Must Read Mentor Text & 100 Followers... Almost!

I'm really thankful for this long weekend! It gives me a chance to catch up with everyone's blog and have some down time after the first two nonstop weeks of school! I just noticed that I'm almost at 100 followers... WOW! I can't believe it! I started this blog to share some ideas at the prompting of a few coworkers and look where its at now?!  I've started planning my 100 follower giveaway. I'm so exited to spread some blogger love! Until then.... I'm sharing the love of books!

Today, I'm linking up with Amanda and Stacia from Collaboration Cuties for another Must Read Mentor Text! This week the theme of the text is Language Arts... I have so many books I absolutely love to read for Language Arts but the book I'm sharing today is a book I purchased just last year after an amazing co-worker and blogging buddy, Amy from the Art of Teaching shared it at a Professional Development last year.  After flipping through the first few pages, I just knew I had to have my own copy of Bedhead by Margie Palatini.

It's picture day and poor Oliver wakes up with the worse case of.... BEDHEAD! Oh no! This book is great for teaching all things literary! It's great for making connections, inferences, and using schema. But, I personally I love using this book to teaching fresh language and figurative language. Margie Palatini has such a rich vocabulary and vibrant writing style. This book is chocked full of powerful verbs and adjectives as well as creative ways to structure a sentence. It's definitely ANYTHING but boring when you're looking to teach creative uses for punctuation or sentence variety. Here's a glance at the first two pages...

I love the line that his hair looked like his cat's "coughed-up fur ball." This book is a quick read that can be used as a mentor text throughout the year. Last year, I typed up a copy and we kept in our writing section and used this text to look at various traits of good writing throughout our school year. I can't wait to pull it out again this year! The illustrations in the book add to the wit and playfulness of the story. I have nothing but glowing remarks for Bedhead! Check it out from the library and see for yourself!

Hope everyone has a wonderful (and well-groomed) Labor Day weekend!