1 Jan 17

Mentor Text Lesson to Warm Up Your Winter





I’m so happy to bring you a “Mentor Text Lesson to Warm Up Your Winter.”  I will be sharing a compare and contrast lesson using 2 books - one fiction and nonfiction.  These books are both found on the FREE website/app Epic.  Epic is the children's ebook library, offering unlimited access to over 15,000 children's books.
Check out fun and engaging mentor text lesson that uses a fiction and nonfiction book to teach the skill of comparing and contrasting. These books are both about penguins and can be found on the free website Epic! Lesson freebie included! You can also enter to win a copy of each book in the hop.

Book 1: Penguin Chicks by Ruth Owen
This book about Emperor penguins is full of eye-catching text features like headings, a glossary, real photographs, labels and maps. It provides information about Emperor penguins in general and then gives an overview of life from egg to adulthood.

Book 2: Duncan Gets a Sweater
This is a cute story about a young penguin named Duncan who loves his soft, gray coat.  Day by day he loses tufts of his coat and works hard to retrieve them.  This sweet story describes the molting process.

Fun Fact: Epic offers three versions of this book: English, Spanish, and both English and Spanish text on each page!





Begin by discussing the characteristics/features of fiction books and nonfiction books.  To help students generate ideas, I had them get into small groups and look at a fiction and nonfiction text together.  Then we got together as a group to talk about the similarities and differences between fiction and nonfiction books.

Check out fun and engaging mentor text lesson that uses a fiction and nonfiction book to teach the skill of comparing and contrasting. These books are both about penguins and can be found on the free website Epic! Lesson freebie included! You can also enter to win a copy of each book in the hop.

Now it is time to read these two wonderful texts.  You can display the books on your
Promethean/Smart Board for a whole group read aloud.  Having students follow along on an iPad can also help students to stay engaged during this whole group activity.

Check out fun and engaging mentor text lesson that uses a fiction and nonfiction book to teach the skill of comparing and contrasting. These books are both about penguins and can be found on the free website Epic! Lesson freebie included! You can also enter to win a copy of each book in the hop.
Once you have read the books it is time to fill out the chart!  There are a variety of ways that you can do this.  Students can work individually or in pairs to fill out either the paper-pencil version or Google version of the chart.  Then you can meet back as a group to fill out the chart on the Promethean/Smartboard.  If you prefer, you can do the whole activity whole group.




Here is a link to access both books via Epic!

The freebie below is a small paper-pencil portion of “Compare and Contrast Google Edition”





The Penguin Foundation is a neat website to check out!  One section of their website is called “Knits for Nature” and tells how penguins that have been affected by oil spills actually wear sweaters!


Do you GoNoodle?  Here is a video from the MooseTube called “The Penguin Song” that is a great movement break


Free Penguin Live Cam: Exlopre.org has taken my school and home by storm!  It is a free website with an amazing number of live streaming animal cams.  Here is a link to the Penguin Cam
Are you looking for more information about Epic?  Check out my this great blog post from my friend Megan at Thyme to Read!



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Check out fun and engaging mentor text lesson that uses a fiction and nonfiction book to teach the skill of comparing and contrasting. These books are both about penguins and can be found on the free website Epic! Lesson freebie included! You can also enter to win a copy of each book in the hop.







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