All journeys have a starting place.
This is a weekly place to find books and tools
that you may use with readers at the start of their reading journey.
Join in the conversation at #road2reading.
Each week, Michele Knott and I post about new early readers and chapter books. This week, we are both looking at Early Readers.
How-To Books for Very Young Readers....
In the Kindergarten Writing Units of Study, there is an informational unit and the recommended mentor text is MY FIRST SOCCER GAME (2012).
The goal in this unit is for young writers to learn how to write "How-To" books.
The mentor text included with the units has recently undergone a change of sorts from the version above to the one below.
The cover of the new book states that there is slightly different text and art.
Though both the first version and the second version are engaging books for young readers and soccer fans, the text is stronger in sharing with readers information about the topic (in this case soccer) but is light on the how-to. (Note: Not a fault of the book just a caution when using it as part of the unit.)
However, teachers often come to me looking for additional mentor texts, specifically for How-To books. So, I started a search.
There is a fictional book, Peanut Butter and Jelly: A Play Rhyme by Nadine Bernard Westcott (1987), which talks about making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich through the use of a rhyme/song and a popular recommendation. Many teachers already have a copy of the book.
Of course, I did a little more searching and came up with a series by Capstone. This How-To series has several titles published in 2011.
How to Make Slime by Lori Shores and Gail Saunders-Smith (Capstone, 2011).
Above is a sample page and text from How to Make Slime.
There were a few additional titles I could find from obscure sources but they were not as easily acquired.
What recommendations do you have of still in print books that work well as a kindergarten How-To text? (Please note them in the comments section and I will update the post with your suggestions.)
Until I find additional books for our How-To unit...enjoy some of the other titles in the Ready-to-Read My First Series by Simon Spotlight.
I did discover that in the end pages of My First Gymnastic Class, there were a couple of pages that provide readers with directions for several poses.
Don't forget to link up your reviews....