As Cool As It Gets is part of our Starts With a Story Collection, which includes more than 550 picture book companions based on high quality children’s literature that support you in delivering highly-engaging interactive read alouds with follow up activities. Learn more about this children’s book below! - Jodi and the Starts With a Story Team
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SUMMARY
"As Cool As It Gets" by Jory John takes place during the holiday season but the Cool Bean is not feeling very festive. His friends are getting together for their annual party and gift exchange and he chose Beanadette’s name. Beanadette is the coolest of the cool beans and the Cool Bean has no idea what to get her. Eventually, the Cool Bean decides to make her a picture, even though it's not an expensive or extravagant gift. It feels good to be creative and he is happy with how the picture for Beanadette came out, however, as it gets closer to the party, the Cool Bean starts to worry about Beanadettes reaction to his gift. At the party, all of the other gifts are extravagant things like electronics and the Cool Bean is feeling embarrassed about his homemade picture. When Beanadette opens the present, the Cool Bean is surprised to hear she thinks it is a cool gift and all the other beans are impressed with the picture! The Cool Bean learns that a gift is a gift, whether it is homemade or purchased and he learned it feels good to make something for someone else and people feel special when you make something just for them! This is the perfect story to read before the holiday season to encourage students to make their friends and family handmade gifts to make others feel special and loved!
 USE THIS BOOK TO TEACH:
Our read aloud lesson plans for this picture book come with reading comprehension questions (with sample student responses), 30 writing prompts, teaching ideas for grammar skills, social emotional learning discussion ideas, and more. Check out our list below to get a sneak peek at some of the skills this resource teaches.
- Discuss the different characters in the story and analyze their thoughts and actions.
- Identifying the theme, message, or moral is an important skill that takes a lot of practice. Use this story as an opportunity to help your students with this reading strategy.
- Teach a lesson on making connections to enhance comprehension.
- Have students identify the point of view and discuss the benefits of the narrator.
- Use examples from the book to teach a lesson on interjections.
- Teach a lesson on multiple meaning words using examples from the story.
- Use this book to discuss a variety of emotions with students and how to manage them.
NO-PREP PRINTABLE ACTIVITIES:
If you are looking for “ready to go” activities for the first day of school, be sure to check out the book companion. With it you’ll receive all of the following resources to align with this specific book:
- comprehension questions
- 30Â writing prompts with themed paper
- vocabulary activities
- word study print & go activities
- ideas for grammar lessons with focus sentence printables
- social emotional learning discussion topics
- graphic organizers to target specific comprehension skills and strategies
This book is a must have for your school or classroom library. Your students are going to love completing these activities for the book and you will be impressed with how much they learn. You will want to read this book to your class every year.
GET THE PRINTABLE ACTIVITIES
ADDITIONAL BOOK SUGGESTIONS
You and your students will love the similar books listed below, which can all be found in our free picture book list.
- Tough Cookie by Edward HemingwayÂ
- Mooseltoe by Margie PalatiniÂ
- The Crayons' Christmas by Drew Daywalt’
- The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg
TRY OUT A SAMPLE COMPANION
It's hard to explain how amazing the Starts with a Story book companions are because there is just so much goodness included in each one. It's best if you experience using one for yourself. Sign up below & we'll send you an entire book companion to try out for FREE!
