Jessica is part of our Starts With a Story Collection, which includes more than 600 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
"Jessica", by Kevin Henkes, is about a girl named Ruthie. Ruthie doesn’t have a brother, a sister or pets, but she does have her imaginary friend Jessica. Jessica and Ruthie do everything together. They go to the moon, to the playground, to grandma’s and eat, read, and build together. When it is time for Ruthie to start kindergarten, her parents say that Jessica should stay home. However, Jessica goes to school with Ruthie, but Jessica wants to go home once she gets there. Ruthie is spending so much time keeping her busy that she is missing everything happening with the real kids at school. At the end of the story, a real girl named Jessica asks Ruthie if she wants to be her partner. The two girls become great friends and Ruthie doesn’t miss her imaginary friend Jessica.
 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.
- Teach a lesson on making connections to enhance comprehension.
- Practice making inferences throughout the story and after reading.
- Practice making predictions throughout the book. Encourage students to check and see if their predictions were correct.
- Introduce and act out action verbs.
- Teach a mini lesson on compound words.
- Discuss different strategies for coping.
- Discuss friendship and the qualities that make a good friend.
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.
- Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes
- A Weekend with Wendell by Kevin Henkes
- Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes
- Chester's Way by Kevin Henkes
- Owen by Kevin Henkes
- Wemberly Worried 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!
