TOGETHER WE GROW: ENGAGEMENT TOOLS & READ ALOUD

Best Users: Librarians, Educators, Home Learners, SEL Educators, Immigration Organizations
Best Audience: Children Grades 00-05
 

READ ALOUD & DISCUSSION WITH LCSW FAMILY & CHILD THERAPIST


 

ABOUT THE ENGAGEMENT TOOLS

Discussion Guide for Educators & Families
This book can be an opening for amazing conversations with children (and adults). As child and family LCSW therapist Bonnie Thomas says, “We grow together when we talk with one another.” Bonnie’s spread-by-spread discussion questions offer opportunities to explore Together We Grow for Social Emotional Learning. I’m Your Neighbor Books, an organization that creates family and classroom conversation about immigration, welcoming, and belonging, also contributed questions to the discussion.
DOWNLOAD Together We Grow: Discussion Questions (PDF)

Barn Paper Craft
All of the action of the picture book centers around the barn. The open barn doors represent an invitation, an opening, and a welcoming. Illustrator Kelly Murphy designed an amazing little paper craft that allows the reader to make their own barn. Inside, they can include the animals and messages they want to fold into the barn’s four walls. There is room for us all.
DOWNLOAD Together We Grow: Barn Paper Craft (PDF)

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Community Posters
Together We Grow’s welcoming message seems so pertinent today as the country fights the pandemic, racial injustice, immigration bans, family separation, and a growing anxiety. It may be time to inspire both empathy and welcoming. We took the picture books’ core phrases: Together We Grow, There is Room for Us All, and Love Prevails and made them into community posters for readers to hang on telephone poles, fences, or bulletin boards. Those community posters have tear-off tabs with those messages and a URL. The URL leads to the video read-aloud.
DOWNLOAD Together We Grow: Community Posters (PDF)
 

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ABOUT THE BOOK

Together We Grow
By Susan Vaught
Illustrated by Kelly Murphy
Publisher: Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books
ISBN-13: 9781534405868

Lightning gash!
Windy lash!

A storm drives all the farm animals indoors except for a lonely fox family. The barn isn’t their home. But where will they go for safety?

This stunning picture book explores themes of acceptance and belonging:

Large or small,
Short and tall,
There is room,
There is room,
There is room
For us all.

““A gentle tale of inclusion and fairness that children will clearly understand.”
—Booklist (starred review)
.
“A truly inspiring picture book that will resonate with both children and adults.”
—School Library Journal (starred review)
.
“Emotionally charged and eloquently rendered in words and art, this picture book is worth owning and cherishing.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
.
“Inviting dialogue about the need for inclusivity, Vaught offers a lyrical narrative.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

 

THE GIVEAWAY WINNERS

In August 2020, 30 individual copies of Together We Grow were given away to teachers, librarians, or literacy folks. Our thanks to Paula Wiseman Books for the generous donation! Congratulations to our winners!
 

Ashe County Public Library West Jefferson NC
Book Professional Working @ Home Calhoun GA
Book Professional Working @ Home Brooklyn NY
Book Professional Working @ Home Mahopac NY
Book Professional Working @ Home Ponca City OK
Book Professional Working @ Home Saunderstown RI
Book Professional Working @ Home Kents Store VA
Boone County Public Library Burlington KY
Clarence Galm Elementary/ San Antonio TX
Community Partnership of the Ozarks Springfield MO
Drake Community Library Grinnell IA
Fairhope Public Library Fairhope AL
Francis McClure Elementary White Oak PA
Greene County Public Library Fairborn OH
Hagen Ranch Road Branch Delray Beach FL
Kirtland Public Library Kirtland OH
Kokomo Howard County Public Library Kokomo IN
Mansfield Public Library Mansfield TX
Marshall County Public Library @Benton Benton KY
Mead Public Library Sheboygan WI
MSAD 75 Bowdoin Central School West Bowdoin ME
North Bellmore Public Library North Bellmore NJ
Ocean Twp bd of ed Wall NJ
Roosevelt Elementary Mesa AZ
San Diego Public Library San Diego CA
Shrewsbury Borough School Shrewsbury NJ
South Shore Community Action Council plymouth MA
Sunset Hill Library Lawrence KS
The Vanguard School malvern PA
Valley View School McHenry IL