Writing about Books!

I'm linking up with Mrs. Jump's Class for Book Talk Tuesday. Thank you for hosting, Deanna! I always love seeing great book ideas.

And here are some of my FAVORITE book ideas. I use them all the time, and just finished putting together my second big packet! My Writing about Books packet has 170 writing prompts for 102 different books.

 

Here are pictures of the books that I have included.

I keep a copy of the prompt in the corresponding book, so I always have the activity right on hand with that book.  That saves so much time because I'm not trying to look for something.  

 

These books are featured in my Author Studies Writing Prompt Packet.  

This packet features 8 authors: Eric Carle, Donald Crews, Kevin Henkes, Laura Numeroff, Amy Krouse Rosenthal, David Shannon,  Mo Willems, and Karma Wilson, 160 writing prompts, and 100 books!  I listed each author packet separately, and then the big packet all together. Here are the links to the individual authors:

                                          

 

The prompts are easy for the children to see and understand- not too busy, just simple and ready to go!  I like simple and easy to read. 

These authors are also all featured on my Author Prezi, which I updated. 

I LOVE author studies. (Can you tell?!) I love when the children  know so much about authors, and talk about authors like they are their friends. The books that these particular authors and illustrators have created are just so valuable for teaching so many writing skills- from summarizing, inferring, predicting, retelling with beginning/middle/end, characters, setting, plot, and making connections to noticing text features, conventions in writing, detailed illustrations, and just plain learning to LOVE books. 

Each packet of writing prompts has 14 prompts that you can use with any book, and then prompts that are specific to the books by the author.  Several of the books have multiple prompts that you can choose from.  Some are front and back.  Can you tell I love using these?

I have the packets printed out for each author, and that I can choose the ones I want to use, as well as the copy I keep in the book. 

 

I always use these for teaching and practicing using conventions in writing.  It gives the students a purpose for organizing their thoughts, writing a complete sentence, remembering what they want to say, beginning with a capital letter, leaving spaces between words, and ending the sentence with a period.  They don't get to focus on all of these things  as they write books, because they are trying to remember so many other things.  Sometimes we need to have a certain focused writing prompt to practice these things.

I have used these forever. They also make fabulous lessons to leave for a substitute or if you are a substitute and want to take a lesson or two with you in case you have extra, unplanned time- just make copies of a lesson, stick it in the book that it goes with, and you are all set.

Here are some samples from my class this year to show you- and this is only the beginning of the year! These would work well for K-2, because older students can work more on upper level skills and thinking when they write, and add more to their answers.

My favorite shirt is my jewel shirt.

 

Me in my party "jress" Sofia

 I love how she also wrote, "I do my best" because that's what I am always saying to do...  She heard the sounds and wrote it all by herself! 

My dad built a teeter totter.

 Apparently, Payton is a website! 

 

 He loves his Pokemon...

 

 For this activity, I had the kids paint watercolors with a cotton swab to make the feather marks. Then, they labeled their birds when it dried.

 Nike was a very soft cat. He had 5 mice.

 When my dog bites me it makes me mad. 

 I LOVE the bouncing marks!

Thank you for stopping by!  

Donald Crews



I love using Donald Crews'  books for an Author Study with my Kindergarten class and revisiting the books throughout the year.

 The children are very quick to see the patterns and same techniques a certain author  and/or illustrator uses and can quickly name the author or illustrator without me telling them.  They love to write books just like the author we study.

My class loves  hearing about different authors and how the authors got their start writing, because my children see how the authors we study used  their own experiences and interests to write books- just like we are doing!  They are fascinated when they realize that Eric Carle started writing books at five, in kindergarten,  and that Donald Crews uses his experiences as a boy for ideas in his books.

Eric Carle at age 5 with his mother



Donald Crews' books are some of my favorites to use as mentor texts when we begin Writer's Workshop,  because the illustrations are so bright, bold, and detailed.  Spending time on illustrations is many of my students' favorite part of writing, and how most of the children begin writing books.  I think I am extra partial to Donald Crews because my daughter Ellie LOVED Freight Train when she was little.  We couldn't read that one enough! 

Donald Crews also  uses labeling, sound words,  motion lines and movement, and fun text (BOLD PRINT!)  His use of the ellipsis is a favorite in my class. We LOVE that ellipsis...   :)

I found this Author Study chart that Melissa Clancy did in her classroom  on her blog,
Joyful Learning in KC . 

Melissa does a lot with Author Studies on her her blog.  I spent a long time there!  I feel like I know her  now!   Thank you, Melissa!

Although his illustrations are perfect for my students who love to study the detail he uses for ideas of their own, Donald Crews'  books also use lots of descriptive words that my children pick up on and try to incorporate as the year progresses.  I use his books all year long for so many different teaching points.

Crews uses so many small moments from his life as ideas for writing his stories.  This has really helped my class realize that they can write about anything! At first, coming up with an idea can seem overwhelming to a child. Seeing how the authors of the books we read can take a small moment or memory in life and use that to write a story helps  open up a world of possibilities in a child's mind! 

I found this poster on Pinterest and think it is great for helping to explain how to use "small moments" for writing a story.

The book Shortcut is a great mentor text for using a small moment to write a story, a great follow up to Freight Train, and also a great opportunity for teaching about safety!

In the beginning of the year, I use his book Ten Black Dots for a simple and fun activity.

I have all sizes of black dots cut out and on each table.  The children can choose how many dots and what size dots to use to create whatever they decide.  We brainstorm together on the rug, and I show some examples I have made- one dot for a bowling ball, four dots for wheels on a car, BIG DOTS for wheels on a monster truck, tiny dots on wings of a ladybug, etc.  On the paper where they create their masterpiece,  they fill in the blanks for the sentence I have written: ___________ black dots can make a ____________.   We always do this activity on "Black Day" during the first two weeks of school when we review one color each day.  Some years I laminate the pictures and make a class book.  This year, we hung them up and I sent them home. 

I made my Author Prezi so that I had the information about the authors that I use most frequently for my  Author Studies all in on place and easy to access.  I put a picture, link or video to biography information, author interviews if available, videos of their work, and then links to all the best Pinterest boards with TONS of ideas for activities for each author. I looked at LOTS of possible videos and picked the ones I thought were the best and most appropriate. 

The featured authors include: Jan Brett, Norman Bridwell, Eric Carle, Donald Crews, Theodor Geisel, Laura Numeroff, Robert Munsch, David Shannon, Shel Silverstein, and Mo Willems.

On the left of the title, under "Author Interviews" are two sites with LOTS of other author interviews included. Under the title are two of my favorite sites with very inclusive author site links, and a link to a listing of wonderful mentor texts and topics for Writer's Workshop lessons.   I hope you find this helpful for your classroom, as well!

Thank you for visiting! 

Happy Teaching,