Mentor Monday Linky 2/17/14: Figurative Language

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Welcome to Mentor Monday everyone! Are you as excited about this week’s topic as I am? Let’s talk about using figurative language in writing. This is what author’s do to spice up their stories. It’s what gives a story character, voice and visualization. So how do we help our young writers use it effectively, but not forced or contrived? And when I mean forced or contrived, I mean a child is squeezing in the simile “quick as a cheetah” anywhere in a story because it’s their favorite fast animal, and the teacher asked me to use a simile in my writing.  🙂
Today, I’m going to highlight some mentor texts to teach onomatopoeia. Oh those lovely sound words!! I’ve got some old favs and a few new ones too that I’m sure you’ll love and will work in a wide range of grade levels. Teaching onomatopoeia can be a fun mini-lesson to teach young writers and the picture book ideas are vast.

Here are 5 books you may want to use
as mentor texts with your class.

1. I’ve pulled from my sons’ bookshelf. (OK, possibly from their little hands because they loooove them a whole lot.) Little Blue Truck and Little Blue Truck Leads the Way, both by Alice Schertle are great choices for introducing onomatopoeia to primary grades. They’re a great lesson in friendship, with it’s lovely rhyme scheme throughout the whole book

 

2. We’re Going On A Bear Hunt by Helen Oxenbury and Michael Rosen is my second suggestion. This is another popular toddler favorite, so when you pull it out in front of a group of third graders as I have, they usually remember it fondly. Every obstacle the family faces on their bear hunt has beautiful onomatopoeia. (Is it too soon to point out this lovely example of figurative language to my toddlers? Just kidding…)
3. A Rumpus Of Rhymes: A Book of Noisy Poems by Bobbi Katz is one of my old favorite mentor texts for showing onomatopoeia in poetry. This is a fabulous book for fluency practice since they’re a collection of poems for two voices. My students especially loved the bubble gum poem. If you notice this book has a great collection of unique sound words, not just your common animal sounds.
4. Listen, Listen by Phillis Gershator is a lovely collection of seasonal poetry. Gershator uses sound words for animals in each season. The illustrations are gorgeous!

Read, Write Think recommends using comic books when teaching onomatopoeia. Here is a link to Comic Creator. I’ve used this for non-fiction lessons with my students, but using it to practice using figurative language could work very well. If you’ve tried Comic Creator before, let me know!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this week’s Mentor Monday. Check below for link ups to other fabulous teacher blogs for more book ideas.

*Note to fellow teacher bloggers: If you’d like to link up your post with a mentor text about this literacy topic, THANK YOU!
Here is a link to the Mentor Monday button I’ve created.
Please use it at the beginning of your post to make it easily recognizable on all link-ups. Also, please name your post Mentor Monday Linky 2/17/14: Figurative Language. You’ll find the link-up at the end of this post. It will stay open until 11:30 P.M. Wednesday night 2/19/14.

I’m so excited to read your posts to learn about some other great picture books. Thank you for visiting my blog today! I’d love for you to follow me on Bloglovin‘ by clicking the heart on the blue book in the right sidebar. Please come back each week for Mentor Monday! :))

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8 Comments

  1. I also have some of those books and haven't thought of using them as mentor texts either. I've never seen some of the others so I'll have to add them to my amazon wish list!

    Thank you for sharing!

    OkinawanGirl Lisa

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