mentor texts

11 Children’s Books to Teach Letter Writing to Kids

Want to teach your kids how to write a letter? Start by reading children’s books filled with letter writing and use them as examples! Mentor texts like these children’s books provide excellent examples and ideas for teaching the format of letter writing as well as voice (tone) and organization. If teaching writing is the WORST […]

Personal Narrative Mentor Texts for Teaching Writing

In my Imagination Soup Writers Homeschool Writing Curriculum, growing writers will be starting out writing personal narratives using children’s books as examples. Personal narratives allow children to speak with experience and authority because they’re stories based on their real lives. In my curriculum, as I did when I taught writing workshops in the school system, […]

Mentor Texts for Teaching Small Moments Writing

If you’re looking for new picture books that capture small moments, here’s a list of current picture books to get you started. I about to launch the Imagination Soup Writers Homeschool Curriculum which will start with personal narratives and small moments. The goal with this homeschool curriculum is to teach kids writing craft moves using […]

Mentor Texts to Teach Juicy Word Choice in Writing

When we teach children to use rich, wondrous words by filling them up with the sound of many wonderful words. We must read to them them authors who use astounding word choices. We must encourage them to read high quality mentor text picture and chapter books filled with precise, lyrical, sensory words. Katie Wood Ray, […]

20 Picture and Chapter Books to Teach Voice

The term voice in writing refers to the narrator’s or author’s personality coming through, some call this the author’s style. This list of children’s picture and chapter books provide mentor text examples for you as you teach students all about writing with voice. In a first-person narrative, voice means the writing sounds like you — […]

20 Mentor Text Picture Books to Teach Inference

If you’re looking for mentor text picture books to use in the classroom with students, here is a list of wonderful choices to teach and model context clues and inference. But first, what is an inference? Inference is when you use your background knowledge and clues from the text and illustrations to make an assumption […]

18 Picture Books With Predictable, Repetitive Text

Picture books with predictable, repetitive text develop language and literacy skills in all ages of growing readers from birth on up. Read these to your toddlers and preschoolers. Read these with your kindergartners. Read these with your growing readers of any age, particularly readers who need the support that predictability and repetition provides. Bottom line […]

Picture Books to Teach Similes and Metaphors

Read aloud picture books to exemplify how writers use smilies and metaphors to convey meaning. Use these mentor texts to teach similes and metaphors in your writing workshop. Picture Books to Teach Similes and Metaphors I Am Every Good Thing by Derrick Barnes, illustrated by Gordon C. James An exuberant celebration of a young boy’s […]