This week I will be talking about Mango, Abuela, and Me by Meg Medina, Happy Like Soccer by Maribeth Boelts and illustrated by Lauren Castillo, Mentor Texts by Dorfman and Cappelli, and Textbook by Amy Krouse Rosenthal. I will also take you along with me in my Writers Notebook this week. 

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Have you ever experienced a language barrier with someone you are trying to communicate with? You should check out Mango, Abuela, and Me by Meg Medina. This book follows along a grandmother and granddaughter. Mia helps her grandmother who just moved to the city with her family. Mia came up with the idea to get a parrot to make her Abuela feel at home. The parrot was able to help them communicate and Mia labeled everyday items around the house in English. This way they can share things with each other like Mia's favorite bed time story or learn about her Abuelo. Meg Medina drew on her childhood experience with growing up with her grandmother. Meg is a Newberry Medalist, NY Times best selling author, and an Latina author of texts for all children. She has also written middle grade and young adult fiction books. 

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The next text I want to talk about is Happy Like Soccer by Maribeth Boelts. This text is beautifully illustrated with very detailed illustrations by Lauren Castillo. Happy Like Soccer is about a girl named Sierra that loves to play soccer but is torn when her aunt cannot make it to her games. She had no one cheering on for her on the sidelines and people call her by number, not her name. Sierra finds a way to bring the two things that make her happy, soccer and her family. Students may be able to relate to this heartfelt text. Sierra lives in the city and has to take two buses to where her soccer team plays and doesn't have someone cheering her on from the sidelines. This would be a great text to introduce to your students and build the community of your classroom. While students may not have someone cheering for them at home, they always have their peers and teacher cheering them on at school. You could also introduce this text and ask your students what makes them happy. After reading, they can write in their Writers Notebook about one thing that makes them happy. 

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Chapter 3 of Mentor Texts was full of writers notebook ideas and discovering your story that you write about. My favorite was the Heart Map which I talk more about below. Students fill in a heart with all the things they love. At the end, they have at least 15 writing topics. I also like discovering a specific topic from a territory. Students create an inverted triangle with 4-5 sections. They start with the territory and then move on to more specific parts of the story. You can also bring in an encyclopedia and have kids find words that describe their story. This allows them to adventure out to using different words. Another one of my favorites is the Hand Map. Students trace their hands and write an emotion they have felt on each finger. They then come up with examples in their life when they have felt this particular emotion. 

In Textbook by Amy Rosenthal on page 121, I think I found my new favorite quote (pictured below). It reads "Just look at us, all of us, quietly doing our thing and trying to matter. The earnestness is inspiring and heartbreaking at the same time". This page stuck out to me because if you take a step back from our busy lives, you notice everyone working so hard to make something out of themselves. There's nothing wrong with being successful but that's not all that matters  in life. 

 

 

 

 

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This week in my writers notebook, I created a self-portrait, a narrative of my self-portrait, and I created a heart map. I really loved creating a heart map from Mentor Texts page 57. I caught myself smiling while writing all the things I love. I have included it below. I decided to go with a zany vibe with my self-portrait. I made my hair really big because I always think my hair looks frizzy and messy. My body is outlined in purple because that's my favorite color. I love lilac, lavender, or a pastel purple.  I will buy anything in that color. I also made my mouth humongous because I have a really loud voice and I enjoy talking. My friends know when I'm coming because I'm probably singing or making some kind of sound with my mouth. I also included the mountains and beach in my portrait because both of those places hold a special place in my heart. 

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