Build Background

• Involve students in a discussion about animals they know. Ask how many legs the animals have. Encourage students to use the pattern they will encounter in the book in their answers For example: How many legs do cows have? Cows have four legs.

Book Walk

Introduce the Strategy: Make connections to prior knowledge

• Show students the front and back covers of the book and read the title. Ask students what they think this book will be about based on the cover information. Model how to use prior knowledge.
• Think aloud: When I read a new book, I try to think about what I already know about the topic. I can look at the picture of the frog and remember what I know about this animal from my own experiences. I know that the frog has four legs. I can predict that I will read in the text that the frog has four legs.
• Show students the title page and ask them what they see in the picture. Ask them if they have ever seen this animal before. Ask them what they can predict about the number of legs on the animal based on their experience with it. If necessary, model once more for the students how you draw on personal knowledge to make predictions about the book.

Introduce the Vocabulary

• Go through each page of the book with the students, talking about the illustrations and using 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 the animal. For example, ask: What is this animal? Have you ever seen it before? What do you know about this animal? How many legs does it have?
• Point out the words on the page. Explain that the words on the page tell them the story, and that the words are read left to right.
• Ask a student to come up and, on the book you are holding, point to where they should start reading and which direction they should go as they read.
• Reinforce new vocabulary and word-attack strategies by modeling how students can read unfamiliar words. Ask a volunteer to point to the word animal. Ask students how they know this word says animal. Model how they can use the familiar word part an to help them. Point out that they can check whether the word makes sense by reading the sentence and looking at the picture. Read the sentence with the word animal and ask students if they think the sentence makes sense. Repeat with other vocabulary words if you feel students need more modeling.
• For additional teaching tips on word-attack strategies, click here.
• For tips on teaching high-frequency words, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Have students read the book to find out how many legs the different animals have. Remind them to think about what they already know about the animals as they read. 

Student Reading

• Guide the reading: Give students their books, and have them put a sticky note on page 4. Direct them to read to the end of this page. Tell students to reread the pages if they finish before everyone else.
• When they have finished, ask students what animals they have read about so far. Have students point out which animals they know and how this helps them understand the book.
• Think aloud: I have seen these animals on TV, and I have seen a chimp at the zoo, so I know what they look like. It helps me understand what I am reading if I can think about what I already know about the animals.
• Tell students to read the remainder of the story.

    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 Reading Strategies

• Ask students what words they marked in their books. Use this opportunity to model how they could read these words using word-attack strategies and context clues. For example, point out the word legs and ask students how they know this word doesn’t say let’s. Focus on the /t/ sound at the end of the word.
• Reinforce how using what they already knew about the animals 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.)

Comprehension: Categorize text information

• Introduce and model: Explain to students that organizing what they find out when they read will help them understand the book and remember what they read. Give students a copy of the comprehension worksheet. Model how to go to the picture of the first animal on the worksheet and find it in the book. Then model reading the text to find out how many legs it has. For example, say: The first picture is a spider. I can find the spider on page 7. I read the text to find out that the spider has eight legs, so I will put a check in the column that says “8 Legs.” You put a check in that column on your worksheet.
• Check for understanding: Have students name the next animal on the worksheet, find it in the book, and then check the appropriate column for the number of legs that it has.
• Independent practice: Tell students to complete the comprehension worksheet. They should find each animal in the book, check the number of legs, and mark their chart. Discuss their responses.

    Instruct students to use the last page of their book to draw a picture of more than one thing. They should write the appropriate number under their picture. Have students share their pictures with the group. 

Phonological Awareness: Identify rhyming words

• Say the words leg and beg and have students repeat the words. Tell them that leg and beg rhyme because they have the same ending sounds. Repeat the words and have students listen for the ending sounds.
• Tell students you are going to say a word. If the word rhymes with beg, they should give you a thumbs up. If it doesn’t rhyme with beg, they should give you a thumbs down. Say the following words one at a time: peg, pet, meg, bag.
• Say the word ten and have students repeat it. Tell them you are going to say some more words. If the word rhymes with ten, they should clap their hands. If the word doesn’t rhyme, they should shake their head. Say the following words: men, pen, pan, hen, hat, tab, den, wren, leg, Ben.

Phonics: Identify words with short /e/

• Have students turn to page 3 and find the word legs. Have a volunteer read the word while you write it on the board. Ask students what sound they hear in the middle of the word.
• Show students the Ee alphabet flashcard. Explain that this letter stands for the /e/ sound they hear in the middle of the word legs.
• Have students look on page 8 to find another word with short /e/. When students have found the word ten, write it on the board. Ask individual students to come to the board and circle the letter that stands for the /e/ sound in legs and ten.
• Write the following words on the board: men, hen, let, jet, net. Have students sound out the words with you as you run your finger under each word. Ask volunteers to come up and circle the letter that stands for the /e/ sound in the words.
• Give students the phonics worksheet, and explain what they are to do.

Grammar, Mechanics, and Usage: Read and use regular plurals

• Write the words two legs on the board. Ask students how many legs there are.
• Point out the -s at the end of the word and tell students we add the -s when we are talking about more than one thing.
• Write the words one leg above the words two legs. Point out that we don’t use the -s when we are talking about one thing.
• Hold up different numbers of familiar objects such as one book, two pencils, or four paperclips, and have students tell you how many you are holding. Ask them whether we add -s to the words.
• Have students practice writing plurals using the grammar, mechanics, usage worksheet.

Vocabulary: Read and use number words

• Have students work in pairs to look for number words in the book. Have them highlight the words they find.
• Write the numerals 1 through 10 on the board. Write the number words under their numerals as students find them in the book.
• Ask students to tell you what numbers are missing, and write them in as they say them.
• Give students the vocabulary worksheet. Tell them they can use the book or the list on the board as a reference if they forget any of the number words. 

Independent Reading

• Allow students to read their books independently or with a partner. Partners can take turns reading in the book.

Home Connection

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

Writing

• Work with students to write a paragraph about different animals and the number of legs. Write the opening sentence from the book on the board: Many animals have legs. Ask students to name an animal they know. Ask them to think of a sentence the group could write about the number of legs the animal has. Write their sentence on the board. Repeat by asking them to name other familiar animals. Read through the sentences with students.
• Ask students to draw a picture of an animal and write a sentence under it, using the model from the group writing.

Science Connection

• Provide animal books or other resources and ask students to find pictures of the animals they read about in the book. Have them find other things they can learn about the animals. 

Monitor students to determine if they can:

• categorize animals on the chart according to the correct number of legs
• tell when two words rhyme
• recognize words that have short e and sound out CVC words with short /e/
• understand that -s at the end of the word indicates more than one
• read number words

Comprehension Checks

• Retelling Rubric