Ten Beautiful Things

by Molly Beth Griffin

A grandmother and child drive to a new home, collecting ten beautiful things along the way to ease the sadness of change.

Big Idea

Noticing beauty helps us carry hard feelings, and the people beside us make any place feel like home.

Discussion Questions

1.Why is the child sad at the start?
2.What are the ten beautiful things they find?
3.How does looking for beauty change the trip?
4.What beautiful thing would you add to the list?

Classroom Activity

My Ten Beautiful Things

List ten beautiful things you notice today. Illustrate your favorite one and explain why it matters to you.

Lesson Plan

⏱ 40 minutes📦 Observation notebooks, pencils, clipboards (optional), colored pencils

Learning Goals

Explain how noticing beauty can help with hard feelings
List ten beautiful things they notice in their surroundings
Illustrate one beautiful thing and explain why it matters to them

Activity Steps

1.Read the story, listing the ten beautiful things on the board.
2.Discuss: 'How does looking for beauty change the trip? Why is the child sad at first?'
3.Take a 10-minute 'beauty walk' around the classroom, schoolyard, or hallway.
4.Students list ten beautiful things they notice.
5.Each student illustrates their favorite one and writes why it matters.

Standards Connections

ELA: RL.K.1 — Ask and answer questions about key details
ELA: RL.K.2 — Retell stories, including key details
ELA: RL.K.3 — Describe characters, setting, and events
ELA: RL.3.6 — Acknowledge differences in characters' points of view
ELA: SL.K.1 — Participate in collaborative conversations about the text
ELA: W.K.3 — Write narratives recounting events with descriptive details
SEL: Social Awareness
SEL: Relationship Skills
Art: VA:Re7 — Perceive and analyze artistic work

Pace-Write-Read Study with Pace-Write It!

Focus question: How can an author slow a story down to help readers notice beauty during a hard change? In Ten Beautiful Things by Molly Beth Griffin, a grandmother and child travel toward a new home while naming beautiful things they see along the way. The pacing feels gentle and unhurried because the story pauses often to notice small moments, helping sadness make room for wonder.

