Hootie’s Story Nest: Mrs. Plifka

Hootie’s Story Nest – Episode 5

Featuring Mrs. Plifka, PHPS School Counselor

Welcome back to Hootie’s Story Nest, part of the PHPS Difference Podcast Summer Series!

In this episode, Mrs. Plifka, our PHPS School Counselor, shares The Cool Bean by Jory John and Pete Oswald. This humorous and heartwarming story explores friendship, kindness, inclusion, and what it really means to be "cool." Through relatable characters and an important message, listeners are reminded that being kind to others is one of the coolest things you can do.

🌟 In This Episode

•  A read-aloud of The Cool Bean
•  A celebration of kindness, friendship, and belonging 
•  Important lessons about empathy and treating others with respect 
•  A personal connection from Mrs. Plifka about some of her favorite books growing up: 
  • The Nancy Drew series by Carolyn Keene 
  • The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster 
• Mrs. Plifka's recommendation of the entire Food Group series by Jory John and Pete Oswald 
• A reminder that everyone has unique strengths and qualities that make them special 

🎯 Our Goal

To inspire a love of reading, encourage empathy, and help students build strong friendships while discovering stories that make them think, laugh, and grow.

📚 Keep Listening

Join us each week as a new PHPS teacher shares their favorite stories and helps keep our students connected to books all summer long.

💛 Special Thanks

Before we wrap up, we want to give full credit to the authors, illustrators, and publishers of the books shared in today’s episode. These excerpts are shared to celebrate and support reading. Hootie’s Story Nest is an educational summer series on the PHPS Difference Podcast, created to inspire a love of reading, spark curiosity, and keep students connected to books all summer long.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Hi everyone, I'm Carmen and I'm a PHPS Owl. Welcome to Hootie's Join Up. We missed you this summer, so we're sharing some of our favorite books with you. Each week, a teacher will read a fun part of a story and tell you about other books you might like. So get comfy and enjoy today's story. Have a great day.

SPEAKER_02 0:25

Today we're so excited to welcome Miss P, our wonderful counselor. She is here with us and going to share one of her favorite stories. But first, we'd love to hear what you're gonna do this summer.

SPEAKER_01 0:38

Hi, it's so exciting to be here. Thanks for having me. Um, this summer I will be going to the lake a lot. We have a family lake house, so and I have two little ones. So we'll be going and going on the boat and being outside, being with family, so hoping to relax and enjoy.

SPEAKER_03 0:57

That sounds lovely. It does sound lovely. Well, I see that you brought a book with you today. Yes, I did. Sharing what you what you wanted to read.

SPEAKER_01 1:05

I'm so excited to read it today, a little bit of it. Um, so I brought The Cool Bean today. It's one of my favorite stories written by Jory John and illustrations by Pete Oswald and HarperCollins Publishers. Nice. And um, I brought it today uh because I love the the cool bean series, the food group series. Um, and I love this book especially because it talks about um how being cool isn't um what everybody thinks that being cool is and what others say. It's about being kind, caring, helpful, and um just nice to people around you. I love that. That's what being a cool bean is, but I just wanted to read you a little bit of it and maybe give you a little cliffhanger so hopefully you can finish it this summer.

SPEAKER_03 1:53

Awesome.

SPEAKER_01 1:54

Okay, okay, so let's get started. Okay, The Cool Bean, written by Jory John, illustrations by Pete Oswald. Watch out. Here come the cool beans. Oh, the cool beans. Oh yeah, check out how they move. Look at the way they swagger, notice their sunglasses. Yow! The cool beans are known all over the school, from house to house, across town, beyond county lines. In the olden days, last year, we were all one big pot of beans. We were a mixed bag, but somehow it worked. Yep, those were the good old days. And then we stopped seeing each other as much. That's just how it is sometimes. You spend less time together, even though you're not totally sure why. I watched as the beans I knew so well, the beans from my own pod became the cool beans. Oh, they were so cool. And at that, I want to take a pause so you can see what happens and read the rest of the book over the summer.

SPEAKER_03 3:05

Thank you so much, Miss P. This was such a great treat, and I loved the the series as well.

SPEAKER_02 3:11

We always like to ask our guests what is a book that you loved reading as a child?

SPEAKER_01 3:16

Oh, as a child, I loved reading The Phantom Toll Booth. Oh, yeah. That was my that was my favorite book and all the Nancy Drew books. Oh I was in love with all the Nancy Drew books. You like a mystery? I love a mystery. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 3:30

Great. Um, and those are books that I think we actually have available in our library. Absolutely. We can get those in our local libraries as well this summer. So um thank you so much for sharing um cool being with us and for sharing your suggestions. We hope some of our friends pick those up this summer.

SPEAKER_01 3:46

Yes, please do. Thanks so much for having me.

SPEAKER_03 3:48

Yes. And before we wrap up, we want to give full credit to the authors, illustrators, and publishers of the books shared in today's episode. These excerts are shared to celebrate and support reading. Hootie Story Nest is an educational summer series on the PHPS Difference Podcast, created to inspire a love of reading, spark curiosity, and keep students connected to books all summer long.

SPEAKER_00 4:12

Thank you for listening to the PHPS Difference Podcast. See you next time.