Jori John’s books The Bad Seed and The Good Egg were extremely popular in classrooms! The newest book in the series is called The Cool Bean and it might be our favorite book in the series so far! We love the message of this story, and like the other books it is sure to make students laugh! - Jodi and the Starts With a Story Team
SUMMARY
Jory John’s book, The Cool Bean, tells the story of a group of beans. The main character is a clumsy bean that is picked last for everything. He admires a group of cool beans, these beans walk with swagger and dress with style.
The main character used to be friends with the cool beans last year, but they have grown apart. He misses hanging out with his friends and thinks that their coolness has gotten in the way. This bean thinks he can never be cool. One day, he drops his tray in the lunchroom. Without saying anything, one of the cool beans comes over and helps him clean it up. Later, when he fell on the playground, one of the cool beans cleans up his cut.
These small gestures of kindness boost the bean’s confidence and he starts hanging out with the cool beans again. He learns that the beans’ acts of kindness are what make them cool, rather than how they look.
USE THIS BOOK TO TEACH:
Here are some different ways you can use The Cool Bean in your own classroom.
- Stop as you read and have students make predictions. This encourages them to think about the story in a different way and increases engagement!
- Have students make personal connections to the story. This helps increase their understanding of the book.
- Let students get creative and write their own versions of this book.
- Incorporate expository writing by asking them to write about the theme of the book.
- Explore synonyms in the book and have students work with other examples of synonyms.
- Introduce students to interjections and why authors use them.
- Discuss the stories theme of kindness and how students can spread kindness within their classroom or school,
- Teach students about self esteem.
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
- 30 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
Our goal for Starts With a Story is for teachers to use a book to teach a variety of skills. This resource does just that for The Cool Bean by Jory John.
GET THE PRINTABLE ACTIVITIES
ADDITIONAL BOOK SUGGESTIONS
You and your students will also love these similar books:
- The Good Egg by Jory John
- Eraser by Anna Kang
- The Cool Bean by Jory John
- Nerdy Birdy by Aaron Reynolds
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!
