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The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt, illustrated by Oliver Jeffers

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This book is a great example of voice, point of view, and letter writing in a manner that will engage and be understandable for students. Each crayon complains, persuades or narrates a story, illustrating how writers creatively cause ordinary objects to possess personalities and feelings. Humor, persuasive argument, and different tones depending on the character are all shown in the book. It also connects to opinion writing and audience awareness, since it’s clear the crayons are writing to their owner, Duncan. For 2nd graders especially, this book makes abstract writing concepts like "point of view" exciting and achievable.

Activities

Students can write their own letter or a pre made sentence starter letter to write back to the crayons replying to their feelings as if they were Duncan.

Students could pretend to be a different supply in the classroom and write a letter to Duncan or themselves about how they feel just as the crayons did. They can write their own letter or use a letter with sentence starters.

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Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Peña, illustrated by Christian Robinson

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This Newbery Award-winning text is a model of descriptive writing, dialogue, and perspective focused writing.It encourages students to observe and write about setting, character, and community, and it represents a range of urban experiences while also enhancing ideas of positive perspectives within communities and includes usage of the Spanish language. While also enhancing students skills of narrative writing, poetry, and figurative language.

Activities -

- draw a picture of your home or community and make a list of what you think is beautiful about it.

- write a descriptive story about going on an adventure through your town and make note of what you notice, focusing on sensory details (smell, hearing, seeing…)

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Chicka Chicka Boom Boom – Bill Martin Jr. & John Archambault, Illustrated by Lois Ehlert

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Chicka Chicka Boom Boom will support my writing instruction by modeling poetic writing by usage of typography,rhythm, rhyme, and repetition. The playful language and imagery demonstrates how writers include skills such as onomatopoeia to make writing more engaging and meaningful. The changing texts and usage of typography helps students learning too effectively transfer emotion and meaning through writing to a reader.This text will help my students experiment with poetry, word play, and multimodal composition in their own writing.

Activities

- use skills such as bolding, spacing, line breaks to write a sound word poem using words like (boom, crash, swish) Include at least 5 sound words and use bold or colorful typography to emphasize sound effects and emotion just like the book does.

-Write your own short poem about a letter or multiple letters going on an adventure. Use different examples of typography(bolding,Spacing,Shrinking) to display emotion. Also include examples of onomatopoeia and rhyming to add meaning and rhythm to your poem.

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Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?
Author: Bill Martin Jr.
Illustrator: Eric Carle

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Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

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Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

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This book allows students to dive into the writing techniques of repetition and rhythm.They will also recognize and learn how to use sight words and descriptive language within sentences. Each of these allow students to understand that writing has structure in an easier way through the books predictable and repetitive patterns. It’s illustrations and use of colors help students connect the ideas show in the descriptive writing itself. Overall it demonstrates how writers use patterns, repetition, and descriptive language to create a meaningful structured story.

Activities

Students will trace the sentence of “ I see a … looking at me.” And fill in the blanks. They can choose to fill it in with any color and/or animal they choose, maybe it’s a pet or their favorite animal. They can also add to the second statement of “They live in (a)… that is…” They will the draw, and color this animal under their statement. They can use words and pictures from the book as inspiration and I can also create an inspiration list which will help with spelling. After each student is done with their page I can bind them all together into a class book to demonstrate each students work and create a story! Reading the story together will reiterate their knowledge of repetition, sentence structure, and descriptive language in writing they created!

Ex - I see a Green Turtle looking at me. They live in water that is blue

Students creates their own mini book using the sentence frame “I see a…that is…” They will fill in the first blank with an object(classroom, tree, swing, friend) that is ( big, nice, kind, happy, colorful). They will work throughout the day in different settings to fill in 5 of these. ( Reading time, recess, lunch, art class, independent work time). They can also add illustrations to each page to help support their descriptive language and ideas. Throughout the day they can collaborate with peers and again I will have an inspiration list of common describing words and objects at school the kids can help create and use if needed.

- Both activities help emergent writers use their own ideas to create a small story in a way that is simple enough so they only have to choose one or two words to write on their own to fill in in the blank.

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Tía Isa Wants a Car by Meg Medina, illustrated by Claudio Muñoz

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This story is an example of personal narrative writing with a beginning, middle, and end as students would do when learning too write stories. It shows how writers use descriptive detail and emotional language to purposefully write a story readers can experience with them. The book shows great examples of showing emotion through writing instead of specifically stating a feeling a character is experiencing.This piece also focuses on cultural identity and family values, allowing students to descriptively connect their own writing to their own lives and perspectives while learning from a diversity of perspectives and stories through narrative literature. Finally it supports writing in chronological order when writing how you get from one state to another result.

