Playful Puppy - Lesson Plans

Playful Puppy
Level B

About the Book

Text Type: Fiction/Realistic
Page Count: 10
Word Count: 36

Text Summary
Playful Puppy shares the delights and troubles of a curious puppy. A young girl must redirect her puppy as it explores the world around it and finds objects that are not appropriate toys. In the end, the puppy finds something perfect for any little dog.

About the Lesson

Targeted Reading Strategy

Make, revise, and confirm predictions to understand text

Objectives

Use the strategy of making, revising, and confirming predictions to understand text
Identify character, setting, and plot
Identify syllables in words
Associate the letter Ll with the sound /l/
Capitalize and punctuate sentences
Identify words that describe size

Materials

Book -- Playful Puppy (copy for each student)
Chalkboard or dry erase board
Plot, initial consonant Ll worksheets
Word journal (optional)

Indicates an 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: see, little, it, be, a, the, get
Content words: let, puppy, mouse, frog, turtle, ball

Before Reading

Build Background

Discuss babies and puppies. Ask students who have, or have had, a baby or a puppy in their home to raise their hand. Ask students what they would do if the baby were about to touch a hot stove (say "No," grab the baby). Ask students what they would do if their puppy were about to go into the street (say "No," grab the puppy). Ask students to explain why they would not want the baby to touch the hot stove or the puppy to go into the street. Explain that it is up to big people and pet owners to teach babies and puppies what they can and cannot do.
Ask students what kinds of things they would teach a puppy and why (sit, stay, down, come, no barking, heel, in). Explain that the best way to teach a puppy something is to be consistent and to offer rewards for good behavior. Explain that no one should ever hit a puppy (or a baby) because that teaches the animal to be afraid; it does not teach the animal the behavior it is supposed to learn.
Expand the discussion by asking students what it means to be "playful." Ask students if only children can be playful or if adults and animals can also be playful.

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 Playful Puppy. (Accept any answers students can justify.) Ask students to explain in what ways the puppy might be playful.
Ask students what they think the puppy wants to do with the ball shown on the back cover. Ask what else the puppy might want to play with.
Show students the title page. Discuss the information on the page (title of book, author's name, illustrator's name). Ask what the puppy wants to play with in this picture.

Introduce the Reading Strategy: Make, revise, and confirm predictions

Explain that good readers make predictions, or guesses, about what will happen in a story. Explain that making predictions can help people make decisions, solve problems, and learn new information. Emphasize that making predictions is more important than whether the prediction is right, or confirmed.
Model making predictions as a strategy to make meaning from the text.
Think-aloud: I know that good readers can use the cover of a book to get an idea of what the book is about. Looking at these pictures, I see a puppy that discovers lots of small objects, such as a frog and a ball. It seems to be outside. Maybe the puppy is so playful with these objects that it wanders too far from home. I predict that the puppy might get lost. Making predictions about this story gets me thinking about it and gives me a purpose for reading because I want to find out what kind of trouble the puppy might get into.
Open to page 3, and ask students what the puppy sees. Ask if they predicted that the puppy might see a mouse. Ask: Did you think the puppy would find a mouse? What do you think might happen next? Turn to the next page, and have students confirm or revise their prediction.
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

Ask students which word on page 3 says puppy. Ask how they know. Ask them which word says mouse and how they know. Remind students to use beginning sounds of words to help them figure out new words. Tell them to check the picture and think what word makes sense.
Encourage students to add new vocabulary words to their word journals.
For additional tips on teaching high-frequency words or word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

Have students read the story to find out if their predictions about the playful puppy are correct.

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 (Puppy). 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 6, using their finger to point to each word as they read. Encourage students who finish before others to reread the text.
Model revising a prediction based on the text.
Think-aloud: I predicted that the puppy would get lost. So far, this has not happened. I found out that the playful puppy sees a lot of things that, I think, he wants to play with. However, a little girl tells him to leave them alone. She doesn't look happy. I predict that the puppy gets into trouble playing with something.
Have students share the prediction they made before reading and the outcome of that prediction. Then have them revise or make a new prediction about what might happen next in the story.
Have students read the remainder of the story. Remind them to make, revise, and/or confirm predictions 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 to read these words using decoding strategies and context clues.
Discuss the ending, and ask students how they predicted how the story would end. Invite them to share the outcomes of their predictions
Think-aloud: I predicted that the puppy would get in trouble. That didn't happen. But the puppy did find something that he could play with.
Discuss how predicting can help the reader get meaning from the book and how it gives the reader a reason to read to find out if the predictions are correct.
Discuss additional strategies students used to gain meaning from the book.

