Chester the Brave 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
"Chester the Brave" by Audrey Penn is about the adorable young raccoon, Chester, who embarks on a journey to understand what fears are and how to deal with them. Chester mother tells Chester a story about a little Robin and teaches Chester about how everyone has different fears and things that bother them, but they use strategies to overcome their deepest anxieties. Guided by his wise parents, Chester learns valuable lessons about bravery, friendship, and the power of imagination. With his mothers support, he gains the courage to confront any fear he may encounter and learns about Think-Tell-Do; if you think you can't, tell yourself you can and do it! Through heartwarming storytelling and charming illustrations, the book shows readers that they are strong and brave while also encouraging them to face their own fears and find strength within themselves.
 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.
- Help students to analyze what the author’s purpose for writing the book might be.
- 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.
- Practice making predictions throughout the book. Encourage students to check and see if their predictions were correct.
- Use examples of possessive nouns from the book to teach a lesson.
- Discuss examples of how a character in the story displayed courage.
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.
- The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn
- Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes
- Chester's Way by Kevin Henkes
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!
