There’s no better feeling in the winter, than cozying up under a blanket with a good book. Now, you can’t necessarily do that in the classroom but you can be prepared this winter with a strong list of winter books to help teach different reading skills! Come check out my list of winter mentor texts to teach reading comprehension and grab some awesome graphic organizers too!
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Winter Mentor Text #1: Lemonade in Winter
This is a great book, not only for reading class but also for math! The two characters in the story decide that in the dead of winter, they want to make a lemonade stand to make money. They learn all about quarters and dollars in this adorable winter story. This book is perfect for teaching problem and solution! In the book, the characters face the same issue over and over – no customers! So they create multiple solutions to try and fix the issue. I use this book to explain to my students that one problem, many times, has multiple steps or solutions before it’s finally solved. Definitely add this one to your library today!
Winter Mentor Text #2: The Magic of Friendship Snow
This is more of a primary grade text, as the lines in the book are simple, but the story is a wonderful one! It’s about a young girl who struggles to
make friends until one day, she meets Puddles, the snowman made out of friendship snow. He helps teach her how to be a good friend so that she can make new friends in her life. This is a great book to teach plot because of the repetitive events. If you teach upper grades, this is a simple read but a great one to showcase the basic pieces of the plot diagram (exposition, climax, etc)
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Winter Mentor Text #3: Sky Sisters
Sky Sisters is a majestic book about two young sisters who set out at night alone (with permission of course) to see the Sky Spirits. The outside is covered in deep snow and it’s frigid cold, but the two sisters are determined to make it to see the Sky Spirits. Along the journey, you learn a lot about the two sisters and their unique personalities. This is why I use this book to teach characterization! It’s great to have students analyze the older and younger sister and sometimes to even compare and contrast them.
Winter Mentor Text #4: When the Moon Comes
The author of this book is just a fantastic writer! The way he describes the scenery in the book, it’s like I’m really there! When the Moon
Comes is about a group of kids in a small town in Canada who are waiting for just the right night (full moon) to play hockey on the frozen pond. With the turn of each page, the author describes in detail every bit of scenery around the characters, which is why this book is perfect for teaching setting! Having students listen and analyze the verbiage the author uses to describe the setting of the story helps make the story come to life even more!
Winter Mentor Text #5: Snow Globe Family
Snow Globe Family is an adorable little story about a family in the winter who owns an old snow globe which they keep on the mantle. Inside that snow globe, is another little family, very similar to them. The only one who notices there’s a family living in the snow globe is the baby! With so many fun similarities between the two families, it only makes sense to use this book to teach compare and contrast! What makes it even more fun is when you use snow globes as the Venn Diagram to do the organizing! 😉
Winter Mentor Text #6: The Reader
The Reader is another very simple text, but I absolutely LOVE it for teaching synthesizing! It’s about a young boy and his dog who 
head out on a winter day for some fun. Some of the events the boy does are very predictable, but many are not. This is what makes this book great for practicing noticing our thinking and how it changes throughout the text! When you read the book, simply have students record their thinking (minimum of 3 times) before, during, and after reading and then compare how it changed throughout.
I hope you found some new and fun mentor texts you can use this winter in your classroom! I also have a wonderful list of mentor texts for the holidays if you’re interested!
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