Loving Literacy Blog Hop 1/31/14-2/2/14

Welcome to...

Hi Everyone! You are almost halfway through our Loving Literacy Blog Hop! I hope you've enjoyed reading everyone's posts and freebies so far. I know I have!

Reflecting on my own love of reading, I realized what a major influence my Dad had. As long as I can remember, he was in charge of reading to me at night when I was very young. My Mom had us enrolled in the Weekly Reader Children's Book Club, and when they books arrived in the mail, boy was it a special day. We would pour through them, my brother, sister and I. Later that evening my Dad would read them to us. What a treat to share a brand new book with your family!

When my Dad read to us, he did all the voices differently for every character. When we discovered Helga's Dowry by Tomi dePaola, he became my first favorite author/illustrator. Dad had a hysterical voice for Helga, Lars and Tree Inga. I'd beg him to read it again and again for weeks. He always would. I can still hear those voices in my head whenever I read that story.

I discovered other Tomi dePaola books around that time too. One I recall that stood out was Oliver Button Is A Sissy. This was one of the first books I encountered about the true meaning of respecting other's differences and the importance of friendship. Poor Oliver was picked on terribly for not doing the typical "boy things." He enjoyed tap dancing, which for me was a real connection, because I did too. The kids at school picked on him terribly until they saw what a great dancer he was in the talent show.

Mr. Prickles: A Quill Fated Love Story by Kara Lareau is about a very misunderstood porcupine. He appears unapproachable to the other animals because of his looks. What a great book to read for making text to text connections with Oliver Button Is A Sissy! I decided to use this book as a mentor text for writing personal narratives about a time when you had a prickly problem. Mr. Prickles' problem was his reaction to being misunderstood. This gave him a very prickly personality! Looking at both Oliver and Mr. Prickles, how often do we really get to know a person (or in this case, a porcupine) before we pass judgement? This loveable story will serve as an excellent discussion for the lesson, "Never judge a book by its cover."

I also decided to include an original non-fiction article about porcupines with this freebie to educate young readers about the misunderstood porcupine. This is a great opportunity to pair fiction with non-fiction.  I truly enjoyed creating it for all of you.

 

 The link to this unit was available this weekend 1/31/14-2/2/14 only.

1. Please take a few minutes to leave me feedback on this freebie in the comments below.

The link is longer be available as of Sunday night February 2nd, but is available for purchase in my store. Stop by and follow my Teachers Pay Teachers for more book units and other literacy materials. Thank you so much for dropping by today, and if you are new to my blog and love literacy, I hope you'll take a moment to follow my posts on Bloglovin.  Enjoy this freebie that celebrates literacy, and friendship despite our differences.

http://bigtimeliteracy.blogspot.com/2014/01/loving-literacy-blog-hop-stop-12.html

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