Stress and the pre-schooler: books that can help

Abstract

[As the director of a large pre-school ,teachers often share their classroom problems with me, and ask for advice and suggestions. When this happens I find myself going back to my classes of yesteryears, and have discovered that very often I used a good children's book to help me foster discussion about a stressful situation. I now keep a resource of these books in my office for ready use. Our guinea pig died after a long life at our school, and I was able to pull out, The Tenth Good Thing About Barney, by Judith Viorst. This helped to get the children thinking about all the things they liked about our "Bandit"; the teachers were amazed at all the memories that poured forth. I have added some informational books, such as the Fred Rogers series, First Experiences, in this case: When A Pet Dies.* This book as all in. the series has a sensitive text and appropriate photographs. It was useful to have these books handy at such a time. It helped explain the issue to children, and reminded teachers of the importance of getting. the children to talk about their feelings.]