About the Book

Text Type: Nonfiction/Concept Book
Page Count: 10
Word Count: 16

Book Summary
Farm Animals is a simple book that introduces seven charming farm animals, most of which will be familiar to the reader. The playful illustrations support one-to-one picture to text correspondence.

About the Lesson

Targeted Reading Strategy

• Connect to prior knowledge

Objectives

• Use the reading strategy of connecting life experiences and using prior knowledge to understand text
• Identify main idea and details
• Identify rhyme
• Recognize and make words with the short /i/ vowel sound
• Recognize that there are special words that name things
• Categorize information into groups

Materials

• Book -- Farm Animals (copy for each student)
• Chalkboard or dry erase board
• Main idea and details, short /i/, categorize worksheets

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

Vocabulary

• High-frequency word: the
• Content words: dog, pig, chicken, goat, cow, duck, sheep, animals

Before Reading

Build Background

• Make two columns on the board and label them Farm and City. Have students tell what each word means. Ask students if they think the same kinds of animals live on a farm and in the city. Explain that you are going to make a list of animals that live in each place. Have students suggest animals and tell on which list they should be written. Help students brainstorm as many animals as possible. When finished, review the lists with students. Ask students if any of the animals that live in the city also live on a farm. Draw a line to connect any animal written in both columns. Discuss how some animals can live in both places. Have students look at the lists and find animals that cannot live in both places. Discuss how some animals need more space, such as a field.

Book Walk

Introduce the Book

• Show students the front and back covers of the book and read the title with them. Ask what they might read about in a book called Farm Animals. (Accept any answers students can justify). Point to the animals and ask students to name the animals they see.
• Show students the title page. Discuss the information on the page (title of book, author's name, illustrator's name).

Introduce the Reading Strategy: Connect to prior knowledge

• Explain that good readers make connections between what they already know and new information they read. Remind students that thinking about what they already know about the topic of the book will help them understand what they read.
• Model using the covers to connect to prior knowledge.
• 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 of the animals on the front cover, I think about the animals on my uncle's farm. By looking at the title and the covers, I start to think about what I already know about farms. Then I can make guesses about what I'll read about these animals in the book.
• Show students the title page and ask what they see in the picture. Ask if they have ever seen a goat like this. If necessary, model once more for the students how using what they already know helps them make guesses about what they will read in the book.
• 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 Vocabulary

• Go through each page of the book with students. Ask them to talk about what they see in the illustrations and use the vocabulary they will encounter in the text. Ask them to name what they see in the pictures and have them draw on prior knowledge and experience with animals they have had or seen. For example, point to the dog on page 3 and ask: What animal is this? Be certain that students are making the connection between picture and word.
• Reinforce new vocabulary and word-attack strategies by modeling how students can read unfamiliar words. Ask a volunteer to point to the word pig on page 4. Ask students how they know this word says pig. Model how they can use the picture clues to help them.
• For additional tips on teaching high-frequency words or word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Have students think of animals they know about that live on a farm as they read the book.

During Reading

Student Reading

• Guide the reading: Give students their copy of the book. Have a volunteer point to the first word on page 3. Read the word together (The). Point out where to begin reading on each page. Remind students to read words from left to right. Point to each word as you read it aloud while students follow along in their own book.
• Ask students to place a 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.
• Have students identify the word on each page that is the same (the).
• Reread the pages, inviting students to supply the missing animal name. If they need help, remind them to look at the pictures for clues. Model using the strategy.
• Think-aloud: I've seen a pig like this on my uncle's farm. Because I have seen this animal before, I know it is called a pig, and this helps me recognize the word.
• Ask students to read the remainder of the book.

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.

After Reading

Reflect on the Reading Strategy

• Ask students what words, if any, they marked in their book. Use this opportunity to model how to read these words using decoding strategies and context clues.
• Think-aloud: On page 8, I thought about animals I know that have wings. I know that birds have wings. However, they don't have the type of feet as the animal in the picture. These feet are webbed. I know that ducks use their webbed feet to swim through the water. Thinking about what I know helped me to read the word duck.
• Reinforce how using what they already knew about farm animals helped students understand and remember what they read. Invite students to share how they connected to prior knowledge.
• Discuss additional strategies students used to gain meaning from the book.

