Free read-aloud lesson plan · Grades K to 5
What Color is Your Sand? Discussion Guide
Everything you need to turn a ten-minute read-aloud into a real conversation about gratitude, contentment, and the trap of comparison. Written by the book’s author, a retired school counselor.
Download the one-page guide to copy for your team or tuck into your lesson plans.
How to use this guide
This guide works for a whole-class read-aloud, a morning meeting, or a small counseling group. Plan for about 10 minutes to read and 15 to 20 minutes to discuss and create. The story follows a visitor to the beach and a curious child named Justin Josef, whose simple questions help the visitor notice what truly matters. Every prompt below is designed to bring students back to one question they can answer for themselves: what color is your sand?
You will need: a copy of What Color is Your Sand?, and paper or a journal for each child. The activities below use only crayons or colored pencils.
Before you read
Set the stage with a quick discussion so students are listening for meaning, not just plot.
- Have you ever wished you had something that someone else has? What was it?
- What does it mean to be thankful? Can you be thankful and still want things?
- When you go to the beach, or imagine one, what do you notice first?
Words worth knowing
- Gratitude — noticing and feeling glad about the good things you already have.
- Contentment — feeling at peace with what you have right now.
- Comparison — measuring what you have against what someone else has, which often steals our joy.
While you read
Pause at these natural moments and let a few students answer out loud.
- When the visitor looks at the sand, what do you think they are feeling?
- Why do you think Justin Josef keeps asking questions?
- What is the visitor starting to notice that they missed before?
After you read: discussion questions
Choose the questions that fit your group. There are no wrong answers; the goal is honest reflection.
- What do you think the sand stands for in this story?
- The book asks if we are always wishing to be near sand that seems better than ours. When do you catch yourself doing that?
- What are three things in your life that are worth treasuring, even on a hard day?
- Who is someone you are grateful for? What would you thank them for?
- Justin Josef notices small things. What is a small thing you are glad exists?
- Can two people stand on the same beach and see it differently? How?
- What helps you feel content when you are wishing for something you do not have?
- If you could tell the visitor one thing, what would it be?
Three activities
1. My Jar of Sand
Give each child the outline of a jar (or have them draw one). Ask them to fill it with small drawings or words for the people, places, and moments they treasure. Invite a few to share one thing from their jar. Display the jars together so the class can see how many different colors of sand fill the room.
Download the free “My Jar of Sand” printable to use for this activity.
2. A five-senses beach walk
Have students close their eyes and picture a place they love. Walk them through their five senses: What do you see? Hear? Smell? Feel? What small detail makes it yours? Then have them open their eyes and write or draw the one detail they never want to forget. This builds the habit of noticing, which is where gratitude begins.
3. The class sand chart
On chart paper, draw a wide strip of “sand.” Give each child a sticky note to add one thing they are grateful for. Read them aloud. Keep the chart up for the week and invite students to add to it whenever they notice something new. Comparison shrinks when a room is busy counting its blessings out loud.
Take it further: a writing prompt
Ask students to finish this sentence and illustrate it: “My sand is the color of ______, because ______.” Their answers make a beautiful bulletin board and a keepsake families love.
How this supports SEL. This lesson touches the CASEL competencies of self-awareness (naming what we value and feel) and social awareness (appreciating others and recognizing that people see the same world differently). It pairs naturally with units on kindness, character, and mindfulness.
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Bring the whole book to your class
Order copies of What Color is Your Sand? so every child can hold the story, or invite Cathy to read it with your students in person or online.