The Perfect Birthday Recipe 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
"The Perfect Birthday Recipe" by Katy Hudson is a delightful children's book that celebrates the joy of friendship and the importance of being true to oneself. The story revolves around a young Beaver, who is determined to bake the perfect birthday cake for his birthday! Tortoise, Bird, Squirrel, and Rabbit really wanted to help Beaver bake his cake but the perfectionist in Beaver snaps when the recipe is not put together perfectly like he wanted. Beaver ends up baking the cake all alone but realizes that he hurts his friends feelings when they all don't show up to his birthday party! Despite the mishaps and unexpected additions, Beaver realizes that not everything has to go exactly as planned and the true secret ingredient for a perfect birthday is the love and thoughtfulness behind the gesture. Through its charming illustrations and heartfelt message, the book teaches young readers about the value of embracing imperfections and appreciating the genuine efforts of others.
 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.
- Encourage students to use their summarizing and retelling strategies.
- Discuss the different characters in the story and analyze their thoughts and actions.
- Analyze the illustrations in the story. Discuss how they provide meaning that the words might not.
- Help students to analyze what the author’s purpose for writing the book might be.
- Introduce the purpose of adverbs and practice using them.
- Use examples from the book to teach a lesson on punctuation.
- 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.
- The Golden Acorn by Katy Hudson
- The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds
- The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires
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!
