To all of my mentor sentence lovers (and even those who are just considering trying them out), I promise you Volume 2 and Volume 3 for Grades 3-5 are not a ploy just to get you to spend more money! :o)
There are three good reasons why more volumes have been created. And you might even be able to think of more!
#1
Volume 2 and Volume 3 for Grades 3-5 do not use ANY of the same books from Volume 1. Let’s face it… sometimes, even our favorite books get tired. More volumes will give you the opportunity to use new books while still teaching the skills you need to teach! That means all new sentences and new quizzes for these books! (And new interactive activities in the companions, too!)
#2
As many of you have spread the good word about mentor sentences to your colleagues, lots of teachers in grades 3, 4, AND 5 are using mentor sentences in the same school! I always say, good books can be read over and over again… But we don’t want students doing the same activity they did last year! Since teachers are such great collaborators, it will be very easy to get together with the other mentor sentence users and talk about which books or units they used! This would also be a great time to spread the word with the grade level above or below you- let them know the success you’ve had and how they can now get a set, too! Or, if you want Volume 2 or Volume 3 for yourself, remember additional licenses are half price, so you could easily convince your colleagues to use mentor sentences by letting them buy a half price additional license from you for Volume 1! :o)
#3
Of course, you could mix and match the mentor sentences depending on what you might like to do in the classroom. Now remember, the books in all of my mentor sentence units are books I already love to use in my classroom for reading and writing, so I have lots of ideas in the Volume 2 Better Than Basal and Volume 3 Better Than Basal, too!
One thing I LOOOOVE at the beginning of the year is spending a few weeks on memoirs and “show, don’t tell” writing.
You can also compare the sentence from Come on, Rain! in Volume 1, Unit 1 (another great memoir that uses “show, don’t tell”) to the one from Firefly Mountain from Volume 2, Unit 1.
One more fun idea comes in October…
Along with the paired texts on Bats, Owls, and Spiders to go with these books and mentor sentences, you could really make a whole month of it by adding in a nonfiction study of owls, too!
If you are convinced that now you really do need Volume 2, you can see all of Volume 2 in my store! Enjoy! :o)
For more ideas about mentor sentences, follow my Pinterest board!
