Text Type: Nonfiction/Informational
Page Count: 10
Word Count: 32

Book Summary
What might you see when you visit a pond? Students have the opportunity to read number words and count animals that live near a pond. High-frequency words, repetitive text, and supportive illustrations make this book ideal for early readers.

About the Lesson

Targeted Reading Strategy

• Visualize

Objectives

• Use the reading strategy of visualizing to understand text
• Identify author's purpose
• Discriminate initial consonant sound /f/
• Identify and write the consonant Ff
• Recognize pronoun I
• Identify and use number words

Materials

• Book -- Pond Animals (copy for each student)
• Chalkboard, dry erase board, or interactive board
• Visualize, initial consonant Ff, pronoun I worksheets

   Indicates an opportunity for students to mark in the book. (All activities may be completed with paper and pencil if books are reused.)

Vocabulary

• High-frequency words: I, see
• Content words: bugs, ducks, fish, frogs, pond, swans, turtles, worms

Build Background

• Write the word pond on the board and point to the word as you read it aloud to students. Repeat the process and have students say the word aloud.
• Ask students whether they have ever been to a pond. Invite them to identify the types of animals that live there.

Book Walk

Introduce the Book

• Show students the front and back covers of the book and read the title with them. Ask what they think they might read about in a book called Pond Animals. (Accept all answers that students can justify.)
• Show students the title page. Discuss the information on the page (title of book, author's name, illustrator's name).

Introduce the Reading Strategy: Visualize

• Explain that good readers often visualize, or make pictures in their mind, as they read. Readers often use what they already know about a topic to make the pictures in their mind.
• Read page 3 aloud to students. Model how to visualize.
  Think-aloud: When I read a book, I pause after a few pages or after reading a description of something to create a picture in my mind. Creating pictures helps me better enjoy what I'm reading. For example, when I read the words I see eight bugs, I visualized tiny bugs flying together above the surface of the water in the pond. They were diving and touching the water. They made small ripples where they touched the water.
• Invite students to share what they visualized when they heard the sentence I see eight bugs.
• As students read, encourage them to use other reading strategies in addition to the targeted strategy presented in this section. For tips on additional reading strategies, click here.

Introduce the Comprehension Skill: Author's purpose

• Explain to students that an author usually has a reason or purpose for writing a book. The purpose is either to inform, entertain, or persuade. Explain that to inform means to give someone information about something; to entertain means to amuse someone; and to persuade means to convince someone to think the same way you do.
• Model determining author's purpose.
  Think-aloud: When authors write, they have a reason, or purpose, for writing their book. They want to inform, entertain, or persuade readers. After reading the title and the first page of this book, I think the author wants readers to think about the kinds of animals they might see in and around a pond. When I read books about animals, I usually learn new information. I think the reason the author wrote this book is to inform readers about the kinds of animals that live near ponds.

Introduce the Vocabulary

• While previewing the book, reinforce the vocabulary words students will encounter in the story. For example, while looking at the picture on page 4, you might say: It looks as though there are some ducks swimming in the pond. How many ducks do you see?
• Remind students to look at the picture and the letters with which a word begins or ends to figure out a difficult word. For example, point to the word frogs on page 5 and say: I am going to check the picture and think about what would make sense to figure out this word. The picture shows some frogs in the pond. When I look at the first part of the word, it starts like /fr/. The word frogs begins with the /fr/ sound. The sentence makes sense with this word. The word must be frogs.
• For additional tips on teaching high-frequency words and word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Have students read to find out what other animals live near a pond. Remind them to think about the author's purpose as they read the book.

