While reading the story, demonstrate the suggestions throughout the book: handshaking, clapping, blowing kisses, pointing, etc. Children can practice what we can do with our hands. Math: How many hands? Have children measure the size of the objects in the classroom by working in teams to count “how many hands high/long” the object is. How many hands across a door? How many hands across a table? How many hands high is the chair? Record their measurements, then discuss what is the tallest, longest, etc.. While the children are measuring objects, talk about all the different ways they are using their hands. Idea of the Day: How Hands Are Not for Hitting

Hands are for working together. Hands are for playing, learning, doing, and building. Hands are not for hitting. Hitting is never ok. So what can you do when you and your friend don’t get along? Hands are for greeting and communicating. You can wave to a friend. There are many friendly ways you can use your You can draw pictures or write hands to communicate. words. You can shake hands. Try it now. Shake hands with the person next to you. While reading the story, have children talk about how they might feel when someone hits them. Help them problem solve by coming up with solutions of what they can do instead of hitting. Write feelings and solutions on a chart. My hands help me brush. My hands help me brush. My hands help me brush my teeth; my hands help me brush. Give children several scenarios and play a game of “What could you do instead of hitting?” Examples below:

Examples of Activities:

My hands help me clean my spills. My hands help me clean my spills. My hands help me clean my spills and mess; my hands help me clean my spills.

I agree with another reviewer that this book is too long and too much for a child under 2. I’d even go as far and say this is better for the 3 and up range and I wish I would’ve tried the board book first. However, I do like that this is a book he can grow into and have for years to come. Sometimes people want to be the boss of Have you felt these ways? Maybe you wanted someone. to hit someone. But hands are not for hitting. Music: Sing and use gestures top the song “Skinamarinky Dinky Dink”: Skinamarinky dink, Skinamarinky doo, I love you. Skinamarinky dinky dink, Skinamarinky doo, I love you. I love you in the morning, and in the afternoon. I love you in the evening, and underneath the moon. Skinamarinky dink, Skinamarinky doo…I LOVE YOU (I really mean it), I love you too! You can try to solve the problem together. You can try to understand how your friend feels. You can talk about it. Your friend can try to understand how you feel. You can listen. You can think of ways to make things right. Hands come in all shapes, sizes, and colors. Hands are for saying hello. There are lots of things your hands are meant to do.Hands are for helping. There are many ways you can use your hands to be a helper. How do you make yourself handy? Don't hesitate to buy this even if you think your child might be a bit too old. It is very basic and simple, but sometimes that is the most effective approach.

Hands are for taking care of you. They’re for putting on pajamas, washing your face, combing your hair, brushing your teeth, and turning out the light at bedtime. What do you do to take care of you? Music/Movement: Take photographs of your special instruments. Place the photographs onto a cube shaped box. Have the instruments and the cube with the instrument choices available in the music area. Children can take turns rolling the cube die to see what instrument to play. Others can join in by dancing or singing or rolling the die to play different instruments. This booklet about hitting can be personalised to specifically support individual students. For a some students, dealing with frustrations are not easy and this can manifest itself in behaviours such as hitting. This social situation identifies alternative calming strategies that can be used when students begin to feel frustrated or angry and want to hit others. You can easily add the student's name and details and also include their preferred method of calming. Read the booklet regularly, specifically prior to identified times of difficulty such as outside play. Designed to be inclusive, Twinkl Social Situations use positive language to re-affirm that is it OK to have different feelings, and gently guide students to potential ways they can deal with them. What are Social Situations?My hands help me dress. My hands help me dress. My hands put on my clothes and shoes; my hands help me dress. This book is a very colorful tool that helps make the lessons more tangible for a child with receptive language difficulties. Pictures make everything a bit easier for my child to grasp and I was able to sign along to some of the simple phrases for him to understand better. Peter never plays Here comes that kid with me. who teases me... I want that I don’t like it when my toy! sister takes my things! Why do people hit? Sometimes they feel….. There are other ways to let your feelings out. Can you think of more ways to let your feelings out?