Sunday, July 7, 2013

Language Arts Mentor Text Link Up (Featuring Jon Klassen and Two FREEBIES)

It's the first Sunday of the month and time for Collaboration Cuties' Mentor Text Linkup.  This week's topic is language arts.  My mentor text picks for this week are two books by Jon Klassen:  I Want My Hat Back and This Is Not My Hat.
I Want My Hat Back follows Bear as he tries to find his beloved hat.  He asks a series of animals, including  Rabbit (who is actually wearing the missing hat) if they know where his hat is.  All of the animals tell Bear they have not seen his hat.  Eventually Deer asks Bear a question and sparks Bear's memory.  Bear retrieves his hat with a vengeance.
This book is great for sequencing, predictions, and identifying the problem/solution.  Its repetitive phrases are great for early readers.  Bear's hat is also very simple to make.  The kids will love it.

This is Not My Hat is Klassens' follow up to I Want My Hat Back.  It has a similar premise.  The Big Fish's hat goes missing.  But instead of following the Big Fish around, the story focuses on the hat stealing Little Fish.  The Little Fish has a plan to get away with the theft, however the end result is the same as in I Want My Hat Back.  Basically, both books show that crime doesn't pay.

This Is Not My Hat is also perfect for predictions, identifying the problem/solution, as well as retelling. When read together these books offer a fabulous opportunity for comparing and contrasting the characters or the texts.  Below you will find two Venn diagrams to go with these books.  The first compares and contrasts the characters.  The second works with the two books.  The clip art is from KPM Doodles and Melonheadz.
If you would like a free copy of these printables, click on one of the pictures below.



Here's the low down . . .

More mentor text recommendations and activities are at Collaboration.  Be sure to check them out.

11 comments:

  1. I love I Want My Hat Back and have not yet read the sequel. I can't wait to get it. Thanks for the freebie, what a great idea, I love using Venn Diagrams to help my students organize their thinking around similarities and differences before moving to writing sentences/paragraphs comparing books!

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  2. Love the sound of both of the stories-how cute! Your venn-diagram is perfect. I am always looking for text to text connections-this is perfect! Thanks so much for sharing all this good stuff in one post! Just pinned it-I will definitely be doing this activity this school year (which is approaching a little too quickly!)

    Amanda
    Learning to the Core

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  3. These books are both new to me, but look adorable. Thanks for sharing, and thank you for the freebies!

    Hunter's Tales from Teaching

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  4. I have never heard of these books! They look cute! And I love books with sequels!! These look great!

    Thanks for linking up!
    Amanda
    Collaboration Cuties

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  5. We LOVED reading I Want My Hat Back this year!! We'll have to check out the other one! Thanks for the great organizers!

    :) Tamra and Sarah
    First Grade Buddies

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  6. I Want My Hat Back and This Is Not My Hat are two of my favorite books! I adore Jon Klassen. Was so excited to see that he won the Caldecott for This Is Not My Hat AND an honor for Extra Yarn. Great idea to compare the two books. I hope he makes a third!!!

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  7. Thanks for including the compare and contrast!
    How fun would it be to have a "Hat Day" in class?!!
    Fabulous Fifth Grade Fun

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  8. Just found you from "Holding Hands & Sticking Together", and I LOVE this mentor text activity! I mainly came over bc you're an Amber, too;), but I'm so glad I discovered your super sweet blog! I'm currently hosting a math word problem linky & would love it if you would link up! Check it out: SynonymRolls&AntonymMoments

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  9. I'm your newest fellow TN follower. Found you in the TN blog list on fifth in the middle. Come check out my blog!

    http://secondgradeperks.blogspot.com/

    Heather
    Second Grade Perks

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