great to help to my tween grand children get ready for kindergarten next year!
Thank you for giving me an opportunity to win the book for my day care. I promote social skills by encouraging children to work in small groups. I encourage them by encouraging their parents to create play dates for them and I encourage them by encouraging the teachers at my day care to give children job responsibilities.
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I model pro-social language children could use in social interactions. For example, “You could ask, May I have a turn when you’re done using ____.”
I incorporate SL strategies to our parenting skill classes, and read-aloud training to our parents/guardians.
helping children to understand and label their feelings;modeling conflict resolution strategies and supporting children through this process to solve their own problems
We use a social skills program.
I have purchased several items from Free Spirit Publishing in regards to SEL. The book Nobody has been very successsful with our younger students.
reading books and role plays are my favorite strategies for learning social skills.
My staff and I continually model for our kiddos, we talk about emotions and feelings and how we can all help each other in different ways. Allowing our kiddos to have jobs and responsibilities in the classroom also gives them a sense of ownership which reflects not only on how they take care of the classroom, but also on how they treat and take care of their friends in class.
I help children learn social skills by directing them to listen to each other when speaking during lesson time and have children request repetition if they did not understand from their friend without teacher serving as intermediary.
I would use the book as a part of my socio-emotional curriculum with our Transitional Kindergarten and Kindergarten students.
Role playing and rehearsing possible conversations are the tools from our social skills toolbox we use most often.
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One idea is to have each child say their own goal for coming to school, such as to have fun, to learn new things, to be with my friends, to play with the blocks, to draw things, to make things with clay and so on and write each goal out with the child’s name and display in the classroom. Then when their is a conflict review the goals. Ask if whatever is happening (pushing, hitting, biting, and so on) helps them to reach their goals. This takes the blame out of just one child and one incident being highlighted and puts the process into a “we are all a community and we want everyone to have a chance to reach their goals”.
I use the theme of “How to Be a Super Friend”
We describe a “Super Friend”, read books about it, make activities during recess, and we ask children to create their own “Super Friend” in a drawing with some words on it.
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We use Superfriend’s story and other social-emotionally appropriate stories along with modeling and role playing with Solution Cards to help kids learn how to solve problems. We also review, review, review frequently to help reinforce skills kids are learning.
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I use read aloud books in my classroom to help teach social skills. This is a very important skill that we work on.
I conduct pre-school story times at schools and home day cares as part of the Mobile Services Dept. of Charles County Public Library in La Plata, MD. This book would be a welcome addition for a back to school story time.
I love using read aloud books to help children learn social skills. Sometimes I use them to illustrate the appropriate (expected) way to behave; other times, I teach, model and reinforce a skill; then read a story and see if the students can notice the skill being used appropriately (or not) by the characters in the book.
I have K-* students in my classroom and I teach character education and we do different activities for the month to go with that word. We role play scenarios in the classroom with partners and small group as well as whole group. We read books and discuss them. I also do social skills activities to go with life skills activities.
I train Child Care Providers and FCCH providers to provide quality care using different modalities. The book ABC Ready For School is one of the books I would love to use in my training to enhance hands on activities to not focus on Rote Teaching style.To give exciting ideas for teachers to use in the classroom through the day teaching the children with learning their letters in many fun and exciting ways.
We do early childhood PBIS, I use lots of books about friends/feelings/emotions, CSEFEL website for social skills stories and other visuals, I use lots of visuals for problem solving, we use Tucker Turtle…..
We use Promoting First Relationships content in our birth to 3 program, as well as sharing Free Spirit books in our play groups and home visits.
When I was an elementary principal, I also chaired meetings for our school librarians. With my support and encouragement, we looked at what books we had that resonated with our students and helped teach social-emotional skills. For many children with anxiety, books are a great -non-threatening- tool to provide guidance and new thinking and sometimes opens the door for conversation with a caring adult.
Sorry – I rearranged a sentence and didn’t delete the “was”. Could the moderator fix that? Thanks.
Fixed!
We have 5 children, so there is sort of a built in system! To build upon that, we like to do things for and with our community. Also, each child is involved in at least one extracurricular activities and/or sports.
I help them learn social skills by roleplaying scenarios
I want my kids to grow into happy, well-adjusted adults. When it comes to social skills, through listen to others follow the steps, follow the the rules, ignore distance, ask for help, take turns, when you talk get along with others, stay others, even more important than their academic skills or intelligence.
Donna,
We read books, and teach children daily how to be kind, respectful, how to use our words to let people know how we feel, and to help children to know they have a voice to help other friends to be kind, and respectful. We also teach that God’s word teaches up how we should act towards others.
I am an educational consultant and am charged with helping districts find good resources to teach social skills to our children ages 3 through 21. Would love to review your resource and pass it on!