Element	How to notice or teach it in the novel
Pace	Read: Notice how the story moves slowly as Grandma and the child stop to count and name beautiful things during the drive and walk. The calm pace matches the child’s sadness about moving and lets hope grow little by little. Classroom Activity: Write 4 short sentences about walking somewhere sad or hard, and slow the pace by stopping to notice one beautiful thing in each sentence.
Plot	Read: Notice that the plot is simple but meaningful: a child is upset about moving, Grandma invites the child to look for ten beautiful things, and the list helps the child face the change. Each new beautiful thing becomes a small plot step forward. Classroom Activity: Make a 5-box plot map for a short story called "Five Beautiful Things" with a beginning problem, 3 noticed things, and an ending feeling.
Prosody	Read: Listen to how the language sounds soft and soothing when read aloud, fitting Grandma’s comforting presence and the thoughtful mood of the trip. The sentences often invite readers to pause and breathe. Classroom Activity: Read one page aloud with a partner, then rewrite one sentence so it sounds extra gentle and comforting.
Word pause	Read: Notice where single important words or short phrases make you pause and think about what the child sees and feels. These pauses help each beautiful thing stand out. Classroom Activity: Write 3 lines naming beautiful things, and after each one add a dash or line break to create a pause for the reader.
Concept	Read: Notice that the big concept is that beauty can be found even in times of sadness and change. Grandma teaches the child that looking closely can help carry heavy feelings. Classroom Activity: Write one sentence that states the lesson of your own story about change, then list 3 things a character could notice to show that lesson.
Voice & World View	Read: Notice the tender, reassuring voice of the book and its world view that beauty matters, relationships matter, and hard feelings can sit beside hope. Grandma’s way of seeing the world shapes the whole story. Classroom Activity: Write 5 lines in the voice of a caring grown-up who helps a child notice good things on a difficult day.
Setting & Place	Read: Notice how the road, fields, sky, and the new place all matter because the characters keep discovering beauty in the landscape around them. The setting changes as they travel, and each place offers another moment to pause. Classroom Activity: Draw or list 4 places on a journey, and write one beautiful detail the character notices in each place.
Point of View	Read: Notice how the story stays close to the child’s feelings, so readers feel the sadness, reluctance, and gradual opening toward wonder. Grandma’s comments help, but the emotional center remains with the child. Classroom Activity: Write 6 sentences from a child’s point of view about going somewhere they do not want to go, including one thing an adult says.
Original Characters	Read: Notice that Grandma is not trying to fix everything with big speeches; instead, she gently invites the child to look and count. The child feels real because the sadness does not disappear all at once. Classroom Activity: Create two characters for a short scene: one worried child and one calm helper, and write how each notices the same object differently.
Dialogue	Read: Notice how the dialogue between Grandma and the child is simple and supportive, helping move the story without rushing it. Their talk creates space for noticing instead of arguing or explaining too much. Classroom Activity: Write 4 lines of dialogue between a child and an elder who are finding beautiful things on a walk.
Details	Read: Notice the small concrete details that make each beautiful thing feel visible and important. These details help the reader slow down and see what Grandma wants the child to see. Classroom Activity: Choose one ordinary object near you and write 3 tiny details that could make it seem beautiful.
Descriptions	Read: Notice how description is used to make natural sights and small moments feel vivid without becoming too crowded. The descriptions support the counting structure and the healing mood. Classroom Activity: Write a description of one outdoor scene using color, shape, and sound.
Strong First Lines	Read: Notice how the beginning quickly tells us the child’s sadness and the trip to a new home, giving readers an emotional reason to keep reading. The opening sets up both the problem and the gentle search for beauty. Classroom Activity: Write 2 opening lines for a story about a change your character does not want, then add one line that introduces a small hope.
Immediacy & Engagement	Read: Notice how readers are pulled in right away because the child is in the middle of a real feeling: leaving an old home and heading somewhere unknown. The search for ten beautiful things gives readers something to look for immediately. Classroom Activity: Start a story with a character in the middle of a hard moment, then give the character a mission to find 3 good things.
Story Scenes & Summaries & Unique Structures	Read: Notice how the book balances scene-by-scene moments of looking with the simple counting structure of ten beautiful things. That repeated structure makes the journey feel organized and calm. Classroom Activity: Write a mini-book plan with 5 pages, each page showing one scene and one item in a list that helps your character.
Flashback & Flash Forward & Cliffhangers	Read: Notice that this story does not rely on flashbacks or cliffhangers; instead, it keeps readers engaged through the next counted discovery and the child’s emotional change. The forward movement comes from wondering what the next beautiful thing will be. Classroom Activity: Write a list-story where readers want to keep going because they are waiting for the next item, not because of a big cliffhanger.
Tension & Suspense & Surprise	Read: Notice that the tension is emotional, not scary: will the child be able to carry this sadness into a new place? There is a quiet surprise each time beauty appears where the child might not expect it. Classroom Activity: Write 5 sentences showing a worried character slowly being surprised by good things during a difficult day.
Page Turns and Chapter Breaks	Read: Notice how page turns can reveal the next beautiful thing and create a small moment of anticipation. As a picture book, it has no chapters, so the page turn does the pacing work. Classroom Activity: Fold paper into 4 pages and plan where a page turn will reveal the next beautiful thing in your own picture-book idea.
