Love Is

Title: Love Is 
Author: Diane Adams  
Illustrator: Claire Keane 
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Publication Date: January 24th, 2017 
Genre/Format: Fiction/Picture Book 
GoodReads Summary: Perfect for Valentine's Day—or any tender moment—this story of a girl and a duckling who share a touching year together will melt hearts old and young. In this tenderly funny book, girl and duckling grow in their understanding of what it is to care for each other, discovering that love is as much about letting go as it is about holding tight. Children and parents together will adore this fond exploration of growing up while learning about the joys of love offered and love returned. 
What I Think: I'm in love with Love Is! This is such a super sweet book. It's a book that captures the tender love between a child and her pet. This book is a perfect mentor text for looking at how words and illustrations work together.  But it's also a great mentor text for practicing visualizing and looking at how an author shows instead of tells. I love making the connection between reading and writing for students. When we write, we use good reading strategies like visualizing to help us understand what we are reading but at the same time, we can examine what craft moves the author made in order to help us visualize. Adding this level of thinking helps students more deeply understand how the act of writing impacts our readers. Even young writers can start to realize the author makes specific choices when he or she writes and this text is a great way to bring about this discussion.
     The specific snatch of text I chose would be one page I might even read before showing students. I would ask them to visualize and imagine and I might even think aloud my connection to the main character. As a mom, I remember having to wake up to feed my babies in the middle of the night and more recently, I had to wake up to feed our puppy in the middle of the night. The illustration captures the feeling perfectly so building up the suspense would get kids thinking and visualizing and then they could compare what they were thinking to what the illustrator drew.
Snatch of Text:  

"Love is noisy midnight feedings,

shoe box right beside the bed."

Writing Prompt: What impact do the illustrations have on the story? How do the illustrations and the text work together? Can you write about a time in your life when you loved something and had to let it go?

Mo Willems Kid Art Fun

It's time to CELEBRATE This Week with Ruth Ayres from Discover. Play. Build.  Every week Ruth invites us to share our celebrations from the week and link up at her blog. What a fun way to reflect on everything there is to be thankful for. 

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This week I'm celebrating Mo Willems kid art fun!

*throws confetti*

 

We are Mo Willems fans! We own all the Knuffle Bunny books and many of the Elephant and Piggie books. We've had friends over to act out Elephant and Piggie's stories and we've made our own art using the style Mo Willems uses for his illustrations in Knuffle Bunny. 

This year for holiday gifts for teachers at schools, the kids created more Knuffle Bunny style art. In the thank you cards we got from the teachers, it sounds like the handmade art was a hit. Here's how we created our Mo Willems style art!

We found images of their schools online that we printed out in black and white. Then I cut little rectangles out of pieces of paper and asked the kids to draw their teachers. This was super important because I knew they needed to draw their teachers really small so they would fit on the pictures. I needed to also make sure they didn't draw stick figures because that would be really hard to cut out so I showed them this drawing from cartoonist Ivan Brunetti for the New Yorker. He's known for using simple shapes in his drawings. 

I showed the kids the circles for heads, the rectangles for bodies, arms, and legs, and the triangles for noses and they were off. We started by drawing the outline first in pencil, then we went over the lines with a black flair pen, and finally, they colored it all in with crayons. After they were done with their drawings, I carefully cut them out and we glued them into place on the black and white photo. Then we decided on shout outs for each teacher (or principal) and we decorated those too. The last step was to get them into the frames so they were ready to go. The kids had a lot of fun drawing their teachers. My oldest was really cute, he was trying out colors and deciding which one was a best match for skin tone and hair color. So fun. 

It's always hard to figure out gifts for teachers. I love giving gift cards for a restaurant so they can have a nice meal out on us. But I also love to give something kid-created that hopefully is a bit more meaningful. I'm pretty sure we'll be giving this type of gift every winter now! It was fun for the kids and for me and such a neat way to capture our appreciation for all the hard work the teachers do. I'm already brainstorming different backgrounds for next year...it would be fun to have a picture of their classroom and to put them standing there...lots of options!

In the end, it's about celebrating the teachers who put so much time, energy, and love into helping our kids learn and grow. I hope teachers everywhere feel appreciated. Thank you for all that you do!

Have you ever tried picture book-inspired art?