I use social stories and role playing along with reinforcing PBIS skills that have been introduced by the school counselor
I use a lot of picture books with children, and play many skill-based games with them. Children love the games a learn a lot along the way!
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Our classroom is made up of both students with and without identified special needs who often have difficulty with social skills. One activity that they enjoy is line-up buddies. We begin the year by picking two children’s pictures out of a dish and having these students be buddies for the day during line-up time. We model how to ask someone to be your buddy-with both verbal and body language. We talk about being kind to each other and not hurting other’s feelings. This activity allows the children to practice the skill and become friends with a wider range of children in the classroom. Once they have learned the skill and we move to having them ask someone of their own choosing.
At WCCA Head Start we serve lower income families, pregnant mothers and children (0-5yrs) and assist them in becoming school ready. My role as the Mental Health Coordinator is to work with teachers and families on children’s social emotional development by focusing on appropriate peer interactions and self help skills.
We use PBIS, role playing, and excellent literature for social skills awareness. This book would fit in perfectly.
I am always looking for new ways to present to my children. I think this would be a great tool to use!
I work with families and teachers in schools and child care centers to help children have a smooth transition into Kindergarten.
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Hello, we have 2 ways that we go about helping our children develop social skills. In our curriculum we have daily social and emotional activities that require the children to work with one another, take turns, and respect each others space and differences. We also have a monthly book that we spotlight that focuses on things such as bullying, what to do when you are upset, and learning how to love yourself. We also have activities that we do to go along with the monthly book.
I use many books and discussions. Also use PBIS.
As an administrator I would share the book out to the guidance department and our 4K teachers as they work on developing social skills.
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I work with a wonderful group of elementary gifted and talented students who often need social emotional curriculum. Whether it’s through lunch bunch conversations or a team building challenge , I am always looking for new ways to help my students.
I work at the library engaging children in programs that will help them grow in their social skills and “ABC Ready for School” would be a great resource to my planning and giving advice to parents and children.
I help child care providers get their children ready for kindergarten by helping them through the parent aware process
We use Second Step in our PreK classrooms. Our teachers also have access to Conscious Discipline resources. Building relationships with children and their families is the first and most important step in social/emotional learning and growth.
I create groups where children can practice positive social and communication skills and find ways to relate to other peers.
Our classrooms use “Baby Doll Circle Time” to help with emotions. Each child and teacher has a doll. The doll is cradled and held while talking to it in a soothing voice. The teacher {on various days} continues to discuss “What if the baby is mad? Crying? Upset? Jealous?”. She describes what each emotion is and asks what to do about it.
I am a Children’s Librarian so I teach children’s how to be kind and respectful to each other in storytime and in the library.
This looks like a wonderful book for our school of 160 3-6 years old’s! We help the children learn social skills by modeling good social skills; always remembering to say, “good morning, please, thank you, excuse me, I’m sorry, have a great day, I hope you’re feeling better, are you okay?”
THAT is what I love about Free Spirit!
They have a wide range of titles age appropriate to guide children and adults in different ways to be kind and to be a better person.
The first book I got was “Hands are Not for Hitting” and as a teacher it became the main reference book when talking about respect and kindness .
🙂
I use a variety of methods and activities to help children on the autism spectrum understand and be comfortable in play and social communication activities. Shadowing guiding, videos, scripts, modeling, and peer buddies to name a few. Your book will be a wonderful addition to my tool box!
Social Skills & Social-Emotional Learning is important now more than ever! I use a variety of methods to teach these skills to my students, including individual interventions, social skills groups, classroom interventions, and school-wide efforts.
Our kindergarten cohorts are coming less and less socially prepared/emotionally regulated and this would be a great tool to use with them.
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What fun! My kinders would really enjoy this.
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I work as a school administrator overseeing school counselors, social workers, and behavioral specialists. We work with Deaf, DeafBlind, and DeafDisabled students from ages 3-21. We utilize PBIS framework to work with staff, students and families on behavioral expectations.
Is it fair/appropriate to leave multiple generic comments simply to increase your chances of winning?
Hi Kathie,
Per contest rules, each person may enter up to four times—once with a comment about helping children learn social skills, and once for each of our social media accounts followed. Additional entries beyond those four do not increase chances of winning. All of Carlos’s comments fall within contest rules, so no worries!
Thanks,
Suzy Winther
I help students learn social skills by facilitating Lunch Bunch Groups. The students are able to practice conversations and playing together.
I teach elementary special education and have daily social skills groups with numerous students This book would be very beneficial to start off the school year on a positive note.
This would be great to help my son get ready for kindergarten next year!
I regularly use Free Spirit Publishing books in my Kindergarten classroom. I would highly recommend them to enhance your school’s PBIS program.