Text Type: Nonfiction/Factual Description
Page Count: 10
Word Count: 16

Book Summary
In the book Spring, students learn about some of the animals, plants, activities, and types of weather associated with spring. The simple repetitive text, supportive pictures, and use of the high-frequency word the support beginning readers.

About the Lesson

Targeted Reading Strategy

• Visualize

Objectives

• Use the reading strategy of visualizing to understand text
• Identify main idea and details
• Discriminate initial sound /b/
• Identify initial consonant Bb
• Recognize and understand that nouns are naming words
• Recognize and write the high-frequency word the

Materials

• Book -- Spring (copy for each student)
• Chalkboard or dry erase board
• Main idea and details, initial consonant Bb, nouns 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

Build Background

• Write the word seasons 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 to name the four seasons. Write the names of the seasons on the board. Point to the name of each season and read it aloud with students. Ask students to explain what they know about each season. Write their responses on the board under the appropriate season.

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 Spring. (Accept any answers students can justify.)
• Show students the title page. Discuss the information on the page (title of book, author's name, illustrator's name).
• Write the repetitive phrase The _________ on the board. Have students say the word aloud. Explain to them that the word the repeats throughout the book.

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.
• Model how to visualize using the picture on the front cover of the book.
  Think-aloud: As I look at the front cover, I see flowers. When I think of flowers and spring, I picture all the colorful flowers that begin to bloom in my backyard. I picture how everything starts to grow again after the winter.
• Invite students share what they picture in their mind when they think of spring.
• 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: Main idea and details

• Explain that every book has a big idea, which is the most important thing the book is about. Read the title to students. Explain that the title often provides clues about the book's big idea. Invite students to share what they think might be the main idea of this book.
• Explain that the main idea of this book is all the things people can see outside during the spring season. Write Things We See in Spring on the board. Point to each word as you read the phrase aloud with students.
• Model how to identify details.
  Think-aloud: I know that every book has details that help explain the big idea. I know that this book is about the different things people can expect to see outside in the spring. I see a picture of flowers on the cover of the book. When I visualized spring, I pictured how everything starts to grow again, including all the colorful flowers in my backyard. Since this helps to explain the big idea, flowers might be a detail in this book. Invite students to share what they visualize, or picture in their mind, when they think of spring. Discuss whether these ideas might be details in the book.

Introduce the Vocabulary

• Cut out the picture of the objects on pages 4 through 10 from an extra copy of the book and glue each one onto a large index card.
• Show students the pictures of the objects one at a time. As students name each object, write its name on a large index card. Encourage volunteers to write the initial sound of the word on the card. Then have volunteers place each card beside the corresponding picture. When finished, have the class read the words aloud as you point to each word and picture.
• Remind students to use the first letter and the pictures to figure out words as they read. For example, show the picture on page 4 and model pointing under the b in ball. Say: I am going to look at the picture and think about which object begins with /b/. Does ball make sense? Yes. The word is ball.
• For additional tips on teaching high-frequency words and word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Have students read to identify things they might see during the spring season. Remind them to stop and visualize, or picture in their mind, the details of the book as they read.

Student Reading

• Guide the reading: Give students their copy of the book. Have a student 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 first 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 how to visualize.
  Think-aloud: As I read each page, I created a picture in my mind about the things we see outside in spring. For example, on page 5, I pictured the birds in a tree next to a nest. I pictured baby birds chirping in the nest while their mother feeds them worms from its beak.
• Review the main idea of the book, Things We See in Spring. Ask students to explain whether birds are a detail that supports the big idea of the book and why (yes, birds often return and build nests in the spring).
• Introduce and explain the main idea and details worksheet. Write the word birds on the board. Have students write the word and draw a picture of birds in one of the petals on their worksheet.
• Check for understanding: Have students read to page 7. Invite volunteers to explain what they pictured in their mind when they read about the flowers and the rain. Accept all answers that show students understand how to visualize.
• Ask students to think about other details they read about that support the main idea Things We See in Spring. Have them choose one of the details to draw on their worksheet. Invite them to label their drawing using the word from the book. Ask students to share the detail they drew and wrote about.
• Have students read the remainder of the book. Remind them to continue visualizing the details of the book as they read.

