Let’s Solve It! Step-by-Step Social Problem Solving with Kids, 3-Book Teaching Set

Storybooks for Teaching Problem Solving

Illustrated stories are a mainstay for young children and provide both visual and narrative clues for basic problem-solving development. Storybooks enhance understanding of basic concepts, encourage engagement, and build critical thinking skills. They are also the foundation for building literacy skills, inferencing, and expose learners to perspective taking, specifically thoughts and feelings, through the words and actions of the story characters.

The Let’s Solve It! Step-by-Step Social Problem Solving with Kids, 3-book Teaching Set contains 2 storybooks, each with 10 pairs of stories (20 story versions in each storybook/40 stories in the set), along with a Teaching Guide book that includes a companion template to fill out for each story.

The 20 story pairs in this teaching set provide children with explicit visual examples of how we all impact one another as portrayed by the social situations that play out in each story. Each story pair includes two versions:

A Let’s Solve It! story (identified in orange) explores how a problem formed.
A We Solved It! story (identified in blue) explores how the same problem was avoided or solved.

The Teaching Guide includes corresponding Let’s Solve It! (LSI) and We Solved It! (WSI) problem-solving templates to help guide discussions and teaching. Complete the LIS problem solving template after reading the LSI version of the story, then complete the WSI problem-solving template after reading the WSI version to discuss how the same social problem was avoided or solved and how various actions and responses impacted different characters’ thoughts and feelings.

While its importance is often overlooked, the role of self-regulatory social problem solving is a cornerstone of academic and career success. By working through the templates together after reading each story, students benefit by having a clear, step-by-step systematic way to make sense of problems in context. The templates explore problem solving by asking questions that engage self-awareness, situational awareness, interpretation of what is happening, understanding of a person’s options to decide what to do or say or not do or say, and then responding in that manner that encourages their desired outcome. Ultimately, students learn how we are all part of socially responsive community; that what we all do and say impacts those around us.

Suitable for ages 7 – 9

Downloadables – What’s Included

To make teaching easier, all the LSI/WSI Problem-Solving Templates for 20 Story Pairs are available on a hidden landing page for our customers to download and access these materials. The link to this page is printed in several locations within the Teaching Guide book. A Possible Solution Key (for Story Pair templates) includes one possible solution to each of the steps on the LSI/WSI templates for each of the 20 story pairs. A blank line is also included for generating your own solution based on selecting a different character for each story.

BONUS!
Also included are LSI/WSI General Use Problem-Solving Templates for everyday scenarios, adaptations, individualized teaching, and extension ideas.

STORYBOOK 1

Story 1: Spelling Lesson

Story 2: Homework

Story 3: Partner Work

Story 4: Family Dinner

Story 5: Art Class

Story 6: Playing a Game

Story 7: Story Time

Story 8: Shopping with Mom

Story 9: Show and Tell

Story 10: Visiting the Doctor’s Office

STORYBOOK 2

Story 11: Recess is Over

Story 12: Bedtime

Story 13: Teaching Time

Story 14: Getting Ready for Bed

Story 15: The Aquarium

Story 16: Choosing a Topic

Story 17: After School Free Time

Story 18: Playing on the Swings

Story 19: Imagining and Playing Together

Story 20: Choosing a Game

The characters in this set, Evan, Ellie, Jesse, and Molly, are from our We Thinkers! early learner series, are a bit older and wiser, and they are ready to practice their strategies for problem solving. Each of the characters takes turns appearing in 20 illustrated story pairs that provide children with explicit visual examples of how we all impact one another with what we do and say as portrayed by the social situations that play out in each story.