Build Background

• Have students tell what kinds of things they take to school with them each day. Have them explain why they take those things and not toys.
• Have them tell if they do the same things to get ready for school each morning. Ask volunteers to tell you the order they do things to get ready in the morning. Informally compare in what order things are done by different students.

Book Walk

Introduce the Book

• Show students the front and back covers of the book and read the title. Ask students what they think this book will be about based on the cover information. Have them decide whether any of the things shown in the pictures are familiar to them.
• Show students the title page and ask them what they see in the picture. Ask them if they have ever seen a dog/cat trying to get into someone’s backpack. Ask if they have a cat or dog and what their pet likes to do.

Introduce the Strategy: Connect life experience and use prior knowledge

• Model how good readers use prior knowledge to help them read and understand books.
• Think aloud: When I read a new book, I try to think about what I already know about the topic in the book. When I look at the picture on the front cover, I see kids with backpacks. I’ve see what kids bring to school in their backpacks, so I have a pretty good idea of what’s inside. I also know what I do to get ready to come to school everyday, so this might help me understand what Maria does as well. Good readers always try to make a connection between the book they are reading and what they already know from their own experiences.

Introduce the Vocabulary

• Turn the pages in the book so students can see the pictures. Where appropriate, model for the students how you draw on your personal knowledge to make connections to the book. Encourage them to relate what is happening in the pictures to their own experience, for example, having a younger brother or sister, finding things under the bed, etc. Use the vocabulary they will encounter in the text informally in the discussion, for example, point to the pencils on page 4 and ask: What is Maria picking up off the floor? What will she use them for at school?
• Point out the words on the page. Explain that the words on the page tell them the story, and that the words are read left to right.
• Ask a student to come up and point on the book you are holding to the place where he/she should start reading, and which direction he/she should go while reading.
• As you preview the book, point out words that you think may be difficult for students and model how students can read unfamiliar words. Ask students what sound the word pencil begins with. Ask a volunteer to point to the word pencil on page 4. Ask students how they know this word says pencil. Model how they can use the beginning letter of the word and the picture clues to help them read the word. Point out that they can check whether the word makes sense by reading the sentence and looking at the picture. Read aloud the sentence with the word pencil and ask if they think it makes sense. Repeat with other vocabulary words if you feel students need more modeling.
• For additional teaching tips on word-attack and high-frequency words, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Have the students think about what they already know about things they do before going to school and things they bring to school in their backpacks as they read the book.

• Guide the reading: Give students their books and tell them to read to the end of page 5. Tell students to reread the pages if they finish before everyone else.
• When they have finished, ask students to tell what Maria has put in her backpack so far. Have students point out any items they bring to school in their backpacks that are like Maria’s. Have students tell how using what they know about getting ready for school helped them understand the book.
• Model making connections to prior knowledge.
• Think aloud: I used to take things to school in a bag like Maria does. It helps me understand what I am reading when I think about what I already know about the things I do to get ready for school that are similar. (Tailor comments to personal situation.)
• Tell students to read the remainder of the book.
  

    Tell students to make a small question mark in their books beside any word they do not understand or cannot pronounce. These can be addressed in the discussion that follows.

Reflect on Reading Strategies

• Ask students what words they marked in their books. Use this opportunity to model how they could read these words using decoding strategies and context clues.
• Reinforce how using what they already know about getting ready for school helped them understand what they read.

Comprehension Skill: Sequence Events

• Introduce the skill: Tell students that a story is a series of events that happens in a particular order. First one thing happens, then something else, and so on. Explain that we call the events in the story the plot of the story. The way the events happen is called the sequence. Tell students that unless a story is told in the order in which it happened, it usually does not make sense. Explain that that is why it is good to think about the things that happen at the beginning, the middle, and the end of the story.
• Check for understanding: Discuss the sequence of the story. Ask students to tell what Maria did first. Ask what she did last. Ask students why Maria needs to get her backpack before she gets in the car to go to school.
• Independent Practice: Give students the sequence worksheet. They should find the other things Maria does as she gets ready to go to school and draw or write what she does in the order in the book. Discuss their responses.
• Extend the Discussion:

    Instruct students to use the last page of their book to draw a picture of something they do when they are getting ready to go to school. Have students share their pictures with the group.

