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Revisiting Mentor Sentences!

Here is the beginning of the Mastering Mentor Sentences Series with Collaboration Cuties!

I told you about the book Dandelions last week in this post about mentor texts. As I mentioned, I use the book for reading and writing, with social studies integration, too… and I’m here to tell you I also used it for my mentor sentence to teach grammar!

Before I get into the actual sentence I used, I wanted to share with you the directions I give to my students so they know what to expect each day. We use composition notebooks for our mentor sentence journals, so I laminate these directions and tape them on the inside of the front cover of their journals. (Of course, after doing it for a few weeks consistently, they know exactly what’s coming. But they can always peek if they need to!)

Click the picture or click here to download the directions!

I chose the sentence, Mares-tail clouds waved in the sky and the grass sang around us, from the book Dandelions by Eve Bunting because we have been working on prepositional phrases as well as distinguishing between compound and complex sentences. It’s also a FABULOUS sentence for imagery.

Here is a student’s notebook from the week. I hope it helps you see what the students do each day!

To celebrate the students as writers, I choose 4 students each Thursday to display their super sentences for the class to see! Here were the sentences I chose for Dandelions:

It is hard to choose the kids each week to display their sentences because there are so many good ones! They really have blossomed as writers this year! I try to just make sure I don’t pick “those same kiddos” every week.

On Friday, they take their quiz. It focuses on all the things we have been working on all week!

Next Tuesday and Thursday, I will share more of what my chart and dialogue looks and sounds like, as well as more of what the students’ notebooks look like. Amanda and Stacia will also be posting those days in our Mastering Mentor Sentences Series on their blog! But until then, catch up with what they have already shared about mentor sentences here.

Is there anything you have questions about? Comment below and I’ll be happy to answer! 🙂

If you want even more IN-DEPTH step-by-step help with implementing mentor sentences, check out my courses!