Mentor Texts Your Students Will LOVE in February

Have you ever thought about how used the groundhog feels? Ever wondered what his favorite food is? No, we only care about him on February 2nd. That poor groundhog. And that’s exactly how the groundhog feels in Groundhog’s Day off. He packs up and takes a vacation right before Groundhog Day. The town is a mess as they try to find a replacement and realize how much they’ve taken him for granted. It is a great way to discuss drawing conclusions based on character actions. 

When I first read the end of this book, I thought, “This is adorable, by my fifth graders will laugh in my face if I read this.” Buuuuut, as any teacher does, when we like something, we FIND a way to use it in our classrooms. After careful thought, the surprise cheesiness of this book made it perfect for making predictions.

In this book, Mr. Goat gathers all sorts of disgusting, goat-like Valentine gifts for his first love, like a rotten egg and an old tin can. It’s cute and funny, and my students laughed at the crazy things that goat was planning to give to his first love and that he let the skunk spray him with “perfume”. On the last page, his first love opens the door. It’s his MOTHER, ya’ll. It’s so adorable, and sweet, and absolutely appeals to my mama-heart. This same cutesy love that I had for the book, made me feel like it was too baby-ish for my students. But is it also an ending that they don’t really see coming, making it PERFECT for predictions!

Now THIS may be my favorite Valentine book! It’s a humorous tale of a boy, Leon, who creates a valentine for his crush, Zoey Maloney. All of the sudden, the Valentine jumps up and runs from him, telling him and anyone they encounter that love is yucky and it will turn your brain to goo! The boy and the Valentine have very different perspectives on love and Valentine’s Day and are great for comparing and contrasting. Plus, the end is adorable too! This is the perfect Valentine’s Day book for upper elementary kids who are crazy “in love”. 

I am so glad that I ran across this book at the library, and while it never mentions Valentine’s Day, it’s a great kiddy love story. It is perfect for discussing sequence, problems and solutions, and cause and effect.

While Billy Hightower is standing on the rooftop of his apartment building on a windy day, he spots a girl in a red hat on the rooftop of the next building. He wants to introduce himself, so he writes a note on a paper airplane, which was caught by the wind and never received. He tried multiple ways to introduce himself, but the wind proves to be a problem. In the end, the wind helps them meet face to face. 

Although this book could be used at any time of the year, I like it during the month of February because of the theme and connections that students could make. Louise is focused on herself and creating her own art for her pretend art gallery. As she is busy creating and preparing, she doesn’t notice that her little brother, ironically named Art, is trying to get her attention with his own version of art.

When she realizes that he has ruined her art in order to create his own, she is obviously upset but realizes that maybe his masterpiece deserves a little attention too.

If you are interested in the graphic organizers that I used in the pictures for this post, you can find them here . Included in the file, you find both digital and printable versions of each graphic organizer to coordinate with the mentor texts.