Staring Into May and Reading At The Same Time!

This week there is some revisiting, rereading rethinking and reflection as we stare into the month of May.

I love Leo Lionni books. I typically do an author study early in the year because his books speak to working together and solving problems. We will be revisiting his stories this week with a focus on story elements. His stories like It's Mine and Swimmy have such great "problems" and "solutions."

Over the weekend my family and I took some long car rides and an audio book seemed like just the thing to pass the time. We listened to Because of Winn Dixie, by Kate DiCamillo. I forgot how much I loved this story and I think my husband fell in love with the characters as much as my kids did. I might need to look for The Tiger Rising next, such good stories.

Today I read Oh No, George! to my students. They laughed out loud and were making predictions like crazy! As I said earlier, we are working on story elements and our focus this week is finding the problem and solution within a story. Let's just say this book is full of problems that George finds himself in the middle of. The ending is left a bit, up in the air, and I think we may write our own endings since the kids had great ideas about what George might do next!
 
For Mother's Day I got some book buying money (yahoo) and ordered myself a copy of Mentor Author, Mentor Texts, by Ralph Fletcher. I am excited about this book for a few reasons. I have been a fan of Ralph Fletcher since I first heard my mom talk about him many years ago when she gave me all of her Craft books. I am going to the All Write conference in Indiana in June, and he will be there presenting. And, this book seems like just what I need right now to make what I am already doing with mentor texts and author studies SOOOO much better and more intentional. As I read bits of the first chapter I felt like it will be a book that causes me to pause and really think about why I use mentor texts and what I hope to gain. I look forward to the confusion because I know I will be better once I sift through it all. Take a peak here.