Hively Provider Book Club

Wednesday, 24 August 2022

Hively offers regular workshops, classes, and training to help child care providers develop their skills as small business owners, child development experts, and compassionate caregivers.

This includes Hively’s Childcare Provider Book Club! Every Wednesday from 1:00-1:30pm, Hively has a guest reader who reads a children’s book to a group of child care providers and we discuss the book together. Providers discuss their thoughts, how they can implement the book into their centers, and what they can teach their children in connection with each book.

Hosted by our Training and Inclusion Coordinator, Hively’s Childcare Provider Book Club introduces a range of diverse topics including inclusion, emotions, representation, disability, meditation/mindfulness and more!

At the end of the month Hively provides childcare providers in the Tri-Valley (Pleasanton, Dublin, Livermore, Sunol) with a copy of their favorite children’s book to help providers build their children’s library and have the tools to implement the books into their child care program.

This week Carol Jin, 4C’s Inclusion Navigator, read Fly, Little Bird by Ingo Blum in both English and Mandarin!

The content of this book is as follows,

“A little bird is afraid of heights.

The other birds laugh at him and say,

‘Birds love flying high in the sky.

No bird is afraid of heights!’

The little bird loves the sky. He tries to fly but can never fly up more than a few feet. He is too afraid. So he watches the other birds fly into the sky and leave him.

But then something strange happens… Read how the shy little bird overcomes his fears.”

Key takeaways from our Provider Book Club discussion included the following:

• The book begins with showing how the little bird has fear in flying and how he makes the choice to find friends who can keep him company. This is a great way to explain to kids that sometimes there are things in our life that are going to be scary and that’s okay.
• As the little bird looks for friends, the book explains the different characteristics each animal has (e.g., a beaver who gnaws and builds bridges).
• The little bird feels sad that others don’t want to be his friends, but when he sees another bird who needs help, he reaches out to those he has met and knows they can help. Here we see how not every animal is the same, and having different characteristics is a strength that makes us all unique, just in the same way that our personal characteristics make us all unique.
• Towards the end of the book, we see the little bird overcome his fear. The book states, “He is afraid again and gasps and sighs. He plummets, but then he sees, for the first time, the world from above, so lovely and fine… And he forgets his fear.” In this section of the book we can teach children that sometimes it can be scary to do something new, but it is possible to overcome fear when we are ready; sometimes it just takes a little bit of courage.
• Providers can use the different animals presented in the book to ask children what sounds the animals make, or engage them by asking children what the animals said to the little bird.
• Children can also engage with the book by drawing a picture about being brave/courageous and share this with others.

Here are a few songs for kids to learn more about being scared and being courageous:

I’m Scared Song

Being Brave/Courage Songs for Kids

The video below focuses on explaining what courage is and teaching children the value of it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKRItW_kMnA

The lesson plan below provides a variety of activities that can be used with children to further teach bravery and courage.

• Courage Lesson Plan

Lastly, the end of the book provides a coloring page of the little bird for children. Our guest reader Carol created a prop to go along with the book. Our audience absolutely loved it! Thank you for sharing this great idea Carol. Check it out below!

If you are a childcare provider in the Tri-Valley (Pleasanton, Dublin, Livermore, Sunol) and would like to join Hively’s Provider Book Club, please contact hello@behively.org for further information.

About the Author:

Hello, my name is Karely! I am the Training and Inclusion Coordinator at Hively. One of my roles at Hively includes facilitating and sharing resources for Hively’s Provider Book Club.

In addition to the Provider Book Club, I help and support childcare providers in the Tri-Valley (Pleasanton, Dublin, Livermore, Sunol) with inclusion services for their child care programs.

If you are a childcare provider in the Tri-Valley and are interested in inclusion services for your childcare program and/or you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to hello@behively.org Thank you!