Phonological Awareness: Identify rhyme

• Say the words hug and bug and have students repeat the words. Tell them that hug and bug rhyme because they have the same ending sounds. Repeat the words and have students listen for the ending sounds.
• Say the words hug and man and have students repeat the words. Tell them that these 2 words do not rhyme because they have different ending sounds. Repeat the words if necessary.
• Tell students you are going to say pairs of words. If the pairs rhyme, they should give you a thumbs up. If not, they should give you a thumbs down. Say the following pairs of words one at a time: get/set, dog/log, back/bark, hug/rug.

Phonics: Initial Consonant H

• Write the letter Hh on the board and ask students to name the letter. Ask them if they can remember what sound the letter stands for. Say the sound and have students say it with you.
• Write the word hug on the board. Ask students what they notice about the way the word starts.
• Model blending the word hug as you run your finger under each letter. Then ask students to blend the word with you.
• Have students see if they can find the word hug in the book.
• Write the words hem, hat, and hip on the board. Ask what they notice about the beginning letter in each word. Then ask what they notice about the middle letter. If students don’t respond, point out that each word has different vowel.
• Model sounding out the first word by running your finger under the word as you blend the sounds together: /h/ /e/ /m/: hem. Have students sound out the word with you. Repeat with the other words.
• Give students the phonics worksheet and explain what they are to do. When they are finished, discuss their answers.

Grammar and Usage: Naming words (nouns)

• Have students look at the book to tell you the first thing Maria got. Tell students that the word backpack is called a naming word. Have students look at page 5. Ask them to find the naming word that tells what Maria puts in her backpack.
• Ask students to find another naming word on page 6. Reinforce that all of the things Maria puts in her backpack, as well as the other things she gets before going to school, are naming words.
•     Instruct students to work together to underline the remaining naming words in the book and to color the article named on each page.

Vocabulary: Categorize Words

• Tell students that the words they read in the book are used to tell about things Maria got ready to take to school. Explain that she put one group of things in her backpack. Tell students that this group can be called “backpack supplies.” Draw a large circle on the board with the words "backpack supplies" in the center. Ask students to name the words that belong in the group (pencils, crayons, ruler, eraser). Draw and label a picture of each in a smaller circle attached by a line to the circle labeled backpack supplies.
• Tell students that Maria got other things to take to school. Ask students to tell what she got (sweater, brother, lunch, hug). Draw and label a picture of each in a small circle. Ask students to suggest what they might call this group (other things, things that don’t go in Maria’s backpack). Draw and label a large circle on the board with the title students have chosen for the group. Attach the smaller circles to it with lines.
• Write the word sandwiches in a large circle. Ask students to think of types of sandwiches that Maria might take in her lunch bag. As students offer words (peanut butter and jelly, cheese, ham and cheese, bologna, tuna salad) draw and label small circles attached to the above sandwiches circle. Continue with other types of sandwiches if students need additional practice categorizing.
• Give students the categorization worksheet. Have students sort the items by things they can put into a backpack and things that won’t go in a backpack. Then have them sort the items into groups of their choosing and tell the names of the groups.
• Extend the activity by providing paper and markers for students to create their own picture/word cards that can be added to the picture card page provided.

Independent Reading

• Allow students to read their books independently or with a partner. Partners can take turns reading in the book.

Home Connection

• Give students their books to take home to read with parents, caregivers, siblings, or friends.

Writing Connection

• Write the sentence I get my _______. on the board. Ask students to finish the sentence with an item that they bring to school. Have students illustrate their sentences. Display on a bulletin board titled “We Bring Lots of Things to School.”

Math Connection

• Have students count the number of people who brought different items to school. For example, count the number of students who brought a jacket or sweater, a lunch bag or box, a pencil, a ruler, an eraser, etc.

Monitor students to determine if they can:

• tell you how what is happening in the book is like experiences they have had and how it is different
• draw or write the events from the story on the graphic organizer in the order in which they happened
• identify words that rhyme and words that do not rhyme
• recognize that the letter h stands for the /h/ sound and read simple CVC words that begin with h
• find the naming words in the book
• categorize things that are brought to school.