NANNETTE RICHFORD
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​🦊 Fern Woke Up Grouchy

Sometimes it's all about what you notice.

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🦊 Fern Woke Up Grouchy​ 
Downloadable Educator Resource Guide

This emotionally attuned guide invites children to explore how what they notice can change their mood.  When Fern wakes up grouchy, everything feels wrong — until Fennel comes along at points out happy things and introduces the idea of journaling happy things. Through gentle activities and reflective prompts, children learn to actively look for happy things instead of focusing on things they don't like.
Perfect for classrooms, counseling spaces, and quiet corners, this guide offers tools to help children name their feelings, shift perspective, and reconnect with joy.

🧵 What’s Inside

  • 🌿 Read-aloud and discussion prompts
  • 💗 Modeling journaling with Fern and Fennel
  • 🔍 Noticing Walk and Reflection Circle
  • 📝 Student journaling pages and leaf templates
  • 🎨 Coloring pages and creative extensions
  • 🌳 Happy Things Wall and Noticing Tree activities
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fern_woke_up_grouchy_educators_guide.pdf
File Size: 38859 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

🌿 About the Book

Fern woke up grouchy. She grouched all day. Everything seemed to go wrong. Then Fennel came along and pointed out the happy things around her — a shining snail’s trail, and a glowing flower. But Fern didn’t care.
When Fennel showed Fern his journal and announced, “I like to remember happy things,” Fern’s focus began to change. She wasn’t sure at first, but when she started recording the happy things, she noticed she began to feel lighter and brighter.
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Fern Woke Up Grouchy follows Fern as her focus shifts and she begins to feel better about her day, teaching little ones that sometimes what you notice makes all the difference.

Fern Woke Up Grouchy is a gentle story about perception, emotional agency, and the quiet power of noticing. It reminds children that while feelings are real and valid, they can also be softened — one observation at a time.

🌱 Why It Matters

Children don’t always know why they feel off — but they do know when everything feels wrong. Fern Woke Up Grouchy offers a gentle way to explore those moments, showing that feelings can change depending on what you chose to notice around you.
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This story helps children understand that what we choose to notice can shape how we feel. By introducing journaling as a quiet tool for emotional agency, Fern’s journey gives young readers a way to reflect, shift perspective, and reconnect with joy — one small observation at a time.

​🌱 SEL Themes

🪶 Emotional awareness — recognizing grouchy feelings without shame or correction
🔍 Attention and perception — exploring how what we choose to notice shapes how we feel
🧘 Self-regulation — learning gentle ways to shift mood through mindful noticing
🧵 Empathy and patience — understanding that grouchy moments need compassion, not fixing
​🖍️ Creative reflection — ideal for journaling, coloring, or classroom discussion
Add Fern Woke Up Grouchy to your library
© 2018  Nannette Richford
  • Children's Books
    • Hop Hop Flop! Baby Bunny Couldn't Hop or So He Thought
    • A Song in the Wings: Aria Finds Her Song
    • Big Moose and Little Goose
    • Twilight the Prickly Little Porcupine . . . Not So Prickly After All
    • 🦊 Fern Woke Up Grouchy
    • ABC Forest Animals: An Alphabet Adventure in the Forest
    • Something Else: Skylar's Story of Becoming
    • 🌿 Nature Close-Up: Nonfiction Picture Books for Curious Kids
  • Books for Grownups
    • Fiddleheads and Fairies
    • Voice of Getchell
  • About
  • Author Blog
  • Contact Me