A Clown Face - Lesson Plans

A Clown Face
Level F

About the Book

Text Type: Nonfiction/How-to
Page Count: 12
Word Count: 180

Book Summary
A Clown Face outlines the steps involved in dressing up to look like a clown. Early readers will enjoy the detailed illustrations that correspond with the repetitive text pattern. They may even be inspired to use the book as a guide to dress up as a clown.

About the Lesson

Targeted Reading Strategy

Make, revise, and confirm predictions

Objectives

Make, revise, and confirm predictions based on text information
Sequence events
Discriminate medial sounds
Read VCe long /a/ vowel words
Recognize adjectives
Identify words that indicate sequence

Materials

Book -- A Clown Face (copy for each student)
Chalkboard or dry erase board
Index cards
Sequence events, VCe long /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 mark the books.)

Vocabulary

High-frequency words: then, next, first
Content words: clown, face, mouth, smile, eyelids, eyebrows, cheeks, nose, jacket, shoes

Before Reading

Build Background

Ask students if and when they have seen a clown. Generate discussion with them by asking: Where do you see clowns? What do clowns look like? What do people do to dress up like a clown? What is the job of a clown?
Make a list of the words students use to describe clowns. Emphasize any content vocabulary words in the book from the discussion.

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 A Clown Face. (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).

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

Explain to students that good readers make predictions, or guesses, about what will happen in a story. Explain to them that making predictions can help people to make decisions, solve problems, and learn new information. Emphasize that knowing how to make predictions is more important than whether the prediction is right, or confirmed.
Model using the cover pictures of the book to make a prediction.
Think-aloud: I know that good readers look at the cover of a book to get an idea of what the book is about. Looking at the front cover, I see a person with a clown face putting on a wig. On the back cover, I see a girl putting something on her face. She does not have a painted clown face like the person on the cover. However, she is dressed the same. I wonder if the girl on the back cover is dressing up as a clown. Maybe this book will tell me all the things I will need to dress up as a clown. Making predictions about the book gives me a purpose for reading it because I want to find out if my predictions are correct.
Have students use the pictures on the covers and title page to make a prediction before reading the book. Invite them to share their prediction.
Have students read the remainder of the book. Remind them to make, revise, or confirm a prediction 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 Vocabulary

Have students turn to page 4 in their book. Point out the word paint. Ask students to look at the letters at the beginning and ending of the word. Have students look at the picture on the page and tell you the word. Repeat with other vocabulary words, if necessary.
Remind students to look at the beginning and ending sounds, and other parts that they recognize, to help them say words. They should also check whether a word makes sense by looking at the picture or rereading the sentence.
Model a variety of word-attack strategies. For example, point to the word eyelids on page 6 and say: This is kind of a big word, but I recognize two words that make up this word: eye and lids. I will read the sentence using the word eyelids to see if it makes sense. Looking for parts I know in words is a good strategy to work out unfamiliar words. Then I always check whether the word makes sense.
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 whether or not their prediction about the story is correct or if it needs to be revised.

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 (How). 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 in the bottom corner of the 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 revising a prediction.
Think-aloud: Before reading, I predicted that the book would tell me all of the things I will need to dress up as a clown. I learned that clowns put white paint all over their face. Next, they use red paint to make a large smile. So far, the book has shown me the steps I need to take to make my face look like a clown's face. I want to revise my prediction. I predict that the rest of the book will be about how to make your face look like a clown's face.
Ask students if they can confirm their prediction based on the words they read and the pictures. Have them revise their prediction or make a new prediction.
Have students read the remainder of the book. Encourage them to continue to make, revise, and/or confirm predictions as they read the rest of the story.

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.
Invite students to discuss whether their prediction turned out to be true or whether it needed to be revised. Reinforce that making predictions about what they are reading helps them get meaning from the book and gives them a purpose for reading.
Think-aloud: I predicted that the rest of the book would show me the steps to make my face look like a clown's face. This prediction was partially correct. I did learn how to make my face look like a clown's face. However, I also learned about the kinds of clothes a clown wears.
Discuss additional strategies students used to gain meaning from the book.

