Colonial Home

 By Bobbie Kalman 

Colonial Home is part of Bobbie Kalman’s ‘Historic Communities’ series.

Bobbie Kalman has made tremendous contributions to the genre of Informational Texts.  She has written and has been editor-in-chief of many wonderful informational series for all age levels and reading levels including: The Lifecycle Series, Looking at Nature series, Historic Communities series, Earth’s Endangered Species series,  The Science of Living Things series, The ABCs of the Natural World series, Explore the Continents series,  Life in the Old West series, Native Nations of North America series….to name just a few!!!!

A trademark of Kalman’s informational writing style:

With each two page spread /open layout, Kalman explores a new detailed topic related to book’s title-(for example: Colonial Home is the title of the book being reviewed). 

On the upper left-hand side of the two page spread there is large topic heading in bold (The Colonies). Subheadings in smaller font give more specific information (A new land and a fresh start; From forts to towns; Mud and sticks).  Illustrations with well written captions add depth and detail to the information. Content related words are bolded and their definition is woven into the text immediately to make it meaningful for the students. 

With every turn of the page, the reader will find a new topic heading on the upper left-hand side of the two page spread with its set of subheadings, pictures and captions.

There is always a Table of Contents, a Glossary and an Index in Kalman’s books.

Colonial Home has these heading subtopics on each two page spread: The Colonies, In the Wilderness, Town homes, The Builders, Dependencies, Homes for the Animals, The Kitchen, The Fireplace, The Bedchamber, That’s Entertainment, The Colonial Garden, The Plantation, The Slave Quarter, Decorating the House and Glossary & Index                                                                                                                                                  
**Please note—I highly recommend that you check your school library’s database for any informational book written by Bobbie Kalman.  She writes using this simple, yet extremely effective format for reading/understanding informational texts that I think is an outstanding example and great beginning mentor for our young writers.                                                                                                                                                    
Suggested Uses as a Mentor Text:

Book Genre:  Informational (Historical)

Reading Workshop Strategies: Search for and Use Information, Summarizing, Visualizing, Questioning

Writing Workshop: Informational Writing

Curricular Themes: Colonial America

Information about Bobbie Kalman: http://www.crabtreebooks.com/About/bobbie-kalman