Peas for Pat / My Garden in Spring

Fiction and nonfiction pairs provide opportunities for students to analyze and compare different perspectives. This pairing supports thinking across texts by illustrating how different authors treat a similar topic. Excitingly, this pairing contrasts craft and structure of fiction with craft and structure of informational texts. In the fictional narrative, two friends, Ben and Pat, don't agree on where a garden can grow. Ben isn't willing to just resign, he wants to prove he can grow a garden in the city. Readers learn how Ben is able to make something grow, and see how pleasantly he's rewarded from his work. This fiction book is paired with the book, My Garden in Spring, for connecting across texts and comprehension through connection strategies. This nonfiction book provides a first-person point of view which describes the unique features of a garden in spring, combining life science information with information about the seasons. Further inspire your early readers to experiment with gardening through this theme set.