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!