our story time pick for November 2026: a wrinkled heart!

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10 min read

Monday, November 9, 2026

Did you know that November 13 is World Kindness Day?

This day was established in 1998 by the World Kindness Movement

to encourage kindness, compassion and goodwill around the world.

It serves as a reminder that even the smallest acts of kindness can make

a meaningful difference in someone's life and help create a kinder world.

Whether through a thoughtful gesture, a helping hand

or simply choosing kind words,

World Kindness Day encourages us to spread kindness in our communities

and inspire others to do the same.

It’s a wonderful opportunity for us, as Grands,

to share this important message with our Littles

and to remind them that

kindness is something we can practice every day!

Since in today’s post, we’re back with our latest addition to our monthly series.

and with World Kindness Day just around the corner,

we thought it was the perfect time to revisit one of our favorite books with you all!

Through this touching story and the activities that accompany it,

we can open the door to conversations with our Littles

about how our words and actions affect others, why kindness matters,

and how we can make a difference in someone's day!

Last month, we launched this school year’s Story Time series with

I Went Walking

one of our favorite children’s books.

During the next eight months, we’ll pair a favorite story

with simple reading strategies from our kindergarten teaching days

that others can easily use with their Littles at home!

Our pick for the month of November is…

A Wrinkled Heart

written by Tracy Hoexter.

In this story, we meet Elliott, a young bunny whose day begins happily but soon takes a turn when he experiences hurtful words and unkind actions from others. With each hurtful encounter, his paper heart becomes a little more wrinkled, illustrating how deeply our words can affect someone’s feelings. Although apologies and kind words help smooth some of those wrinkles, a few remain as a reminder that hurtful words can leave lasting impressions.

Through Elliott’s experience, our Littles can discover the importance of kindness, empathy and choosing words that help others feel loved and valued.

In fact, the parting words of the book

leave us with a powerful message to ponder…

Comprehension…

Reading Between the Lines = Understanding the Story!

When our Littles are learning to read, it’s important to remember that this process involves more than sounding out words and recognizing letters.

Just as important is comprehension,

the ability to understand what we’re reading, connect with the story

and make sense of what is happening.

As Grands - or anyone who loves the Littles in their lives - we can help them develop this important skill by encouraging them to think about the characters as real people with feelings, thoughts and reasons for doing what they do.

This is where A Wrinkled Heart becomes such a wonderful teaching tool!

The story gives us lots of opportunities to help our Littles think about feelings, motivations and how our actions affect others. The key is to ask questions that encourage them to think beyond what is happening in the pictures and words and imagine what the characters might be feeling or thinking.

Questions to ask while reading A Wrinkled Heart…

Below are some open ended questions we'd suggest.

Keep in mind - you certainly don't need to ask all of them!

These conversations encourage our Littles

to look beyond the words on the page, think about what’s happening

and begin to understand the deeper meaning of a story.

Reading comprehension is all about helping our Littles become

thoughtful readers who don’t just read the words

but who understand the story behind the words, too!

Teachable moments are the everyday experiences that give us opportunities to grow and learn more about the world around us and how to respond to it all.. As Grands, we can use these simple, sometimes unexpected moments to talk with our Littles about kindness and the difference our words and actions can make. Here are a few ways we can gently “plant seeds” of kindness as our Littles grow!

Bringing A Wrinkled Heart to Life!

One of the first stories Laura shared with her kindergartners each September was this one, which she had learned to tell years earlier based loosely on a beloved folktale! It wasn't until just a few years before she retired that she discovered the folktale had actually been adapted and published in 2015 as a children's book by Tracy Hoexter!

Below she recalls how she shared A Wrinkled Heart in her classroom

and then how, these days as a Grand,

she uses its powerful message as a teachable moment with her Littles!

Bringing the Story to Life in the Classroom!

Before discovering the children's book A Wrinkled Heart, I had been sharing my own version of this story with my kindergartners for years. I personalized it using familiar classroom settings and situations, along with one important prop: a large red paper heart.

As the story followed a child through a typical school day, each time someone said something hurtful ("Your coat is ugly!" or "That idea is stupid!"), I would crumple a small part of the paper heart. With each new wrinkle, my kindergartners would gasp as the once-beautiful heart slowly became a crumpled ball of red paper!

Together, we would then talk about how the child might be feeling and brainstorm ways to make things better. With each kind thought or encouraging word ("I love your smile!" or "Good answer!"), I would gently smooth out the heart. But the children soon noticed something important: Even though the heart looked like a heart again, the wrinkles were still there!

It always led to a wonderful conversation about how kind words can help heal hurt feelings, but sometimes the hurt doesn't disappear completely. We ended the story with a classroom promise to do our best not to wrinkle someone else's heart. Each child added a small paper heart to the larger one, which we displayed in our classroom as a yearlong reminder.

This heart - posted in our classroom all year long -

really set the tone for us all and the expectation that kindness counts!

Bringing the Story to Life with Your Littles!

Here’s a fun way to go a bit beyond the book,

and share A Wrinkled Heart with your own Littles!

MATERIALS NEEDED

• the book (or access to the YouTube video linked above)

• a big red heart, cut out of construction paper

• black marker

• band-aids

• a permanent marker - one or more!

