What? - Lesson Plans

What?
Level D

About the Book

Text Type: Fiction/Fantasy
Page Count: 10
Word Count: 97

Book Summary
What? tells the story of Curious Cat, who is tired of eating the same thing for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The questions he asks will be familiar to early readers. The repetitive sentence pattern is supported by engaging illustrations.

About the Lesson

Targeted Reading Strategy

Retell

Objectives

Use the reading strategy of pausing to retell to clarify information in the story
Sequence story events
Blend onset and rime
Associate the letter Aa with the short /a/ vowel sound
Capitalize and punctuate questions
Identify question words

Materials

Book -- What? (copy for each student)
Chalkboard or dry erase board
Sequence events, short /a/ worksheets
Word journal (optional)

Indicates an opportunity for student to mark in the book. (All activities may be completed with paper and pencil if you choose not to have students consume the books.)

Vocabulary

High-frequency words: what, have, for, said, is
Content words: curious, breakfast, morning, lunch, afternoon, dinner, please, pizza, snack

Before Reading

Build Background

Ask students which foods they like to eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Ask whether they would like to eat the same food for every meal. Ask them to explain why or why not.
Ask students which foods cats like to eat.

Book Walk

Introduce the Book

Show students the front cover of the book and read the title with them. Ask what they think they might read about in a book called What? (Accept any answer that students can justify.) Ask students who they think is asking the question What and why he or she is asking the question.
Show students the back cover. Ask students to explain what the cats are doing. Have students predict what the cats might do in the story. Ask them whether the pictures provide clues as to whether this story is reality or fantasy.
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 to students that one way to understand and remember what they are reading is to stop now and then during reading to retell in their mind what is happening in the story.
Explain to students that when someone retells something, they explain the details of what happened in order. Point out to them that people retell stories as part of their daily lives, such as explaining what happened at a sports game. Ask them to share other examples of when people might give a retelling.
Model retelling a familiar story in detail, such as Goldilocks and the Three Bears.
Think-aloud: In Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Goldilocks comes to a house in the forest that belongs to three bears: a mama bear, a papa bear, and a baby bear. The bears leave the house for a walk in the forest while their porridge was cooling. Goldilocks goes inside the house, even though no one is home. First, Goldilocks sees three bowls of porridge on the table. She tries each one. The first bowl is too hot, the second bowl is too cold, and the third bowl was just right, so she eats it all up. Next, she sees three chairs and sits in each one. The first chair is too hard, the second chair is too soft, and the third chair is just right. However, that chair breaks and Goldilocks falls to the ground.
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 in the story.
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

As you preview the book with students, model the language patterns in the book. For example, ask: What is for breakfast? Yes, that’s right, fish. What do you think Curious Cat is asking Mother Cat on this page?
As vocabulary words are mentioned, point to the corresponding word to help the student make the picture/word connection. For example, ask which word on page 4 says breakfast and how students can tell this (initial sound, final sound, recognizable word part fast, picture clue of toaster).
Encourage students to add the new vocabulary words to their word journals.
For additional tips on teaching high-frequency words or word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

Have students read to find out how the story ends. Remind them to stop reading at the end of each page with a sticky note to quickly retell in their mind the details of what has happened so far in the story.

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 (What). 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.
Have students read to the end of page 4, using their finger to point to each word as they read. Encourage students who finish before others to reread the text.
Ask students what has happened so far in the story. Model how you stopped to mentally retell the story.
Think-aloud: I stopped after a few pages to retell in my mind what I had read so far. First, Curious Cat asked his mother what he was going to eat for breakfast. His mother told Curious Cat that fish was for breakfast. The picture showed two fish popping up from a toaster.
Have students read to the end of page 6. Ask them to retell the events of the story to a partner.
Have students read the remainder of the story. Remind them to pause after a few pages to think about what has happened in the story and to make sure they understand it.

Have students make a small question mark in their book beside any word or words 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 as an opportunity to model how to read these words using decoding strategies and context clues.
Retell in detail with students the events of the story from page 7, using the picture in the book as a guide.
Think-aloud: After Mother Cat said that fish were for lunch, Curious Cat wanted to know what there was to eat for afternoon snack. Mother Cat was in the water holding a fish. She said that fish was the afternoon snack.
Have volunteers retell the events from page 8 to the end of the book, using the pictures in the book as a guide. Then have them retell the story to a partner, starting at the beginning. Listen for whether students include the following: correct events in detail, events in order, main characters.
Ask students how pausing to retell the story in their minds helped them remember what was happening in the story.
Discuss additional strategies students used to gain meaning from the book.

