Ready to transform your story elements instruction without adding one more thing to your already packed teaching day?
Imagine your students eagerly identifying characters, settings, and problems while you read aloud—no separate worksheet time needed! In this episode, I'm sharing 10 incredible picture book mentor texts that make teaching story elements feel natural and engaging for grades K-3.
From Jeremy's shoe dilemma in "Those Shoes" to Lilly's purple plastic purse drama, these books do the heavy lifting for you. I'll walk you through exactly why each story works so well for story elements instruction, giving you the confidence to dive deeper into characters, settings, problems, and solutions with books your students will absolutely love. Plus, you'll discover how these same mentor texts can support multiple reading skills throughout the year—because we know how important it is to maximize every resource in our teaching toolkit!
📓 Join the Colorful Apple Book Club!
💙 50 Picture Books Every Classroom Needs (freebie!)
📚 Books in this Episode:
- The Paper Bag Princess
- The Gardener
- Those Shoes
- Enemy Pie
- The Plot Chickens
- Tops & Bottoms
- Thunder Cake
- Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse
- Hooway for Wodney Wat
- The Recess Queen
Join the Colorful Apple Book Club!
Check out the TpT Store.
Join our FREE Facebook Group all about read alouds.
Keep your teaching colorful,
Sara :)
The Colorful Apple
Full disclosure: Amazon links in my descriptions are usually affiliate links which means if you purchase through that link, I receive a very small percentage of the sale.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Ruthie's Table 4
For more than 30 years The River Cafe in London, has been the home-from-home of artists, architects, designers, actors, collectors, writers, activists, and politicians. Michael Caine, Glenn Close, JJ Abrams, Steve McQueen, Victoria and David Beckham, and Lily Allen, are just some of the people who love to call The River Cafe home. On River Cafe Table 4, Rogers sits down with her customers—who have become friends—to talk about food memories. Table 4 explores how food impacts every aspect of our lives. “Foods is politics, food is cultural, food is how you express love, food is about your heritage, it defines who you and who you want to be,” says Rogers. Each week, Rogers invites her guest to reminisce about family suppers and first dates, what they cook, how they eat when performing, the restaurants they choose, and what food they seek when they need comfort. And to punctuate each episode of Table 4, guests such as Ralph Fiennes, Emily Blunt, and Alfonso Cuarón, read their favourite recipe from one of the best-selling River Cafe cookbooks. Table 4 itself, is situated near The River Cafe’s open kitchen, close to the bright pink wood-fired oven and next to the glossy yellow pass, where Ruthie oversees the restaurant. You are invited to take a seat at this intimate table and join the conversation. For more information, recipes, and ingredients, go to https://shoptherivercafe.co.uk/ Web: https://rivercafe.co.uk/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/therivercafelondon/ Facebook: https://en-gb.facebook.com/therivercafelondon/ For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iheartradio app, apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.