Each Kindness
Picture Book Read Aloud
book summary
In Each Kindness Maya is the new girl at school, and Chloe and her friends aren’t very welcoming. The first thing Chloe notices is how worn-down Maya clothes are and that Maya is wearing spring shoes in the winter. Every time Maya asks if she can jump rope, play jacks, or pick up sticks with the girls, the answer is always no. Chloe and the other girls see Maya as being different from them. She’s the girl wearing old clothes and shoes and eating funny food. She is just not the type of girl they want to be friends with. So, Maya plays alone until one day she just stops coming to school.
That morning the teacher leads a lesson on the importance of kindness and how our actions can have a ripple effect in the world. As part of the lesson, each student is given a rock to drop in a bowl of water to watch the ripple effect it has while sharing a recent act of kindness they had done for someone. Chloe can’t stop thinking about Maya and can’t think of anything kind she has done and gives her stone back to the teacher without dropping it in the water.
After not coming to school for a few days, the teacher announces that Maya has moved to another town and changed schools. That afternoon, walking home from school, Chloe is thinking about what her teacher had said about kindness. She realizes that she missed the chance she was given to show kindness to Maya, and now she won’t be getting another opportunity to do so.
Chloe has learned the sad lesson about the impact our words can have on others and realizes too late that she has missed her chance to show kindness to Maya. But, Chloe has learned her lesson, and the reader is left reassured that Chloe will be treating the next “Maya” that crosses her path with kindness.
While this book does not have the typical “happy ending,” it is guaranteed to prompt reflection and further discussion about how we should treat one another. Most students will be able to connect with Maya having at some time been the “new kid.” The beautifully crafted words in this text help readers to feel empathy for Maya and begin to understand the difficult lesson that we don’t always get a second chance. Sometimes we only get one chance, so it’s important to always try to do the right thing the first time.
After reading this book, I have students take out a piece of paper and crumble it up. Then I ask them to smooth the paper out so that it no longer has wrinkles. This visual illustrates for kids that sometimes our words can leave “wrinkles” on someone that no matter how many “sorries” we say, or things we try to do to make it better, the wrinkles, or scars are still there.
suggested teaching point
Each Kindness provides several opportunities for the teacher to model the thinking that happens in the mind of a fluent, engaged reader while they are reading.
On page 4, model your thinking “Sometimes when I am reading, I use the pictures to help me understand the story better. When I see Maya in the picture, I notice that her head is down. She is looking at the floor and not at anyone in the room. This helps me know that she is afraid and nervous to be at her new school because that is how I would be if I was new.”
On page 13, model your thinking “As a reader, I can tell that Maya is friendly and likes to share. I can also tell that she likes to play games. She is a very strong person because she keeps trying to share with the other kids even after they repeatedly told her no and were mean to her.”
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