SEL Read Aloud: What Do You Do with a Chance? by Kobi Yamada
Summary
One day, a little boy gets a chance. It appears in the form of a shiny golden origami butterfly, but it could represent anything. The chance flies all around the boy, but he isn’t sure what to do with it. When he starts to grab for it, he hesitates and it flies away.
The boy regrets not having taken the chance, so when another one approaches him, he decides to try to take it. But as he tries to take it, he falls down in front of some other children. He feels so embarrassed that he decides not to try again.
He goes on ignoring chances, and over time fewer chances approach him. So much time goes by that the boy starts to worry he won’t see any more at all. He wants to try to take a chance again, but worries he won’t be brave enough.
After thinking on it for a while, he realizes he doesn’t have to be brave all the time — just at the right time. He decides to try to take the next chance he sees and always be ready for it.
One day, he thinks he sees a chance in the distance. He runs to it, and this time his excitement overtakes his fear. This chance is bigger than the others, so he can’t simply catch it. Instead, he has to grab on. He climbs atop it, and as he soars through the sky, he realizes the great feeling he’s been missing out on.
Discussion Questions
- What’s a chance you had that you ignored?
- What’s a chance you try to take but failed?
- What’s a chance you took that worked?
- What do you think is the scariest part about taking a chance?
- If your chances that comes to you took a form, like the boy’s shiny golden origami butterflies, what would they look like?
Read Aloud
Additional Resources
- What Do You Do with a Chance? on Amazon
- What Do You Do with a Chance? Review on Common Sense Media
- Discussion Questions and Activities from the Publisher
- Discussion Questions from Learning to Give
Copyright Notice
The image on this page comes from the book What Do You Do with a Chance? by Kobi Yamada. Copyright © 2017 by Kobi Yamada.
