BSEL LIbrary: Part 1 of Career Building - There's no Dream too tall

Where I live, teachers as young as kindergarten are required to start teaching about career skills. It can seem a bit daunting, adding that kind of pressure to a classroom of five-year-olds! I'm glad to have recently found two books that make career building and talking about the future approachable for kids, and today, we'll explore about the first one:
 "There's No Dream Too Tall" By Amie Dean and illustrated by Sian James.

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While we'll explore a more advanced book in Part 2 of Career Building, "There's No Dream Too Tall" is first because it's a great introductory book that I'd recommend for grades K-2. Here's why:
- The book has a playful, sing-song-y rhyme pattern throughout that will engage even your littlest learners.
- It teaches about each person's "gifts" as a positive way to understand the skills each child might have to bring to a future career, such as helpful, energetic, . And while it definitely discusses future careers, it also talks about ways students can begin using their "gifts" today.
- There's No Dream Too Tall explores a variety of options, such as college, trade school, or "create your own way," even acknowledging that it's okay if students don't know what they want to be yet. I think this is the key to introducing career topics at such a young age and am so glad the book covers that.

As always, I like to give you some of the things I think any teacher should be aware of before buying this book:
- This story includes a lot of different job options. This makes the book broad but also somewhat lengthy. Be aware of that when pacing your lesson or activities with this book.
- The book really is just an introduction. You could certainly expand upon the ideas, but it doesn't really "teach" on it's own. I would suggest some supplementary resources or activities to make using this book as meaningful as possible.

Here are some ways that I would use this book with my students in a classroom:
Use it as a read aloud at the beginning of a career unit. Because this book is so child-focused (as in, the child is deciding what they'd like to do for a career), it sets the tone very well for a child-focused approach to career exploration.
Explore student's gifts through things like values or character traits. This would be a great tie-in of identifying those social emotional strengths our students already have and including the CASEL competency of Self Awareness.
Complete a research project where students choose a career, read about it, then write about it. This can be differentiated to academic standards at different grade levels. 

Don't forget to check out part 2 for another great book on more advanced career exploration for kids!

​We already know books provide opportunities to teach just about any skill, and that includes behavioral, social, and emotional skills, too! Through character, conflict, and more, BSEL skills can be found on nearly every page. A library of BSEL books gives you endless options to incorporate academics as well. Grab some BSEL books and get teaching!