Abstract:

Literature for children is a resource that enhances multiple learning in various areas of knowledge. Its characteristics in terms of narrative and illustrations, involved in a creative and emotional context, capture children's attention, and contribute significantly to their linguistic, intellectual, social, and personal development. Literature is rich in representations of ideas or concepts making use, for instance, of metaphors, expressing them in a more familiar, intuitive, or graceful way. Their contexts inspire and enhance the integration of different areas of knowledge promoting the development of interdisciplinary learning. Thus, children's books constitute a very complete pedagogical resource, both at the cognitive level and at the level of the development of emotional and interpersonal skills.

Literature for children has been seen as a promising medium in the development of mathematical learning due to the easy and simple way in which ideas are communicated, notions or concepts are represented, facilitating not only their understanding but also their connections with other scientific areas. Their contexts are an auspicious source for proposals for problematic situations.

Many educators and teachers have difficulties in recognizing in a children's book opportunities for the development of learning that go beyond the learning and skills of the native language, perhaps because they associate the reading of children's tales to a pleasant and playful activity, devoid of any didactical purpose. To get the most out of a book in terms of learning, the educator or teacher will have to be creative, critical and open to new approaches sustained in an environment in which imagination and emotion are constant, which is not always an easy task.

In order to challenge educators and teachers to support their practices in the use of literature for children, we conceived a website dedicated to the exploration of the children's book, of our authorship, De fora para Dentro e de Dentro para Fora. On the website, we show how, from small excerpts from the book, we can trigger emerging and divergent issues articulating different areas of knowledge, revealing themselves as starting points for possible explorations with children. In this communication, we present the book's webpage as a potential didactical resource for the development of integrated learning where soft skills prevail, at different levels of education.

Keywords:

Children’s literature, pedagogical resources, mathematics education, soft skills.