Wallace is an organized mouse. He lives his life by his to-do lists. If it's not on his list, he doesn't dare do it. This practice causes him some distress when he wants to speak to his new neighbor, Albert. He cannot speak to him because that would be straying from his predetermined activities. The next day, though, he adds it to his list and thus begins a very sweet friendship.Writing Minilessons:
1. Sentence fluency: Wallace's Lists, by Barbara Bottner and Gerald Kruglik, has a very nice mixture of simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex sentences, as well as declarative, interrogative, imperative, and exclamatory.
2. Commas in a series
3. Split dialogue "Laundry is laundry," said Albert, "but music is my life!"
4. Transition words
5. This could be a jumping off point to do some list poems. Here is an original example:
Our Backyard
Adirondack chairs, painted and repainted,
Industrious wood bees, ready to bore new holes.
Bright red hummingbird feeder. (Where are the actual
hummingbirds?)
Chirping frogs, insanely loud cicadas.
Hammock gently swaying in the almost-not-there breeze.
Wrought iron table, waiting for the cards to be shuffled.
What game tonight? Five card stud for peanuts? Pay Me?
Spit in the Ocean?
Big, beautiful conch shell brings back fond memories.
Gas grill, bowls of food and water for visiting neighborhood dogs.
Tea olive trees, drooping rose bushes, thriving Japanese maple,
Sleeping azaleas, Carolina jasmine.
This is a just-right place for me.
