Picture Books Around the World: Exploring Our Common Hearts

Students share a picture book they love from their own country, draw a picture showing a character or moment that made them feel something strong, and explain their drawing to classmates. This introduces the project and helps everyone see how stories connect to emotions.

Students choose one that matters to them, and introduce or read the story to other countries. We can read it in English or other languages including English subtitles. Then we create a drawing or poster showing the story's main idea or a character they liked. They write or record a short message about what the story taught them or how it made them feel, then exchange their drawings and messages with the partner class and read their peers' responses.

Students explore picture books from different countries that share similar themes, characters, or lessons (e.g., kindness, family, adventure, nature). They work in small groups to compare two books side by side, create a chart or poster showing what is the same and what is different, and discuss what these similarities tell us about people everywhere.

Students present their favorite book, their drawing, and one comparison they discovered between a book from their country and a book from the partner class. They reflect on what they learned about how stories from different places can teach us about both unique cultures and shared human feelings.