In this post, I will share how I bring this story to life through movement, outdoor play, and big-body literacy. You will see the actions I have used, how the story supports SEL (social-emotional learning), and ways to try these ideas with your students. I will even share a wonderful song (with actions) that I teach to go along with this book the keeps the joy and spirit of the story going.
🧠 Encourages growth mindset and self-acceptance.
💛 Easy entry point for social-emotional learning (SEL).
🎵 Great rhythm and fun images to inspire movement and action-based interactions.
🌿 Works beautifully outdoors, lending itself to acting, imagination, and joy.
"Someday, I'll be great at something. I just don't know what yet."
- from The OK Book by Amy Krouse Rosenthal & Tom Lichtenheld
We connect! "Hi, OK!” We turn to our partner(s) and ask, “How are you?” We practice listening and sharing.
We juggle! We start with one imaginary item, passing it to one hand - tossing - catching then building up from there... (A pinecone with lots of space can be fun!)
We sing! After seeing the balls on the floor, I teach my I'm OK! You're OK! We're all OK! song.
We skip! We all practice our "ok" skipping around.
We climb! If we are outside, we can head to the play structure. Inside, we pretend to climb with descriptive narration from the teacher.
We roast! We build mini campfire pits (small sticks, rocks, etc), collect a short stick and use leaves as 'marshmallows'. Sometimes they burn so we blow them, and sometimes our hands are sticky, but they always taste good!
We tightrope walk! Heel to toe and away we go! Arms out can help!
We catch baseballs! We put on our pretend baseball glove and Ms. Kathleen tosses "balls" for us to practice catching. If they drop, we say, "it's okay!"
We dive! We cover our ears with our arms, bend at the waste and turn it into a jump ("it's okay!"), since we are working on our dives very carefully!
We hide! A classic game of hide and seek is always a fun time!
We swing! Put those legs out straight while you lean back! Bend your legs and sit right up! Have a good time and get an ab workout too! ha.
We sled! You might need imaginary protective headgear and certainly some space! This silliness gets lots of giggles.
We tug-of-war! If we aren't using a real rope, I toss out the imaginary rope and we pretend to pull. My kindies pulled me right off my little stool once... and I may or may not have been a sore loser because I landed on my thumb! ha.
We eat pancakes! First, we mix the batter and wait to flip it (careful it does not land on your head!), then we pile it with all our favourite toppings or find nature 'toppings' then enjoy our pretend feast!
We go fishing! We get our rod over our shoulder and cast it out! Patience is key. Eventually, we reel it in! Share what we "caught".
We swim! We show our best strokes...some of us plug our noses! You could even do a dance routine to the Swimming, Swimming song!
We laugh! The kite in the tree, the sharing, the headstand, the lightening bugs... the images are so funny!
This book is a true delight, I highly recommend The OK Book (affiliate link). The options are endless and the giggles a guarantee because it's all OK!
My joy for this story led to me making a short and sweet Instagram post about one of the times I enjoyed it outside with students. You can view it here.
Art:
OK Self-Portrait (i.e. use the portrait as the "O", then add the "K" with a list of words of things they are OK at)
Pancake Art (i.e. paper collage pancakes with playdough toppings)
Lightening Bug Art (i.e. fingerpaint glowing dots on black paper with stick figure wings)
OK Movement Book (i.e. stapled paper squares to make OK do different activities like cartwheel, flip and watch it flip!)
OK Class Mural (i.e. photo of student doing action they are OK with caption - arrange into giant O and K on display)
OK Photo Booth (i.e. use giant O and K, kids pose with I'm OK at --- sign)
Drama / Movement:
OK Yoga Flow (i.e. O-K pose, skip in place, balance poses, diver pose, baseball catch stretch...)
OK Action Cards (i.e. use icons of different actions, shuffle, students act them out like charades for class to guess)
OK Drama Play (i.e. set up restaurant and make 'menu' with ok titles, serve things that are ok)
Community:
OK Family Challenge (i.e. invite families to try to be OK at together and photo it: skipping, card game, tower of shoes, gardening, etc)
OK Wall (i.e. use school bulletin board and invite staff, students, and families to add a sticky note stating what they are OK at)
OK Compliment Cards (i.e. make kindness card for other students that keeps focus on effort rather than skill "I like that you're OK at...")
