Text Type: Fiction/Realistic
Page Count: 10
Word Count: 71

Book Summary
Lily the Cat woke up from her nap and decided to look around the house. What will Lily see as she goes around the house? Lily the Cat provides the opportunity for students to retell the story as well as sequence events. Illustrations support the text. High-frequency words and repetitive phrases make this book a great choice for beginning readers.

About the Lesson

Targeted Reading Strategy

• Retell

Objectives

• Use the reading strategy of retelling to understand and remember story events
• Sequence events
• Segment onset and rime
• Identify short /a/ vowel
• Identify and use past tense verbs
• Identify and use position words

Materials

• Book -- Lily the Cat (copy for each student)
• Chalkboard or dry erase board
• Sequence events, short /a/ vowel, past-tense verbs worksheets
• Discussion cards

     Indicates an opportunity for students to mark in the book. (All activities may be demonstrated by projecting the book on interactive whiteboard or completed with paper and pencil if books are reused.)

Vocabulary

• High-frequency words: her, from, saw, she
• Content words: chair, circled, couch, crossed, curled, jumped, strolled, table, walked

Build Background

• Write the word nap on the whiteboard and point to the word as you read it aloud to students. Repeat the process and have students say the word aloud.
• Invite students to explain what a nap is. Discuss the reasons someone might take a nap.

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 Lily the Cat. (Accept any 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: Retell

• Explain that good readers stop now and then during reading to retell in their mind what is happening in the story. Stopping to retell the events of the story helps readers remember and understand what they are reading.
• Explain that when people retell a story or event, they explain the details in order. Point out that people retell stories as part of their daily lives, such as sharing what happened at school or the events on a television show.
• Model retelling a familiar story in detail, such as The Three Little Pigs.
  Think-aloud: If I were going to retell the story of The Three Little Pigs, I would tell it something like this: The pigs decide to build their own houses. The first little pig builds his house out of straw. The big bad wolf comes along and asks the little pig to let him in. The little pig refuses, so the wolf huffs and puffs and blows down the house of straw. The little pig runs away. The second little pig builds his house out of sticks. The big bad wolf comes along and asks to be let in. When the second little pig refuses, the wolf huffs and puffs and blows down the house of sticks. The second little pig runs away.
• Continue retelling in detail to the end of the story. Invite students to suggest information for the retelling of this story.
• Have students place sticky notes on pages 4, 6, 8, and 10. Explain that as they read, they should stop on these pages to think about what has happened so far in the story. Encourage students to retell in their mind what happens in the story as they read.
• 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: Sequence events

• Review or explain that stories are generally told in order from beginning to end.
• Model sequencing the main events of the story The Three Little Pigs. Write key words about each event in order on the board as you describe them to students.
  Think-aloud: If I want someone to be able to retell the story of the Three Little Pigs, they need to include certain events in order to tell the story correctly. In this story, the first event that happens is that the first little pig builds a house out of straw. Next, the second little pig builds a house out of sticks. Then, the third pig builds a house out of bricks. After that, the wolf blows down the first pig's house. Then he blows down the second pig's house. Last, he tries to blow down the third pig's house, but he can't.
• Explain that certain words are often used to explain a sequence of events. Read the list of events on the board to students in order, using words such as first, next, then, and last. Ask students to identify sequencing words in the example.
• Have a volunteer use the key words on the board to sequence the events of the story out of order. Ask students to explain why the order of the steps is important (the sequence does not make sense out of order).
• Point out the difference between the sequence of events listed on the board and a retelling of The Three Little Pigs (the retelling contains more detail and description; the list shows only the events that were most important for someone to understand the story). Ask students to provide examples of details from the story that are not included in the sequence of events.

Introduce the Vocabulary

• While previewing the book, reinforce the vocabulary words students will encounter in the story. For example, while looking at the picture on page 3, you might say: It looks as though Lily the Cat woke up from her nap.
• Remind students to look at the pictures and the letters with which a word begins or ends to figure out a difficult word. For example, point to the word jumped on page 4 and say: I am going to check the picture and think about what would make sense to figure out this word. The picture shows that Lily hopped down from the bed. When I look at the first part of the word, it starts like /j/. However, the word hopped starts with the /h/ sound, so this can't be the word. I know that another word that means almost the same thing as hopped is jumped. The word jumped starts with the /j/ sound. I also hear the /m/ sound in the middle of jumped. The sentence makes sense with this word. The word must be jumped.
• For additional tips on teaching high-frequency words and word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Have students read to find out what Lily did after she woke up from her nap. Remind them to stop reading at the end of each page with a sticky note to quickly retell in their mind the details of the story so far.

