Frog Is Hungry - Lesson Plans

Frog Is Hungry
Level D

About the Book

Text Type: Fiction/Fantasy
Page Count: 12
Word Count: 77

Book Summary
A boy takes his pet frog outside. Frog decides he is hungry. He tries several things before he finds the right kind of frog food. Supportive pictures and high-frequency words make this humorous book perfect for emerging readers.

About the Lesson

Targeted Reading Strategy

Make, revise, and confirm predictions

Objectives

Make, revise, and confirm predictions to understand text
Identify story elements
Discriminate initial consonant sound /f/
Identify initial consonant Ff
Recognize and use proper nouns
Recognize and understand the use of sound words

Materials

Book -- Frog Is Hungry (copy for each student)
Chalkboard or dry erase board
Story elements, initial consonant Ff, proper nouns worksheets

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: are, him, in, love, not, says
Content words: boy, buzz, crunch, eats, flower, fly, frog, food, hop, hungry, lunch, munch, outside, stick, tank

Before Reading

Build Background

Write the word frog on the board and point to the word as you read it aloud to students. Repeat the process and have students say the words aloud.
Ask students to tell what they know about where frogs live and what they eat.

Book Walk

Introduce the Book

Show students the front and back covers of the book and read the title with them. Ask what they think they might read about in a book called Frog Is Hungry. (Accept all answers that students can justify.)
Show students the title page. Discuss the information on the page (title of book, author's name, illustrator's name).

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

Explain to students that good readers use what they know to make predictions, or guesses, about what will happen in a story. Explain that making predictions can help readers to make decisions, solve problems, and learn new information. Emphasize that knowing how to make predictions is more important than whether the prediction is correct, or confirmed. Readers continue to make new predictions based on clues they read in a story.
Model using the picture on the front cover of the book to make a prediction.
Think-aloud: When I look at the front cover of the book, I see a pair of feet and a frog jumping away from them. The frog appears to be happy. Since the title of the book is Frog Is Hungry, I wonder if the frog might be chasing something to eat. Maybe the person is watching the frog and what it does. I will have to read to find out if this prediction is correct.
Invite students to make a prediction based on the cover pictures and title. Have them share and discuss their predictions as a group.
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 Comprehension Skill: Story elements

Explain to students that certain elements are included in a fictional story. Write the following words on the board: characters, setting, problem, and solution.
Explain that characters are the people or other animals in the story, and the setting is where and when the story takes place. The characters usually are faced with a problem that needs to be solved.
Model identifying story elements in a familiar story.
Think-aloud: In the story Little Red Riding Hood, Little Red Riding Hood and the wolf are the main characters. Grandmother and the woodsman are also characters in the story. The setting is Grandma's house in the forest. The problem is that the wolf wants to eat Little Red Riding Hood. The solution is that the woodsman comes in and saves her from the wolf.

Introduce the Vocabulary

Remind students to look at the picture and the letter(s) with which a word begins or ends to figure out a difficult word. For example, point to the word hop on page 6 and say: I am going to check the picture and think about what would make sense to figure out this word. The picture shows the frog jumping away from the boy. When I look at the first part of the word, it starts like /h/. However, the word jump starts with the /j/ sound, so this can't be the word. I know another word for jump might be hop. The word hop starts with the /h/ sound. The sentence makes sense with this word. The word must be hop.
For additional tips on teaching high-frequency words and word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

Have students make, revise, and confirm predictions as they read about what happens to Frog in the story. Remind them to think about the characters, setting, problem, and solution 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 (Frog). Point out where to begin reading on each page. Remind students to read the words from left to right.
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 and identifying story elements.
Think-aloud: Before reading, I predicted that the book would be about the frog chasing his food and someone watching the frog to see what he does. Based on what I've read so far, Frog is the boy's pet and the boy took him outside. Since the word hungry is in the title, Frog might want something to eat. Frog lives in a tank, so he might be curious about the kinds of food he will find outside. I will revise my prediction. I predict that Frog will hop away to find something to eat and the boy will have to chase after Frog. I will continue reading to find out if my prediction is correct.
Have students review the outcome of their prediction. Invite them to make and/or revise a prediction.
Review the definitions of characters and setting with students. Discuss the characters so far in the story (the boy, Frog). Write these characters on the board. Model identifying the setting in the story using picture and context clues. Say: I read that the setting is outside. The boy takes his pet frog outside. Since the character is a child, it seems likely that he would stay close to his house. In the pictures, I see grass and flowers. Based on these clues, the outside setting might be the boy's yard.
Write the setting on the board. Introduce the story elements worksheet. Have students write information they know about the characters on their worksheet.
Check for understanding: Have students read to page 9. Remind them to use pictures, sentences, and what they already know to make predictions as they read. When they have finished reading, discuss the outcome of their prediction. Have them make, revise, and/or confirm a prediction.
Have students identify the setting in the story and write it on their worksheet. Have them read the remainder of the book. Encourage them to continue to make, revise, and/or confirm predictions as they read the rest of the book.

