Patricia Polacco was one of the author's that I loved to use in the classroom. Some of her books are a little lengthy for little ones but I found that they were great for teaching a variety of skills from personal narrative, to small moment, to descriptive writing to retelling and more.
I used
Meteor when I taught 4th grade. I also used it with the 4th and 5th graders that were part of our after school writing club. We used
Meteor to talk about descriptive writing. We would read the story without seeing the pictures. I would stop on certain pages and have the students draw what they were visualizing based on Patricia's detailed descriptions.
This is how the story starts out:
Of course another reason I am drawn to this book and so many of Polacco's titles are because they are about her childhood in Michigan and based on actual events.
A meteor falls in this family's front yard. They rope it off and call the neighbors. A hilarious version of telephone ensues as each neighbor adds details to the drama of this fallen meteor. Everyone comes to see the meteor and the grandparent's front yard becomes a carnival. It is a chance for the whole town to come together and visit.
Everyone in the town is changed by seeing and touching the meteor that has flown across the galaxy. The town was never the same after that day when a meteor landed in Patricia Polacco's grandparent's front yard.
Head on over to Mrs. Jump's class to find out what other great books other teachers are currently loving!
