Picture Books about Respect and Empathy
Help children to respect themselves, other people and the world around them with these books about respect. Explore characters showing respect, acceptance of differences, using respectful words and respecting the environment.
Why Read Picture Books About Respect?
Teaching children to respect themselves, other people, and the world around them is crucial. Children learn about respect continuously from the actions of others. It is important for us to model a respectful attitude for children to learn from.
Using picture books is a great way to teach respecting ourselves, accepting differences, using respectful words and respecting the environment.
Questions for Picture Books About Respect
- How does being respectful/disrespectful affect relationships with others?
- How do you feel when other people respect/disrespect you?
- What are some characteristics of respectful behaviour?
- What does it mean to respect ourselves?
- How do you show respect to others?
- Do we deserve respect or do we have to earn it?
- Should you show respect to others even if you don’t like them? Explain your answer.
- Was [character] respectful/disrespectful? What is your evidence?
- How did [character] earn other people’s respect?
- How were [character’s] actions towards the environment respectful?
- Why was it important that [character] felt respected?
- Why was it important that [character] showed respect?
- In what ways did [character] show respect?
- How did [character] feel when they were disrespected by [character]?
- How should [character] have responded when they were disrespected?
- Why do you think [character] was disrespectful?
- When [character] was rude, they said they were only joking. Does this make their behaviour okay? Explain.
Children’s Books About Respect
These books illustrate respectful behaviour and will help children look at situations from the perspective of others. They show characters who are:
- polite and use their manners
- considerate
- respectful of their environment
- respectful of the property of others
- good listeners
- helpful and kind
- able to put themselves in the shoes of other
- willing to reflect on how their actions affect others
Of course, some books show disrespectful characters and the consequences of their negative behaviour.
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What Next?
After reading books about respect you could take a look at these lesson plans from Learning for Justice – Treat Others the Way You Want to be Treated and Brush Up on Respect.
Here are a couple of short videos you can use in your classroom.
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