Or do you have favorite teacher gifts you've given or received?

I'd love to hear about it!

For The Love Of Mentor Texts - Jennifer Laffin

Welcome to another guest post in my series For The Love of Mentor Texts here at Teach Mentor Texts. I love to talk about the power of mentor texts to impact our writing but I'm thrilled to have friends share how they use mentor texts for a fresh perspective. Today I'm excited to share thoughts from Jennifer Laffin who blogs at A Sweet Writing Life. I hope you are as inspired by her ideas as I am!

Would you like to write a guest post for For The Love of Mentor Texts? Just let me know by filling out this simple form. 

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In the summer of 2011, I took part in the National Writing Project’s Summer Institute at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee. Those three weeks were heaven on earth for me as I wrote, researched, and learned about the best practices in teaching writing. I came to the Institute knowing very little about teaching writing, but I was like a sponge, ready to soak up any and all wise words.

I had to choose a Teacher Inquiry Project to research during the Institute. After mulling over hundreds of topics (literally hundreds because I knew very little about teaching writing), I decided to spend my time learning about using mentor texts in the writing classroom. Mentor texts combined two things I loved -- reading and writing.

That choice, to research how to use mentor texts in the writing classroom, was the best decision! It was the toehold I needed to launch me into this beautiful world of teaching writing. Before the Institute, I hadn’t even heard of using a mentor text in the writing classroom. Now, I can’t teach writing without one.

There are many reasons why mentor texts help make teaching writing easier, but here are a few of my favorites:

Mentor texts can be used for all phases of the writing process. They can spark an idea, help with revision, and show us how conventions make writing strong.

Mentor texts show us some cool writing tricks. Including the Power of Three (listing three details in a row), varying sentence length for effect, or varying your first line are just a few ways mentor texts can support student writers.

Mentor texts help us teach some writing elements that are difficult. For example, take character development. Many young writers create rather flat characters. However, after studying how an author develops a character, these writers can change their character into one that has life.

Mentor texts are a great way to teach conventions within the context of writing. Do you have students who don’t capitalize the letter “I” or the first word of a sentence? Are run on sentences running rampant because your writer forgot how to use a period? Is the writing missing paragraphs, making it very difficult to read and follow? Pull out a mentor text for a quick study of how the author used these conventions to make the writing easier for the reader.

Any book can be a mentor text. You don’t necessarily need a special title to get the job done. Read through your favorite picture book and point out some things you notice that your student writers could pull into their own writing. Soon, your students will do this on their own.

With a mentor text, you never have to teach writing alone again. Think of all those experts that are just waiting in your classroom library for their chance to help!

Don’t know where to start? The Writing Fix website has an amazing bibliography of mentor texts and lessons to accompany them.

If you aren’t already using mentor texts in your writing classroom, I hope you will give it a try!

A giant hug to Jennifer to stopping by to share her love of mentor texts!

Enormous Smallness

Nonfiction Picture Book Wednesday is hosted by Aly at Kid Lit Frenzy. 
Every Wednesday, bloggers link up their non-fiction picture book reviews. Be sure to visit Kid Lit Frenzy and see what great non-fiction books are shared this week!

