Must Have Picture Books Linky!

The Teacher Wife is hosting a must have picture books linky party and you've got to check it out!  If you are addicted to picture books (duh...you're a teacher) this will be a great resource!  If you are a husband of a teacher you might need to hide the debit card.  I've posted before about my serious addiction to picture books.  It's a real problem.

This summer I have been working on building up my collection of mentor texts for comprehension strategies.  I have sooooooo many favorite picture books it would be hard to pick just five so I narrowed it down to these five picture book mentor texts.  Click the pictures to get your own copy!

Making Connections - The Big Orange Splot

In the book Reading Power Adrienne Gear says, "an important thing to make make children aware of is the individuality that comes from making sense of text."  I think this picture book does a great job helping my kids see that we are all unique and that our different experiences will cause us to make different connections with the stories we read!

Visualizing - The Storm Book

This book is PERFECT for introducing how to visualize.  The text gives very vivid descriptions of each setting in the story.  The best part is that the pages rotate from text only to picture only so the kids have to make the picture in their mind first and then turn the page and compare what they visualize to the illustrator's picture!

Questioning - The Magic Fan

This is a little gem I found at Goodwill!  It will keep your kids guessing and questioning with each page.  

Synthesizing - The Snowball

This might seem like an odd choice but it's fun and quick to read aloud.  The giant snowball collects things on it's way down the hill including people!  This is a great way to start a discussion about how stories change as they "roll along" and how they might look a little different in the end.  I like to type the text up and put the "poem" in our reading notebooks as a reminder of how we pick up new information as we read.

Inferring - The Gardener

I found this book through Ms. Bonger over at Life in 4b.  If you have not visited her amazing blog you are in for a treat!  I would love to just sit in her class and watch her in action.  She is truly inspiring!   On her resources page she recommends a book called Interactive Read Alouds (Grades 4-5) by Linda Hoyt.  It is loaded with mentor texts for comprehension strategies and writing.  This sweet story is suggested as a mentor text for inferring.  It's also a great reminder that one person with a positive attitude can make a difference no matter where they are "planted."

I could go on...and on...and on...what a GREAT idea for a linky party!  Head on over an link up your must have picture books. 

 I can't wait to see everyone's list!  I've got some major blog hoppin' to do.  I think my Amazon wish list is about to go into overdrive!