Teaching patience to little learners and how to wait is seriously tough, isn’t it? It’s a universal challenge, and getting those sweet kiddos to master this virtue can feel like a lot for both teachers and parents.
But guess what? Read alouds are a great route to go. To make teaching patience a total breeze, try sprinkling one of these nine super engaging book titles into your lessons.
Each story is packed with relatable main characters whose adventures are perfect examples for young readers. They’ll giggle and learn all about the value of patience in a fun, meaningful way. These narratives offer a gentle, effective approach to teach them patience (a complex social emotional skill), and honestly, they make the whole learning process a cinch!
Teaching Kids About Patience with Direct Instruction
How do you get started when teaching this important social emotional concept?
Your best bet is with some direct instruction. Everyone needs to be exposed to and understand what the main vocabulary word “patience” means. You can also identify other related vocabulary words such as waiting and impatience.
Giving this basic direct instruction helps ensure everyone has the same understanding before bringing out books.
If you aren’t sure what to cover with beginning direct instruction, check out this semi-scripted lesson on patience. There’s 2 page lesson plan with teacher supplies to use with the lesson along with a page filled with activities to teach patience for kids. Plus you’ll love the included visuals for use while teaching the concept and when having students working on generalizing their new learning. Find it here.
Further Understanding With Books
Here are 9 engaging book titles that are sure to provoke meaningful discussions while learning about the important social emotional skill of patience.
Remy the Rhino Learns Patience by Andy McGuire
This is a great book for how to teach patience in toddler age kids. It features nice illustrations and rhyming to keep young reader’s interest. The main character, Remy, is impatient. He gets annoyed with the other animals and charges at them. When he does this another time to an animal that doesn’t run away, he misses and gets his horn stuck in a tree. To help him get out, termites are used to eat away at the wood. This is a slow process, and everything that happens to him while waiting, teaches Remy to be patient by relaxing and enjoying peace.
Waiting Is Not Easy!-An Elephant and Piggie Book by Mo Willems
If you are looking for a great book on teaching preschoolers patience, this is it! Piggy and Gerald books are always a favorite. In this rendition, Gerald is careful while Piggie is not. The book goes through difference between the characters having patience and not. The graphics are preschool friendly as well as the few words on the page. Ideal quick read aloud while teaching the concept of patience.
Patient Ninja: A Children’s Book About Developing Patience and Delayed Gratification (Ninja Life Hacks) by Mary Nhim
The Ninja book series is always great for social emotional skills – including this one on teaching kids patience. Kids love how the characters are ninjas and the simple graphics help the reader not get overwhelmed with busy illustrations. Throughout this book, Patient Ninja learns how to wait to get a bigger reward in the end. My favorite thing about this book is how it uses the alliteration of the “3 T’s” as a strategy to wait. This gives kids a practical, usable strategy while they learn to be patient.
I Don’t Want to Wait!: A Book About Patience by Sue Graves
In this book on patience, the main character, Maisy, doesn’t like waiting for anything. When she has to be patient and wait, she becomes mad. This happens at both home and school. Her big sister helps to teach her ways she can be more patient. This would be an especially great read aloud for those who have older siblings as it would give them another connection point.
A Little SPOT of Patience: A Story About How To Enjoy Waiting by Diane Alber
Little Spot books are always good, and this one teaching teaching your child patience is no expectation. A nice feature this book has it how it teaches children that waiting doesn’t have to be boring. Instead, it shows how waiting can be an opportunity for creativity and fun. It also goes on to suggest activities that can be done at home to practice patience (such as baking or growing a plant).
Croc Needs to Wait: A Book about Patience by Sue Graves
Another great teaching patience to a toddler book is this one about Croc. Croc is an impatient animal, which can be seen in the various situations he isn’t patient in but his other animal friends are (such as when coloring a picture nicely or when playing a board game). Croc learns what it means to be patient and why it is important. The colorful but simpler illustratons and real-life examples will help children to connect to the concept.
Marty and the Magic of Patience by Jeannette A Azar
The main character in this book, Marty, discovers that waiting can lead to awesome outcomes. Marty learns that waiting isn’t just about standing still, instead it can bring about excitement and curiosity as good things can take time. This book on teaching students patience uses animated illustrations and rhymes to keep the reader’s attention throughout, making it a great choice for a read aloud.
Watch Me Bloom When I Learn To Wait by Grace Ledden
This is a great book for young girls or those with autism to connect with when teaching someone patience. It follows a girl named Maya on her 5th birthday. Maya feels frustrated waiting for her party. She discovers coping strategies to help grow her patience. Readers can see how these creative ways to deal with having to wait help Maya not ruin her party.
A Celebration of Mindfulness Patience: A Celebration of Mindfulness by Kat Bovey
This book is ideal for teaching children patience in different scenarios. The book gives different situations that patience might need to happen, such as when playing, while waiting, or when learning something new. It give real-life examples of times kids have to wait in their everyday lives. This makes it an ideal resource to help children generalize their understanding of when patience could be needed.
Looking for More Basic Social Skills Help?
5 Simple Following Directions Exercises for Young Learners – find some ideas on how to get students to understand what it means to follow directions and how to practice this important skill.
How to Teach Sharing with Children’s Books – here are some engaging book titles to get your students on the right track with the important social skill of sharing.
3 Easy Ways to Increase Listening Skills – get students to become better listeners using these strategies and resources.
5 Turn Taking Activities for Early Elementary Students – taking turns with others can be hard so use these activities to help your students grow their social skills.
Use one of these great read aloud books to spark meaningful discussions and add to your toolbox on how to teach patience for kids through engaging stories and relatable characters.
Happy Teaching!