Activities -

draw and label a picture of something you really want and write a couple short sentences describing it. ( Focus on meaningful writing showing your emotion with descriptive words).

write a sequenced comic strip that shows how a special object in your family came to be yours and use descriptive words to demonstrate your feelings and why it’s important to you.

I can provide a comic strip template labeled with each step of chronological order for students to fill in with pictures and simple writing to describe their objects

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If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff, illustrated by Felicia Bond

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This text is a wonderful example of sequential writing and cause and effect in literature. It not only brings light to how ideas and actions are formed but also how to properly and chronologically explain them through writing. By having a structure that explains each thought step and circles back to the original idea/action of wanting a cookie students are able to understand the importance of logically connecting steps in writing and creating a beginning middle and end even if the story is referencing that it repeats itself. They play with the relationships of cause and effects and how they determine certain outcomes. This book also focuses on repetition to help students grow confident with sentence formation and organization in their own writing. The illustrations support the text and allow students to better understand what is occurring in the story and how to better demonstrate their ideas in their own writing.

Activities

Create a chart called “ If a Student Wants a Sentence” Together as a class. We will collaborate as a class to give ideas to fill in a chart describing the steps students must do to create a sentence. I will fill it in on the board and students will create it on their own worksheet. This will allow them to practice making charts, writing sentences, and create their own writing tool to support all writing.

Ex. If a student wants a sentence they will need… “To come up with an idea” when they have an idea they will need “ To choose who or what they are writing about” when they choose… They will need “ Too choose the subjects action” When they choose… they will need “ to think of any extra details they want to add” When they choose…They will need to “ Start with a capital letter. - Then explain that they need to add in each point that they thought of and then they will need to “ End with punctuation.”

-This chart will be created as a class and their paper will have sentence starters that we will fill in the blanks in simple terms together. In the end the chart will be a proper and helpful writing tool for how to write a good sentence they can always look at for guidance.

Students create a comic strip show events of what happens if they give an animal or themselves and a treat both of their choice. I will have a printed 4 box comic strip each box labeled with if you give a … a … then they will ask for … and so on just as the book does. This way they can practice logical sequencing of events and cause and effect in their own creative ways as demonstrated in the book. Having the choice of writing about themselves may be easier as they can clearly imagine what they would want after each step. Students can dictate ideas and focus more on drawing and/or labeling if necessary.

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Jabari Jumps is an excellent example of creating meaningful writing through simple sentences. It also demonstrates sequence of events through Jabari’s emotional processes in his journey of jumping off the board. This allows students to connect to their own thought processes and relate it to chronological processes demonstrated in their own writing and other literature. It’s a great example of multimodal reading through the factors of reading, writing, and illustrations that directly show students how Jabari is feeling. This allows them to make connections to and better understand the text. While also influencing them to use such descriptive techniques in their own writing. By sharing his journey in the story students are inspired to share their own stories and voice in their narrative writing.

Activities -

Students can create a simple flip book story book. Each page will have a traceable sentence frame on it and a blank to fill in. They will write their own guided short personal narrative to practice sharing their own stories through writing in a more simple way. On each page will be a sentence and an illustration of them and how they felt during the activity.

Ex. I felt… when i first tried… after I did it once I felt… I really … to do it again. In the end i felt… because i … If i were to do it again i would…

Students can draw a character doing an activity on a paper. It can be them or an animal, really anything living with feelings. They will fill in sentence frames that are traceable and in a MadLib style at the bottom of the page and describe the character and what they are doing/how they feel about it.

Ex - my character is a… who is very… they like to…in the… they feel… when they…

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Rocket writes a story is a great mentor text for Emergent writers, as it gives instruction and models the stages of a writing process. It shows the journey of creating an idea, drafting and revising it and finally sharing it with others. It teaches students while also telling a meaningful story students can connect with. This text supports narrative writing and shows how writers can find inspiration in their environment around them. It allows students to understand the process of learning words and using them to tell their own stories and ideas in their writing. Overall, this is a great example of a text that inspires students and helps them understand how to come up with ideas to write about. Coming up with creative writing ideas is just as important as the writing skills themselves especially at a young age.

Activities -

Students can go on their own word hunt around the classroom, lunchroom, and outside throughout the day. They will write words that they see, hear, and think of that interest them on separate sticky notes. They can also add an illustration to help bring meaning and understanding to their word. At the end of the day, we can make an entire class word tree.

Students can use class word tree to create their own sentences that tell a small story. The sentences can be very simple, but with a focus on describing an object or event. Students can write one sentence or multiple if they choose and draw an illustration that connects to their sentence.