Teach the Comprehension Skill: Sequence events

Discussion: Ask students to describe how this clown is like clowns they have seen in person or in pictures.
Introduce and model the skill: Write the words lunch, dinner, and breakfast on index cards. Place them in the same order along the chalkboard ledge or in a pocket chart. Read the following list of events: First, I ate lunch. Next, I ate dinner. Last, I ate breakfast. Invite students to share comments about the order of the list. Invite a volunteer to reorder the events of the list in a way that makes sense to him or her and read the list of events. Guide students to understand that events told out of order do not make sense.
Think-aloud: Whenever I do something, I always seem to follow certain steps. For example, when I brush my teeth I first need to get my toothbrush and toothpaste. Next, I put some toothpaste on my toothbrush. Then, I put my toothbrush in my mouth and move it around my teeth in small circles. After that, I spit the toothpaste out and rinse my mouth with water. Last, I put my toothbrush and toothpaste away.
Check for understanding: Have students identify the first and second steps to put on a clown's face. Ask if she needs to put on her white face paint before she puts on her nose or mouth. Ask what would happen if she put on her mouth first and then the white face paint. Have students explain why the order of the steps is important in this sequence.
Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the sequence events worksheet. If time allows, discuss their answers.

Have students draw a picture on the inside back cover that shows the kind of clown they would like to be. Have them share their drawings with each other.

Build Skills

Phonological Awareness: Discriminate medial sounds

Say the words clown and house, stretching the sounds in each word. Ask students to tell what is similar about the two words. Tell students that both words have the same middle sound. Have students repeat the words and listen for the medial sound.
Say the words make, pants, and face. Tell students that two of the words have the same middle sound and one of the words has a different sound. Repeat the words and have students tell which words have similar middle sounds.
Say the following groups of words, one at a time, stretching the sounds in each word: part/wall/harp; shut/burn/third; press/joke/blend; wrote/stone/bride. Have students tell which words in each group have similar middle sounds.

Phonics: VCe Long /a/

Write the word cap on the board. Read the word aloud with students. Identify the consonants and the vowel in the word. Label the consonants and vowel in the word (CVC).
Write the letter e at the end of the word cap. Read the word aloud with students. Ask them to tell how the word changed.
Explain to students that when the letter e is added to the end of a CVC word, the vowel often becomes long and says its name. Repeat the process with the word mad.
Have students turn to page 3 and read the first sentence aloud. Ask them which word in the sentence has the long /a/ sound in the middle of the word (face). Write the word on the board. Circle the -ace letter combination and remind students that this is the CVCe pattern (a vowel between two consonants followed by a silent -e).
Write the following words under the word face, leaving off the final e in each word: make and tape. Read each word aloud with students. Have volunteers come to the board, add the final -e in a word, and then read the word aloud.
Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the VCe long /a/ worksheet. If time allows, discuss their answers.

Grammar and Mechanics: Adjectives

Have students reread page 5 in their book. Have them tell what the smile looks like (big, red). Explain that words that describe a person, a place, or a thing are called adjectives. Have students think of other words they might use to describe her smile (wide, large, bright, happy, and so on).
Have students reread page 7. Ask them to point to the adjectives used to describe the clown's eyebrows (big, fuzzy).

Have students circle all the adjectives in the book. When finished, discuss the words they circled.

Word Work: Sequence words

Reread page 4 with students. Ask them to explain how readers know that putting on face paint is the first step toward looking like a clown. Point to the word First. Tell students that texts that have a sequence often use words like first to help the reader understand the sequence.
Reread page 5 with students. Ask them to point to a word on the page that lets readers know that painting a mouth is the second step (next).
Have students brainstorm a list of words that can help readers know the order of events (after, before, second, finally, and so on).

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 Connection
Have students use the sequence words discussed in the vocabulary section to explain the steps of a familiar routine, such as making a sandwich. Have students brainstorm the steps while you record them on the board or on chart paper. When finished, read the steps with students to make sure they are in the correct order.

Math Connection
Review with students the costume a clown uses. Invite students to think of other kinds of costumes. Choose five costumes and write each kind along the bottom of a graph. Have students write their name on a sticky note. Have them place their name above the name of the costume they like the most. Discuss which costume was liked the most and the least by students.

Assessment

Monitor students to determine if they can:

make relevant predictions about the book and know how and when to revise or confirm them
correctly sequence the events in the book
correctly discriminate medial sounds in words during discussion
accurately read VCe long /a/ words
recognize adjectives in the book
identify words that signal sequence and correctly use them during a writing activity

Comprehension Checks

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