Why did you create this innovation?

We believed that encouraging empathy, ethical behaviour in young children is imperative in today's world to create well functioning adults who are able to form good relationships & professional success. Based on solid evidence and in consultation with experts in their field we developed this series, to enhance social & emotional wellbeing & encourage lively discussion between adult and parent.

How does your innovation work in practice?

The resource is simple to use. The 8 book set, animated videos, teacher resource and finger puppets are for children 3-8 and can be purchased online (links below).
Adults should familiarise themselves with the characters, stories, major & minor emotional themes & learning outcomes of each book.
Books can be read to the children supported by the animated videos viewed on digital white board and/or personal devices.
Almost each page in each book covers various issues that can be discussed with the children.
Open ended questions to encourage deep thinking can be found in the 72 page teacher resource or on the Ginnie & Pinney website.
New Ginnie & Pinney A to Z of 'Learning Emotions' Flash Cards will be published by Big Sky in July. Designed for teachers, parents and caregivers to encourage conversations & help build vocabulary, concept knowledge & social & emotional wellbeing in young children.
An online professional development course is in development & will be released late 2021

How has it been spreading?

Since becoming an innovation in 2019 the resource has been published by Australian publisher, Big Sky Publishing which has a strong focus on children's education & development & is being distributed by Simon & Schuster. They have been distributed into schools & trade across Australia and worldwide. In 2021 they have sold into Korea.
The individual titles and book set are available on Booktopia and GoodReads.
A major Australian retail outlet, BigW, has purchased the books for distribution Australia wide.
Selected by Victorian Department of Education and Training as one of its recommended resources for Early Learning for 2020/21.
As a consequence we have seen an uptake in the use of the materials across Victoria, Australia and worldwide including Korea and Malta.

If I want to try it, what should I do?

To try the books it is possible to purchase single titles or the full set, the teacher resource and the Fair Trade finger puppets via:
www.ginnieandpinney.com.au
www.bigskypublishing.com.au
www.booktopia.com
www.goodreads.com