Wonders of Nature Level J
Text Type: Nonfiction • Word Count: 400

Book Summary
Wonders of Nature is an introduction to some of the many unique, fascinating members of the animal kingdom. From insects to fish to birds to mammals, many groups of animals are represented. Who ever heard of a lizard that flies? Or a beetle that rolls up leaves? Children will enjoy these glimpses into nature's amazing variety as they develop their reading skills.

Reader Supports

• One-to-one picture correspondence
  
• Simple sentence structure
  

Reader Challenges
Although the language in this book is mostly simple, some of the words might be unfamiliar to readers at this level. Readers may have heard some of the vocabulary before (e.g., chameleon) but never seen it spelled. Alternately, readers might be altogether unfamiliar with some words (e.g., larval). There are also some hyphenated words (e.g., army-worm fly, white-headed bell bird), which might present a challenge.

Lesson Objectives

Reading Strategies
Children should use a variety of strategies to decode words and bring meaning to print. The targeted strategy for this lesson is: One-to-one correspondence
Have children look at pictures that correspond with the printed word.

Word and Print Skills
Phonological Awareness
/f/ and /v/ sounds

Phonics
Letters f and v

Word Work
High Utility Words
Can, with, these, have

Comprehension
You will likely address a number of comprehension skills as children work to understand the text. The targeted comprehension strategy for this lesson is: Rereading for details.
Once children have read through the text, and comprehend the words, they can reread the text to understand the details they might have missed in the first reading. Asking them comprehension questions before they reread the text will help them to focus on ideas, and concentrate more on content than on the process of reading.

Visual Learning
As you read through the book, encourage children to see what they are able to identify in each accompanying picture. Children are likely to ask, "What is that?" when they look at some of the pictures. You might ask: Do you know what anything in the picture is? Encourage children to use their imaginations to expand their minds enough to believe that there really is, for example, a flying lizard. Their curiosity will be sparked, which will increase their motivation to read and understand the text. Also, before reading the text on each page, you might ask children to look at the picture and guess whether some of the images are of animals or plants. If animals, you can ask children to guess whether they are mammals, insects, birds, or fish. Many of the pages contain fun surprises.

Targeted Vocabulary Words
High Utility Words
Can, with, these, have

Content words
trunks, branches, teeth, beak, twigs, flowers, fruit, shells, feathers, wings, bodies, larvae, tails
These content words are associated with animal and plant anatomy and classification. These are words that children will encounter in the reading. You may want to review and discuss what the words are and how they fit in with the reading. You may wish to have children add words to the classroom word wall or dictionary.