The story of the picture book class that all-rounder teacher Yura wanted to share with you.

What is the scope of a homeroom teacher's role in an elementary school classroom? From curriculum restructuring and project-based learning to remote learning, classroom management, and integrated education, elementary school homeroom teachers must be truly versatile.
Teacher Choi Yu-ra, who has always been the first to research, implement, and share her experiences in all of these missions, chose 'picture book classes' as the story she most wants to share with adults caring for children.
Rather than setting aside a separate time to read picture books with children, integrated education is naturally achieved by utilizing picture books in various classes, allowing children to explore each other's emotions and communicate through the characters in the stories.
It meticulously captures each step of the process of everyone growing together, looking into each other's eyes, without anyone being left out in the classroom.

Children need adults who listen to their stories.
An adult who looks into your stomach, which you don't even know well, helps you take it out and solve it, and reassures you that it's okay.
After I've looked into the inside of my stomach that I didn't even know about, wouldn't I be able to listen to nagging and scolding better?
---From "Things that are invisible but exist"

After taking this class, the classroom changed a lot.
The child in the first picture who cried all the time now has friends who comfort him.
Friends who used to hate me for being like a baby asked me, "Why are you crying?"
The reason you're shedding tears is definitely because it's in your stomach.
A class meeting was held for the second child.
I taught and helped practice how to get angry to a child who didn't know how to get angry.
For a friend who was learning how to be angry, the children often asked the child, "Are you upset?" or "Are you angry?"
I'm still not good at expressing my anger, but I'm learning how to do it little by little.

---From "Everyone has a thorn"

This activity has 'realistic goals'.
Moreover, the meaning of the word 'true' adds weight to the question we ask ourselves.
It helps me think deeply about things that have always been on my mind, things that I really wanted to challenge myself with, even if it was a little difficult, rather than goals that I just set for fun or on a whim.
At the end of deep questioning, we set a goal and complete the activity.

---From "Everyone's speed is different"

Parent Tip: This can also be useful when creating a child growth album at home.
We talk about the experiences of the child growing up while looking at actual photos and videos of the child.
Listen to the story and let the child express himself in his own way.
When making a picture book, it's also a good idea to include actual photos of your child in it.
Then it really becomes 'my book'.
Once the book is finished, have family members read it and write a review.
So that you can know how precious and valuable your child is.

---From "What Made Me Who I Am"

Let's talk about the walls that separate children from each other.
“What is this red wall blocking me?”
Write down what you think the wall is like on each brick of the 'red wall' drawn on the blackboard with a post-it note.
Brick by brick, the walls of the children's hearts are filled.
School, family, friends, studying, indifference, the world, fear… .
The questions don't end here.
"Do I want to overcome that wall? Do I want to tear it down? Do I want to leave it as is? What do I feel like right now?"
---From "I Look Quietly at Myself"

A child raised his hand quietly and asked.
“Teacher, my parrot can’t eat candy, so who will eat that candy?”
“Parrots can’t eat candy.
“If you can’t eat it, there’s nothing I can do, so just tell them and let ○○ eat the candy.” As I absentmindedly answered, a thought crossed my mind.
I looked through the other kids' candy bags, and sure enough, every kid had chosen something they couldn't eat.
that's right.
It was too cruel to give a nine-year-old a piece of candy and ask them to pass it on to someone else.
We constantly research and think about learners and create classes, but unexpected things like this happen.
The next day, we had class again.
This time I gave him three candies.
When I told him to keep two for himself and use one to express his feelings, he finally wrote that he would express his feelings to his family.

---「Step 2.
From "The Beginning of Friendship"

What happened to Doki and Takki happens countless times in our classroom.
From experiences similar to this, like seeing a friend I thought was my best friend playing with another friend, to the experience of being left alone when we took sides, even though it wasn't intentional...
The scene shown in the picture book is 'betrayal of one's best friend', but if you look a little deeper, it could also be a scene expressing loneliness, 'I am alone because I have no friends'.
In such cases, comfort from adults is not of much help.
Because adults have a hard time understanding the scenes in this book as friendships.
For adults, it would be easier to understand it as a long-term relationship between lovers or a married couple.
As we grow up and go our own ways, our friends live their own lives, and a suitable distance develops between the two lives.
Adults who have already experienced this cannot empathize with how frustrated Doki must have been.
'Anyway, as time passes, everything will become distant.
'Life is meant to be lived alone.' This might offer comfort that doesn't sound like comfort.
So, this is an area where children must find a way to comfort and comfort others through picture books.

---From "Building Friendships (1) It's Not About Being Together Unconditionally"

“I think a friend is someone who waits for and shows interest in a slow turtle.”
At that moment, tears welled up in my eyes.
Although it is a story about friendship, I thought that what this child wants from his parents and teachers, who are adults, is for them to wait for him, who is a little slower and quieter, and to pay attention to him and see if he is there or not.
Not feeling frustrated, not forgetting just because the child is quiet, but always being curious about that child's existence and waiting for it.
Thanks to the picture book curation class, the children learned about their friends' hearts, and I also learned about another child's heart.
And from the next year onwards, I started reading with my children.
If you're not sure what story to tell, just ask your children.
I will tell you about the world as much as children do.

---From "Building Friendships (3) Looking at each other warmly"

You can't force something on someone by telling them what they need to learn through experience.
But what if we could help children perceive what they're feeling little by little through their experiences? Wouldn't the relationships they form now and in the future become warmer and stronger? With that in mind, I'm picking up a picture book.
The book we will be reading together is a picture book called “The Fox” by Margaret Wilde.
As you can see from the picture book cover, it doesn't look like a warm and beautiful picture book.
As the title suggests, the cover shows a fox staring ahead with an indecipherable expression, and next to it, a bird is looking at the fox.

“The fox seems to be looking at us.
What does the fox's expression look like? What story do you think it's telling?
"What kind of relationship do you think the bird next to the fox has? What do you think it is just by looking at the cover?"
---From "Building Friendships (4) About Trust"

Even after teaching children about relationships like this, children still experience conflicts with their friends.
Because you can't teach and change children all at once.
But if children can suddenly recall this time when they encounter a situation in their relationships, if they can think that relationships are not something that just happen, but something that must be nurtured, if they can think a little more deeply about the situation they face, and if they can think about it just once within the framework of a relationship rather than speaking and acting as they please, I think that alone will provide an opportunity for their lives to grow a little.
What we learned was about building friendships, but it will also serve as a solid foundation for children to build the many relationships they will encounter in life.

---From "Building Friendships (5) The Friends I Think of"