Build Background

• Show students a picture of a bicycle (or another vehicle with wheels). Have them describe what they see. Emphasize the number of wheels on the vehicle.
• Have students tell about things they are aware of or have ridden in that have wheels. Record these on a chart. Talk about the number of wheels that each of the things have.

Book Walk

Introduce the Strategy: Connect to prior knowledge

• Tell students that knowing something about the topic of the book they want to read helps them understand and remember what they are reading.
• Show students the front and back covers of the book. Tell students the title is How Many Wheels? Ask students to name what is on the front cover. Ask if they can tell where the vehicle is (sand, water). Tell students that the thing with wheels on the back cover is a cart that can be pulled by a horse. Ask what other kinds of things they think the cart might be attached to (donkey, oxen, big dog). Ask students what kinds of things with wheels they might read about in the book and if they think they may have ridden in or on any of them.
• Think aloud: I can predict that this book is going to be about things that have wheels by looking at the pictures on the front and back covers. My brother used to have a 4r-wheeler like the one on the front cover. It was fun to ride. I've only seen pictures of carts like the one on the back cover. (Comments should be tailored to fit personal experience).
• Encourage students to make connections with what they read in the story and what they already know or have experienced with things with wheels.
• Show students the title page. Talk about the information that is written on the page (title of book, author's name). Ask students whether the type of motorcycle and sidecar in the picture is familiar to them and how many wheels it has (3).

Introduce the Vocabulary

• Go through each page of the book with the students. Talk about the photographs and use the vocabulary they will encounter in the text. Ask the students to talk about what they see in each picture. Name each item that the students don't know. Reinforce the sentence pattern. For example, have students look at page 4 and ask: How many wheels do these things have? Yes, some things have 1 wheel.
• Ask a student to use your copy of the book to show the other students where they should start reading and in which direction they should go as they read.
• Reinforce new vocabulary and word-attack strategies by modeling how students might read unfamiliar words. For example, ask students to point to the picture of the wheel on page 4. Ask students to tell how many wheels they see (1). Have students say the word wheel and say the sound they hear at the beginning of the word. Ask students to say the sound they hear at the end of the word. Ask students to find the word on page 5 and explain how they know that the word is wheels. Point out that the ending sound of this word is different because it means more than 1 wheel. Ask students to look at the picture and decide if the word wheels makes sense. Reinforce that they can use the beginning letters of the words and the picture clues to read the word wheels.
• Repeat with other vocabulary words if necessary. Remind students to check if the word makes sense by looking at the picture and rereading the sentence.
• For additional teaching tips of reading and word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Tell students that as they read to think about what they already know about things with wheels.

Student Reading

• Guide the Reading: Give students their books and tell them to read to the end of page 5. Tell students to reread the pages if they finish before everyone else.
• When they have finished, ask students what things they read about that have 1 wheel or 2 wheels. Model connecting life experiences and using prior knowledge: One time when I was at the circus, I saw a clown riding a unicycle. That's a cycle like this one that has only 1 wheel. The clown's unicycle was very tall and painted pink. I've seen a bicycle like this, too. Because I have seen a unicycle before, I already know how many wheels it has.
• Continue the discussion by asking students to tell about the things they have seen that have the same number of wheels as something they have read about in the book.
• 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.
• Reinforce how using what they already know about things with wheels helped them read and understand the book.

Introduce the Comprehension Skill: Classify information

• Introduce and model the skill: Have students think about the previous discussion about things that have wheels. Direct students' attention to the chart (made while building background) that lists the things they knew about. Explain that all of these things belong to a big group called "things with wheels." Have students look at the pictures on page 4. Tell students that these things belong to a group called "things with 1 wheel." Explain to students that this is a small group because most things have more than 1 wheel.
• Check for understanding: Have students look at the pictures on page 5. Ask them to tell what group these items belong to (things with 2 wheels). Ask students if they can think of other things that belong to this group (motorcycle, horse-drawn buggy).
• Discussion: Point out that there are many types of items with 4 wheels and that they can be put into different "4 wheels" groups. Have students look at page 7 and suggest groups that 4 wheels might be put in (cars, trucks, buses). Have students look at page 10 and read the sentences with them. Ask them what kind of group they could make for the sled and the snowmobile (no wheels). Ask students to think of other things that do not have wheels but still move (all kinds of boats, skis, ice skates). Discuss how the sled and snowmobile move.
• Independent practice: Tell students to complete the classify information worksheet. Discuss their responses.
• Extend the Discussion:

    Instruct students to use the last page of their book to draw a picture of an object with wheels. Have them copy the word from the book that tells the number of wheels their object has. Ask students to share their pictures with the group.

Phonemic Awareness: Sound discrimination

• Have students listen carefully as you say three words: man, map, hat. Repeat the words and have students tell you which 2 words start with the same sound. If students cannot identify the two words, repeat the group of words and then tell them that man and map start with the same sound. Emphasize the /m/ as you say the words.
• Tell students you are going to say groups of words one group at a time. They are to listen carefully and tell you which 2 words in each group start with the same sound. Say the following words: pin/cat/pat; not/name/miss; ball/dog/dip; fun/fat/lip; moon/see/much; bear/big/pig; gum/jet/goat.

Phonics: Initial and final /m/

• Write the letter Mm on the board and have students name the letter. Tell students that the letter m stands for the /m/ sound.
• Write the words mop and gum on the board, and point out the letter m at the beginning of mop and at the end of gum. Explain that the letter m can be found at the beginning of some words and at the end of other words.
• Model sounding out the word mop as you run your finger under the word. Hold each sound for a full second and then blend the sounds together: /mmmm/ /oooo/ /p/: mop. Have students sound out the word with you. Repeat with the word gum.
• Write the following words on the board and have students sound them out with you as you run your finger under the letters: mat, ham, bum, man, map.
• Explain the phonics worksheet, modeling an example for them.

Grammar and Mechanics: Adjectives

• Write the following sentence on the board: Some things have one wheel. Explain that some words are used to tell what something else is like. Circle the words one and wheel. Explain that the word one is a word that tells how many wheels there are.
• Have students turn to page 5 in the book. Tell them to put their finger on the word that tells how many wheels the bicycle and cart have. Repeat for pages 6 and 7.
• Have students turn to page 8 and read the sentence with them. Tell them that the word many is used to tell how many wheels are on the bus and the truck. Have students look at page 9. Tell them to put their finger on the word that tells about the wheels on the train and the earthmover.

Vocabulary: Number words

• Give students the number words worksheet. Have them draw pictures of things to represent each number.

Independent Reading

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

Home Connection

• Give students their books to take home to read with parents, caregivers, siblings, or friends.
• Give students their worksheets to take home. They can complete them with the help of their parents, caregivers, siblings, or friends.

Writing Connection

• Write the following sentence on the board Some things have four wheels. Ask students to think of things they've talked about that have four wheels. Tell them to select one, write a sentence, and draw a picture about it. Display on a bulletin board titled "These things have four wheels."

Math Connection

• Have students look around the room to find one, two, three, four, and many things. For example, the classroom might have one door. There might be two windows. Expand the activity by having students group items of one, two, three, and four, such as one book, two pieces of chalk, or three books.

Monitor students to determine if they can:

• tell how the things in the book are like things they have seen
• put the items in the book into groups according to their attributes
• tell which two words in each group start with the same sound
• associate the sound /m/ with the letter m and read simple CVC words that contain initial and final /m/
• demonstrate an understanding that some words tell about other words by identifying adjectives in the text
• recognize number words and label items they draw with the correct number of wheels

Comprehension Checks