If you are an elementary school teacher then chances are you have read at least one book by Jory John. Even if you haven’t read one of his books, you have obviously heard of these amazing books which has brought you here!
Welcome! Whether you are new to the world of Jory John’s wonderfully funny and educational books or are a long time fan like us, we are excited that you found this post. Moreover, we are excited to help you and your students dive deeper into these amazing books by using read alouds.
As long time educators with a passion for amazing children’s books, we love the lessons taught in each of Jory John’s books. We especially love these five titles, which is why we created a read aloud activities for each of these Jory John books.
- The Bad Seed
- The Good Egg
- The Couch Potato
- The Smart Cookie
- The Cool Bean
Continue reading to learn more about each of these books and the engaging and effective learning activities we have created for each one.
Ready to Teach Read Alouds
Before jumping into each book and its read aloud, it is important to understand how to use a read aloud. Moreover, how to use our read alouds.
As former elementary school teachers, we know that read alouds are important to the success of every student. Moreover, we know how fun and enjoyable reading with your students can be!
We also know the reality behind creating an effective read aloud. It takes time! Time that as a teacher you don’t always have (or are not always compensated for). Therefore, we made it our mission to create the best read alouds around, for teachers and students!
Read Aloud Structure
All of our read alouds are created using common core standards. Therefore, you can rest assured that your students will be engaging with materials designed to help them develop reading comprehension.
These different activities include everything from text dependent questions to end of unit quizzes. In between, you will find several reading comprehension activities and writing prompts as well as creative craft activities!
In addition, every read aloud packet provides enough activities for 3 to 5 days of lessons. Therefore, you can use one read aloud for an entire week of teaching.
Did we mention that all of our read alouds come ready-to-teach in both digital and printable forms?! Easily upload them into Seesaw or Google Slides, or print them out for paper and pencil learning.
Read Aloud Activities for Jory John Books
Every Jory John read aloud packet we’ve created for you follows the same structure mentioned above. Therefore, once you introduce your students to the read aloud structure they will know what to expect for future read alouds.
When using a series of books, this similar structure helps support student success! Then, kids can focus on the content specific activities for each book since they already know the basic structure.
In addition, this similar structure makes it easier for you as the teacher to plan! Take a look at the content specific activities we have created for these 5 Jory John books, and then get ready to use them with your students.
The Smart Cookie Read Aloud
One of the reasons we love a book series is because it makes it easy to plan for read alouds for the whole year. For example, two of Jory John’s books are perfect for starting school!
The Smart Cookie and The Cool Bean are two of our favorite back to school books. These two books teach important lessons for helping students prepare for a new school year.
In addition, when taught with our read aloud activities they help establish a familiar routine for read aloud time. Therefore, helping you as the teacher create effective routines and procedures early on.
The Smart Cookie Activities
In this book the main character learns that there is more than one way to be smart! A wonderful lesson and reminder to young kids who are just beginning the school year.
To help students get the most out of this lesson, we have created a series of activities that encourage students to return to the book throughout the week. This way, students get several chances to engage and interact with the characters and lessons.
In addition, each activity focuses on a common core standard. Therefore, helping students develop their academic skills alongside the important life skills shared in the book.
Begin the week with reading the book out loud to your students, and use the whole group response to text activities to engage your class from the beginning. Then, select 1-3 activities from the packet to use each day for the rest of the week.
The Cool Bean Read Aloud
The Cool Bean focuses on the theme of kindness and fitting in. As you know, these are lessons that are just as important as academic lessons. Moreover, lessons that are important to address at the beginning of the year.
This is why we love this book as a back to school read aloud. However, this book is also a great choice to use anytime of year when you want to teach students about kindness.
Like The Smart Cookie read aloud, The Cool Bean read aloud is designed to be used for an entire week. It includes activities for whole group, small group, and independent work. Moreover, it includes a variety of reading and writing activities, as well as an end of unit quiz and craftivity.
The Couch Potato Read Aloud
With more and more expectations on kids in today’s world, even young children can feel overwhelmed at times. Jory John does a great job of addressing these feelings in his book The Couch Potato.
The Couch Potato teaches children about creating balance in their lives. With the read aloud activities we created for this book, your students will not only read about how the couch potato creates balance, but learn how to do it in their own lives as well.
While the first two books mentioned are primarily used as back to school books, this book is great any time of year.
The Bad Seed Read Aloud
As a teacher, one of the most important things to an effective classroom is effective classroom management. This includes managing student behavior in a positive way.
One way to help teach your students about positive behavior is through the book The Bad Seed. In this book, a sunflower seed learns that it is never too late to change negative behavior.
Like any of our read aloud activity packs, The Bad Seed read aloud includes activities that can be completed digitally or as printables. Moreover, it includes detailed lesson plans to help you implement every activity easily and effectively.
The Good Egg Read Aloud FREE
If you have ready The Bad Seed then you are probably familiar with The Good Egg! This follow up book is about the good egg who is surrounded by eleven other rowdy eggs. The other eggs’ behavior makes the good egg feel like they always have to be good! Eventually, cracking under all the pressure.
The moral of this story is an important lesson for young kids. It teaches them that they are not responsible for other people’s actions. It also teaches them that it is okay to not always be perfect! An important lesson that can help teach young kids about different emotions.
Since this book is one of our favorite books by Jory John, and one that is well known among teachers, we made a FREE read aloud to go along with it! We have also included this free read aloud in our Jory John book bundle.
We'd like to send you a free interactive read-aloud that is easy to use in either a print or digital format!