What's the Doggie's Purpose: Author's Purpose Freebie

Hey friends! I'm a little busy this Tuesday grading benchmark assessments in reading, so I'm sharing a guest post that I wrote on my friend Denise's blog a few months ago.  Yes, the Denise of Sunny Days! :)  
 

Keep on reading this post for a fun freebie inspired by my sweet pups, Moss and Maddie! :)

My school has a big push on student engagement this year, which I am thrilled about because it gives us a little bit more freedom than normal to stray from our adopted curriculums.    A few weeks ago, instead of using a lesson from our Treasures reading series to review author's purpose, I decided to review author's purpose with two sweet and furry things that are close my heart.  

Aren't they precious? My students LOVE when I talk about my two dogs, Moss and Maddie.    So I had Moss and Maddie, plus my parent's dog, Daisy, dictate letters to me addressed to my class to use to use in a lesson.  

I shared these letters with my students on my Smartboard and we went through each one and discussed what the author's purpose could be and then looked for keys words and evidence as to why the purpose could be to persuade, inform, or entertain.  Then they recording their thinking on the accompanying graphic organizer.

Oh my gosh, my bigger kids LOVED this! They were so engaged and into the lesson that I was kinda hoping one of my adminstrators  would walk into the room for a pop in observation! :)  Since the lesson was so memorable, they used the doggie's letters throughout the week when determining the purpose of other texts that we read!  I overheard things like "Well, Maddie's letter was to inform and she taught us all about making her favorite treat, so this book must be to inform too because we learned something," and "Moss' letter shared a story that made us laugh, this book is also funny, so the author must have wrote it to entertain."  

If you would like to do this activity with your class, I have shared it with you as a freebie at my Teachers Pay Teachers store. 

Just click on the picture above to check it out! :)  If you use it with your class, I'd love to know what you think!

Author's Purpose {Freebie}

Happy Leap Day! I hope you all had a great day! I certainly did, and it was much needed.  I got a new student yesterday and the rest of my friends interpreted that to mean "Let's act real crazy and scare our new friend."  

Okay, it wasn't that bad.  But whenever your typically sweet class has such a difficult time following simple directions all day, it's always makes you leave school whispering "Did today really happen? Or was it a really bad dream and I'm just now waking up?" 

Today we got back in our groove and I was so, so glad!   We've been focusing on author's purpose this week and I've been loving it.  For some reason, I really love teaching author's purpose and my kids LOVE it this year.   


We turned our introduction story from our weekly Treasures story into an anchor chart and we've been referring to it all week.

 I also created a little parking lot for them to "park" their examples of each part of the author's purpose "pie" using some awesome signs I downloaded from Mrs. Gilchrist's Class. 

My kiddos really loved this and we're on our second piece of construction paper for entertain.  It's got them thinking about the skill beyond our weekly story and has sparked some great conservations about books!

Oh, and I've got a little freebie for you.  When doing author's purpose, I like to have my friends read the entire selection and then determine the author's purpose.  Then they use details from the story to support their answer. 

 Click on the image above of {here} to download your own FREE copy! :)

Also, in honor of Reading Counts week, each classroom was asked to decorate our doors with our favorite books.  I was a rebel and put mine outside my room.  My kids and I loved this Dr. Seuss Birthday Cake from A Cupcake From the Teacher:) 

I finally got smart and ran the templates through the copy machine on colored paper and this activity came together in a snap.  Although, I should have made the base of the cake red instead of orange.  Oh well,  they're still adorable!

 Since it was 60 degrees outside today, I also decided to down my winter accents, I can't say bulletin board board because I don't have a bulletin board, and hang up my spring ones! :)  

Hope ya'll are having a great night!  Don't forget, there is still a little under two hours left in the TpT Leap Year sale!  :)  

It's the perfect time to pick up with this little unit. 

Which sadly, I have NO pictures of because my sub on Friday decided to send my kiddos' Gallon Guys/Gallon Girls home with them, even though I said not to.  They came out SO cute and it really helped the concept stick!  So bummed.  So if your kiddos make Gallon Girls and Gallon Guys, could you email some pictures my way at storiesfromsecond  at gmail  dot com?  I'd love to post some kid examples in my listing/blog!