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.
Ask students to explain other predictions they made while reading. Invite them to discuss whether their predictions turned out to be true or whether they needed to be revised.
Think-aloud: I predicted that Frog would hop away to find something to eat and the boy would have to chase after Frog. My prediction was partly correct. Frog did hop away, and he tried to eat flowers and a stick before deciding to eat a fly. However, the boy did not need to chase after Frog. Each picture shows the boy's feet close to Frog, so I know that the boy was never very far from him.
Ask students to explain how making, revising, and confirming predictions helped them enjoy the story.

Reflect on the Comprehension Skill

Discussion: Discuss with students the story elements already identified in the previous discussions (characters, setting). Review with them the meaning of a problem and solution in a story.
Independent practice: Have students complete the story elements worksheet. If time allows, discuss their answers.
Enduring understanding: In the story, Frog tried eating several things before finding something he liked. Now that you know this information, why it is good to try new things?

Build Skills

Phonological Awareness: Discriminate initial consonant sound /f/

Say the word frog aloud to students, emphasizing the initial /f/ sound. Have students say the word aloud and then say the initial /f/ sound.
Have students say the /f/ sound. Read page 3 aloud to students. Have them raise their hand when they hear a word that begins with the /f/ sound.
Check for understanding: Say the following words one at a time and have students give the thumbs-up signal if the word begins with the /f/ sound: food, tank, love, flower, stick, fly.

Phonics: Initial consonant Ff

Write the word frog on the board and say it aloud with students.
Have students say the /f/ sound aloud. Then run your finger under the letters in the word as students say the whole word aloud. Ask students which letter stands for the /f/ sound in the word frog.
Have students practice writing the letter Ff on a separate piece of paper as they say the sound of the letter.
Check for understanding: Write the following words that begin with the /f/ sound on the board, leaving off the initial consonant: fin, fun, fan, fit. Say each word, one at a time, and have volunteers come to the board and add the initial consonant Ff to the words.
Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the initial consonant Ff worksheet. If time allows, discuss their answers.

Grammar and Mechanics: Proper nouns

Invite a volunteer to write his or her name on the board. Point out the capital letter at the beginning of the name. Explain that writers use a capital letter at the beginning of a name and that these special naming words are called proper nouns.
Have students turn to page 3. Read the sentences aloud with students. Explain that the first sentence calls the frog by his name, so it begins with a capital letter and is a proper noun.
Check for understanding: Have students name a proper noun. Have them explain why it is a proper noun and tell the kind of letter that would appear at the beginning of the word.
Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the proper nouns worksheet. If time allows, discuss their answers.

Word Work: Onomatopoeia

Have students turn to page 8. Read the second line aloud with students. Explain that these words stand for the sound Frog made as he ate the flower. Point out that writers often use words in books to stand for sounds.
Reread the line with students. Have them make a munching sound while reading each word.
Have students turn to page 9. Have them locate the sound words (Crunch). Read them several times aloud together.
Check for understanding: Have students reread the story and locate other examples of sound words that the writer used (Buzz). Have them read the words to a partner, making the sound the word stands for.

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. Have students retell the story to someone at home. Remind them to use all of the story elements in the retelling.

Extend the Reading

Narrative Writing and Art Connection
Have students draw a picture of Frog eating something outside. Have them write a sentence to tell what Frog ate and use sound words to describe how it sounded. Compile the pages into a class book.

Science Connection
Read a variety of books about frogs to students. Make a list of frog facts and help students compile a class book about frog facts.

Assessment

Monitor students to determine if they can:

consistently make, revise, and/or confirm predictions based on information in the text
accurately identify story elements during discussion and on a worksheet
correctly discriminate between words that begin with the /f/ sound
accurately identify and write the letter symbol that stands for the /f/ sound during discussion and on a worksheet
accurately identify proper nouns; locate them in text and on a worksheet
correctly identify and understand the use of onomatopoeia in text

Comprehension Checks

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