Ping and Pong are like many of my students, they are best friends mostly. They get jealous and competitive, two strong feelings.

What I love about this story is that anything Ping can do, Pong can do better but Pong never rubs it in or is a bad sport. Regardless, Ping feels jealous.

It’s a great book to discuss rivalry, self esteem, and competition.

It’s perfect as field days and contests approach to guide a lesson on jealousy, pride, and self esteem.

As we read we discuss:

*what is bringing on these feelings?

*why is Ping having them even if Pong is being a good sport?

*how do you think Ping should handle it?

*how would you feel if you were Pong?

* can you relate to either character?

It’s also a great way to introduce the feeling of jealousy. When I asked the my 1st and 2nd grade students how Ping must be feeling, many said mad or sad, but none could identify the feeling of jealousy. When I asked by students why he was having those feelings, many said because Pong was bragging. As you will notice in the book Pong doesn’t brag. In fact he’s a good friend that just happens to be better. This lead to a very interesting discussion!!!

After reading we partner up to discover our uniquenesses by doing a Venn Diagram.

You can also, role play how to handle jealousy and use cooperative learning cards to have students practice working together.

You can find a full set of activity resources here.

I also love to partner this book with Kid President’s’ video on how to disagree.

I often share this book with parents who kids are jealous at home and it’s causing some sibling rivalry. So in my packet I’ve included parent handouts.

How do you handle student jealousy?