Text Type: Nonfiction/Informational
Page Count: 10
Word Count: 16 

Book Summary
In The Garden, students use illustrations to identify different types of vegetables grown in a garden. The simple repetitive phrases, supportive pictures, and use of the high-frequency word the make this book easy for beginning readers.

About the Lesson

Targeted Reading Strategy

• Connect to prior knowledge

Objectives

• Use the reading strategy of connecting to prior knowledge to understand text
• Identify main idea and details
• Discriminate initial /p/ sound
• Identify initial consonant Pp
• Recognize and understand that nouns are naming words
• Identify and use high-frequency word the

Materials

• Book -- The Garden (copy for each student)
• Chalkboard or dry erase board
• Main idea and details, initial consonant Pp, nouns 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 word: the
• Content words: beans, corn, garden, melons, onions, peas, potatoes, tomatoes

Build Background

• Write the word garden 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.
• Invite students to name items that might grow in a garden. Draw and label these items on a chart.

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 The Garden. (Accept all answers that students can justify.)
• Show students the title page. Discuss the information on the page (title, author's name, illustrator's name).
• Write the following on the board: The ____. Read the word aloud with students. Explain that this phrase repeats throughout the book.

Introduce the Reading Strategy: Connect to prior knowledge

• Explain to students that good readers make connections between what they already know and new information they read. Remind them that thinking about what they already know about the topic of the book will help them understand what they read.
• Model connecting to prior knowledge using the information on the covers.
  Think-aloud: When I look at the front cover of The Garden, I see a plant with many leaves. Round objects seem to be growing from the plant. I have seen many plants like this one in gardens. On the front cover, there is a close-up picture of the food that grows on this plant. I can see the pattern the seeds make on the inside of it. It reminds me of the slices of tomato that I put on my sandwiches. Since the title of the book is The Garden, I wonder whether this book is going to be about the kinds of foods that grow in a garden. The information I already know about gardens and the foods that grow in them will help me read and understand the information in the book.
• Invite students to connect to something they already know using the pictures on the covers of 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 Comprehension Skill: Main idea and details

• Explain to students that every book has a big, or main, idea, which is the most important idea of the book. Read the title to students. Explain that the title often provides clues about the book's main idea. Invite students to share predictions about the main idea of this book.
• Explain that the main, or big, idea of this book is Different kinds of foods grow in a garden. Write the following sentence on the board: Different kinds of foods grow in a garden. Point to each word as you read the sentence 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 different kinds of foods that grow in gardens. I see a picture of a plant on the back cover. This plant grows a kind of food below the ground. I know that potatoes grow below the ground in a garden. They have to be pulled, or dug up, from underground in order to be eaten. I know that a potato is a kind of food grown in a garden. Since this helps to explain the big idea, a potato might be a detail in the book.
• Review the kinds of plants grown in gardens that were discussed during the Build Background section. Discuss whether these ideas might be details in the book.

Introduce the Vocabulary

• While previewing the book, reinforce the vocabulary words students will encounter. For example, while looking at the picture on page 4, you might say: Look at the beans growing on the plant in the garden.
• 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 melons 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 watermelons growing on a vine in the garden. When I look at the first part of the word, it starts like /m/. However, the word watermelon starts with the /w/ sound, so this can't be the word. I know that watermelons can also be called melons. The word melons starts with the /m/ sound. The sentence makes sense with this word. The word must be melons.
• For additional tips on teaching high-frequency words and word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Have students use what they already know about plants and gardens to help them read the book. As they read, remind them to think about the details that support the main idea.