Title: Enormous Smallness: A Story of E. E. Cummings
Author: Matthew Burgess 
Illustrator: Kris Di Giacomo 
Publisher: Enchanted Lion Books 
Publication Date: April 7th, 2015 
Genre/Format: Non-Fiction Biography/Picture Book 
GoodReads Summary: Enormous Smallness is a nonfiction picture book about the poet E.E. cummings. Here E.E.'s life is presented in a way that will make children curious about him and will lead them to play with words and ask plenty of questions as well. Lively and informative, the book also presents some of Cummings's most wonderful poems, integrating them seamlessly into the story to give the reader the music of his voice and a spirited, sensitive introduction to his poetry.
     In keeping with the epigraph of the book -- "It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are," Matthew Burgess's narrative emphasizes the bravery it takes to follow one's own vision and the encouragement E.E. received to do just that. 
What I Think: ee cummings is such a well-known poet and deservedly so. He played with words and structure in poetry in such a creative way and I love reading his poems. Last summer while I was in Boston, I visited Forest Hill Cemetery and tracked down his grave. I blogged about how awesome it was to stand there and read aloud one of his poems. As I read Enormous Smallness, I felt the magic of being in the cemetery in Boston all over again. Burgess plays with words and incorporates cummings' own poetry into the text in such a way that it feels woven into his own words. At the same time, Di Giacomo does an excellent job of representing words visually, helping bring meaning to life. 
     I love everything about this book. The writing is descriptive and powerful. Matched with the illustrations, it certainly brings a certain tone and mood to the text that matches both ee cummings himself but also the time period. 
     As a mentor text, I would definitely use this book to discuss how and author's word choice impacts tone and mood. In general, this book is a discussion on descriptive writing and author's craft waiting to happen. In the snatch of text I've pulled here, you can easily talk about metaphor and onomatopoeia but also rhythm and how sentence structure impacts that...but this is just one piece of text from one page in the book. It's definitely a book to be reread over and over just to soak in and savor all the textual and visual mastery here.
Read Together:  Grades 2 - 12 
Read Alone: Grades 2 - 12 
Read With: Pablo Neruda: Poet of the People by Monica Brown, Jimi: Sounds Like a Rainbow by Gary Golio, The Cosmobiography of Sun Ra: The Sound of Joy Is Enlightening by Chris Raschka, The Right Word: Roget and His Thesaurus by Jen Bryant
Snatch of Text:

"As Estlin grew, he drew many pictures

from the great circus of his imagination.

But even more than drawing

elephants, trees, and birds,

Estlin LOVED WORDS.

What words say and how they sound and look.

He loved the way they hum, buzz, POP, and swish."

Writing Prompts: In the book, Estlin made up his first poem after seeing a bird outside of his bedroom window. The author writes, "From his bedroom window, Estlin could see enormous apple and cherry trees." Write about what you see outside your bedroom window or maybe use you imagination and write about what you wish you could see outside of your bedroom window.
Topics Covered: Family, Inspiration, Imagination, Creativity 

I *heart* It:

To All The Boys I've Loved Before

Title: To All The Boys I've Loved Before 
Author: Jenny Han 
Publisher: Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers 
Publication Date: April 15th, 2014 
Genre/Format: Contemporary Realistic Fiction/Novel 
GoodReads Summary: To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before is the story of Lara Jean, who has never openly admitted her crushes, but instead wrote each boy a letter about how she felt, sealed it, and hid it in a box under her bed. But one day Lara Jean discovers that somehow her secret box of letters has been mailed, causing all her crushes from her past to confront her about the letters: her first kiss, the boy from summer camp, even her sister's ex-boyfriend, Josh. As she learns to deal with her past loves face to face, Lara Jean discovers that something good may come out of these letters after all. 
What I Think: I'll tell you what I think. I think there is everything to love about this book. I mean, let's start with the cover. I'm not sure I've ever seen a more perfect cover. But more than the cover, the words inside are amazing. It was so so so so hard for me to pull out a snatch of text because I love every word. Usually there are sentences that really stand out to me but as I go back and look through this book, I remember how tight Jenny Han's writing is and how she packs so much into every page. Every great moment blends into the next great moment.
     I've noticed that every time I sit down to write my own novel, I get a stronger sense of my characters. My main character's story has taken shape and become clearer and clearer but I've also been working on making my whole cast of characters three-dimensional. Well, Jenny Han knows how to do that. From the first page alone, readers have a sense of who Josh is but how he fits into Lara Jean's life. Actually, we have so much more than a sense of who Josh is, we know details about Josh and Lara Jean and her family. She writes with this descriptive intensity throughout the whole book. That's what makes it amazing. Her description moves with the plot and I barely realized how much she was showing me while not stopping to do it.
     One more thing I admire about this story is that Jenny does a great job of capturing the reality of being a teenager trying to navigate love and relationships. Love isn't easy, it's complicated and filled with insecurity and unsureness. There are people who come in and out of our lives and people who we connect in so many different ways. Jenny folds this message in as she layers on Lara Jean's story.
     I love To All the Boys I've Loved Before as a mentor text for myself for the well-defined characters, the tight description, and the topics it addresses. It's definitely a book that makes me so enamored with Jenny Han as a writer and desperate to find our what happens next!
Read Together: Grades 8 - 12
Read Alone: Grades 8 - 12 
Read With: Better Off Friends and others by Elizabeth Eulberg, From What I Remember... by Stacy Kramer and Valerie Thomas, Ten Things We Did (And Probably Shouldn't Have) by Sarah Mlynowski, The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen  
Snatch of Text:  
"If I could crawl into a hole and burrow in it comfortably and live out the rest of my days in it, well, then that is what I would do." (p. 72)
Writing Prompts: Write about a time in your life when you did something that you regretted - like sending an e-mail or text.  
Topics Covered: Family, Friendship, Love, Loyalty, Honesty, Trust  

I *heart* It:

The Pigeon Needs a Bath! - GIVEAWAY!

