Those Shoes by Maribeth Boelts is a story about a boy who wants an expensive pair of sneakers. His family cannot afford it because they need to spend their money on their necessities like winter boots. Throughout the book Jeremy was able to learn the difference between wants and needs 

This book has a central idea of wants vs needs and it is carried throughout the whole story. It helps to show students how one idea can be carried through a whole narrative. 

After reading Those Shoes I will introduce the hamburger model for writing. This will help the students to make sure their details connect back to the main idea and the conclusion wraps it all up. 

If you Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff is a story about a little boy who gives a mouse a cookie. Then the mouse requests milk, a straw, a nap , etc. Each action leads to the next and it wraps up with the original cookie request. 

This is a great mentor text for organization because it will help students to understand sequence in a story.  This book shows how they can organize their thoughts logically. 

In the classroom I will start off by reading this story. Then we will discuss how it is important to follow a sequence in a story.  Then the students will fill out a writing organizer to prepare for their story. 

Diary of a Worm by Doreen Cronin is a story written from the point of view of a young worm. The worm writes many journal entries about his adventures, challenges, and activities. 

This book will help to teach voice because the worm uses his voice in the diary entires. Students will be able to see how they can use their personality in their own writing. 

In the classroom after reading this book. We will make an anchor chart about how students can express their thoughts and feelings into their writing. 

Fancy Nancy by Jane O'Connor is a story about a girl named Nancy, she loves anything that is fancy. She wants her family to be fancy too so she gives them lessons. 

This book is a great choice to mentor word choice because of the "fancy" words Nancy uses in the story. It will show the students how word choice can enhance a story. 

After reading the book we will talk about the difference in sentences with and without "fancy" words. Then we will make an anchor chart of words that can be used for better writing and students will work on their writing. 

Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak is a story about a boy named Max. He ends up getting in trouble and being sent to his room. While there his imagination transports him to the land of the Wild Things. 

Where the Wild Things Are is a great mentor text because of the variety of sentence length and structure. This book helps to show students how they can make their writing more interesting by using sentence fluency. 

After reading Where the Wild Things are we will focus on two things. Sentence length and sentence combining. This will help students to have a variety of sentences in their writing. 

Punctuation Takes a Vacation by Robin Pulver is a story about punctuation marks that decide to go on vacation.  The students writing is chaos and everything becomes becomes confusing without the punctuation. Once they return the writing goes back to normal. 

This book is great for conventions because it shows students what happens when punctuation isn't there. This will help them to understand the importance of using proper punctuation. 

I will read Punctuation takes a Vacation as a mentor text then we will examine sentences with and without punctuation. we will talk about the importance and difference punctuation makes. Students will then do an exit ticket where they fix sentences.