Mentor Text Library by

Amelia Bedelia

gabbymwilliams2005 — 2025-09-20 17:11:33 UTC

Amelia Bedelia is a book about a maid named Amelia who takes her instructions quite literally. This text will support my writing instruction because I can teach my students about the idioms and phrases that can get misunderstood. An activity I can use for this text is that I can have the students come up with all the different instructions Amelia did literally, and have them determine the right way to complete the task. This activity will have them discover which words were idioms and have to find them correctly.

Once Upon a Sari

gabbymwilliams2005 — 2025-09-20 17:19:01 UTC

This book follows a girl named Avani who finds out about the memories and stories that are intertwined with her mother's sari. It uncovers themes of culture and family while learning about India. This will support my writing instruction by telling my students that stories can be told through themes of history and objects that may be important to you or your family. An activity I can use for this book may be to ask my students to bring in an item from their house that tells the class about their culture and or family history. Then make a short story about the object.

I Wanna New Room

gabbymwilliams2005 — 2025-09-20 17:30:44 UTC

This book is about a child who does not want to share his room with his baby brother. So, he comes up with a lot of reasons to try and persuade his father to build another room in his house. This book teaches early readers about argumentative writing. As a teacher, I can use this book in my classroom and create an activity around it. If my class wants the chance to go outside or even have a pizza party, I can have them write me reasons why they think I should give them a pizza party. This way, they have to come up with ideas to argue my claim of not having a pizza party.

Fantastic Mr. Fox

gabbymwilliams2005 — 2025-09-20 17:37:36 UTC

Fantastic Mr. Fox is a story about a fox who outsmarts three farmers to try and steal their food to feed the fox's family. This story builds readers comprehension and vocabulary. An activity that I can have for my students may be to have a graphic organizer for the students and I to fill out together as we read the book. As we first begin to read the book we can write down the characters and setting of the book. But the more we read, we can answer some comprehension questions from reading the book. These questions will build their skill on how to comprehend what they are reading and answer questions to further expand their knowledge about the book.

Honeybee: The Busy Life of Apis Mellifera

gabbymwilliams2005 — 2025-10-03 15:26:50 UTC

An award winning picture book describes the life cycle of a of the honeybee Apis. With also some short poetic passages, the book will give students the chance to learn more about honeybees and their importance. A writing activity for this book may be to write about their own life cycle and maybe how it relates to the honeybees. Students will be able to remember the honeybees routine and write their own story about their day to day lives.

National Geographic Readers: Alexander Graham Bell

gabbymwilliams2005 — 2025-10-03 15:32:39 UTC

The creator of the telephone, Alexander Graham Bell, was known for other things too. This book gives fun facts about Bell and shows the students that ideas and perseverance is important. For a writing assignment, I can have the students get out into the community and see what they think can be improved. I can have them write about a creation they can make or can be made to help the future run more smoothly.

Squidtoons

gabbymwilliams2005 — 2025-10-03 15:38:21 UTC

A comic book and graphic novel used to engage students in marine life. This book has 128 pages and would be considered a transitional book because of this length. A fun writing activity for my students would be for them to research and create their own comic book strip about marine life or what animals they did not know about. This assignment will get them to do a little research and will allow them to have fun creating a comic book.

Pierre the Penguin

gabbymwilliams2005 — 2025-10-07 20:47:02 UTC

This books tells the true story of a penguin named Pierre at the California Academy of Science who wore a custom made wetsuit because he went through a feather loss condition. A fluent writing activity for this one would be to create a template to fill out as you read to make some text to self connections. This way, the students are activity reading the book and are relating it to any real life events that happened in their life. This will allow for the students to dive deeper into their thoughts and some might have to really think about how it relates to them.

The Great Fire

gabbymwilliams2005 — 2025-10-07 20:56:27 UTC

This Newbery book talks about the great fire that destroyed Chicago in 1871 by telling it through first hand accounts of people who actually survived the fire and the aftermath of what took place. This book would be for the very fleet readers as it would reach up to a fifth grade level. A writing activity for the students to fill out while reading or even after reading would be a cause and effect graphic organizer. The students would have to know and understand cause and effect and then find examples in the text of some of the causes of the great fire in Chicago and then some of the effects of the fire to the people and the community.

I'll Go and Come Back

gabbymwilliams2005 — 2025-10-07 21:07:04 UTC

This book tells the story of an American girl who visits her grandma in India. She feels out of place and nervous at first and then she adapts and builds a connection with her grandma. This book could allow my students to relate to the child if they have ever felt like they did not belong anywhere. Some writing activities I would create with this book would be for the kids to write about a time when they felt left out and then who or what was able to bring you out of that feeling. This will allow students to dig deep into their feelings and be able to write about it. Another writing activity I could do would be to put themselves into the main characters shoes and pretend it was them traveling to India for the first time. I would have them write about what they would want to do there and where they would go, and what they would eat.

What If You Had Animal Teeth?

gabbymwilliams2005 — 2025-10-07 21:13:41 UTC

This book is a good way for emerging students to get to think about what their life would be like if they had something similar to an animal. For instance, animal teeth, or animal noses, or animal fur. A writing activity that I would use with this book would be to have my students choose which type of animal teeth they would like to have and write a paper to each other about why they would choose it. I would also have them draw themselves with the teeth of their choosing. But this activity will really let them think about what would be the best to eat their favorite foods with or would work the best for them. It would engage them and I feel like it would make them be excited about learning more facts about animals.

Dog Man

gabbymwilliams2005 — 2025-10-07 21:22:42 UTC

A crime fighting hero who is both man and dog. Appealing to mainly boys because this books is filled with comic books/graphic novels. A writing activity for Dog Man could be for my students to think about their own characters and create them, then add them into a comic book and write their own story with a beginning, middle and end. This will build their writing skills with a story line of having to start with a beginning and then working your way up to the middle then tying it all together in the end.

Frindle

gabbymwilliams2005 — 2025-10-07 21:29:40 UTC

This book tells a story of a boy who came up with a new word for pen, which started a chain of change. I remember I read this book in third grade myself in a whole group towards the end of the year. A writing activity for my students would be, when we are done with reading this book they have to come up with their own name for whatever school material they choose. For example, they may choose to change the name of their binder, desk, chair, notebook, etc. After choosing a new name, they will have to write a letter to the principal of the school explaining why they changed the name and persuading her to change all the names of that material to what they chose. This will give them a sense of creativity and will build their writing skills by having to know how to address a letter and write one out successfully.

Fire flies

gabbymwilliams2005 — 2025-10-07 21:41:12 UTC

This story is about a boy who catches some fireflies in a jar and has to decide on whether he needs to let them go or if he should keep them. A writing activity based off of this book that I would use for my students would be to create multiple jars of fireflies for my class and have them write their own positive qualities or experiences. This activity will allow for students to think positively about themselves and feel happy about everything that they have accomplished.

The Day the Crayons Quit

gabbymwilliams2005 — 2025-10-07 21:48:52 UTC

This book is about all the crayons in this crayon box and they write a letter to the owner of the crayons about what needs to be changed and why they are all unhappy. It's a super funny book and relates to the children and their crayons because everyone always uses one crayon more than another, or uses different crayons for only specific things. Some writing activities that I would use for this book would be for the students to write a letter back to the crayons as the owner of the crayon box and inform them as to what they will change. Did you agree with everything each crayon said? It will be up to the students to write about and will build their letter skills. Another activity that I would use would be to make a what if poster. What would happen if red wasn't in the box, or what would happen if yellow did not want to be the sun anymore. This activity will let the students be creative and think about the ways they would color if their go to crayon wasn't there.