Ex. The school was loud

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Owl Moon by Jane Yolen Illustrated by John Schoenherr

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This text helps early writers understand how authors use descriptive words and sensory language within their writing. It shows students how to describe what characters are experiencing and how they feel about it. As the book focuses on one simple topic, it teaches students how to add structure/organization to their writing while clearly demonstrating what the main topic is. This is also a great introduction to poetry and poetic rhythm in literature. It supports ideas of sentence building descriptive language, and sequencing of events. Well also influencing kids to take inspiration from their environments and imagination and their own writing.

Activities -

Students will sit outside and a location at school surrounded by nature. They will draw what they see around them. Then they will explore each aspect of the environment and write Words to describe the objects around them, focusing on sensory language. They will then use their descriptions to create small sentences about the objects. Sensory words such as looks, feels, sounds… Will be provided for the students. If needed, students can collaborate to come up with describing words such as heavy, small, scratchy.

Ex. The tree feels scratchy. The birds sound loud.

I will create a printout with a colorable stick figure placed in a winter environment like the one in the book students can color the figure to look like themselves. May will imagine that they are in the same winter environment as the characters in the book. The body parts that correlate with the five senses will be labeled. There will be boxes with sentence starters that point to the body part the sense connects to. This could be seen as a box with I see…Connected to the eyes of the character. Students will fill in Each blank of the five senses to describe what they are experiencing in the winter environment And at which body part they are experiencing it.

Ex. I feel cold snow with my hands.

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Can I Be Your Dog? Written and Illustrated by Troy Cummings

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As this book is told entirely through written letters, it is a great mentor text to introduce students to the process of letter writing. It allows writers to recognize structure as well as purpose of writing. It can inspire writers to use their own voice to write to a chosen audience and teach them how to organize their ideas in a meaningful and purposeful way. The repetitive style of each letter allows students to better understand each aspect of a properly written letter. This includes writing greetings, the actual body of the letter, and closing off and signing the letter. Students will learn how to write a letter using their own voice and ideas to express their feelings and persuade others through purposeful writing.

Activities

Students will write a small persuasive letter pretending to be a pet just like the main character of the book. Their goal is to write a small letter in similar format as the books letters to persuade someone to adopt them as their pet. They are encouraged to come up with reasons of why they would make a good pet. I will have guiding sentence starters on the board such as “ I would be a great pet because I am very…” on the board if they need helping making their points.

Students will write a small opinion piece of why the Dog deserves a home. They will take points straight out of the book or even ones they can infer about him from what they’ve read. They will gather these points into an organized small paragraph where they make at least 3 points describing why the Dog deserves a home in order to hopefully help him get adopted.

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 Amelia Earhart’s 1934 Letter to June Pierson

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 Amelia Earhart’s 1934 Letter to June Pierson

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This historical letter allows students to connect letter writing to real life events and people. It brings a sense of importance and usefulness to letter writing when students can see how impactful they are in our history and how they allow us to learn more about the past. This was a letter from Amelia Earhart to a 13-year-old June Pearson, who was writing to Earhart to learn how to get into aviation and become a pilot one day. Amelia Earhart shows that letters can be used to transcribe information and advice about certain events and processes while still holding a sense of emotion and meaningful writing. It gives an example of identifying your subject and clearly stating your purpose within your writing. It shows how letters can be used to, give guidance as well as emotional encouragement. This gives students an example of a format that allows them to use their voice and share their own knowledge and experiences in a helpful way through writing. All while learning a bit about history and how anyone’s writing can be saved as an artifact for the future to look at.

Activities

Students can write a letter in proper letter format to Amelia Earhart, asking her any question or asking her about her adventure. The topic can be up to them, but they are encouraged to share a bit about their own story while also questioning Amelia about hers to practice purposeful conversation And meaningful writing through letters.

Students will write a small letter to the upcoming second graders, who are still in first grade. They will do just as Amelia Earhart did and explain the steps of becoming a successful second grader while also providing encouragement and recognizing how the first graders may feel going into 2nd grade. They can share about their own experience joining second grade and also add in any tips they found to be helpful in the transition.

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Bill Nye, The Science Guy - S 4 E14 - Volcanos

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Bill Nye, The Science Guy - S 4 E14 - Volcanos

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Using a bill Nye science experiment video of the reaction when you mix, baking soda and vinegar allows students to understand clear cause an effect relationships. This video supports the system of sequential writing and thinking in logical order. It demonstrates clear causing effect relationships by Explaining how doing multiple actions can create a reaction/entirely new outcome. While this often happens in science experiments the cause and effect relationship is demonstrated quite similarly in writing. An example of this in literature could be explaining that a girl had one action of having a shoe untied another action of running fast and the reaction of falling down. This video also goes into great detail with descriptive language and observations and is a good tool to expand vocabulary. Students will be more engaged as several of their senses are activated. They are able to connect to real world content while still learning proper thought and writing processes through this multimodal composition.

