Text Type: Nonfiction/Informational
Page Count: 12
Word Count: 112 

Book Summary
This book teaches students about the types of animals that live in the country. Students learn some of the eating habits and activities of these animals. Detailed photographs and repetitive phrases support early readers.

About the Lesson

Targeted Reading Strategy

• Connect to prior knowledge

Objectives

• Use the reading strategy of connecting to prior knowledge to understand text
• Identify main idea and details
• Discriminate initial consonant digraph wh
• Identify initial consonant digraph wh
• Recognize and use pronoun they
• List words in alphabetical order

Materials

• Book -- Country Animals (copy for each student)
• Chalkboard or dry erase board
• Main ideas and details, consonant digraph wh, pronouns 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: do, from, they, what, where, you
• Content words: animals, country, eat, fields, geese, grains, kinds, live, people, rivers, robins, squirrels

Build Background

• Write the word country on the board and point to it as you read it aloud to students. Repeat the process and have students say the word aloud.
• Ask students whether they have ever been to the country. Have them identify animals they have seen in the country.

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 Country Animals. (Accept all answers that students can justify.)
• Show students the title page. Discuss the information on the page (title of book, author's name).
• Write the following repetitive phrase on the board: _____ live in the country. Read the phrase aloud, pointing to the words as you read them to students. Have students read them aloud with you. Explain that these words repeat throughout the book.

Introduce the Reading Strategy: Connect to prior knowledge

• Explain to students that good readers make connections between what they already know and new information they read. Remind them that thinking about what they already know about the topic of the book will help them understand what they read.
• Model connecting to prior knowledge using the information on the covers.
  Think-aloud: When I look at the picture on the cover, I see an animal with its face and feet in the water. The animal has a lot of fur and black circles around its eyes. It looks as if it's wearing a mask. The animal must be a raccoon. This reminds me of animals I've seen outside drinking water from ponds and puddles. I know that when I get thirsty, I get a drink of water. Animals that live outside have to find water to drink. I know that raccoons and other animals need water to survive.
• Invite students to share how they connected to prior knowledge based on the cover and title page of 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 Comprehension Skill: Main idea and details

• Explain to students that every book has a big, or main, idea, which is what the book is mostly about. Read the title to them. Explain that the title often provides clues about the book's main idea. Invite students to share predictions about the main idea of this book.
• Explain to students that the main, or big, idea of this book is many kinds of animals live in the country. Write the following sentence on the board: Many kinds of animals live in the country. Point to each word as you read the sentence aloud with students.
• Model how to identify details.
  Think-aloud: I know that every book has details that help explain the big idea. I know that this book is about the kinds of animals that live in the country. I see a picture on the title page of a mouse sitting on a stalk of grain. I know that grain grows in the country and mice like to eat grain. A mouse might be a kind of animal that lives in the country. Since this helps to explain the big idea, mice might be a detail in the book.
• Review the animals that students have seen in the country that were discussed in the Build Background section. Discuss whether any of these animals might be details in the story.

Introduce the Vocabulary

• Remind students to look at the picture and the letters with which a word begins or ends to figure out a difficult word. For example, point to the word lakes on page 7 and say: I am going to check the picture and think about what would make sense to figure out this word. The picture shows geese and ducks swimming in the water. When I look at the first part of the word, it starts like /l/. However, the word water starts with the /w/ sound, so this can't be the word. I have seen animals swimming in ponds and lakes, which are bodies of water. The word lakes begins with the /l/ sound. The sentence makes sense with this word. The word must be lakes.
• For additional tips on teaching high-frequency words and word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Have students use what they already know about the kinds of animals that live in the country to help them read the book. Remind them to think about the details that support the main idea as they read.

Student Reading

• Guide the reading: Give students their copy of the book. Ask them to place a finger on the number in the bottom corner of a 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.
• Model connecting to prior knowledge.
  Think-aloud: On page 5, I see some birds in a nest. Some of the birds are little. There is a bigger bird standing over the little birds. The little birds have their mouths open. They look as if they are crying, waiting for something from the big bird. This reminds me of babies I've seen who are crying. When they cry, their mothers usually feed them by putting a bottle in their mouth. I know that birds don't drink from a bottle. I've seen birds eat worms. These babies are probably waiting for their mother to give them a worm to eat.
• Invite students to share how they connected with what they already knew as they read.
• Review the main idea of the book: Many kinds of animals live in the country. Ask students to explain whether robins are a detail that supports the main idea of the book and why (yes; robins are animals that live in the country).
• Introduce and explain the main idea and details worksheet. Write the word robins on the board. Have students write the word and draw a picture that represents the word robins in one of the spaces on their worksheet. Invite students to tell another animal from their reading that supports the main idea (deer). Have students write and draw a picture of deer on their worksheet.
• Check for understanding: Have students read to the end of page 8. Encourage them to share how they connected to prior knowledge as they read. (Accept all answers that show students understand how to connect to prior knowledge.)
• Ask students to think about other details they read that support the main idea. Have them choose one of the details to draw on their worksheet. Ask them to label their drawing using the word from the book. Have students share the detail they drew and wrote about.
• Have students read the remainder of the book. Remind them to use what they already know about the kinds of animals that live in the country to help them understand new information 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.

