The past few weeks we have been immersed in my favorite books of the whole year: all of the Kevin Henkes mouse books! My students always love these books every year. I’m certain it is because the characters are quite relatable and SO much like my first graders! While I read these books they were all so interested and captivated! I heard so many connections while I was reading as well. My kiddos love the mouse characters!

After reading, I created some matching cards that had the book covers and a summary without any of the mouse names. They worked with a partner and read the cards and matched them with the correct book cover. After matching, they took a picture of their matches- they LOVED that part! It was also so easy for me to check their work. I’ll definitely use that as a way to check work again- possibly during stations.

 

Then, I split them into groups and gave each group a sheet with a different mouse character. They used the book and searched for evidence to justify the traits they wrote down. I was so proud of the conversations they were having and the words they used!

They shared the traits they chose and we created this anchor chart to collect the most important traits!

Finally, we wrapped things up by choosing the mouse we were most like and writing about it! We also made the most ADORABLE mouse crafts! I love their reasoning. It is so sweet the way they relate to the characters!

“I am sneaky because sometimes my brother has 20 white papers and I take 10 white papers.”

“We are both named after something like a flower or the Brooklyn berij (bridge).”

“Owen is loveing like when how we both love blue dogy and fuzzy.”

“I am caring like caring about my brothers.”

 This was such a great way to end the year!