Teach the Comprehension Skill: Main idea and details

• Discussion: Tell students that a book usually has one big, or main, idea that tells what it is about. Explain that the main idea explains what most of the sentences or words are about. Tell students that the words or sentences that give more information about the big idea are called details.
• Introduce and model the skill: Have students look at the front cover. Discuss the main idea in the book. (There are different animals on a farm.) Show students pages 7 and 8. Ask them to tell the two things they see that tell more information about the main idea.
• Check for understanding: Ask students to each point to another animal in the book that supports the main idea. Observe their responses.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the main idea and details worksheet. Discuss students' responses.

Extend the discussion: Instruct students to use the last page of their book to draw a picture of their favorite farm animal. Have them copy the word from the book that tells what the animal is.

Build Skills

Phonological Awareness: Identify rhyme

• Read aloud the rhyme that follows. Then read it a second time and have students identify the rhyming words.

Dog, pig, chicken, goat,
ride the sea in a big green boat.
Cow, duck, sheep, cat,
ride the sea on a big yellow mat.

• Have students listen as you say the following pairs of words: pig/big, pig/duck, pig/dig, pig/rig, pig/cow, pig/jig, pig/fig. Tell them to tap the table if the words rhyme. Tell them to sit quietly if the words do not rhyme.

Phonics: Short /i/

• Write the word pig on the board. Read the word aloud. Segment each sound in the word. Ask students to identify the letter that stands for the short /i/ vowel sound.
• Write the upper- and lowercase letter Ii on the board. Explain that the letter i stands for the /i/ sound they can hear in the word pig. Ask students to repeat the sound that i stands for.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the short /i/ worksheet. When completed, discuss the words they made.

Grammar and Mechanics: Naming words (nouns)

• Tell students that the words they read in the book are used to tell names of animals. Explain that these words are called naming words. Have students look at page 3. Ask them to find the naming word that tells what the animal is.
• Ask students to find the naming word on page 4. Reinforce that all of the names of the animals in the book are naming words.
• Have students find the other naming words in the book.

Word Work: Categorize words

• Tell students that the words they read in the book are used to tell about animals that live on a farm and that these can be put into a big group called "farm animals." Draw a large circle on the board with the words Farm Animals in the center.
• Tell students that they can make other groups using these animals. Write Animals with Feathers on the board. Ask students what farm animals would go in this group (chicken, duck). Write Animals with Hair on the board. Ask students to identify the farm animals that would go in this group (dog, cow, goat, pig, sheep).
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the categorize worksheet. Have students work with a partner to make other groups using the farm animals. Ask them to tell the name of each group. (Possible groups: animals with black spots, animals that jump, animals that bark, animals with horns, animals that lay eggs, animals that make milk).

Build Fluency

Independent Reading

• Allow students to read their book independently or with a partner. Additionally, partners can take turns reading parts of the book.

Home Connection

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

Extend the Reading

Writing and Art Connection
Have students use the pattern of the text in Farm Animals to create a new book as a class project. Brainstorm groups of animals, such as zoo animals, ocean animals, desert animals, and so on. Have each student tell you the name of an animal. Write the animal's name on a sheet of paper. Have each student illustrate the animal he/she suggested. When students are finished, bind their pages and place the book in a learning center for all to read.

Social Studies and Music Connection
Show students the picture of the sheep on page 9. Point out that sheep are animals that live on farms throughout the world. Explain that their bodies are covered with soft, curly hair called wool. Tell students that wool is important because it is used to make clothes to keep people warm. Tell students that farmers shear, or cut, the wool from sheep. This does not hurt the sheep and they grow a new coat of wool. Explain that the wool is sent to factories to be made into coats, sweaters, socks, and blankets. Ask students to think of clothes they have that might be made of wool. Make a list on the board. Teach students the familiar song, Baa, Baa Black Sheep.

Assessment

Monitor students to determine if they can:

• use what they know about farm animals to help them read the words in the book
• understand that stories have a main idea that is supported by information from the text; demonstrate finding the correct details by choosing the right animals to paste on the farm
• identify pairs of words that rhyme
• use letters to make words with the short /i/ vowel sound on a worksheet
• recognize that there are special words that tell the names of things during discussion
• categorize animals into groups and explain how they sorted them

Comprehension Check

• Retelling Rubric

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