About the Book

Text Type: Nonfiction/Descriptive
Page Count: 10
Word Count: 101

Book Summary
The narrator watches the clouds as they change shape and take on forms. The clouds grow bigger and darker until the rain comes and the narrator decides to go inside.

About the Lesson

Targeted Reading Strategy

• Visualize

Objectives

• Use the strategy of visualization to understand and remember factual information
• Identify main idea and details
• Blend phonemes
• Recognize and read words with l-family blends
• Recognize and use describing words
• Read and use high-frequency words

Materials

• Book -- Clouds (copy for each student)
• Chalkboard or dry erase board
• Index cards
• Main idea and details, high-frequency words 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: look, see, I, do, you, what, the, a
• Content words: puffy, jumbo, blue, round, creamy, fuzzy, tall, darker, thick

Before Reading

Build Background

• Have students close their eyes and picture clouds in their minds. While their eyes are still closed, ask volunteers to describe what they see. Record any descriptive words they mention in a list on the board.
• If possible, have students look out the window to observe the clouds. Have them brainstorm words to add to the list on the board. Ask students how the clouds they pictured in their mind are similar to and different from the clouds in the sky.

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 Clouds. (Accept any answers students can justify.)
• Show students the title page. Discuss the information on the page (title of book, author's name, illustrator's name). Ask students what shapes they can see in these clouds.

Introduce the Reading Strategy: Visualize

• Explain to students that good readers often visualize, or make pictures in their mind, as they read. Readers often use what they already know about a topic to make the pictures in their mind.
• Read page 3 aloud to students. Model how to visualize.
• Think-aloud: When I read the words big white clouds fill the blue sky, certain pictures came to mind. I pictured large puffs of white in the clear blue sky. The puffs reminded me of fluffy cotton balls. As I read this book, I am going to make a movie in my mind about what I am reading. This is called visualizing. After making the movie in my mind, I will use the pictures from my mind to help me understand the words in the book. I will continue to visualize as I read the rest of the story.
• Reread page 3 aloud to students. Have them close their eyes and listen as you read. Ask them to make pictures in their mind, or visualize, as you read. After you have finished reading, have students share what they visualized.
• Show students the picture in the book on page 3. Have them compare the picture in their mind to the picture in the book.
• 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

• Use the book walk to introduce the language patterns in the book and new vocabulary. For example, on page 4, ask students: What do you see in the clouds? I see a snowman. Do you? Which word on the page says snowman? How do you know?
• Remind students that they can look at the beginning and ending letters to help them figure out words. They can also look for familiar words. For example, point out that the word snowman is made up of two smaller words that they might already know. 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 to find out about the clouds in the book. Remind them to picture the clouds in their mind as they read.

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 (Big). Point out 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 on the bottom corner of the first 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.
• Think-aloud: As I read each page, I created a picture in my mind about the clouds. For example, on page 4, I pictured big puffs of clouds stacked on top of each other to create a tall white snowman.
• Invite students to share what they visualized, or pictured in their mind, while they read the book.
• Have students read the remainder of the book. Remind them to continue visualizing 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.
• Think-aloud: As I read, I continued to create pictures in my mind about clouds. When I read page 8, I pictured clouds stretched tall in the sky. I pictured skyscrapers and the pointed peaks of mountains. Stopping to visualize as I read helped me understand and remember information from the book.
• Have students share how visualizing helped them better understand and enjoy what they read. Invite students to explain how they visualized one of the descriptions of clouds.
• Discuss additional strategies students used to gain meaning from the book.

Teach the Comprehension Skill: Main idea and details

• Discussion: Ask students if they have seen clouds that looked like those in the book. Have them share what they saw.
• Introduce and model the skill: Explain to students that books 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. (Clouds can look like different things.) Make a large web on the board and write the following words in the center circle: Clouds can look like different things. Explain that there are details in the book that tell about the main idea.
• Think-aloud: On page 5, I read about the jumbo clouds. These big clouds looked like a whale to the narrator of the book. This is a detail that tells about the main idea. Write whale in the first outer circle on the web.
• Check for understanding: Have students point to another detail in their book that tells about the main idea. Observe and discuss their responses.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the main idea and details worksheet. When they have finished, discuss their responses.