Student Reading

• Guide the reading: Give students their copy of the book. Have a volunteer point to the first word on page 3 (The). 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 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.
• Model connecting to prior knowledge.
  Think-aloud: On page 4, I see a long kind of food growing on a plant. I also see the small picture in the corner. The food is cut into small pieces. I know this is what beans look like when some people cook them or when they are placed in cans. I often eat beans for supper.
• Invite students to share how they connected with what they already knew as they read.
• Review the main idea of the book: Different kinds of foods grow in a garden. Ask students to explain whether or not the beans are a detail that supports the main idea of the book and why (yes; beans are a kind of food that grows in a garden).
• Introduce and explain the main idea and details worksheet. Write the word beans on the board. Have students write the word and draw a picture that represents beans in one of the spaces on their worksheet.
• Check for understanding: Have students read to the end of page 8. Encourage them to share how they connected to prior knowledge as they read. (Accept all answers that show students understand how to connect to prior knowledge.)
• Ask students to think about other details they read that support the main idea Different kinds of foods grow in a garden. Have them choose one of the details to draw on their worksheet. Ask them to label their drawing using the word from the book. Have students share the detail they drew and wrote about.
• Have students read the remainder of the book. Remind them to use what they already know about gardens to help them understand new information 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: When I read page 9, I thought about the kinds of foods that grow in a garden and what they look like. The picture shows a tall plant in the garden. The kind of food growing from the plant appears to have a covering over it. I know that a green husk covers an ear of corn. When the green part is removed, I can see the yellow corn kernels on the cob underneath. The yellow part of the corn is what we eat. I used what I already knew to read this page and better understand the book.
• Have students draw a picture on a separate piece of paper showing how they connected to prior knowledge when reading about one of the vegetables from the garden in the book. Invite them to explain their picture to the rest of the class.
• Ask students to explain how thinking about what they already knew helped them to understand and remember the information in the book.

Reflect on the Comprehension Skill

• Discussion: Read the main 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 book.
• Independent practice: Have students complete the main idea and details worksheet.
• Enduring understanding: In this book, you learned about the different kinds of foods that grow in a garden. Now that you know this information, what do you think might help these plants grow in a garden?

Phonological Awareness: Discriminate initial /p/ sound

• Say the word peas aloud to students, emphasizing the initial /p/ sound. Have students say the word aloud and then say the /p/ sound.
• Read page 7 aloud to students. Have them raise their hand when they hear a word that begins with the /p/ 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 /p/ sound: pants, corn, peaches, melons, beans.

Phonics: Identify initial consonant Pp

• Write the word peas on the board and say it aloud with students.
• Have students say the /p/ sound aloud. Then run your finger under the letters in the word as students say the whole word aloud. Ask students what letter represents the /p/ sound in the word peas.
• Have students practice writing the letter Pp on a separate piece of paper as they say the sound the letter represents.
• Check for understanding: Write the following words that begin with the /p/ sound on the board, leaving off the initial consonant: pan, pot, pup. Say each word, one at a time, and have volunteers come to the board and add the initial consonant Pp to the words. Have students say each completed word aloud.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the initial consonant Pp worksheet. If time allows, discuss their answers.

Grammar and Mechanics: Nouns

• Show students a picture of a person, a place, and a thing. Ask volunteers to identify the pictures. Explain that words that name a person, a place, or a thing are called nouns.
• Have students turn to page 3 in their book. Ask them to name the object in the picture. Then read the sentence with students, pointing to the words as you read them aloud. Ask students to point to the word that names the object, or thing, in the picture (peas). Explain that this word is a noun.
• 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 the object, or thing, in the picture (beans).

    Check for understanding: Have students look at the object in the picture on each page of the book. Point to the words as you read each page aloud with students. Have them underline the nouns in the book. Discuss the words they underlined.

• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the nouns worksheet. If time allows, discuss their answers.

Word Work: High-frequency word the

• Tell students that they are going to learn a word that they will often see in books they read. Write the word the on the board and read the word aloud. Have students read the word with you.
• Have students write the word the on a separate sheet of paper. Encourage them to practice writing the word several times.
• Read the sentence on page 3 aloud to students. Explain that the word the helps them to show which object they are talking about or pointing at. Point to the picture of the peas on the page and say the peas.
• Check for understanding: Have students use the word the in oral sentences to identify objects in the room.

Independent Reading

• Allow students to read their book independently or with a partner. 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 them share with someone at home how they connected with what they already knew as they read the book together.

Informational Writing and Art Connection
Have students draw a picture of a garden and the foods that grow in it. Have them label the foods in their picture and title the picture A Garden. Combine the pages in a class book. Reinforce nouns and the high-frequency word the.

Science Connection
Create a classroom garden with students. Have students plant vegetable seeds in soil. Discuss and observe the things that the seeds will need to grow into plants that produce vegetables.