Strega Nona's Harvest: A Language Arts Mentor Text and a Freebie

A Sunday morning with an extra hour before church.  Perfect time to join up with the Collaboration Cuties for their weekly Must Read Mentor Text Linky.  It's the first Sunday of the month, so I'll be sharing a favorite language arts text.  My pick for this week is Tomie dePaola's Strega Nona's Harvest.

This book is wonderful selection for this time of year.  It is the story of two gardens, Strega Nona's and Big Anthony's.  One is well planned and well executed.  One is not.  When it's harvest time, things become a bit complicated for Strega Nona and her young helpers.

The Strega Nona books are great jumping off points for many language arts lessons.  There are opportunities to discuss vocabulary, predictions, story elements, sequencing, and more.  Below you will find a Venn diagram to use with this story.
Students will compare and contrast Strega Nona and Big Anthony.  If you would like a free copy of this activity, you can click on the picture below.

The clip art is from Melonheadz.  The fonts are from Cara Carroll and A Cupcake for the Teacher.

Strega Nona's Harvest is a great addition to your class library.  If you have it already, don't forget to bring it out to share with your students.  I'm sure they will love it. 

For more mentor text recommendations, pop over to Collaboration Cuties.  There you will find loads of great ideas from classroom teachers.