One of the first books of Amy Krouse Rosenthal’s that we checked out from the library was One Smart Cookie.  In the book they are making chocolate chip cookies, and in the process using vocabulary words to describe characteristics of the people, both negative and positive.  For example, there was a page for the person who was organized with their baking materials and a page with an unorganized person.  Each page and word had the meaning written in terms that young kids could understand.

We went through all the words and talked about the good traits and the bad traits.  I had Baloo help me sort them.

We were able to talk about all the traits and discuss why they were positive or negative.  Then we decided to use the recipe at the back of the book and make our own cookies.  We made sure to go through the traits in the book to make sure we were prompt, organized, prepared, etc.

The best part was that when we were done we wrapped up some of the cookies and took the to our neighbors as a way to say ‘thank-you for being great neighbors’.  Baloo and Royal loved being so kind and especially loved the responses from our neighbors! 

Of course, it really helps that our neighbors are amazing!  One of them even reciprocated immediately and gave the boys some treats to bring home!

Check out other books by Amy Krouse Rosenthal!