DIRECTIONS

🔴 Read or listen to A Wrinkled Heart with no stops and no interruptions.

🔴 If you are comfortable doing so, retell the story in your own words, using your own red paper heart. Your Little can even help you do so! Crumple your heart up every time Elliot’s heart is wrinkled in the story. Then every time an apology or kind word is said later in the book, try to smooth out the wrinkles

🔴 When the story is done, read through the ideas offered the last page of the book. (If you don’t have the book, brainstorm your own ideas for being kind.)

🔴 Then in the middle of your paper heart write the words, Be kind… don’t wrinkle anyone’s heart.” As a fun addition, add band-aids around the words on the heart, and write your favorite ideas for a kind word or phrase on each. NOTE: Use a permanent marker to do this!

Your Littles will LOVE sticking the band-aids on the paper heart!

🔴 Post your wrinkled heart where your Little(s) can see it - in their room or on the fridge to remind everyone about this important lesson!

After all, kindness counts!

Create A Kindness Jar!

This is an easy and meaningful way to recognize and applaud your Littles when they are choosing kindness. Sometimes these situations take courage, especially as your Littles get older. Sharing your own personal experiences of choosing kindness, especially in difficult moments, is powerful!

Create a Kindness Jar for your Littles and their family…

If you are a Grand (like us) make a Kindness Jar

and gift it to your Little’s family!

All you need is an empty jar, some slips of paper and a pen. Don’t have a jar? Use a bowl! Decorate the jar or keep it simple! Older Littles will have fun helping you decorate the container!

Have a collection of colored pens nearby (we love our Flairs) and let your Littles choose which color to use if you “catch” them being kind OR if they notice someone else choosing kindness! You’ll be surprised by what an incentive a colored pen can have!

When a family member does a kind act, write it down on a slip of paper along with the date, and drop it in the jar. This is a fun dinner time activity, too! Once a week/month (shorter amount of time for your younger Littles) or perhaps when the jar is full, pull out the acts of kindness and read them out loud!

More Ways to Spread Kindness!

Below, you’ll find some additional ways to gently “plant seeds” as our Littles grow and develop a foundation for choosing kindness!

❤️ Use Imaginative Play with Littles!

Littles love to pretend! However they use their imaginative play - in the kitchen, a construction zone, at the animal hospital or when going camping - your Littles can practice kindness and compassion! Asking “What would that feel like?” helps your Littles understand that others may look at the world differently.

“It looks like the turtle is hurt and needs a shot and a bandage.

What can you say to help him?”

As you play together, teach feeling words through conversations! Beginning in infancy, even before Littles are verbal, you can validate their feelings (“Oh, you’re crying… you must be sad”) and at the same time, model future ways for them to express themselves!

❤️ Play Games with Littles!

While playing games (board games or card games) we can encourage and support our Littles as they practice important skills like taking turns, being flexible and good sportsmanship… all ways we show kindness to others!

“Lucky you! You get to move a long way! You must feel happy!”

❤️ Read Other Books About Feelings!

While reading together, ask your Little questions about how the characters in the story are feeling. Littles LOVE sharing their ideas!

REMEMBER!

You can always visit your local library to find these or other titles!

❤️ Play a Kindness Game!

This is a great game to play with your Littles, with a group of children or with your whole family!

The only supply you’ll need is a ball. Have everyone get in a circle with a ball (the only supply you’ll need)! Begin, by throwing the ball to someone and whoever catches the ball must say something nice about the person who threw them the ball. Make sure to give everyone a turn and don’t throw the ball to the same person twice until everyone has had a first turn.

Kindness is a powerful tool, and we believe,

that by practicing it together,

we can make the world a better place.

Thanks for joining us for this month's installment of

Our Monthly Story Time with the Littles!

If interested, you can find the nine stories and ideas we shared last year

by clicking the links below:

Back to School 2025 – The Kissing Hand

September 2025 – Ten Apples Up on Top

October 2025 – Go Away, Big Green Monster

November 2025 – Turkey Trouble

December 2025 – The Gingerbread Man

January 2026 – Sneezy the Snowman

February 2026 – Goldilocks and the Three Bears

March 2026 – The Night Before St. Patrick’s Day

April 2026 – Worm Weather

May 2026 – The Very Hungry Caterpillar

We hope this month’s story and our ideas

have inspired you to try some of these activities with your own Littles!

As always, please share your favorite books,

reading tips, or creative story-related activities

in the comments below.

We're always looking for new ideas to share with our own Littles,

and you just might inspire another Grand along the way!

Thank You!

We’ll be back later this week with a very special post

as we take a trip down memory lane because…

We’re celebrating a BIG day for Our Grand Lives!

(Well, at least to us it’s a big deal!)

Don’t forget that you can usually find us

on Instagram and/or Facebook, too!

We’d love it if you stopped by to check out our latest posts!

And, of course, we invite you to consider subscribing to our blog, as well!

(We only contact you via email when we publish a new blog post!)

Actions Speak Louder Than Words!

We all know the above saying as well as the words, “The children are watching…” From the time they are babies, our Littles will watch how we treat others and since they are often eager to copy us, our actions are extremely important! Treating people around us with love and kindness - making eye contact, saying “thank you,” offering help - demonstrates kindness in tangible ways!