One of the books we read today was called The Jelly Donut Difference: Sharing Kindness with the World. In it, a pair of twins learn about the importance of family and spreading kindness. They notice their elderly neighbor Ms. Marvis never seems to have family over at her house, so they invite her over to their place for dinner. She accepts and reveals that she has no family left with whom to make pączki (POONCH-key), Polish jelly donuts. The twins learn to make donuts with their father and leave them on Ms. Marvis’ doorstep, then cooperate to build a family of snowmen on her front lawn. Ms. Marvis writes them a grateful letter.
Afterwards, we talked about what happened in the story. We answered questions like:
What was the twins’ relationship like at the beginning of the book?
How did it change by the end?
Why do you think it changed?
Questions like these are important for social-emotional learning. Emotions can be hard to express in healthy ways, especially for children who struggle with identifying and articulating their feelings. Empathy is another skill we encourage here at DRC; we often invoke the golden rule, “do to others only what you would want them to do to you.” Mindfulness, patience, compassion – they’re all vital for good social and emotional health.
Great memories were built and shared by the “hole” crew. Our helpers for the day even dressed up.
♥♦Donut Give Up! by Rose Rossner
Donuts: The Hole Story by David Miles
The Jelly Donut Difference by Maria Dismondy
Dozens of Doughnuts by Carrie Finison
Miss Sherry has a birthday on January 23rd.
Ms. Bethany’s birthday is the day before and Miss Abbie’s the day after.
We are celebrating.
We are having DONUTS
Of course we are not sharing the HOLE story here of what we will be doing, but rest assured it will be fun. If your children do not typically attend DRC the day rate is $15. FREE if you are attending with an adult.
Want to know what everyone has on their Birthday wish list?
I can tell you! A BIGGER LIBRARY!
SEND Birthday checks to :
Donnelly Public Library
P.O. Box 403
Donnelly, ID 83615