About the Book

Text Type: Nonfiction/Concept Book
Page Count: 10
Word Count: 24

Book Summary
The companion book to Big, Little introduces children to a variety of smaller things, including a little bug, a single-engine plane, a bonsai tree, and a Chihuahua. Cute illustrations emphasize the concept of “little” and keep readers interested.

About the Lesson

Targeted Reading Strategy

• Connect to prior knowledge

Objectives

• Make connections between the text and prior knowledge
• Classify information
• Initial sound discrimination
• Associate the letter Ll with the sound /l/
• Recognize nouns as naming words
• Recognize opposites (antonyms)

Materials

• Book -- Little (copy for each student)
• Chalkboard or dry erase board
• Classify information, initial consonant Ll 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 words: a, little
• Content words: house, dog, car, plane, tree, bug, mouse, baby

Before Reading

Build Background

• Ask students what it means to be little. Have them look around the classroom to find things they might call little.

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 Little. (Accept any answers students can justify). Ask students what is little in the pictures on the covers. Ask if they have ever seen or held a very small animal.
• 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 how to make connections to prior knowledge.
• Think-aloud: I find ladybugs in my garden all the time. They're tiny compared to other insects, so I have to look hard to find them. Knowing about ladybugs helps me understand why there's a picture of a ladybug on the cover of a book called Little.
• Show students the title page and ask what clues the illustration gives about the book. Model making a personal connection to the picture and encourage students to tell why the picture is in a book called Little.
• 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

• Reinforce new vocabulary and word-attack strategies by pointing to a word on the page, such as bug. Ask students what letter they see at the beginning of the word. Ask what sound this letter stands for. Have students look at the picture and then tell what word they think starts with /b/ and makes sense in the sentence. Repeat with other vocabulary words if necessary.
• Remind students to look at the beginning and ending sounds, and other parts that they recognize, to help them sound out words. They should also check whether the word makes sense by looking at the picture or rereading the sentence.
• For additional tips on teaching high-frequency words or word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Have students think about how the little things in the book are like things they have seen.

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 (A). 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 4, using their finger to point to each word as they read. Encourage students who finish before others to reread the text.
• When they have finished, ask students what things they read about that are little. Discuss that although the bird, birdhouse, and dog are little compared to some objects, they are not the same size.
• Think-aloud: I saw a birdhouse like the one on page 3 at the store where I buy birdseed. The birds that use it are little. Only little birds can get in the hole. I'm going to keep looking for other little things I know about as I read the rest of the book.
• Have students 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 they can read these words using decoding strategies and context clues.
• Reinforce how using what they already knew about things that are little helped them understand what they read. (Connecting life experiences and using prior knowledge of a topic helps students personally relate to and remember what they have read.) Invite students to share additional ways they connected to prior knowledge.
• Think-aloud: Thinking about things that are little helped me understand the book as I read it. I wanted to keep reading the book to see if the little things in the book were things I had seen before.

Teach the Comprehension Skill: Classify information

• Discussion: Ask students what all the items listed in the book have in common (they are little).
• Introduce and model the skill: Review or explain that when students read, they can organize, or classify, the information they read in groups of things that are the same. Remind students that organizing information helps them remember what they've read.
• Think-aloud: I've seen many bugs before. Compared to my size, bugs are little. I can put them into a group called Little Things. I've also seen elephants. Compared to my size, elephants are big. I can put them into a group called Big Things.
• Check for understanding: Ask students who have seen a baby to raise their hands. Point out that babies are smaller than them, and that they can be put into a group called “Little Things.” Ask students who have seen a bug to raise their hands. Reinforce the idea that many types of bugs are little and that they can all be put into a group called “Little Things.”
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the classify information worksheet. Discuss their responses.

Extend the discussion: Instruct students to use the last page of their book to draw a picture of something little they have seen. Have students share their pictures with the group.

Build Skills

Phonological Awareness: Sound discrimination

• Have students listen while you say the sounds /m/ and /m/. Tell them that the two sounds are the same. Have students repeat the sounds with you.
• Tell students that you are going to say some sounds. You want them to nod their head if the sounds are the same and shake their head no if the sounds are different. Model the activity by saying the sounds /m/ and /m/ again and nodding your head. Then have students listen carefully while you say the sounds /m/ and /s/ and shake your head no.
• Use the following pairs of sounds, pausing before each sound pair: /b/ /t/; /f/ /f/; /l/ /l/; /s/ /r/; /a/ /a/; /d/ /d/; /p/ /l/. If students have difficulty with a sound pair, have them listen while you repeat the sounds. Have them say the sounds with you.

Phonics: Initial consonant Ll

• Write the upper and lowercase letter Ll on the board. Ask students to name the letter. Tell students the letter Ll stands for the /l/ sound. Have students repeat the sound.
• Have students look at the cover of the book and point to the letter that makes the /l/ sound in the word little.
• Write the words lap, leg, lip, lot, and lug on the board. Point out that each word has a different vowel in the middle but they all start with /l/. Model sounding out the first word by blending the sounds while running your finger under the letters: /lll/ /aaa/ /p/. Hold the sounds, except for the stop sound p, for one second. Then have students sound out the word with you while you run your finger under the letters. Repeat for the remaining words.
• Ask individual students to come to the board and circle the letter that makes the /l/ sound in the words.
• Independent Practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the initial consonant Ll worksheet. Complete the first word as an example. When they have finished, discuss their answers.

Grammar and Mechanics: Naming words (nouns)

• Tell students that there are special words that name people, places, and things. Provide an example from the book: A baby is the name of a person. A house is the name of a place. A car is the name of a thing.
• Ask students to find other naming words in the book. Reinforce that all the things that are little in the book are naming words.

Word Work: Opposites (antonyms)

• Tell students that there are words that mean the opposite of another word and provide examples. Say: The opposite of day is night. The opposite of up is down. What do you think the opposite of little is?
• Tell students you are going to say a word and you want them to tell you the word's opposite. Say the following words one at a time: up (down); tall (short); mean (nice); fast (slow); soft (hard); in (out); yell (whisper); night (day); sour (sweet).

Build Fluency

Independent Reading

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

Home Connection

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

Extend the Reading

Writing Connection
Instruct students to work with a partner to create a little imaginary animal and write a sentence to describe it. (Allow invented spelling or take dictation for students.)

Science Connection
Provide animal books or other resources and discuss with students the smallest flying animal in the world (bumblebee bat) and the smallest insect (fairy fly).

Assessment

Monitor students to determine if they can:

• make connections between their prior knowledge and the text
• classify things according to size during discussion and on a worksheet
• orally discriminate initial sounds during discussion
• associate the letter Ll with the sound /l/ during discussion and on a worksheet
• recognize naming words during discussion
• recognize opposites (antonyms) during discussion

Comprehension Check

• Retelling Rubric

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