Title: The Pigeon Needs a Bath! 
Author: Mo Willems 
Illustrator: Mo Willems 
Publisher: Disney Hyperion 
Publication Date: April 1st, 2014 
Genre/Format: Fiction/Picture Book 
GoodReads Summary: The Pigeon really needs a bath! Except, the Pigeon's not so sure about that. Besides, he took a bath last month! Maybe. It's going to take some serious convincing to try and get the Pigeon to take the plunge. 
What I Think: This book is stinkin' awesome! We love Mo Willems and all of his books in our house and this is such a great addition to the Pigeon books. We've read this book countless times since it arrived at our doorstep. My kids think it's hysterical and ask for it again and again. It's pretty obvious when a book rings true to kids because they totally know. My kids both totally get where the Pigeon is coming from and they totally know his words have come out their mouths before. I think that makes it even better is they know how batty arguing about bath drives their parents. There aren't many books that my kids love so much that they know all the words (and maybe that has more do to with my kids than book....) but they know the words to The Pigeon Needs a Bath!. They love the end especially but I won't give away what happens. If you're familiar with the other Pigeon books, I'm sure you can take a guess at where the Pigeon ends up by the end. This book is so well done. I think parents and kids alike will enjoy the story because it rings so true to bath-time conversations.
     If I ever decide to try stand-up comedy (which will probably never happen...), one of my "bits" would be about how ridiculous I feel whenever we lose power at our house. I can't even tell you how many times the power has gone out and I wander around trying to turn on lights or use electrically-powered things like a hair dryer or the toaster and then I remember I can't because the power is out. I know full well the power is out but my brain struggles to make the connection. Personally, I think this might be an amusing story/joke to tell because I imagine others might relate to my story. Funny stories are often funny because other people can relate to the experience or the feelings. The Pigeon Needs a Bath! does exactly this. Kids take baths, kids often don't want to take baths, kids even more often are picky about exactly the conditions of their baths. Parents are definitely often exasperated with kids and baths. Because this seems to be such a universal experience, so many readers, young and old, can relate to this book. That's what makes it a gem in my opinion.
     As a mentor text, this book and the discussion about finding a story that others can really relate to or finding an emotion that you can help readers relate to, is such a great opportunity to talk about plot with students. Writing is complicated and finding the plot is definitely one layer that students need support with. Brainstorming some everyday stories and helping students see how they might bring those stories to life and zoom in on the experience is a great way to get students started on what they might write about. Having a discussion about what exactly Mo Willems does here and why it works so well would be a great way to look at author's purpose and craft.
Read Together: Grades Pre-K - 3  
Read Alone: Grades Pre-K - 3 
Read With: Other books by Mo Willems, The Watermelon Seed by Greg Pizzoli, Hiccup! by Mike Herrod, Those Darn Squirrels by Adam Rubin
Snatch of Text:  

Reading Strategies to Practice: Activating Background Knowledge, Making Connections, Making Predictions, Making Inferences 

Writing Strategies to Practice: Personal Narrative, Descriptive, Five Sense, $100 Words, Author's Purpose, Craft  
Writing Prompts: Write about an experience you have had that you think others might be able to relate to. Narrow the story down to a simple form but then freeze time and really focus on bringing each part of the story to life. 
Topics Covered: Stubbornness, Determination 

I *heart* It:

**I'm super excited to have three copies of The Pigeon Needs a Bath! by Mo Willems to give away thanks to Disney Publishing. Enter below for your chance to win a copy!**

Locomotive

Nonfiction Picture Book Wednesday

Nonfiction Picture Book Wednesday is hosted by Kid Lit Frenzy. 
Every Wednesday, I'll review a non-fiction picture book. (It may not always be a picture book.) Be sure to visit Kid Lit Frenzy and see what other non-fiction books are shared this week!