Student Reading

• Guide the reading: Give students their copy of the book. Have them read to the end of page 5 and then stop to think about what has happened so far in the story. Encourage students who finish before others to reread the text.
• Model retelling.
  Think-aloud: I stopped after a few pages to retell in my mind what I had read so far. I learned that Lily the Cat just woke up from her nap. She jumped down from the bed, and she saw a door. She decided to walk through the door, and then she saw a room.
• Introduce the sequence events worksheet. Ask students to explain what happened first in the story (Lily woke up). Ask a volunteer to point out the picture that matches the first event in the story.
• Ask students what happened next (Lily jumped down from the bed). Remind students that only the main events are included in the sequence of events.
• Check for understanding: Have students read to the end of page 8. Have them retell what they have read so far.
• Have students read the remainder of the book. Remind them to retell what they have read so far and think about the sequence of events to help them understand and remember the events as they read.
• Have students cut out and order the pictures from their worksheet.

      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.

• 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.

Reflect on the Reading Strategy

• Retell in detail the events of the story after Lily strolled under the table.
  Think-aloud: Lily saw the couch and jumped up on the couch with the boy. Then she saw the boy's lap. Lily decided that his lap was a good place to curl up and take another nap.
• Have students retell the story from the beginning to a partner. Listen for whether they include the following: correct events in detail, events in order, main characters, problem, and solution.

Reflect on the Comprehension Skill

• Discussion: Have students use the cards from their worksheet to tell the sequence of events to a partner. Listen for whether they include the words first, next, then, after that, and last.
• Independent practice: Have students glue the cards on their worksheet next to the appropriate sequence words. If time allows, discuss their answers.
• Enduring understanding: In the story, Lily explores the house by walking all around, as if she is looking for something. She finds the boy and curls up in his lap to take a nap. Now that you know this information, what do you know about the relationship between people and their pets?

Phonological Awareness: Segment onset and rime

• Say the word cat aloud to students. Explain that you are going to say the word a second time and leave off the /k/ sound. Then say: /at/; cat without /k/ is /at/.
• Have students identify other words that end with the /at/ sound (mat, sat, hat, and so on).
• Have students say the word lap. Then have them say the word lap without the /l/ sound (/ap/).
• Check for understanding: Say the following words aloud one at a time: saw, chair, bed, woke, door. Say aloud the initial sound before the vowel (onset). Ask students to say each word without the sound(s) of the onset.

Phonics: Short /a/ vowel

• Write the word cat on the board and say it aloud with students.
• Have students say the short /a/ sound aloud. Then run your finger under the letters in the word as students say the word aloud. Ask students which letter stands for the short /a/ sound in the word cat.
• Check for understanding: Write the following words that have the short /a/ sound on the board, leaving out the a: ran, nap, sat. Say each word, one at a time, and have volunteers come to the board and add the a in each word. Have students practice blending the sounds together to say each word.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the short /a/ vowel worksheet. If time allows, discuss their responses.

Grammar and Mechanics: Past-tense verbs

• Have students turn to page 4. Read the sentences aloud with students. Point to the word jumped. Explain that the word jumped is a verb and that it refers to an action that happened in the past.
• Invite students to tell the present-tense form of the word (jump). Point out the -ed ending on the word jump. Explain that the ed letter combination on the end of a verb tells readers that the action happened in the past.
• Have students read page 5. Point to the word walked. Invite students to tell the present-tense form of the word (walk).
• Check for understanding: Write the words crossed, strolled, and circled on the board. Have students write each word in its past tense on a separate piece of paper.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the past-tense verbs worksheet. If time allows, discuss their responses.

Word Work: Position words

• Write the word down on the board. Invite students to explain the meaning of the word. Have students turn to page 4 in the book. Reread the first sentence with them. Have students move their finger on the picture to where the cat was located when she jumped down from the bed.
• Explain that the word down is a position word. Position words tell the location of things.
• Have students turn to page 5 and locate the word through. Have them point to the picture to show where the cat was located as she moved through the door.
• Have students locate the words on pages 8 and 9 that tell where the cat was located (under, up).
• Check for understanding: Have students use the position words up, down, through, and under in oral sentences.

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 focus on the sequence of events in the retelling.

Realistic Fiction Writing Connection
Have students draw a picture of one of their pets, or a pet they would like to have, doing something a pet can actually do. Have them write sentences to tell about the picture.

Math Connection
Use the sequence of events to count the number of events in the story. Discuss how many places Lily the Cat went in the house. Write number sentences based on the information.

Skill Review
Discussion cards covering comprehension skills and strategies not explicitly taught with the book are provided as an extension activity. The following is a list of some ways these cards can be used with students:

• Use as discussion starters for literature circles.
• Have students choose one or more card and write a response, either as an essay or a journal entry.
• Distribute before reading the book and have students use one of the questions as a purpose for reading.
• Cut apart and use the cards as game cards with a board game.
• Conduct a class discussion as a review before the book quiz.