Teach the Comprehension Skill: Identify characters, setting, and plot

Discussion: Ask students if the puppy reminded them of an animal they know. Discuss why the puppy was interested in so many things. Ask students how the girl was training him to do the right thing.
Introduce and model the skill: Tell students that stories often have lots of parts. These are called story elements. Discuss the characters and setting of the book. Explain what each element means. Explain that characters are the people or animals in the story. The setting tells where and when the story takes place. The plot is what happens in the story.
Think-aloud: The characters are the people or animals in the story. The characters in this story are the little girl and her puppy. The book doesn't tell me where the story happens, but I can look at the pictures to get a clue. The first pages show flower pots on some steps. I think this might be the girl's backyard. There is a pond in the story. Maybe the pond is near the girl's yard, or maybe there is a pond in her yard. I can tell that the story takes place outside.
Explain that stories have a series of events that happen in order. Say: In this story, the puppy saw things in a certain order. The first thing it saw was a mouse and the girl told the puppy to leave it alone.
Check for understanding: Ask students to tell what happened next the story.
Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the plot 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 something they would like to do with the puppy.

Build Skills

Phonological Awareness: Syllable awareness

Say the word puppy. Clap the syllables in the word: pup/py. Ask students how many syllables they heard. Have them clap and say the syllables in the word puppy with you.
Say the word little, and have students clap the syllables in the word with you: lit/tle.
Say the following words: turtle, pumpkin, kitten, yesterday, happy, jumping, elephant, beautiful. Have students say and clap the syllables in each word.
Say and clap the syllables in the following words and have students tell the number of syllables they hear in each word: alphabet, letter, teacher, student, classroom, paper, lunchroom.

Phonics: Initial consonant Ll

Say the word little, and have students tell you what sound they hear at the beginning of the word. Then write the letter Ll on the board and have students name the letter. Tell them the letter Ll stands for the sound they hear at the beginning of the word little.
Have students turn to page 4 to find a word that starts with the /l/ sound (let). Have students read the word. Then challenge them to find the word little.
Together with students, sound out simple CVC words beginning with the /l/ sound (for example, lip, lit, lap, lot, leg).
Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the initial consonant Ll worksheet. If time allows, discuss their answers.

Grammar and Mechanics: Capitalization and punctuation

Have students reread the sentence on page 3. Point out that this kind of sentence tells something. Have students put their finger on the first word in the sentence, and explain that words that start sentences have capital letters.
Have students put their finger on the period at the end of the sentence. Tell them that sentences that tell something end with a period.
Have students turn to page 4. Ask why they think the word Puppy has a capital letter. Reinforce that this is the puppy's name and that names also begin with capital letters.

Have students circle the capital letters at the beginning of sentences with a green crayon and circle the periods at the end of sentences with a red crayon.

Word Work: Size words

Tell students to look in their book to find the word that tells how big the mouse, frog, turtle, and ball are (little). Ask if anyone remembers another word for little (small). Ask students to tell the size that is the opposite of little (big) and the opposite size of small (large). Use the words in context: The puppy is little. The puppy is small. The dog is big. The dog is large.
Ask students to look around the room and find things that are little and big. Ask them to use the following sentence to tell what they found: I see a little ____. Repeat for the word big.

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 Connection
Write a class poem about the puppy. Start with the word Puppy at the top. Ask students to think of words that tell something about the puppy. Prompt with: What did the puppy look like? (little, spotted, long-eared, cute) How did it act? (playful, happy, silly, good) What did it want to play with? (mouse, frog, turtle, ball) Write the words on cards as students suggest them, and tape or tack them onto a chalkboard or bulletin board. Ask students which words sound good together. Move the cards around until the poem sounds the way students want it to sound. Ask students to draw pictures of the puppy. Write the poem on poster board, and display it along with students' pictures on a bulletin board titled Our Puppy Poem.

Math Connection
Make a pet graph. Ask students to name the types of pets they have. Write the types across the bottom. Ask students to write their names on a 2 x 2 sticky note and put their name in the column above the type of pet they have. Tally the totals. Discuss the kinds of pets that are owned the most/least by people in the class.

Assessment

Monitor students to determine if they can:

make logical predictions about the story based on available information; revise their predictions as they preview the book
identify characters and setting of a story during discussion; correctly list story events in order on a worksheet
accurately identify and clap syllables in words during discussion
associate the letter Ll with the /l/ sound; read and spell simple CVC words beginning with the /l/ sound
correctly identify capital letters and end punctuation in the book
correctly use words describing size in oral sentences

Comprehension Check

Retelling Rubric

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