Monday, March 21, 2016

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

Thanks to Teach Mentor Texts and Unleashing Readers for hosting this meme!

Favorite New Picture Books
There are so many things I love about The Bear Report!  First of all, I think it's an outstanding mentor text for informative writing in the primary grades.  Sophie is struggling with a homework assignment asking her to write facts about polar bears when Olafur arrives in her living room.  As they explore the Arctic together, Sophie learns first hand many facts about polar bears.  I love that the text is told through a conversation between Sophie and Olafur.  The Bear Report would be an outstanding choice for encouraging students to look closely at the illustrations to gain a deeper understanding of the text.  I can't wait to share this beautiful book with our primary teachers!

I've seen this title included on many lists as a recommended read aloud title for encouraging a growth mindset in our students.  I could not agree more!  I love that it reminds our students that learning a new skill requires courage, grace and determination.

Recommended Early Reader Series
Grace and I have been checking out lots of early reader series in the last few weeks.  Here are some of our new favorites!
We loved that this book included three short stories.  It's a perfect transition for Grace, as she needed to make predictions and inferences in each story.  She also loved the characters!  I hope Eve Bunting continues to add titles to Frog and Friends!

Bink and Gollie is also organized as a collection of three short stories.  Because each story includes a great deal of dialogue between the two main characters, Grace and I took turns reading the lines of the characters, which was a great way to practice fluency!  We loved the personalities and shenanigans of Bink and Gollie!

We are huge fans of Elephant and Piggie books, so it's no surprise that we are now in love with 
Ballet Cat!

 Currently Reading
I've been working my way through this incredible adventure for the past few weeks.  Our schedule at home has been so busy that I haven't had as much time to read as I would like.  I know that middle grade readers would love the adventure and strong characters in Finding Serendipity.  

My goal is to finish it this week and begin working my way through my growing book stack!  I'm not sure where to begin, but I think Fenway and Hattie and Maybe a Fox will be moving to the top of the pile!



2 comments:

  1. Sounds like you have been doing some great reading here. I wanted to love The Bear Report, and while I adored the illustrations, I wasn't happy with the fantasy aspects integrated into the nonfiction components.

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  2. I so love book stacks - it's like there's always something to look forward to. Have fun with your reading this week.

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