    Have students 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 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 of things people might see during the spring season. When I read page 8, I pictured the rain stopping and the sun beginning to come out. I pictured how the sky looks after the rain and the colorful rainbow I sometimes see in the sky. I pictured how the rainbow stretches across the sky, slowly fading at the end. Picturing the objects in my mind helped me to understand and remember the details of the book.
• Have students share how visualizing helped them better understand and enjoy what they read. Invite students to explain how they visualized one thing they see in spring from the book.

Reflect on the Comprehension Skill

• Discussion: Read the big idea on the board with students. Review the details students drew on their worksheet. Invite them to explain why each of the details on their worksheet matches the main idea of the story.
• Independent practice: Have students complete the main idea and details worksheet.
• Enduring understanding: People expect to see certain things during the spring. Now that you know this information, what does this tell you about the other three seasons?

Phonemic Awareness: Discriminate initial sound /b/

• Say the word ball aloud to students, emphasizing the initial /b/ sound. Have students say the word aloud and then say the initial /b/ sound.
• Say the following words from the book, one at a time: bikes, rain, spring, birds, bunny, and flowers. Have students give the thumbs-up signal when they hear a word that begins with the /b/ sound, as in the word ball.
• 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 /b/ sound, as in the word ball: bed, rat, boot, six, foot, bear, box, man, and boat.

Phonics: Identify initial consonant Bb

• Write the word ball on the board and say the word aloud with students.
• Have students say the /b/ sound aloud. Then run your finger under the letters in the word as students say the whole word aloud. Ask students what letter stands for the /b/ sound in the word ball.
• Have students practice writing the letter Bb on a separate piece of paper as they say the sound the letter makes.
• Check for understanding: Write the following words that begin with the letter Bb on the board, leaving off the initial consonant Bb: bug, butter, bucket, and bus. Say each word, one at a time, and have volunteers come to the board and add the initial consonant Bb in each word. Have the remaining students practice writing the letter Bb on a separate piece of paper as they say the sound the letter makes.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain and have students complete the initial consonant Bb worksheet.

Grammar and Mechanics: Identify naming words (nouns)

• Draw a picture of a person, a place, and a thing. Ask volunteers to identify the pictures. Explain that some words they read name a person, a place, or a thing. These naming words are called nouns.
• Have students turn to page 3 in their book. Invite them to read the sentence together, pointing to the words as you read them aloud. Ask students to point to the word that names a thing (ball).
• Have students turn to page 4. Read the sentence aloud with students, pointing to the words as you read them aloud. Ask students to point to the word that names another thing (bikes). Point out that there are two bikes.

    Check for understanding: Point to the words as you read each page aloud with students. Have students underline the naming words in the book. Discuss the words they underlined.

• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the nouns worksheet.

Word Work: High-frequency word the

• Tell students they are going to learn a word that they need to be able to recognize and read quickly. Write the word the on the board and read the word aloud. Have students read the word with you.
• Ask them to write the word the on the tabletop with their finger as you spell it aloud with them, pointing to each letter on the board as you say the letter name with students.
• Show students classroom objects of the same type (for example: desk, door, window). Point to and identify each object using the word the (the desk, the door, the window). Explain to students that the word the tells which object someone is identifying.
• Check for understanding: Ask volunteers to identify an object using the word the. Have them use individual dry-erase boards or paper to write or draw the name of the object, preceding the name with the word the. For students needing additional support, use magnetic letters to have them build the word, trace the word with their pointer finger, and then write the word.

Independent Reading

• Allow students to read their book independently or with a partner. Encourage repeated timed readings of a specific section of the book. 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 compare with someone at home what they visualized about the objects in the book.

Writing and Art Connection

Have students choose a season. Have them draw a picture of one thing they see during that season. Under the picture, help them write: The __________. Have students sort the pictures by season. Compile the pictures into a book for each season. Reinforce student understanding of naming words and the high-frequency word the.

Science and Math Connection

Review that the spring season is a time when things in nature grow. Ask students to share their prior knowledge of the things plants need to grow (air, water, soil, sun). Create a classroom flower garden. Have students take care of the garden, including watering the plants each day. Observe and graph the growth of the flowers each week for a period of several weeks.

• accurately and consistently share examples of visualizing while reading
• accurately and consistently identify details that support a main idea during discussion and on a worksheet
• accurately discriminate between words that do and do not begin with the /b/ sound
• accurately identify and write the letter symbol that stands for the /b/ sound during discussion and on a worksheet
• identify nouns as words that name people, places, and things during discussion and on a worksheet
• locate, read, write, and understand the use of the high-frequency word the

Comprehension Check

• Retelling Rubric