A Porc In New York
In A Porc In New York by Catherine Stock a French farmer discovers his animals have used the airplane tickets they ordered to fly across the Atlantic to New York City! His dog Cabot finds a clue…
Cabot, snuffling around the straw, suddenly unearthed a mysterious list:
NEW YORK
1. Blooming Dells
2. Boat trip
3. Central Park
Organization Mini-lesson
Primary/Intermediate: The farmer and his dog use this list to help them find the missing animals. Use this “list” story as a model for students to write their own “vacation” story.
Copyright © 2009 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
Hurry! Hurry!
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In Hurry! Hurry! by Eve Bunting (author) and Jeff Mack (illustrator), it’s a big day at the farm. Chicken calls out:
HURRY! HURRY!
Ideas Mini-lesson
Primary/Intermediate: This book has 2 or 3 words a page, making it just right to guide young readers as they learn to write stories of their own. Use the Story Map 3 graphic organizer to help students talk out their story ideas before writing.
For more books for young readers, subscribe to my 5 Great Books blog.
Copyright © 2009 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
Brave Bitsy and the Bear
Filed under: fiction, sentence fluency | Tags: 6 traits, kidlit
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Brave Bitsy and the Bear by Angela McAllister (author) and Tiphanie Beeke (illustrator) begins with a problem…
“Little Bitsy fell out of her girl’s pocket in the woods one autumn afternoon.”
Sentence Fluency Mini-lesson
Primary/Intermediate: Ask students to write their own “character with a problem” story. During the editing process, they can read it aloud to a peer editor to test the sentence fluency (and rewrite as needed.)
Copyright © 2009 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
Nonfiction Monday: Unite or Die
In Unite or Die: How Thirteen States Became a Nation by Jacqueline Jules (Author) and Jef Czekaj (Illustrator), a class play teaches the facts.
On September 13, 1783, The Treaty of Paris
was signed, officially ending the American Revolution.
Thirteen colonies had won their independence from England.
A new country was born.
Conventions Mini-lesson
Primary/Intermediate: Ask students to write their own “history” play. What will each character say? Remind students to check their play for punctuation clues, so the actors know when to pause (for a comma) and when to stop (for a period).
This week’s Nonfiction Monday Round-up is at Book Aunt.
Copyright © 2009 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
On the Radio
I’m on Book Bites for Kids on Blog Talk Radio – Monday 6/29 at 2pm Central. Give me a call!
Copyright © 2009 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
Poetry Friday: Hickory Dickory Dock
Hickory Dickory Dock by Keith Baker takes that mouse from 1:00 to midnight – and shows what really happened…
The clock struck one…
it’s time for fun!
Word Choice Mini-lesson
Primary/Intermediate: Ask students to write their own version of this nursery rhyme. Use the Observation Chart graphic organizer to brainstorm a list of words before writing.
This week’s Poetry Friday Round-up is hosted by Crossover.
Copyright © 2009 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
The Secret Life of Walter Kitty
The Secret Life of Walter Kitty by Barbara Jean Hicks (author) and Dan Santat (illustrator) begins…
My Person doesn’t know it,
but my real name is Fang.
Voice Mini-lesson
Primary/Intermediate: Use this hilarious story to teach the trait of voice as students write their own “secret life” of a pet story in the “I” voice, the (first person point-of-view).
Copyright © 2009 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
Stick
Stick was created by Steve Breen, a Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist.
Stick liked to do things on his own….
Ideas Mini-lesson
Primary/Intermediate: Many of the pages in this book have panels like a cartoon. Students can make their own frog comic with ReadWriteThink’s Comic Creator.
Copyright © 2009 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
The Chicken-Chasing Queen of Lamar County
In The Chicken-Chasing Queen of Lamar County by Janice N Harrington (Author) and Shelley Jackson (Illustrator) the narrator can’t resist chasing the chickens.
I go sneaking up on those chickens real slow, real easy, and then– freeze.
I make myself as still as sunlight.
Voice Mini-lesson
Primary/Intermediate: This story is written in (first person point-of-view), the “I” voice. Ask students to write their own first person story.
Copyright © 2009 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
Nonfiction Monday: Shells! Shells! Shells!
Filed under: conventions, fiction, nonfiction | Tags: 6 traits, kidlit
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Shells! Shells! Shells! by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace uses photographs and collage art to show the story of a trip to the beach. This book mixes puns and facts about shells (including their scientific names.)
“Mollusks that live inside univalves have a fancy name,” said Mama.
“Gastropods.”
“What? Gas! Do they have gas?” He giggled.
Conventions Mini-lesson
Primary/Intermediate: Ask students to write their own “beach” story. Remind students to check their stories to make sure they used punctuation at the end of each sentence.
This week’s Nonfiction Monday Round-up is at Tales from the Rushmore Kid.
Copyright © 2009 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
