Build Background

Discuss the different sounds students can make with their hands and feet. Have them close their eyes while you make various sounds (clap, snap, stomp). Have students identify the sounds.

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 We Can Make Sounds. Have students predict how the children in the book will make sounds.
• Show students the title page. Talk about the information on the page (title of book, author's name).

Introduce the Strategy: Self-monitor

• Explain to students that good readers need to check their reading carefully and notice when something isn't quite right so they can correct themselves. Remind them that they should always ask if their reading makes sense, sounds right, and looks right.
• Model how to self-monitor.
• Think-aloud: The first time I read page 3, I started to read, We can clop. This didn't make sense to me. So I went back and looked closely at the last word. I also looked at the picture. I was able to use this information to help me figure out that the sentence should read: We can clap. By checking my reading carefully and noticing that something didn't make sense, I was able to correct myself and read the page as the author wrote it.
• As students read, they should use other reading strategies in addition to the targeted strategy presented in this section. For tips on additional reading strategies, click here.

Introduce the Vocabulary

• As you preview the book, ask students to talk about what they see in the pictures and use the vocabulary they will encounter in the text. For example, while looking at the picture on page 4, you might say: It looks like the kids are using their fingers to snap. Remind students that they can help themselves when they come to a tricky word by looking at the first letter and checking the picture to see what might start like that sound or what might make sense. For example, on page 4, model pointing under the s in snap. Say: I am going to help myself by using the picture and thinking about what the children are doing that starts like /s/. (Make the /s/ sound.) Read the text on page 4, modeling one-to-one correspondence by pointing to the first letter of each word.
• For additional tips on teaching high-frequency words or word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Have students read the book to find out how the children make sounds. Remind them to ask themselves if their reading makes sense, sounds right, and looks right.

Student Reading

• Guide the reading: Give students their books and have them put a sticky note on page 7. Tell them to read to the end of this page. Tell students they can reread the pages if they finish before everyone else. Ask students what they notice about the book so far (each page tells about a different sound the children can make).
• Model how to self-monitor.
• Think-aloud: When I started reading page 7, I began to read We can tap. As soon as I started to say tap, I realized I didn't see a t. I looked at the word closely and noticed it started with r (make /r/ sound). I realized that rap would make sense and look right, so I tried it again.
• Tell students to read the remainder of the book, making sure that each section makes sense, sounds right, and looks right.

    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 the Reading Strategies

• Ask students what words they marked in their books. Model how they can read these words.
• Ask students to share examples of how they monitored themselves while they were reading. Explain that self-monitoring helps readers make sense of the words and information in a book.
• Think-aloud: I helped myself while I was reading by checking what I read and noticing when something wasn't quite right. I looked at the words and pictures and I thought about what would make sense, look right, and sound right. Checking my own reading helped me to read carefully and understand the information in the book.

Teach the Comprehension Skill: Classify information

• Discussion: Ask students to tell about how the children made sounds without using instruments. Invite them to generate other examples (pat, whistle, etc.).
• Introduce and model the skill: Tell students that one way to understand and remember new information is to organize the information in a chart. Draw a three-column chart on the board and ask students to generate the headings based on what the children used to make music (hands, feet, other).
• Check for understanding: Use one to two examples from the discussion or from the book. Have students determine how the examples should be classified.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the classify information worksheet.

Phonemic Awareness: Discriminate final /p/

• Tell students you are going to say a group of words. You want them to listen and tell which two words end with the same sound. Say: tap, rap, cat. Which two words end with the same sound? (tap, rap)
• Continue with the following groups of words: clap, sing, snap (clap, snap); feet, pop, rap (pop, rap); tap, click, stomp (tap, stomp); beep, zap, hand (beep, zap).

Phonics: Final /p/

• Write the words tap and rap on the board, and underline the final /p/ in each word. Explain that the words tap and rap end with the same sound. Ask students to identify the ending sound (/p/).
• Explain that you are going to write some new words on the board. Ask for a volunteer to come up and identify the words that end with /p/ like tap and rap. Choose decodable words such as cap, pig, and map. Have students read the words together and have a volunteer circle the words that end with /p/ (cap, map). Use this opportunity to emphasize the concept of first and last (or beginning and ending).
• Introduce and explain the final /p/ worksheet.

Grammar and Mechanics: Capitalization

• Review or explain that writers use a capital letter at the beginning of a new sentence.
• Have students read page 3 and 4 together as a group, identifying the capital letter at the beginning of each sentence.

Vocabulary: Sound words (onomatopoeic words)

• Explain that some words, when spoken, sound like their meaning (these words are called onomatopoeic words). The book We Can Make Sounds has a word that sounds like its meaning on almost every page: clap, snap, pop, tap, rap, slap, stomp, etc.
• Invite students to generate other examples of words that sound like their meaning (boom, clang, fizz, plop, rip, splash, squeak).
• Introduce and explain the sound words worksheet.

Independent Reading

• Allow students to read their books independently or with a partner. Encourage repeated timed readings of the book. Additionally, partners can take turns reading parts of the book to each other.

Home Connection

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

Writing and Art Connection

Have the class create a personalized version of We Can Make Sounds. Have students work with a partner to illustrate themselves clapping, snapping, etc., or use a digital camera to take pictures of students doing the actions. When the pages are illustrated or printed, complete the writing as a group following the pattern of the book.

Math Connection

Have students cut out pictures from a copy of We Can Make Sounds to complete a pictorial graph (or use completed worksheet 1) of how the children made sounds--with their hands, feet, or other. Discuss how many pictures are in each column, which column has the most, which has the least, etc.

• accurately and consistently demonstrate how to self-monitor while reading
• accurately classify information, such as sounds
• distinguish words that end with /p/
• accurately identify written words with /p/ in the final position
• understand and identify capital letters at the beginning of sentences
• understand that some words sound like their meanings

Comprehension Checks

• Retelling Rubric