Student Reading

• Guide the reading: Give students their copy of the book. Have a volunteer point to the first word on page 3 (I). Point out to students where to begin reading on each page. Remind them to read the words from left to right.
• Ask students to place their finger on the page number in the bottom corner of the page. Have them read to the end of page 5 using their finger to point to each word as they read. Encourage students who finish before others to reread the text.
• Model visualizing and identifying the author's purpose.
  Think-aloud: As I read each page, I created a picture in my mind of each of the animals I read about. When I read about the frogs, I pictured six small green frogs sitting on lily pads in the middle of the pond. They jumped into the pond and swam quickly to the bank by kicking their long legs. I learned that frogs are animals that live in a pond. The author must have wanted to inform readers about pond animals by writing this book.
• Introduce and explain to students the visualize worksheet. Have students draw and label on their worksheet one picture they visualized in their mind while reading. Invite students to share what they drew.
• Discuss with students the author's purpose for writing the book based on the pages they read so far.
• Check for understanding: Have students read to the end of page 8. Invite volunteers to explain what they pictured in their mind while reading. (Accept any answers that show students understand how to visualize.)
• Have students draw their visualizations on their worksheet. Have them write the page number and a descriptive label of what they visualized next to each picture.
• Have students read the remainder of the book. Remind them to continue visualizing and thinking about the author's purpose as they read.

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

Reflect on the Reading Strategy

• Ask students what words, if any, they marked in their book. Use this opportunity to model how they can read these words using decoding strategies and context clues.
• Think-aloud: As I read, I continued to create pictures in my mind about the animals. When I read page 10, I pictured all of the animals that live in and around the pond. I pictured lots of activity as animals moved in and around the pond. Picturing the images in my mind helped me understand and remember the information the author wanted me to learn.
• Independent practice: Have students complete the visualize worksheet. If time allows, discuss their answers.

Reflect on the Comprehension Skill

• Discussion: Discuss the author's purpose through the end of the book. Write inform, entertain, or persuade one the board each time a page is discussed. Then discuss each page in the book and determine the author's overall purpose for writing it.
• Enduring understanding: In this story, you learned that many different kinds of animals live in and around ponds. Now that you know this information, how is water important in these animal's lives?

Phonological Awareness: Discriminate consonant /f/

• Say the word fish aloud to students, emphasizing the /f/ sound. Have students say the word aloud and then say the /f/ sound.
• Read page 7 aloud to students. Have them raise their hand when they hear a word that begins with the /f/ sound.
• Check for understanding: Say the following words one at a time and have students give the thumbs-up signal if the word begins with the /f/ sound: five, swans, frog, four, bug.

Phonics: Initial consonant Ff

• Write the word fish on the board and say it aloud with students.
• Have students say the /f/ sound aloud. Then run your finger under the letters in the word as students say the whole word aloud. Ask students to identify which letter represents the /f/ sound in the word fish.
• Check for understanding: Write the following words that begin with the /f/ sound on the board, leaving off the initial Ff: five, fast, fit. Say each word, one at a time, and have volunteers come to the board and add the initial Ff in each word.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the initial consonant Ff worksheet. If time allows, discuss their answers.

Grammar and Mechanics: Pronoun I

• Have students turn to page 3 in their book. Read the first sentence aloud together. Point to the word I. Ask students to whom the word I refers in this sentence (the girl narrating the book).

      Explain that the word I is the word people use when they talk about themselves. Have students reread the story and underline the word I on each page.

• Check for understanding: Have students use the word I in an oral sentence about themselves.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the pronoun I worksheet. If time allows, discuss their answers.

Word Work: Number words

• Read page 3 aloud to students. Point to the word eight. Explain that the word eight tells the number of bugs the girl sees at the pond.
• Have students turn to page 4. Have them identify the word that tells how many ducks the girl sees at the pond (seven). Explain that seven and eight are examples of number words.

      Locate with students the number words in the book. Have them circle each number word. Then have students use the picture to match the number of objects with the number word circled on the page.

• Check for understanding: Have students create a number book from one to eight. Have them write the numeral and word for each number at the top of the page. Then have students draw objects equaling that number at the bottom of the page. Staple the pages together into a book.

Independent Reading

• Allow students to read their book independently. Additionally, partners can take turns reading parts of the book to each other.

Home Connection

• Give students their book to take home to read with parents, caregivers, siblings, or friends. Have students share with someone at home what they visualized as they read each page and looked at each picture.

Informational Writing and Art Connection
Have students think of an environment near the place they live. Have them create a counting book based on the animals in that environment.

Math Connection
Make a chart with students to identify the pond animals in the book. Add the number of each type of animal to the chart. Compare animal groups to build the concept of more and less.