Activities

Students write in a sequence strip and show the step by step process of the baking soda and vinegar experiment and how it reacted in the volcano. They will practice observations and using transitional words to describe each step. ( First, Next, Then…) They can add descriptive words as used in the video like fizzing and solution to describe what’s happening.

Students pretend they are scientists making their own unique potion. They can add any ingredients and processes but must write in sequential order using transitional words so others can follow along. I will have sentence starters with the transitional words in order written on the board, they will include them in their writing. When finished they will have written a scientific instruction teaching people how to make their potion and they can draw what the potion does to you.

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Pretend Soup and Other Real Recipes Author: Mollie Katzen & Ann Henderson

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This children’s friendly cookbook is a wonderful way to demonstrate how to steps and procedural writing in a way that is understandable by Early writers. It helps students understand sequencing, transition words, and verbs also demonstrating step-by-step instruction through easy to follow words and pictures. It allows students to understand that clear writing is important for a successful outcome. The extremely broken down steps in each recipe, simple language, and visuals, allow for better comprehension for students while also demonstrating how to break down an overall topic which can be helpful in the writing process. Students can use the same process to break down a writing topic and a step-by-step instructions so they better understand how to successfully meet each step and result in clear writing.

Activities

Students draw a picture of their favorite meal and create a grocery list for each ingredient needed to make the meal. If they’re unable to think of a meal, I can give them easier options such as salad ingredients or pizza toppings. The goal is to make a 2nd grade level clear concise list, that specifically states which ingredients are needed to be able to make this meal.

Students will be given a sequence strip and can write a recipe with words and visuals like demonstrated in the text that show the process of making any dish. The student comes up with. The dish can be real food or it can be made up. The students will write/show the ingredients needed, and what you do to them in order. This could appear as pictures showing carrots. The second box could be cutting the carrots. The third box could be putting the carrots in a pot and so on. One of the recipes from the book will be on the SmartBoard as an example so students can follow along, and ensure their transitional words are correct and that steps are in order. I will also have examples of measurements on the board from lease to greatest if students want to add specific measurements to ingredient.

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Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star                      Author: Jane Taylor

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Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star               

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Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star               

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This traditional and familiar poem/song allows students to experience how structure and sound enhances the meaning and impact of writing. As this song is common to students they will better be able to notice rhythm and rhyming words when reading it. It will encourage students to practice thoughtful writing and pay attention to how structure and word choice greatly affects the flow and takeaways of the writing. This poem allows them to connect with repetition and rhyming which they can use in their own writing to create written text with meaning. This is also a great introduction to compare songs and poetry and recognize the similarities in their text structure. It demonstrates several poetic techniques that can be used as guidance when students write their own poems. It also develops skills of descriptive language, imagery, and transitions through structure of text. All aspects work together to support and aid students in meaningful writing through poetry.

Activities

Students will help create a class “Sky Full of Rhymes” Bulletin board. The song will be projected on the board and I will highlight each word students can pick from to Rhyme with ( Star, Dark, Sky, Night). They will receive a blank yellow star. On the star on the first line they will write one word from the song. On the second line it will say… Rhymes with… and here they will come up with a new rhyming word preferably not one already in the song but if its necessary its okay! At the end we will have an entire board of Rhyming words students can use in their own creative writing.

Students will create a mini poem. On a paper will be a traceable sentence frame of Twinkle, Twinkle… how I wonder… They are encouraged to use practiced rhyming words and can fill in the blanks how they wish.

Ex- Twinkle twinkle giant cat, How I wonder where you’re at.

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“That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

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“That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

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This popular quote allows students to see how few words can still be meaningful and impactful. It encourages students to write to an audience and relay powerful messages through writing. It helps students see more clearly that every word makes in impact in a sentence. It demonstrates clear and concise writing. Students can use this as an example to connect their writing to historical events and to communicate inspiring ideas to a selected audience. It shows how writing can connect multiple people and subjects together to make one powerful text. It will encourage writers to be more clear and meaningful in their own writing. While also helping them show their impactful voice to an audience through writing.

Activities

Students use Neil Armstrong’s quote as a mentor model to write their own version that connects to something they’ve learned, achieved, or are proud of. They will fill in a sentence frame of one small step for (students name) one giant leap in ( chosen topic). This allows students to create their own inspirational quote personalized to themselves and their achievements. Students can choose if they want these displayed.

Ex. One small step for Rose, One giant leap in reading!

Students create a comic strip showing what they would do if they went to the moon. They’ll use speech bubbles, captions, and illustrations to tell their story. They will include transitional words to show each step. They will write about their experience on the moon and how they felt about it in each section of the strip.