Resources for Growing Kind Hearts
The Growing Kind Hearts Collection extends learning beyond each story through practical resources that help children READ → TALK → CONNECT → GROW at school, with a counselor, and at home.
For Teachers
Free resources connected to each book, including Teacher’s Guides, lesson plans, read-aloud guides, classroom discussion questions, writing and art prompts, morning-meeting activities, printable posters, and student reflection sheets with SEL connections.
For School Counselors
Access Counselor Guides, individual and small-group prompts, feelings and choices activities, role-playing prompts, kindness challenges, and specialized exercises for confidence, self-esteem, and friendship building.
For Parents & Caregivers
Find Parent Guides, conversation starters, family activities, journaling prompts, and weekly challenges to help connect each story’s lesson to real-world family life and bedtime discussions.
One story. Three connections. One shared goal: helping children grow kind hearts.
Growing Kind Hearts
Full Guides & Resources
Free resources for helping little hearts grow.
Whether you’re supporting a child at home, in the classroom, or in a counseling setting, these guides are designed to put practical, easy-to-use tools right at your fingertips. Below, you’ll find our Teacher’s Guide, Counselor’s Guide, and Parent’s Guide, along with six Behavior Guides focused on specific areas where children may need a little extra support. Each guide includes helpful strategies, language to use, real-world examples, and printable resources you can put into practice right away. Simply choose the guide you’d like to explore and click the Download button to save the PDF, print it, or keep it handy for whenever you need
Pick The Flowers
Free resources listed below.
This free Grades 1–3 Teacher's Guide helps educators extend the story into meaningful classroom conversations and activities about choices, feelings, confidence, kindness, courage, responsibility, and what children can and cannot control.
- Three ready-to-use classroom lessons
- Before, during, and after-reading discussion prompts
- STOP · THINK · CHOOSE activities
- Role-play and real-life choice scenarios
- Writing, art, reflection, and extension activities
- Ready-to-print student resources
- Home-school connection
- Social-emotional learning and academic standards connections
For Teachers
Bring The Choice Inside Me into the classroom.
This free Grades 1–3 Teacher's Guide helps educators extend the story into meaningful classroom conversations and activities about choices, feelings, confidence, kindness, courage, responsibility, and what children can and cannot control.
- Three ready-to-use classroom lessons
- Before, during, and after-reading discussion prompts
- STOP · THINK · CHOOSE activities
- Role-play and real-life choice scenarios
- Writing, art, reflection, and extension activities
- Ready-to-print student resources
- Home-school connection
- Social-emotional learning and academic standards connections
For Teachers
Bring The Choice Inside Me into the classroom.
This free Grades Prek, K–3 Teacher's Guide helps educators extend the story into meaningful classroom conversations and activities about choices, feelings, confidence, kindness, courage, responsibility, and what children can and cannot control.
- Three ready-to-use classroom lessons
- Before, during, and after-reading discussion prompts
- STOP · THINK · CHOOSE activities
- Role-play and real-life choice scenarios
- Writing, art, reflection, and extension activities
- Ready-to-print student resources
- Home-school connection
- Social-emotional learning and academic standards connections
For Parents & Caregivers
Continue the conversation at home.
The free Family Connection Guide gives parents and caregivers simple, practical ways to carry the lessons of The Choice Inside Me into everyday family life, emphasizing connection rather than formal instruction: conversations, encouragement, family activities, and small everyday opportunities to help children understand their feelings and choices.
- Easy conversation starters
- STOP · THINK · CHOOSE at home
- Support for big feelings
- Confidence and self-belief
- Kindness in everyday family life
- Friendship problem support
- Family connection activities
- Encouragement and reflection ideas
Free Printables & Activities
Coloring Pages
Nature-inspired scenes from the collection.
Kindness Tracker
Track kind choices and celebrate everyday kindness.
Feelings Worksheet
Helping children identify and name their emotions.
For School Counselors
Practical tools for helping children understand feelings, choices, and themselves.
The free School Counselor Guide is designed for individual counseling, small groups, classroom guidance, and collaboration with teachers and families, and that it provides practical, child-friendly ways to connect the themes of The Choice Inside Me with social-emotional learning and everyday counseling conversations.
- Individual counseling and small-group activities
- Helping children identify and manage big feelings
- Choice-making and problem-solving strategies
- Confidence and self-belief activities
- Resilience and perseverance
- Healthy self-esteem and positive self-image
- Friendship and conflict support
- Family partnership ideas
- Quick-use counselor tools and conversation prompts
Big Feelings & Brave Choices
Practical Tools for Emotional Regulation & Behavior Support
Created from an educator’s perspective
These activities were developed by Tamra Kiel, M.Ed., a former elementary educator with 29 years of experience working with children. They are designed as practical educational tools for teachers, counselors, and families to use alongside the professional knowledge and judgment they already bring to supporting children.
Anger
Help children recognize, understand, and manage big emotions with practical tools for calming down, expressing feelings, and getting back to a place where they feel ready to move forward.
Worry & Anxiety
Give children simple, reassuring strategies for understanding worry, calming anxious thoughts and bodies, building confidence, and taking small steps through situations that feel scary or uncertain.
Frustration
Help children manage frustration when things feel difficult, disappointing, or overwhelming with practical tools for calming down, working through big feelings, and building the confidence to keep trying.
Impulse Control
Help children learn to pause, think, and choose before acting with practical tools that build self-control, thoughtful decision-making, and confidence in making kind, helpful choices.
Shutdown & Refusal
Look beyond “I don’t want to” to understand what a child may be communicating. These resources offer supportive ways to reduce overwhelm, offer choices, break tasks into smaller steps, take effective breaks, and help children re-engage.
Friendship & Conflict
Help children build stronger friendships by learning how to communicate kindly, listen to others, handle disagreements, respect boundaries, solve problems together, repair mistakes, and include others.