Title: Locomotive 

Author: Brian Floca 

Illustrator: Brian Floca 

Publisher: Atheneum/Richard Jackson Books 

Publication Date: September, 2013 

Genre/Format: Non-Fiction/Picture Book 

GoodReads Summary: All aboard! From the creator of the "stunning" (Booklist) Moonshot, a rich and detailed sensory exploration of America's early railroads.
It is the summer of 1869, and trains, crews, and family are traveling together, riding America's brand-new transcontinental railroad. These pages come alive with the details of the trip and the sounds, speed, and strength of the mighty locomotives; the work that keeps them moving; and the thrill of travel from plains to mountain to ocean.

Come hear the hiss of the steam, feel the heat of the engine, watch the landscape race by. Come ride the rails, come cross the young country!  

What I Think: I'm fascinated by Brian Floca's ability to capture a moment in time and describe it so that it feels like we are living in that one moment...walking around and examining every piece of it before you unfreeze that moment and life goes on.
     What I found most interesting about this book is that it's written in 2nd person voice. Throughout the book, the narrator is talking to "you" and it feels like the reader is literally in the book, smelling, seeing, hearing the sights and sounds, climbing on board the train and heading across the country. This book is a great mentor text for descriptive writing. Students have many opportunities to look at the author's craft and to discuss what he is doing. It's also a great opportunity to look at commas and when we use commas. Using this text, you might have a conversation about what comma rules we have and when we can break those rules. There are definitely different types of comma usage here though and we could take the time to notice what patterns we see as we read.

Read Together: Grades 2 - 12 

Read Alone: Grades 2 - 12  

Read With: Moonshot by Brian Floca, Train by Elisha Cooper, How To Train A Train by Jason Carter Eaton

Snatch of Text:  

"The hours and and miles roll by.

The country opens,

opens wide,

empty as an ocean.

Smell the switchgrass and the blustem,

hot beneath the sun.

Here the bison used to roam,

by the hundreds, by the millions.

Here the Cheyenne lived,

and Pawnee and Arapabo.

Here covered wagons used to crawl,

foot by foot, mile by mile,

heading into the West.

Reading Strategies to Practice: Activating Background Knowledge, Visualizing, Making Connections, Asking Questions 

Writing Strategies to Practice: Personal Narrative, Descriptive, Point of View - 2nd Person, Anaphora, Simile, Comma - Appositives, Word Choice, $100 Words, Alliteration, Author's Craft 

Writing Prompts: Write about a time in your life when you took a trip - describe the "getting there" part of your travels. Write about how you get from one place to another - maybe from your desk to the library, from your locker to the bus, etc. Write from the perspective of an object and how it moves along during the day, describe what it might see or experience through the course of a day.  

Topics Covered: Travel, History, Integration - Social Studies 

I *heart* It:

