It Is Spring - Lesson Plans

It Is Spring
Level B

About the Book

Text Type: Nonfiction/Concept Book
Page Count: 10
Word Count: 35

Book Summary
There's something special about springtime. Things pop up and out all over the place. It Is Spring shows readers the varied and wonderful things that happen during springtime. Imaginative illustrations accompany the text.

About the Lesson

Targeted Reading Strategy

Visualize

Objectives

Use the strategy of visualization to better understand text
Identify main idea and details
Orally blend syllables
Associate the letter Oo with the sound /o/
Identify capitalization and periods in sentences
Understand and use content vocabulary

Materials

Book -- It Is Spring (copy for each student)
Chalkboard or dry erase board
Main idea and details, short /o/ worksheets
Word journal (optional)

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: the, up, out
Content words: sun, spring, everywhere, pop, animals, birds, leaves, plants, worms, flowers

Before Reading

Build Background

Discuss students' favorite times of the year. Elicit or explain the seasons in which certain holidays occur, i.e., Thanksgiving is in the fall. Ask students to name things that happen during each season. Write this information on the board.
Tell students that they will be reading a book about spring. Have them add to the list of things they can see and do in spring.

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 It Is Spring. (Accept any answers students can justify.) Ask students to identify the springtime elements in the pictures. Have them think about the list they made to see if baby birds or sunshine are included.
Show students the title page. Discuss the information on the page (title of book, author's name, illustrator's name). Ask them to identify the springtime elements they see and what else they might read about in this book.

Introduce the Reading Strategy: Visualize

Explain that good readers often visualize, or make pictures in their mind, as they read. Readers use what they already know about a topic and the words in the book to make the pictures in their mind.
Model how to visualize.
Think-aloud: As I read, I look at the pictures and think about what I have read. Then I make a picture in my mind about what I have just read. As I look at the pictures of the sun, I picture how it lights up the darkness as it rises in the morning. I picture its round shape and how bright it is. I will continue visualizing as I read the rest of the story.
Read page 4 aloud to students. Have them close their eyes and listen as you read. Ask them to make a picture in their mind, or visualize, as you read. After you have read the first page, ask students to share what they visualized. Make a list on the board or chart paper. Show students the picture in the book. Explain that the picture in their mind might be different from the picture in the story. The picture in the story doesn't always show everything that the words of the story tell about.
As students read, encourage students 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

Use the book walk to introduce the language patterns in the story and new vocabulary. For example, on page, 3 ask: What do you see in the picture? What pops up in spring? Which word on the page says sun? How do you know? Which word do you think says pop? How do you know?
Remind students that they should look at the beginning letters to help them figure out words. They should read the sentence with the word to make sure the word makes sense.
For additional tips on teaching high-frequency words or word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

Have students read the book to find out about spring. Remind them to use the pictures they visualize, or make in their mind, to help them remember new information and understand the story.

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 to 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.
Ask students to share the pictures they made in their mind as they read. Model visualizing the text.
Think-aloud: One of the things I like best about spring is tulips and their wonderful colors. When I read about the flowers popping out, I pictured flowers with red, yellow, pink, and purple petals bursting out of the soil. Some were tall, and others were very tiny.
Have students read the remainder of the story. Remind them to visualize 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.

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 to students that using the pictures they create in their mind helps them understand the story and remember new information. Invite students to share additional examples of how they visualized as they read.
Model the strategy of visualizing.
Think-aloud: When I read about leaves popping out, I pictured how bare branches became full of leaves and blossoms. I pictured how the color of the plants outside turned from brown to green. Stopping to visualize as I read the story helped me understand and remember information from the story. It even helped me figure out words I didn't know. It also helped me get more involved with what I was reading.
Discuss additional strategies students used to gain meaning from the book.

Teach the Comprehension Skill: Main idea and details

Discussion: Have students tell about their favorite part of spring and why.
Introduce and model the skill: Explain to students that books that they read have a main idea that tells what the book is about. The title of the book and the pictures can be clues to identify the main idea. Discuss the main idea of this book. (Many things happen in spring.) On the board, draw a copy of the main idea and details worksheet. Write this main idea in the center circle. Explain that the book gives details that tell about things that happen in the spring.
Think-aloud: On page 4, I found out that flowers pop up from the ground. I will write flowers in the first circle. This is an important detail about what happens in spring.
Check for understanding: Ask students to point to another detail in the book about what happens in the spring. Model writing a detail on the web.
Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the main idea and details worksheet. If time allows, discuss their answers.

Extend the discussion: Instruct students to use the last page of their book to draw a picture of themselves enjoying something that happens in spring that they did not read about in the book. Ask students to share their pictures with the group.

Build Skills

Phonological Awareness: Blend syllables

Say the following word by splitting it into three syllables, pausing between the syllables: an/i/mals. Tell students that you can blend the three parts of the word together to say the whole word: animals. Repeat the syllables and ask students to blend them together to say the word.
Provide the following words one at a time. Say the syllables and have the student blend the syllables together to say the words: ev/er/y/where; flow/ers; sea/sons; va/ca/tion; tu/lips; yes/ter/day.

Phonics: Short /o/

Write the letter Oo on the board and have students name the letter. Tell students that the letter Oo stands for the short vowel sound they hear in the middle of the word pop.
Write pop on the board and have students read it with you. Ask a student to come up and circle the letter that stands for the short /o/ vowel sound in the word.
Write the following words in a line on the board, and have students sound them out with you: hot, rob, top.
Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the short /o/ worksheet. If time allows, discuss their answers.

Grammar and Mechanics: Capitalization and punctuation

Have students put their finger on the sentence on page 3. Tell students that there are different kinds of sentences and that sentences like this one tell the reader something.
Remind students that every telling sentence has a signal at the end so the reader will know when to stop reading. Ask the students what it is (a period). Remind students that the period is used as a "stop sign." Have students put their finger on the period in the sentence.
Remind students that sentences always begin with a capital letter. Have students put their finger on the capital letter.

Have students circle all the periods in the book and underline the capital letters.

Word Work: Content vocabulary

Have students list the things from the book that pop up or out in spring while you record them on a word web labeled Spring (animals, birds, flowers, leaves, plants, worms).
Read through the words with students. Have students draw a picture of each word on a separate piece of paper.
Have students discuss their pictures and what they know about each word. Create a definition for each word as a group.

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
Write the sentence The _____ pops out. Ask each student to provide a word to finish the sentence and to illustrate it. Display their sentences and illustrations on a bulletin board titled "Popping Out!"

Science Connection
Use this book as an introduction to a science unit about spring. Introduce the concept that spring is the time when many plants grow. Have students plant seeds to grow their own plants. Discuss the things plants need to grow.

Assessment

Monitor students to determine if they can:

visualize what they read; describe how their visualization is the same or different from the pictures in the book
correctly locate details about spring in the book and record them on a worksheet
correctly blend syllables to say words
associate the letter Oo with the short /o/ vowel sound; accurately read CVC words with the short /o/ vowel sound
recognize capital letters and periods in the book during discussion
use content vocabulary in a meaningful discussion to create definitions of each word

Comprehension Check

Retelling Rubric

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