OK Goal Starters (i.e. students set simple goal "I'm OK at..... I want to get better at....", revisit weekly)
Dance:
Follow the Leader OK (i.e. use music and scarves for colour and fun, students can parade behind child leader following their moves)
OK Freeze Dance (i.e. dance freely, when music stops, teacher calls freeze action like "OK swimmer!")
OK Wiggler (i.e. dance to upbeat music with different wiggling body parts, it's OK! "wiggle hands, wiggle knees...:)
Literacy:
OK Comic (i.e. students draw short 3-4 frame comic of OK doing something then add words to make it a comic strip)
OK Speech Bubbles (i.e. "I'm OK at...." and "someday I might..." paired with drawings)
Our OK Story (i.e. each child contributes one page to a class bound book for a read aloud of their own)
OK Story Telling (i.e. beginning-middle-end prompts for different activities, have student tell the story with each part)
OK Shared Writing Chart (i.e. class creates list of OK expectations like: it's okay to try new things/ask for more time/need help etc.)
OK Verb Wall (i.e. students identify words that are actions in the story, learn to spell, create wall: climb, skip, dive, catch etc.)
Numeracy:
OK Patterns (i.e. skip-skip-jump=AAB, wiggle-climb-wiggle-climb=ABAB, jump-toss-balance=ABC)
OK Tightrope (i.e. make a 'tightrope' out of chalk/rope/sticks and measure with other loose objects: "our tightrope is --- pinecones long!")
OK Graphs (i.e. pictograph or tally graph of answers for the class for questions like "I'm an OK painter" etc.)
OK Dice (i.e. create OK dice, one with actions: OK, jump, skip etc., second with numbers: how many times to do action; keep tally to add)
OK Estimations (i.e. jars of items, students guess, then take items out to add)
OK Number Lines (i.e. start at 0: respond to teacher calls "jump 3 forward, step 1 back, hop 4 forward" - what number land at? 6)
Outdoor:
OK Comparisons (i.e. biggest/smallest rock, smoothest/bumpiest leaf, heavy/light pinecone...)
OK Treasure Map (i.e. find a item near/behind/under/beside places outside, draw a map showing found item makes in correct location)
OK Nature Hunt (i.e. find natural items that are OK like bent twig, lumpy rock, wilted flower, ripped leaf, etc.)
OK Kites (i.e. make simple kites and go outside to try to fly them!)
OK Fishing (i.e. explore puddles or gardens to see what we can 'catch'/find)
OK Loose Part Building (i.e. build different items from the story using only loose parts: baseball glove, kite, letters OK, etc.)
OK Play (i.e. free time play with open ended objects that are OK to play with like logs, crates, buckets, ropes, tires, etc.)
Music:
OK Song (i.e. sing as call and response: teacher calls: "I'm OK!"; students respond "You're OK!", all say "We're All O.K!"
OK Rythm (i.e. clap or tap simple OK patterns for students to echo like: O-K-O-K, O-O-K, slow-slow-fast-fast, soft-LOUD, etc.)
OK Sound Effects (i.e. retell the story using sounds like scritch-scritch for climbing, swish-swish for swinging, woooosh! for diving, etc.)
OK Body Percussion (i.e. use body percussion movements for each phrase like tap-tap-stomp for skip, slide-clap for dive, etc.)
OK Conducting (i.e. let student be the conductor of the class doing an activity, they conduct: stop, go, fast, slow, quiet, loud, etc.)
I enjoy seeing how other educators bring stories to life. If you use any of these ideas, share a photo or tag me @MsKathleensWildWords. We can keep growing together!
The OK Book - Amy Krouse Rosenthal & Tom Lichtenheld
Featured text:
The OK Book - Kate Messner (Chronicle).
Acknowledgements:
Thanks to the many students who inspire this fun (and work). ♥️
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