Must Read Mentor Text: Over and Under the Snow

I hope everyone enjoyed their time off and had a wonderfully filling Thanksgiving! I enjoyed getting to see friends and family and sleeping in. However, I've also been working on how to improve my students "craft" during our nonfiction writing unit. I really wanted to offer some mentor texts that showcased great nonfiction writing. We've read a lot of articles from National Geographic for Kids and Super Science magazines- but I wanted something else. So, after reading blogs and searching through Amazon. I found two author's craft gems!

My first book I found through through one of my favorite blogs, Joy in the Journey. Jessica shared the book, All the Water in the World by George Ella Lyon on her blog. Plus, she has a great vocabulary word wall to accompany the book. Check out her post here. The book is amazing! So after reading her blog and checking it out on Amazon, I had to have it for my nonfiction unit.

While purchasing All the Water in the World by George Ella Lyon, Amazon so kindly recommended some other books for me. So, course I had to take a peek and see what else was out there for my nonfiction unit. That's where I found another great book with powerful writing and vocabulary. The book is called Over and Under the Snow by Kate Messner. This book is not entirely "nonfiction" - more narrative nonfiction which we will be studying in January. However, I love how the author weaves facts and details about animals in the winter through a plot about a family skiing through the woods. This was definitely the type of author's craft book I was looking for. I can't wait to use it after we finish drafting this week!

Here's a peek inside the book:

The author blends facts with powerful verbs/adjectives and many different uses of commas that we've been studying in our mentor sentences. Plus, there are stunning illustrations!

"Trees rattling leftover leaves" - such great craft!

I love nontraditional use of verbs like "clouds whisper down feathery-soft flakes"

This book could be a great tie in at younger ages to animals during winter. It also has facts about all the animals mention in the book in the Author's Note at the end of the picture book. I'm glad I found this great text to share with my students and add to my collection!

Don't forget to link up with Collaboration Cuties with your favorite must read Language Arts Mentor Texts! 

Also, I'm having a TPT sale for Cyber Monday & Tuesday! My store doesn't have much, but check out all the great work on Teachers Pay Teachers! Don't forget to use the promo code CYBER during checkout! The adorable button is courtesy of Creative Clips.

Happy reading & shopping,