Build Background

• Show students a map of North America and point out Canada. Show students that the top part of Canada is within the Arctic Circle, and explain what this means in terms of climate. Have students look at a globe and identify your area. Have students tell you whether they live in, close to, or far away from Canada. Discuss how the climate and environment in their area might be different or similar to the climate and environment in Canada.
• Have students brainstorm a list of animals they think might live in Canada. Record these on a chart.

Book Walk

Introduce the Strategy: Make, revise, and confirm predictions

• Show students the front and back covers of the book and read the title. Tell students that the bird on the cover is called an eagle. If any students have seen an eagle before, discuss where they saw it and what it looked like.
• Model making predictions about the text, referring back to the chart with the list of animals.
• Think aloud: I can make a prediction about the book by looking at the cover and the title. I can guess that the book is going to show me animals that live in Canada. I see an eagle in the picture, so I might guess that an eagle is one of the animals that lives in Canada. We did not guess that eagles live in Canada, so I am going to add it to our list in a new column. (Comments should be tailored to the animals the students predicted.)
• Point out the moose on the back cover. If students mentioned moose as an animal that lives in Canada, put a check mark next to the word moose on the chart. If they didn’t suggest moose, add moose to the second column. Before turning the page, ask students if they want to add any other animals to the chart.
• Show students the title page and ask them what they see in the picture. If bear is on the chart, place a check mark next to it. If not, add it to the chart.

Introduce the Vocabulary

• Go through each page of the book with the students, talking about the photographs and using the vocabulary they will encounter in the text. Ask them to name each animal, or name it for the students if they don't know. Place a check next to each animal that the students predicted correctly. Add any other animals to the second column of the chart. Reinforce the language pattern by asking: What is this animal? Do you think it lives in Canada? Yes, this is a bear. It lives in Canada.
• Ask a student to come up to your copy of the book and point to where the students should start reading the sentences and in which direction they should read the words.
• Reinforce new vocabulary and word-attack strategies by modeling how students might read unfamiliar words. Point out the word moose on page 3. Ask students how they know that this word says moose and not deer. Reinforce that they can use the beginning letters of the words and the picture clues to read the word moose. Remind students to always check if the words make sense by looking at the picture and rereading the sentence.
• For additional teaching tips on reading and 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 if they correctly predicted the text from the pictures.

Student Reading

• Guide the reading: Give students their books and have them put a sticky note on page 6. 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 live in Canada. Model confirming predictions: We guessed from the pictures that the words would tell us about a moose, a goose, a bear, and a beaver. We were right. The words in the book tell us that these animals live in Canada.
• Ask students what strategies they used to read the words goose and bear.
• 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.
• Have students refer to the list made prior to reading. Ask them how making predictions before reading helped them read and understand the book.

Comprehension: Compare and contrast

• Introduce and model: Explain to students that they can better understand the information in the book if they can compare it to something they already know about. Give students a copy of the comprehension worksheet. Point out that the first column asks students to list animals that live in Canada and also live in their area. The second column is for animals that live in Canada but do not live in their area. (If your students are in Canada, you might limit the animals in your area to very local animals that your students have seen.) Say: We are familiar with some of these animals because they live where we live. This tells us that the parts of Canada where these animals live are like our area. If we are familiar with the animals, it is easier to read about them. We will look at each animal in the book and decide where to list it on the chart.
• Check for Understanding: Have students find the first animal mentioned in the book. Ask them if moose live in their area. Help them decide in which area to write the name of the animal.
• Independent practice: Tell students to continue looking at each animal in the book and write the animal in the appropriate column. When students have finished, have them share their lists. If there are disagreements, use a book about their area to confirm whether or not they are right about where the animal lives.

    Instruct students to use the last page of their book to draw a picture of their favorite animal in the book. Have them write a sentence about their animal.

Phonemic Awareness: Medial short /i/

• Say the words bit and fin. Have students repeat the words. Tell students that these words both have the short /i/ sound in the middle. Have students repeat the words and listen for the short /i/ sound.
• Have students listen while you say two other words: fit and sat. Have students repeat the words. Ask if the two words both have the short /i/ sound. Ask students what sound they hear in the middle of each word. Repeat the words, emphasizing the medial sounds.
• Tell students that you are going to say pairs of words. If the words both have short /i/ in the middle, they should give you a thumbs up. If the words don't both have short /i/, they should give you a thumbs down. Say the following pairs of words, have students repeat them, and have students indicate a thumbs up or down: hit, hat; bin, tin; swim, pin; fat, rat; knit, hill; pit, trick.
• Give students the phonemic awareness worksheet and have them cut out the pictures and paste them in the right column.

Phonics: Initial and medial i

• Write the word it on the board and have students read it with you. Ask them what sound they hear at the beginning of the word. Repeat with the word is.
• Tell students that the short /i/ sound can sometimes be heard at the beginning of a word. Explain that it can also be heard in the middle of words. Write the word sit on the board. Model sounding out the word as you run your finger under the word. Hold each sound, except for stop sounds, for a full second: /ssss/ /iiii/ /t/. Have students blend the word with you.
• Write the following words on the board and have students sound them out with you as you run your finger under the letters: in, tin, fit, mitt, him, rim, tip, pip.
• Give students the phonics worksheet and explain what they are to do.

Vocabulary: Animal names

• Give pairs of students the vocabulary worksheet. Have them cut out the picture/word cards and mix them up. Then ask them to work with partners to sort the words into groups. Allow them to group the cards any way they wish. When they have finished sorting, ask them to tell why they grouped the words the way they did.
• Have students sort the words in various ways. Some examples include: animals that fly and animals that don’t; animals that eat plants and those that don’t; big animals and little animals. After each sorting, have the students discuss their groupings and explain why they grouped the words as they did.

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 Connection

• Have students use the pattern of the book to write a book about animals that live in their area.

Science Connection

• Select one of the animals mentioned in the book. Find nonfiction resources at the students’ interest level and read the books aloud to the group. Have students complete a fact web on the animal, filling it in with details they learned from the read-aloud.

Monitor students to determine if they can:

• compare the animals by organizing them onto a chart
• recognize and differentiate the short /i/ sound in the middle of words
• sound out words that contain i
• categorize vocabulary words according to meaningful criteria