Extend the discussion: Have students use the back cover of the book to draw a cloud in the shape of a familiar object. Have them show their picture and have students guess the object in the cloud.

Build Skills

Phonological Awareness: Blend phonemes

• Say the word cloud by segmenting it into its individual phonemes: /c/ /l/ /ou/ /d/. Remind students that they can tell what the word is by blending the sounds together to say the whole word: cloud.
• Say the following words one at a time by segmenting them into their individual phonemes: sheep, round, whale, blue, tall, dark, rain. Have students blend the sounds together to say each word.

Phonics: L-family blends

• Write the word clouds on the board and read it with students. Circle the cl blend and tell students that the sounds of the two letters together stand for the /cl/ sound. Have students repeat the blend. Have students find the word clouds on page 7 and put their finger on the letters that stand for the /cl/ sound.
• Write the following blends in a row on the board: bl, cl, fl, gl, pl, sl. Explain that other letters besides the letter c blend with l to make a blend. Tell them that these letter combinations belong to the group called l-family blends. Have students look at page 3 to see if they can find a word that starts with the /bl/ blend (blue).
• Have students read each blend with you. Under each blend, write a word that starts with that blend, such as blot, club, flat, glue, plan, and slim. Have students blend the sounds in each word together as you run your finger under the letters. Then have volunteers circle the blends in the words. Have the remaining students say the sounds each blend stands for.

Grammar and Mechanics: Adjectives

• Have students read the first sentence on the page and put their finger on the words that tell what the clouds look like (big, white). Then have students put their finger on the word that describes the sky (blue). Explain that these words are called describing words, or adjectives.
• Have students work with a partner to find and circle all the describing words in the book. Have students share the words they find.

Word Work: High-frequency words

• Write the words look, see, I, do, you, what, and the on the board and read each word with students. Explain that these words are used often in the books that students read. Have students read each word several times as you randomly point to the words.
• Spell each word aloud as students use their finger to write the letters in the air. Have volunteers use each word in an oral sentence.
• Without students seeing, erase a letter in one of the words. Ask students to tell which letter is missing. Have a student come to the board to replace the letter and have students read the word.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the high-frequency words worksheet. Have them work with a partner to combine the two sets of words. Have them practice reading the words to each other. If time permits, have the pairs spread out the cards face down on a desk or the floor and play Concentration. Have a student turn over two cards and read the words. If the words are read correctly, and if they match, the student may keep the words. If not, the student turns the cards back over and his or her partner takes a turn.

Build Fluency

Independent Reading

• Allow students to read their book independently. Additionally, partners can take turns reading parts of the book to each other.

Home Connection

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

Extend the Reading

Writing and Art Connection
Have students write the following sentences on a piece of paper: Look at the ________ clouds. I see a ________. Ask students to draw a picture of a cloud and complete their sentences by describing the cloud and what they see. Put the pages together to form a class book about clouds.

Science Connection
Draw pictures of different kinds of clouds on index cards. Write the name of each kind of cloud on a corresponding index card. Discuss each kind of cloud. Have students use cotton balls to make each kind of cloud. Have them paste their clouds on a piece of blue construction paper.

Assessment

Monitor students to determine if they can:

• describe their visualizations and tell how they helped them better understand the information in the book
• correctly identify the details that support the main idea of the book
• blend sounds heard orally to say whole words
• recognize words in the book with l-family blends; read simple words with l-family blends
• recognize and use describing words
• correctly read and use high-frequency words in sentences

Comprehension Checks

• Book Quiz
• Retelling Rubric

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