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: When I read page 10, it reminded me of large groups of cows I've seen in big country fields. They seem to eat a lot of grass. Therefore, it makes sense that the fields cows graze in must be big.
• Have students draw a picture on a separate piece of paper showing how they connected to prior knowledge while reading about one of the animals that live in the country. Invite them to share and explain their picture with the rest of the class.
• Ask students to explain how thinking about what they already know helped them to understand and remember the story.

Reflect on the Comprehension Skill

• Discussion: Read the main idea on the board with students. Review the details students drew on their worksheet. Invite them to explain why each of the details on their worksheet matches the main idea of the story.
• Independent practice: Have students complete the main idea and details worksheet.
• Enduring understanding: In this book, you learned about some of the animals that live in the country. Now that you know this information, why is the country a good environment for these animals?

Phonological Awareness: Discriminate initial consonant digraph wh

• Say the word where aloud to students, emphasizing the /wh/ sound. Have students say the word aloud and then say the /wh/ sound.
• Read page 12 aloud to students. Have them raise their hand when they hear a word that begins with the /wh/ 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 /wh/ sound: what, when, twigs, which, trees.

Phonics: Identify initial consonant digraph wh

• Write the word where on the board and say it aloud with students.
• Have students say the /wh/ sound aloud. Then run your finger under the letters in the word as students say the whole word aloud. Ask students which letters stand for the /wh/ sound in the word where.
• Have students practice writing the wh letter combination on a separate piece of paper while saying the /wh/ sound.
• Check for understanding: Write the following words that begin with the /wh/ sound on the board, leaving off the initial digraph: when, whack, whiff. Say each word, one at a time, and have volunteers come to the board and add the initial digraph in each word. Have students practice blending the sounds together to say each word.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the consonant digraph wh worksheet. If time allows, discuss their answers.

Grammar and Mechanics: Pronoun they

• Have students turn to page 5. Read the sentences aloud with students. Point to the word they. Ask students to whom the word they refers in this sentence (robins).
• Have students tell how many robins are pictured in the photograph (more than one; four). Explain to students that the word they is used to tell about more than one of something.
• Have a volunteer name an animal that lives near them (such as coyotes). Draw and label the animal on the board or on chart paper. Invite a volunteer to draw two or more of the same animal. Have students tell two ways to identify the group of animals (coyotes, they). Write the labels next to the drawing.
• Check for understanding: Divide students into pairs. Have them identify a group of two or more objects in the classroom. Then have them tell about the objects to the class using the name of the objects and the pronoun.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the pronouns worksheet. If time allows, discuss their responses.

Word Work: Alphabetical order

• Review or explain to students that words are sometimes placed in a list by alphabetical order. Words are placed in alphabetical order by first looking at the beginning letter in each word and then deciding which letter comes first in the alphabet.
• Write the words country and animals on the board. Underline the first letter in each word. Ask students which letter comes first in the alphabet, c or a. Explain that the word animals would come first in an alphabetical list.
• Write the words country and fields on the board. Have students identify the initial letter in each word (c and f). Ask students to identify which letter comes first in the alphabet (c). Explain that the word country would come first in an alphabetical list.
• Check for understanding: List the content vocabulary words in the following order on the board: geese, animals, squirrels, robins, country, fields. Have students write the words in alphabetical order on a separate piece of paper. When they have finished, discuss their answers.

Independent Reading

• Allow students to read their book independently or with a partner. 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 them identify the main idea and details of the book to someone at home.

Informational Report Writing and Art Connection
Provide students with books about animals. Have them choose one animal and draw a picture of it. Under the picture, have students write sentences telling where the animal lives and something the animal does or eats. Reinforce the pronoun they.

Science Connection
Choose two animals from the book: an herbivore and a carnivore. Discuss the meaning of the two words. Extend the discussion to illustrate the food chain.