As summer break quickly {but not quickly enough} approaches, I’ve wanted to find engaging and creative ways to enrich and review our reading and writing standards. I also wanted to squeeze in a few fun, but easy, art projects, because we’ve worked hard all year and deserve a little fun! I decided to create a mini unit that is centered round five different books with a summer theme that can be used as an instructional mentor texts:
There are three activities incorporated with each book, so I’ll be able to go in-depth with each text. I made one graphic organizer, one writing activity, and one simple art project for each of the summer themed texts. We normally wouldn’t have time to squeeze in the art, but I think my class deserves the fun these last few days of school! There are comprehension questions for each of the books, because I certainly don’t want my students to think they can check out.
There are teacher and student friendly directions for each of the activities. I’ve included a picture of all of the completed art projects. These are all projects that can be completed in one class.
I used Fireflies! to allow my students to practice inferencing and writing memoirs with a fun summer twist. Students create a firefly jar with jar shaped lined paper to write a personal narrative. Students also use green bottles to create their own firefly, which looks so cute with a glow stick placed inside it!
After reading Brothers at Bat, I had students practice synthesizing, and they made character cards for their top five favorite book characters. I was also able to tie in some opinion writing on whether or not girls should play sports, which relates to the mentor text~talk about a hot topic! My kids definitely had a lot to say! Students also get to create their own baseball cards using various silhouettes. 
Many of my students had never read or heard The Raft before, and they were completely mesmerized by the story, because it has such powerful word choice. I used that book to allow my students to practice asking and answering thick questions. I also used this book to springboard into RAFT writing, which I am so excited about, because of the unique nature of the activity. Students get to select the role they are writing from, who they are writing to, the format of the writing, and the topic of their writing. All of the choices are preselected from characters and topics in The Raft.
Bats at the Beach is cute little book that worked well for reviewing comparing and contrasting. I let my students choose what two things they wanted to compare, as well as the graphic organizer of their choice (Double Bubble, H-chart, or Venn-diagram). I also used the book to review the elements of plot and to rewrite a new text ____ at the Beach, where students decided who or what would be at the beach. We also made these cute little kites that were so easy to make! Students traced the included kite shape on a piece of black construction paper. Then students cut out the center of the kite and placed the frame on the sticky side of a piece of contact paper. Students used the black strips of construction paper to create an abstract design on the kite. Then students covered the remainder of the kite with the colored tissue paper squares. When the kite is completely covered, seal with another piece of contact paper. Students should cut out the kite shape and extra strips and contact paper. Staple a piece of yard or ribbon to the bottom of the kite to create a tail.
The Seashore Book is packed full of beautiful figurative language, which makes it a great book for practicing visualizing and descriptive writing. After my students wrote their narrative, I had them use this little sheet to encourage them to add figurative language to their writing.
I love the art project incorporated into this activity! Students create a sandcastle picture using sandpaper. I had students cut out the sandpaper in the design of a sandcastle and glue the sandcastle down on construction paper. Students then finished the picture with crayons.
I just finished and posted the activities to my TpT store if you’re interested. I wanted to share about with you, so you’d be able to check it out during the big sale. Just click {here} or on the picture for a link!
