The Sour Grape 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 Sour Grape" by Jory John wasn’t always sour. In fact, he grew up in a close family where everyone was sweet to one another. On the weekends, he would spend time with his grandparents who taught him to be grateful, kind, forgiving and considerate. The Sour Grape always tried his best to be sweet, until everything changed. The Sour Grape had planned himself a spectacular birthday party with a Ferris wheel, magician and plenty of snacks. He waited a long time for his guests to arrive, however, by the time the sun was setting no one had arrived. From that day forward, the Sour Grape held a grudge against everyone! He was always scowling and always grumpy.
One day, the Sour Grape had plans to meet his friend Lenny in the park. A series of events happened to make him very late to the park. When he arrived, Lenny was very frustrated with him. The Sour Grape realized Lenny was starting to hold a grudge against him, just like he did to everyone else! While giving Lenny some space, the Sour Grape spent time in the park. He realized how peaceful it was and was feeling very grateful. From that day forward, the Sour Grape changed. He no longer held onto grudges and realized just how sweet life could be.
 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.
- Have students identify the point of view and discuss the benefits of the narrator.
- Teach a lesson on verb tense and have students categorize examples from the book.
- Explore prepositions and how they describe nouns or pronouns.
- Explore the theme of gratitude and have students brainstorm ways they can help show gratitude.
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 Bad Seed by Jory John
- The Cool Bean by Jory John
- The Couch Potato by Jory John
- The Good Egg by Jory John
- The Great Eggscape by Jory John
- The Smart Cookie by Jory John
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!