Teach the Comprehension Skill: Sequence events

Discussion: Ask students why Curious Cat wanted to have pizza for dinner. Invite them to share how Curious Cat's feelings about eating fish changed from the beginning to the end of the story.
Introduce and model the skill: Tell students that a story is a series of things that happen in a particular order. First one thing happens, then something else, and so on. Explain that the order in which the things happen is called the sequence. Point out the sequence in this story.
Think-aloud: In this story, the first thing that happened was Curious Cat asked what food was for breakfast. Mother Cat said fish was for breakfast. Next Curious Cat wanted to know what food was for morning snack. Mother Cat said fish was for morning snack. I'm not including all the details, as I did when I retold the story. For example, I didn't mention that two fish popped up from the toaster, or how mother was holding a fishbowl when she told Curious Cat about the morning snack. I'm only telling the most important events in order to tell the story correctly.
Check for understanding: Have students share the sequence of events through the end of the story. If necessary, use the pictures in the book as a guide.
Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the sequence events worksheet. If time allows, discuss their answers.

Instruct students to use the last page of their book to draw a picture of Curious Cat eating something else besides fish or pizza. Have students share their picture with the group.

Build Skills

Phonological Awareness: Blend onset and rime

Say the word cat and tell students that you can say the beginning part and the ending part of the word separately: c-at. Tell students that the beginning part of the word is called the onset and the ending part is called the rime. Model blending the onset and rime together for the word cat: c-at, cat.
Say the following onsets and rimes aloud: sn-ack, f-ish, c-an, l-unch. Have students repeat the onset and rime. Have them practice blending the two parts of the word together. Ask students to say the word (snack, fish, can, lunch).

Phonics: Short /a/

Write the word cat on the board and read it aloud with students. Ask students what vowel sound they hear in the middle of the word cat. Point out that the letter Aa stands for the short /a/ vowel sound in cat. Have students say the short /a/ vowel sound.
Have students turn to page 10 in their book and find the word cat. Have them put their finger on the letter that stands for the short /a/ vowel sound. Challenge them to find two other words on the page that contain the short /a/ vowel sound (can, have).
Write the following words on the board, leaving out the letter a in each word: cap, ham, ran, dad. Have volunteers complete the words by writing the letter a in the blank spaces. Have students blend the sounds in the words together as you run your finger under the letters.
Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the short /a/ worksheet. If time allows, discuss their answers.

Grammar and Mechanics: Capitalization and punctuation

Review or explain that there are two kinds of sentences. One kind is a sentence that tells the reader something, such as I like fish. Ask students what comes at the beginning and at the end of every telling sentence (capital letter and a period). Remind students that the signal at the end tells readers to stop reading.
Review or explain that another type of sentence is an asking sentence. It is called a question. Ask students to give an example of a question. Write the question on the board. Ask students what comes at the beginning of the question sentence (capital letter). Circle the question mark. Explain that a question mark comes at the end of a question sentence.
Write the following questions on the board, leaving off the initial capitalization and the end punctuation: what is your name; when is lunch; are you hungry.
Have volunteers come to the board and make corrections to the sentences. Have students write their own question sentence on a separate piece of paper. Invite them to share their questions aloud.

Word Work: Question words

Direct students to the cover of the book. Have students read the title of the story aloud. Write the word what on the board. Explain that this word signals a question.
Tell students that there are other words that signal a question when they come at the beginning of a sentence. Invite students to share question words they know. Write the words how, why, who, where, and when on the board. Read each word with students. Then have them ask oral questions using the question words.

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
Give each student a white paper plate or a white circle of paper. Ask them to draw and label their favorite foods to eat. Post on a class bulletin board titled "This is What We Like to Eat!"

Science Connection
Discuss the food groups on the food pyramid. Have students use the information from the discussion to plan a healthy meal. Have them draw their meal on a separate piece of paper.

Assessment

Monitor students to determine if they can:

pause while reading to retell what is happening in the story
correctly sequence events from the story during discussion and on a worksheet
accurately blend onsets and rimes of words
accuritely associate the letter Aa with the short /a/ vowel sound in simple CVC words
correctly capitalize and punctuate question sentences
use question words appropriately in oral sentences

Comprehension Checks

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