Performance	Read: Notice how this story works well in read-aloud because Grandma’s steady voice and the pauses between noticed things can be performed gently. Readers can use tone to show the child’s sadness changing into attention and calm. Classroom Activity: Practice reading a short excerpt aloud, using a soft voice for Grandma and a heavier voice for the child at the start.
Personality	Read: Notice Grandma’s patient, observant personality and the child’s sadness, resistance, and growing openness. Their personalities shape the pacing because one lingers and one slowly learns to linger too. Classroom Activity: Write a character sketch for a person who notices beauty everywhere, including 3 habits they have.
Humor	Read: Notice that humor is very light here; the book mostly chooses warmth and tenderness over jokes. That choice keeps the emotional tone steady and sincere. Classroom Activity: Write one gentle, small smile moment for a comforting story without changing the calm mood.
Pause	Read: Notice how the story repeatedly pauses the journey so Grandma and the child can pay attention to one sight at a time. These pauses are the heart of the pacing and the healing. Classroom Activity: Write a 6-line piece where every second line is a pause to notice something beautiful.
Poetry and Poetic Devices	Read: Notice the poetic feeling in the repeated counting, the careful imagery, and the simple language that leaves room for emotion. The book feels lyrical even though it tells a story. Classroom Activity: Write a poem called "Beautiful Things" with 5 lines that begin the same way and each name one image from nature.
Repetition	Read: Notice how the repeated idea of finding and naming beautiful things creates comfort and structure for the child. Repetition helps the reader feel the steady rhythm of Grandma’s guidance. Classroom Activity: Write 5 sentences that all begin with "I saw" or "We found" to create a repeated pattern in your own piece.
Rhythm	Read: Notice the rhythm created by short observations, quiet dialogue, and the count toward ten. The steady rhythm makes the story feel like breathing or walking. Classroom Activity: Write 4 short lines and 1 longer line about a walk, arranging them to sound slow and steady when read aloud.
Punctuation	Read: Notice how punctuation helps make space for feeling and reflection instead of speed. Periods and commas support the calm, measured pace of Grandma and the child’s journey. Classroom Activity: Take one long run-on sentence about a trip and revise it with punctuation so it sounds peaceful and clear.
Questions	Read: Notice that the story invites readers to ask, "What will the next beautiful thing be?" and "Can noticing beauty help when life changes?" These questions keep readers engaged in a quiet way. Classroom Activity: Write 3 reader questions your story will make someone wonder while your character searches for comfort.
Compare-Contrast	Read: Notice the contrast between sadness and beauty, old home and new home, and the child’s first mood and later mood. These contrasts make the emotional shift more powerful. Classroom Activity: Make a T-chart comparing the beginning and ending feelings of a character going through change, then write 2 sentences using both sides.
Objects	Read: Notice how found things in the world become meaningful objects because Grandma and the child give them attention. The objects are not fancy; their beauty grows from noticing. Classroom Activity: Choose 3 ordinary objects and write how a loving adult might help a child see each one as beautiful.
Threes	Read: Notice how readers can group beautiful things into smaller sets as they move toward ten, which helps memory and pacing. Even in a count of ten, making little groups can help a story feel balanced. Classroom Activity: Write 3 beautiful things your character notices at the start, 3 in the middle, and 3 near the end, then add a final special one.
Whitespace & Negative Space	Read: Notice how picture books like this one often use open space so readers can rest, look, and feel. That visual breathing room matches the story’s gentle emotional pacing. Classroom Activity: On a page, write only one short sentence about a beautiful thing and leave lots of blank space around it.
Art & Graphics	Read: Notice how the illustrations support the text by showing the road trip, the natural world, and the closeness between Grandma and the child. The art helps pacing because readers stop to study each beautiful moment. Classroom Activity: Sketch one scene from your own "beautiful things" story and label 3 visual details the words should also mention.
Interactives & Gamification	Read: Notice how the counting-to-ten structure makes the story feel interactive because readers can predict, count along, and search for each beautiful thing with Grandma and the child. The list creates a gentle game that supports the serious theme of change. Classroom Activity: Create a class challenge called "Find 5 Beautiful Things" and write one sentence for each item your team notices on a school walk.

Pace-Write It!

20-Minute Classroom Flow Read (5 min): Read aloud Ten Beautiful Things by Molly Beth Griffin. Ask students to listen for how Grandma and the child slow down the journey by noticing beautiful things. Notice (5 min): Briefly discuss: How did the story feel at the beginning? How did the counting of beautiful things change the pace and the child’s feelings? Make a class list of 3-5 beautiful things from the book and note how each one created a pause. Write (7 min): Invite students to write their own short piece about a character having a hard day who notices beauty. Writing frame: "I was feeling ____. Then I noticed ____. It was beautiful because ____. Next I saw ____. Then I saw ____. By the end, I felt ____." Encourage students to include at least 3 beautiful things and to use short sentences that slow the reader down. Share (3 min): Students read one favorite line to a partner or the class. Listeners name one word or detail that helped them picture the beauty. Exit ticket: Write one sentence answering: How can noticing small beautiful things change the pace of a story or the feeling of a character?

Pace-Write-Read Connection

Teach this book using the Pace-Write-Read method — Tool 33: Lists.

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