Every Monday, I highlight a book from our school bookroom along with lesson plan suggestions.
A Hummingbird’s Life, by John Himmelman
I’ve been slowly processing the old mentor texts from the SFA Roots series, and I’m pretty excited to add these to our bookroom for several reasons:
- Many of them are light on the text, making them perfect for primary read alouds.
- Most sets have three or more copies, so an entire grade level team can plan their read alouds collaboratively if they so choose!
- Quite a few of the books have a “sister text” pairing fiction with nonfiction, another powerful planning tool.
If you’re looking to celebrate the arrival of spring with a study of nature and/or of poetry, this website is a good place to start for some hummingbird-inspired poems.
There are no lesson plans included with this book. There is a CAFE menu included with this mentor text, and I’ve highlighted these as suggestions:
Comprehension
- Use text features. Despite being narrative nonfiction and being such a basic book (its AR readability level is 2.3), A Hummingbird’s Life is chock-full of text features. There’s an info box at the front giving background information on the Ruby-throated hummingbird, a glossary, and an About the Author section.
- Use main idea and supporting details to determine importance. Another great benefit of this text being so short is that you can copy the entire book onto a piece of chart paper, project it using document I’ve typed here, or give each student their own copy to mark what they believe are the main ideas.
Accuracy
- Trade a word / guess a word that makes sense. Many primary science units (at least in our school district) are about animals, habitats, and ecosystems. Talk with students about how their familiarity with new vocabulary they’ve learned in their science unit can help them read accurately.
Behaviors that Support Reading
- Increase Stamina. Because of the limited amount of text in this book, this might be a good book for young primary students to practice making it all the way through a read aloud without needing a body break.
Please add any lessons or supplemental materials to the book bag so future teachers can utilize your good thinking!
Comments and constructive criticism are always welcomed! Please leave a comment if you’ve found this helpful!