Wake Up Missing

Title: Wake Up Missing 
Author: Kate Messner  
Publisher: Walker Childrens 
Publication Date: September 10, 2013 
Genre/Format: Science Fiction - Thriller/Novel 
GoodReads Summary: Meet Quentin, a middle school football star from Chicago... 
Sarah, an Upstate New York girls’ hockey team stand-out... 
Ben, a horse lover from the Pacific Northwest...
And Cat, an artistic bird watcher from California. The four have nothing in common except for the head injuries that land them in an elite brain-science center in the Florida Everglades. It’s known as the best in the world, but as days pass, the kids begin to suspect that they are subjects in an experiment that goes far beyond treating concussions….and threatens their very identities. They’ll have to overcome their injuries – and their differences – to escape, or risk losing themselves forever. 
What I Think: A book like Wake Up Missing is so hard to review! I hate trying to review a book that I love so much. I always have a ton to say that I have no idea where to start. Having read so many of Kate's books, met her a few times, and worked with her on Teachers Write, I know Kate is a wonderful person and writer. As I read Wake Up Missing, I could hear her reading and even imagine her doing research and writing it. With Eye of the Storm and now Wake Up Missing, Kate has been able to really infuse her love of science into her novels. I love reading her books and feeling that each one is just so Kate. If a class was lucky enough to do a in-real-life or virtual author chat with Kate, I think it would be a great chance to discuss voice and to really have them read Kate's blog, learn about her, pay attention to her demeanor and then connect all of that with her writing to see how they can see her in her books.
     Wake Up Missing centers around a group of kids who have all experienced head injuries that led them now to a brain-science center. My husband is a huge sports fan but especially a football fan. As we listen to sports news, the topic of head injuries and the danger associated with them is often discussed. I'm not sure how much kids really think about head injuries - and avoiding head injuries - when they want to play sports like football. What I absolutely love about Wake Up Missing is that it really brings the issue of head injuries to the forefront in such a fascinating way that shows how it truly is a big deal while also gripping readers. Kate does such an excellent job of writing entirely real characters that readers connect with them. By connecting with the characters, it makes things those characters deal with - like head injuries - so much more real and important. Over the summer I read an article called "Reading Literature Makes Us Smarter and Nicer", which explains how readers are given the opportunity to empathize differently because they have experience imagining what it might be like to be inside a character's head. I'm not entirely sure how reliable the article is, but the idea is intriguing. I do believe that as I read Wake Up Missing, it encouraged me to think more about head injuries and I think it would definitely encourage young readers to recognize the severity of head injuries after reading the experiences, albeit fictional, of Cat. Kate strikes a remarkable balance of incorporating science and facts into a gripping fiction novel.
     One last thing! I love Kate's description throughout the whole book. There are so many wonderful examples of great descriptive writing. The snatch of text I pulled is from the very beginning of the book. Two pages in and she has already pulled readers in with the imagery she creates by comparing the character to feeling like a puzzle that's missing a piece. This isn't just a simile for the sake of including a simile...it's not. It's really not. As a mentor text, this snatch of text is awesome for thinking about author's purpose and author's craft and really asking them to think why this simile is just so strong. In my mind, there are a few reasons. First of all, I would venture to say that most people have done a puzzle. And with finishing a puzzle comes that awesome contentment in knowing that the puzzle is finished. Likewise, puzzle pieces are notorious for being lost. It's easy to remember how horrible it feels to get to the end of a puzzle and not have the last piece. It just doesn't feel right. Not only does Kate make the connection between the feeling of having a head injury and the feeling of not being able to finish a puzzle, she then adds to the description. Just think of how differently the simile would be if it ended with the words jigsaw-puzzle pieces. This is a whole mentor text mini-lesson on similes right here! And then students could hone in on noticing what Kate does with description throughout the book as they read. Love it!
     Oh, one extra last thing! Kate has a great author's note at the end that discusses connections between the fictionalized parts of the book and non-fiction resources that Kate referred to as she was writing. This book is a great opportunity to encourage students to do further reading. I love that reading fiction can lead to reading non-fiction and I imagine this story and then the information in the author's note would definitely encourage that.
Read Together: Grades 5 - 12 
Read Alone: Grades 7 - 12 
Read With: Eye of the Storm, Capture the Flag, and Hide and Seek by Kate Messner, Heat and others by Mike Lupica, Cover Up and others by John Feinstein, Football Genius and others by Tim Green 
Snatch of Text: 
     "The most terrifying thing about hitting your head so hard is when you wake up missing pieces of yourself. Pieces of the person you were before it happened." (p. 1)

     "I thought if I went to I-CAN, I'd wake up found.
     And all the missing parts of me - lost balance, scattered memories - would snap back into place like the jigsaw-puzzle pieces Mom pulled out from under the wicker sofa. She blew the dust off and placed them into the holes in our carnival scene, one by one, until the last piece patched an empty gap in the sky. And then it was whole.
     That was what I wanted. To be whole again." (p. 2)
Reading Strategies to Practice: Activating Background Knowledge, Making Connections, Visualizing, Analyzing Author's Purpose 
Writing Strategies to Practice: Descriptive, Imagery, Craft, Voice, Similes, Persuasive, Expository
Writing Prompts: Read more about head injuries or another current issue in science and/or sports.
Write a persuasive essay that explains both sides of the issue and then takes a stand for or against practice or happenings.
Topics Covered: Courage, Family, Friendship, Identity, Determination, Instincts, Problem-Solving, Ingenuity, Integration - Science, Integration - Sports 

I *heart* It: