What Lives Here?

Lift Off to Literacy: Using a Shared Reading Approach

Lesson Plan THIS FILE IS NOT ARTWORK - Please use this file for position only

Early Emergent reading stage Levels A & B Set: Living Things

Shared Book

Student Version

Vocabulary Starter

This informational puzzle book features common mini beasts that are found in many gardens and a predator – a bird. Students will be engaged by the question-and-answer format as they follow the food web.

Vocabulary Oral vocabulary animal bird caterpillar garden grasshopper insects leaves plants snail spider

High-frequency words a and in it this

Key concepts • M ini beasts live in gardens where they find their food.

• M ini beasts eat plants and each other.

• L arger predators eat mini beasts.

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills Reading K(2) (D) (iii) Demonstrate print awareness by recognizing that sentences are comprised of words separated by spaces and recognizing word boundaries.

K(3) (B) Use illustrations and texts the student is able to read or hear to learn or clarify word meanings.

K(5) (C) Make and confirm predictions using text features and structures with adult assistance.

Phonics and Phonemic Awareness K(2) (B) (i) Demonstrate phonological awareness by recognizing spoken alliteration or groups of words that begin with the same spoken onset or initial sound.

K(2) (B) (iv) Demonstrate and apply phonetic knowledge by identifying and reading at least 25 high-frequency words from a research-based list.

Writing K(6) (B) Provide an oral, pictorial, or written response to a text.

Speaking and Listening K(1) (B) Restate and follow oral directions that involve a short, related sequence of actions.

What Lives Here?

Introducing the book

Second reading of the book

Ask: What animals might you find living in a garden? Make a list with a simple drawing of each animal next to its name.

Show the front cover of the shared book What Lives Here?

Say: This book is a puzzle book. It is called What Lives Here? We have to find the animals that live in the garden.

Read the book a second time to the students. Encourage them to join in as you read. Say: We are going to read this book again. This time you can join in with me. I will point to the words as we read them. Use a pointer to point to each word as you read it. Encourage the students to read with you.

Say: This book is a factual book. It has information that is true. It is not a made-up story.

First reading of the book Read the book to the students with very few stops along the way. Read using rhythm and emphasize the rhyming words.

Make your voice sound smooth and clear.

Read pages 2 and 3. Give students time to study the photograph before turning the page. Ask: What animals might live in this garden?

Read page 4. Provide time for the students to study the photograph. Ask students to offer answers to the text: Which animal lives here?

Turn to pages 6 and 7. Read page 6 and point to the snail.

Read the question on page 7 and again give the students time to study the photograph and make a guess as to what animal the boy can see.

Continue reading in this manner so that students have time to make predictions before reading the answer page.

After reading the information on the answer pages, ask: What else do you know about this animal? Talk about the students’ responses. Where appropriate talk about the names of the animals’ homes such as web and nest.

On page 16, talk through the photographic summary table.

Say: These photos are in a chart or a table. A table is a way to organize information so that it is easy to see. This table shows us each animal in the book and what it eats.

Point to the snail and the leaves next to it. Say: These photos show us that a snail eats leaves. Invite students to explain the other parts of the table.

If appropriate, complete the retelling activity on the inside back cover of the shared book.

Talking about the book Invite students to respond to the book and to talk about their thinking.

Say: A factual book is a book that is about something real – it is not a made-up story.

Ask: Is this book a factual book? What makes you think this?

What did you learn by reading this book?

What other animals could have been included in this book?

ELL support Encourage the students to name and talk about each mini beast – what its name is, what it looks like, what it might eat, where it lives, etc. Support students by ensuring they know the names of the mini beasts in the book. Use the Flying Start to Literacy Vocabulary Starter Mini Beasts to talk about other animals students might see in a garden. Show and talk about the labeled photographs.

Returning to the book Return to the book on multiple occasions, inviting the students to join in. Encourage them to take increasing responsibility for reading the text to themselves. Select the focus for subsequent lessons based on your students’ strengths and needs.

Phonemic awareness Say: I am going to write the names of some of the animals in the book.

The first word I will write is bird. Ask: Is it a big word or a small word?

Talk about the students’ reasons for their answer.

Say: Now, I am going to write the word caterpillar. Ask: Is this a big word or a small word? Talk about the students’ reasons for their answer.

Ask: Which word is bigger – bird or caterpillar? How do you know this? Talk about the number of letters in each word and how many syllables each word has.

Phonics Write the words snail and spider on the board. Point to each word in turn and say: This word says snail and this word says spider. What do these words have in common?

Draw out that they both start with the /s/ sound. Draw a circle around the letter “s” at the beginning of each word.

Say: This is what the letter “s” looks like. Both of these words begin with the letter “s” and they have the /s/ sound at the start of them.

Let’s all say the /s/ sound – ssssss. Ask: Do you know other words that start with the /s/ sound? Talk about the students’ responses.

Extending oral language Choose one of the animals from the book. Say: Let’s think of all the words we know that tell us something about this animal.

Model writing a concept map about the chosen animal. For example, snail – shell, antennae, slimy, slow; Grasshopper – green, jumpy, long legs, fast. Repeat, where appropriate, with other animals from the book.

Fluency Say: This book has questions in it. Listen to my voice when I read a question. Read the question – Which animal lives here?

Emphasize the word which to indicate that a question is being asked. Ask: What did my voice do when I read the question?

Can you read the question in this way? Invite students to say: Which animal lives here?

Print concepts Turn to page 4. Say: I am going to read this question. Point to each word as you read. Say: Let’s count the words in this sentence: 1, 2, 3, 4. There are four words in this question. Using the pointer, circle the question mark at the end of the question. Say: This is not a word or a letter. It is a question mark. A question mark goes at the end of a question. It tells the reader that a question has been asked.

Have students find the question marks.

Writing – Modeled On a chart, write the question: Which animal lives here? Say: Now I am going to draw a picture of an animal that lives in a garden.

Draw an animal that is NOT in the book. Say: Now I am going to write about this animal. Write sentences using the structure of the text as a model. For example, A ladybug lives here. It eats leaves. Talk aloud as you write. Say: The first word in the sentence is A. Now I am going to leave a gap before I write the next word – ladybug. Ladybug starts with the letter “l.”

Have student write and draw to complete a sentence starter: A _______________________ lives here.

THIS FILE IS NOT ARTWORK - Please use this file for position only

Independent practice Select students to listen and read along to What Lives Here? independently. Provide each student with a small book and a reading pen. Encourage students to listen and read along from start to finish and then to revisit their favorite pages.

Activity card Which animal lives here?

You will need: crayons Draw an animal that lives in a garden.

Flying Start to Literacy Lesson Plans What Lives Here? © 2016–2019 EC Licensing Pty Ltd. © 2016–2019 EC Licensing Pty Ltd. This work is protected by copyright law, and under international copyright conventions, applicable in the jurisdictions in which it is published. The trademark “Flying Start to Literacy” and Star device is a registered trademark of EC Licensing Pty Ltd in the US. In addition to certain rights under applicable copyright law to copy parts of this work, the purchaser may make copies of those sections of this work displaying the footnote: “© 2016–2019 EC Licensing Pty Ltd”, provided that: (a) the number of copies made does not exceed the number reasonably required by the purchaser for its teaching purposes; (b) those copies are only made by means of photocopying and are not further copied or stored or transmitted by any means; (c) those copies are not sold, hired, lent or offered for sale, hire or loan; and (d) every copy made clearly shows the footnote copyright notice.

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