The newest addition to the Food Group by Jory John is here – meet The Smart Cookie! A fun read aloud with an adorable main character, a sweet and smart cookie, shares an important message about acceptance and self-confidence. With the help of these The Smart Cookie activities ideas, your students will definitely remember that we are all smart cookies if we believe in ourselves!
The Smart Cookie read aloud – Vocabulary
The main focus of the book is on the power of self-confidence. The author teaches young readers to always believe in yourself and the things you love to do, so it is a great idea to teach growth mindset and positive reinforcement with the help of The Smart Cookie activities vocabulary unit. Here is a helpful list of words to target in The Smart Cookie vocabulary practice:
- supportive
- fantastic
- mesmerizing
- speak up
- share ideas
- cakewalk
- confident
- solve the puzzle
- original
- keep up
The Smart Cookie read aloud – Games
The main message of the book has to do with confidence. You don’t have to have good grades, there are many ways to be smart. Promote this message with the help of accomplishment certificates or affirmation messages. Don’t prepare it yourself though, gave your students prepare them for each other! Getting a message of encouragement from their peers will truly boost the confidence of your students.
In my TpT resource with the Smart Cookie read aloud activities, I offer to share affirmation messages hidden inside fortune cookie paper craft. Prepare the craft with one of the many messages and distribute the cookies to your students. Make sure to emphasize that everyone got the right message: the cookies found their owners 🙂
Some encouragement messages to help promote self confidence are:
You are a rockstar!
I am so proud of you!
You can move mountains!
You are smart in so many ways!
The Smart Cookie read aloud – Writing activities
The Smart Cookie by Jory John is a perfect read aloud to practice all 3 writing types. First, you can obviously practice informational writing by learning how to structure a baking recipe for a cookie. A fun idea my students loved was a ‘cookie research‘: each student had to pick their favorite cookie (what, just one option???) and learn how to bake it. Then they had to share the recipe with their classmates.
Second, a nice idea for a text-to-self connection is to describe when you had an ‘AHA!’ moment. The Smart Cookie discovers that she doesn’t need to have perfect grades to believe in herself and be great at poetry. Relating to the text of the book can help your students to be grateful and appreciative of their talents and strong sides. They can do so by completing a narrative writing prompt about their ‘AHA!’ moment.
Finally, practice expressing your opinion by writing about the message of the book. What are some different ways you a ‘smart cookie’? Based on the text of the book, what tips can you give to a friend, who might be struggling e.g. with studies, on how to feel like a ‘smart cookie’?
