Everything Is Connected

📚

Wonder 1st & 2nd Grade

By Jason Gruhl

Book Guide

Everything Is Connected

Name: Everything Is Connected
Author: Jason Gruhl

A story that explores wonder and opens a conversation with your child.

★★★★★ Loved by families

Read the Guiding Questions Find this book →

♥ This book teaches: Wonder. staying curious about the world around you.

Before, During & After Reading

Guiding Questions for Parents.

Definition: to be amazed at and/or curious about something that is pleasantly unexpected, beautiful, or mysterious. In short: Curiosity sparks endless discovery.
Summary: The theme of this clever and thought-provoking book is very powerful: we are all part of a great system of connections, starting with “me” and expanding to the cosmos and everything in it. We’re connected to wonderful creatures, people, insects, Blobfish, everything humans have made, even the bad stuff, like pollution, diseases, things that are scary and messy. We’re even connected to things we can’t see, to “all that will be and has been”, to the universe, “perfect and whole.” Lesson Objectives:

Students widen their sense of the world and their place in it, how they are part of a fascinating system of connections. They create a paper chain that copies that list of connections they read about in this book. Note to teachers: The activity that goes with this story is on the website under the virtue, “Wonder.”

Guiding Questions:

Explain what the author means when he says “you’re not just a body, you’re bigger than that.”
When it says that Blobfish “don’t look like me, talk like me, or act like me” it goes on to say that the connection between a person and Blobfish is still there. What do you think that means?
Even though the messy, scary things are part of the world we live in, we are powerful and can deal with it. Can you think of a time when you were powerful enough to overcome a fear of something or a bad situation?
What are some of the tiny invisible things you are made of?
Who are some of the famous people we are connected to?
The sky surrounds our earth, and therefore we are connected to what is there. Make a list of 5 things that are in the sky.
Who are the people you are most connected to and why?
Is there a time in the past, a hundred years ago, or more, or less, that you feel a connection to? If you could travel on a time machine and visit that time, what would you like to do?
Is there a famous person you’d like to meet and spend time with? What would you do together?
Is there a part of nature that you feel especially connected to? What is it and what about it makes you feel connected?

🌿 Virtue Connection: Wonder means staying curious about the world around you.

Hands-On Practice

Activities for This Story.

Activity: Students view the video. They create a chain, using the ideas in the story. They share what they wrote on their chains with classmates. The chains are used to decorate the classroom.

Materials needed: strips of paper big enough to write a few words on each one and enough for each student to make a chain that is 10 - 20 links long; glue or tape to paste the links together; art materials for decorating the chains if students choose to; chart paper for the teacher to write down the names of connections listed in the story

Directions: Explain that this story is about how each of us is connected to everything in this world, that has been, and will be. Show the video. Ask students to share what they remember about the connections in the story. Write down what they say. Provide them with the posted list to use as they make their chains. Tell students that they will make a chain of connections that is 10 - 20 links long. On each strip of paper they will write one of the connections mentioned in the story. On the first link in the chain they write their own name. If they want, they can decorate their chains, making sure the words can be read. Tell them to put the links together. Pair students and ask the pairs to take turns reading their chain to one another.

Wrap it up: “Does this story make you wonder about how you are connected to everything in the past, now, and in the future? This story reminds us that we are all part of the same universe, and therefore we are all connected to everything in our universe, even Blobfish! Isn’t that amazing?!! Let’s keep working on finding good connections with other people, within our community, and in the natural world.”

About the Story.

This guide is part of the Values & Virtues library, a free collection of 400+ book guides and activities organized around 12 core virtues for children from pre-K to 6th grade. Each guide includes Guiding Questions designed to open a real conversation with your child in 10 minutes or less.

Read-aloud video · Best with headphones

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Wonder · Family Discussion Guide

Everything Is Connected

by Jason Gruhl

Guiding Questions

Students widen their sense of the world and their place in it, how they are part of a fascinating system of connections. They create a paper chain that copies that list of connections they read about in this book. Note to teachers: The activity that goes with this story is on the website under the virtue, “Wonder.”

Guiding Questions:

Explain what the author means when he says “you’re not just a body, you’re bigger than that.”
When it says that Blobfish “don’t look like me, talk like me, or act like me” it goes on to say that the connection between a person and Blobfish is still there. What do you think that means?
Even though the messy, scary things are part of the world we live in, we are powerful and can deal with it. Can you think of a time when you were powerful enough to overcome a fear of something or a bad situation?
What are some of the tiny invisible things you are made of?
Who are some of the famous people we are connected to?
The sky surrounds our earth, and therefore we are connected to what is there. Make a list of 5 things that are in the sky.
Who are the people you are most connected to and why?
Is there a time in the past, a hundred years ago, or more, or less, that you feel a connection to? If you could travel on a time machine and visit that time, what would you like to do?
Is there a famous person you’d like to meet and spend time with? What would you do together?
Is there a part of nature that you feel especially connected to? What is it and what about it makes you feel connected?

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Everything Is Connected

Guiding Questions for Parents.

Activities for This Story.

About the Story.

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Everything Is Connected

Guiding Questions