Pirates

For Talk like a Pirate Day, here’s Pirates by David L. Harrison (Author) and Dan Burr (Illustrator), a story told in poems..

Gather ’round ye scurvey mates,
I’m signing on a crew.

You there! Can ye tie a knot?
Ye’ll do.

Voice Mini-lesson
Primary/Intermediate: Ask students to write a pirate poem. They can imagine they are a member of the crew, as the writer did, so the poems are told in first person, the “I” voice. 

Word Choice Mini-lesson
Primary/Intermediate: Sensory details make writing come alive. Ask students to use the Observation Chart graphic organizer to brainstorm a list of sensory words to add to their poems.

This week’s Poetry Friday Round-up is hosted by author amok.

Take the Picture Book Poetry Workshop for inservice clock hours.

All Aboard!: A Traveling Alphabet

All Aboard! by Bill Mayer is a “A Traveling Alphabet” book where the art also forms the shape of each letter. (Can you see the A on the cover?)

All aboard

Bridge

Cycle

Ideas Mini-lesson
Primary: Use this book as a jumping off point for a school or city alphabet book. Brainstorm ideas as a class and ask each child to create the page for a single letter. 

Organization Mini-lesson
Primary: This book uses labels as the text. Use this pattern as a model for your emerging writers.

Take the Easy Reader Workshop. for inservice clock hours.

Cat

Cat by Mike Dumbleton (Author) and Craig Smith (Illustrator)

Cat.
Dog.
Tall Tree.
Thank goodness for that!

Ideas Mini-lesson
Primary: This “patterned” story is just right for emerging writers. There are just a few words on each page, but there is lots of action in the art. Ask students to write and illustrate the NEXT Cat story.

Organization Choice Mini-lesson
Primary: This simple patterned story is repeated four times – once for each adventure. Ask students to write ONE adventure for cat.  Then combine all of the stories into a class book about Cat! 

Use the TAKS Writing Secrets Classroom Writing Workshop with your fourth graders.

What Can you Do With a Rebozo?

What Can You Do With a Rebozo? by Carmen Tafolla (Author) and Amy Cordova (Illustrator)

What can you DO with a rebozo?

Mama spreads it like a butterfly to
pretty up her dress for Sunday morning…

Ideas Mini-lesson
Primary/Intermediate: Make a class book as as students write a page about what someone can do with a shawl. Use the Word Web graphic organizer to help students think of ideas.

Organization Mini-lesson
Primary/Intermediate: Each page in the first half of the book has a different member of the family using the rebozo, while the second half of the book shows the child narrator using it. Use this pattern to organize the class book. 

Take the Intensive Picture Book Workshop for inservice clock hours.

Nonfiction Monday Round-up

Welcome to the Nonfiction Monday Round-up!

Here’s what the kidlitosphere is reading this week…

1. Picture Book of the Day (The Pot that Juan Built)
2. Fuse #8 (Off to War)
3. The Well-Read Child (Busy Pandas)
4. Abby the Librarian (My Heart Glow)
5. Kid Lit Kit (Hispanic Heritage Month)
6. Lori Calabrese Writes (Elephants Can Paint Too)
7. A Patchwork of Books (Our White House)
8. Tricia (Ballots for Belva)
9. Fiona at Books and ‘Rocks (Munching Through the Info Book Award Shortlist)
10. Anamaria/Books Together (We Spy Colors in Art)
11. Jennie at Biblio File (Book Crush)

Six Trait Writing Programs

Nonfiction Monday: The Pot that Juan Built

The Pot That Juan Built by Nancy Andrews-Goebel (Author) and David Diaz (Illustrator) is a cumulative tale, a biography, and a how to book.

This is the pot that Juan built.

Organization Mini-lesson
Primary/Intermediate: Juan builds his pot step by step. Ask students to use the Step-by-Step Chart graphic organizer to help them describe a process step by step.

Voice Mini-lesson
Primary/Intermediate: Step-by-step directions are often written in second person, the YOU voice. Ask students to try this voice as they give directions for something step-by-step (a procedural).

Take the Young Nonfiction Workshop for inservice clock hours.

Poetry Friday: Mary had a Little Lamp

Mary Had a Little Lamp by Jack Lechner (Author) and Bob Staake (Illustrator) is an adaptation of Mary had a Little Lamb…

Mary had a little lamp–
The bendy gooseneck kind.
And everywhere that Mary went
She dragged the lamp behind.

Organization Mini-lesson
Primary/Intermediate: Ask students to write a new version of Mary Had a Little Lamb with a different “favorite” object. Use the pattern from the rhyme: mention the object and then show places it went and the problems that caused.

Word Choice Mini-lesson
Primary/Intermediate: In the second line the author describes the lamp: The bendy gooseneck kind. Ask students to think of five descriptive words to decribe the object in their story. Use the Observation Chart graphic organizer to brainstorm a list of words.

This week’s Poetry Friday Round-up is hosted by Biblio File.

Take the Picture Book Poetry Workshop for inservice clock hours.

Apples and Oranges

Apples and Oranges by Sara Pinto is a book that makes you think!

How are an apple and an orange alike?
(Turn the page…)
They both don’t wear glasses.

Ideas Mini-lesson
Primary/Intermediate: The answer you expect (an apple and an orange are both fruit) isn’t what you see once you turn the page. Ask students to think of their own pairs and and an unusual way they are alike. Use the Idea Wheel  graphic organizer to think of ideas.

Voice Mini-lesson
Primary/Intermediate: The choices writers make show their writing voice. Ask students to use their “silly” voice as they make a class book of silly pairs.

Take the Easy Reader Workshop. for inservice clock hours.

Gimme Cracked Corn and I Will Share

Gimme Cracked Corn and I Will Share by Kevin O’Malley is filled with puns!

You must be yolking.
What are you–a comedi-hen?

Ideas Mini-lesson
Primary/Intermediate: Ask students to write their own “dream” story. Use the dream and search pattern in this book as a model for writing. The Story Map 2 graphic organizer can help them plan their story.

Word Choice Mini-lesson
Primary/Intermediate: Chicken’s friend George is always making puns. Ask students to find 3-5 places in their “dream” story where they can add puns.

Use the TAKS Writing Secrets Classroom Writing Workshop with your fourth graders.

Mrs. Millie Goes to Philly!

Mrs. Millie Goes to Philly! by Judy Cox (Author) and Joe Mathieu (Illustrator) begins…

Our teacher, Mrs. Millie, is really silly. Everyday she says something funny such as, “Cow are you today?”

Ideas Mini-lesson
Primary/Intermediate: Mrs. Millie takes her class on a field trip. Ask students to write about a field trip they have taken.

Word Choice Mini-lesson
Primary/Intermediate: Mrs. Millie uses animal words that sound like the correct words (cow/now; ocelot, awful lot). Ask students to think of five silly words they can use in their field trip story.

Take the Intensive Picture Book Workshop for inservice clock hours.