Courage by Bernard Waber can give students ideas about what courage is/can be. This book also shows that people need courage for both large events but also for everyday moments. Great mentor text for Personal Narratives.
Author Archives: Tracy Thompson
The Three Pigs by David Wiesner
This book won the 2002 Caldecott award and you can find out more about it from David Wiesner’s website.
Potential mini-lessons:
- Retell the story (you could also have students compare and contrast different versions of The Three Little Pigs
- Use prior knowledge to connect with text
- Recognize literary elements
- Reread text
- Practice high frequency words
The Three Billy Goats Gruff A Folk Tale Classic by Paul Galdone
Use this book for COMPREHENSION with the strategy Ask questions throughout the reading process. Before: What are some characteristics of traditional or enduring stories? During: What patterns do you notice in the structure of the story? Does it remind you of any other children’s stories? After: Why do you think the author says the troll was “as mean as he was ugly”? Do you often notice that the evil characters are ugly while the heroes are pretty or handsome? Why do you think author’s do this?
Also when teaching FLUENCY this book lends itself to the strategy Use punctuation to enhance phrasing and prosody. For younger students, talk about the all-caps words and the different tones the billy goats and troll might use.
Oliver Button Is a Sissy by: Tomie dePaola
This book tells the story of Oliver who is not like other boys. He prefers to play jump rope, play in the woods, dress up, and sing, rather than playing sports. At school, he is made fun of by all of the other boys. They call him a “sissy” and laugh when a girl defends him. Even Oliver’s father disapproves of his interests and wants him to play sports like the other boys. Then, Oliver performs at a local talent show, where although he doesn’t win, he earns more respect from those who teased him.
This book can be used to teach narrative elements like setting, character, and plot. It is a strong example of realistic fiction. The problem gets worse before it gets better. It has a strong main character etc.
During reading, have the students get to know Oliver by identifying what he looks like, says, and does at different points in the story. Also talk about the different settings: woods, school, dance class etc.
We’re Going on a Bear Hunt
This book is excellent for highlighting descriptive words and PINTEREST has over a thousand ideas for lesson ideas.
I Want My Hat Back
Bear’s hat is gone and he wants it back! He asks the animals whether they have seen it. Each animal says no but just as he is about to give up a deer comes by and sparks the bear’s memory.
This book would be great to use for COMPREHENSION strategies such as check for understanding, connect to the story and name the problem and solution.
Click the above link for other ideas.
Writing Academy Day 3 – Informational Writing
Miss Mikho was one of the Miller teachers who attended Cohort 3 of the Dearborn Writing Academy.
Pumpkin Patch
This week a pumpkin patch appeared at Miller! Each student took home a pumpkin they picked from the patch.
Boo Bash
Miller’s Boo Bash is today! October 28th 4:30 start time.
Non-Fiction Text Features and reading strategies with science concepts
Despite being a narrative nonfiction, Welcome to the World of Hummingbirds has text features like an index, table of contents and text boxes. This book can also be used when teaching the ACCURACY strategy of Trade a word/guess a word that makes sense. Many primary science units are about animals, habitats, and ecosystems. Talk with students about how their familiarity with new vocabulary they have learned in their science unit can help them read accurately.