Text Type: Nonfiction/Informational
Page Count: 12
Word Count: 137

Book Summary
In Does It Sink or Float? students have the opportunity to use what they know about familiar objects to determine whether each will sink or float in water. Interesting photographs are included to enhance student understanding of the concepts sink and float. Repetitive phrases and high-frequency words support early readers.

About the Lesson

Targeted Reading Strategy

• Make, revise, and confirm predictions

Objectives

• Use the reading strategy of making, revising, and confirming predictions to understand text
• Identify the author's purpose
• Discriminate initial consonant blend /fl/ sound
• Identify initial consonant blend fl
• Recognize, identify, and use question marks
• Understand, use, and write the high-frequency word will

Materials

• Book -- Does It Sink or Float? (copy for each student)
• Chalkboard or dry erase board
• Prediction, initial consonant blend fl, question marks worksheets
• Discussion cards

     Indicates an opportunity for students to mark in the book. (All activities may be completed with paper and pencil if books are reused.)

Vocabulary

• High-frequency words: look, or, some, these, which, will
• Content words: apple, float, golf, marble, penny, sink, water, watermelon

Build Background

• Write the words sink and float on the board and point to each word as you read it aloud to students. Repeat the process and have students say each word aloud.
• Show students a quarter and a balloon. Place the quarter in a clear container of water. Ask students to tell what happened to the quarter (it fell to the bottom of the container). Explain to students that quarters will sink to the bottom of a container of water. Write the word sink on the board and have students say the word aloud.
• Place the balloon in the clear container of water. Ask students to tell what happened to the balloon (it stayed on the surface of the water). Explain to students that balloons will float on water. Write the word float on the board and have students say the word aloud.
• Ask students whether they have ever seen objects sink or float in water. Encourage them to name objects they know that sink and float. Discuss the objects and make two lists on the board.

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 Does It Sink or Float? (Accept any 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 phrases on the board: Will the _____ sink or float? The ____ sinks in the water. The ____ floats on the water. Read the phrases aloud, pointing to the words as you read them to students. Have students read them aloud. Explain that these words repeat throughout the book.

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 book. 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.
• 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 some children holding objects over a tank of water. It looks as though they might be placing the objects in the water. Since the title of the book is Does It Sink or Float?, I wonder whether the children might be trying to see whether the objects will sink or float in the tank of water. I will have to read the book to find out if this prediction is correct.
• Introduce and explain the prediction worksheet. Invite students to predict whether each object on the worksheet will sink or float in water. 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: Author's purpose

• Explain to students that an author usually has a reason or purpose for writing a book. The purpose is either to inform, entertain, or persuade. Explain that to inform means to give someone information about something; to entertain means to amuse someone; and to persuade means to convince someone to think the same way you do.
• Model determining author's purpose.
  Think-aloud: When authors write, they have a reason, or purpose, for writing their book. They want to inform, entertain, or persuade readers. After reading the title and the first page of this book, I think the author wants readers to decide whether objects will sink or float in water. Readers will probably learn whether each object sinks or floats. If I am learning about something, it makes sense that the author wrote this book to inform readers about whether certain objects sink or float in water.

Introduce the Vocabulary

• While previewing the book, reinforce the vocabulary words students will encounter. For example, while looking at the picture on page 3, you might say: Some things sink and some things float. I wonder whether the rock and paper wad will sink or float.
• 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 coin 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 a penny. When I look at the first part of the word, it starts like /c/. I know the word penny starts with the /p/ sound, so this cannot be the word. I know a penny is a coin. The word coin begins with the /c/ sound. The sentence makes sense with this word. The word must be coin.
• For additional tips on teaching high-frequency words and word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Have students read to find out which objects sink or float in water. Remind them to make, revise, and confirm predictions and think about the author's purpose as they read.

Student Reading

• Guide the reading: Give students their copy of the book. Have a volunteer point to the first word on page 3 (Some). 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 5, using their finger to point to each word as they read. Encourage students who finish before others to reread the text.
• Model confirming a prediction.
  Think-aloud: Before reading, I predicted that the book would be about objects that sink or float in water. Based on what I have read so far, the book names different objects and tells whether they sink or float. My prediction was confirmed. The first two objects were a rock and a paper wad. I learned that the rock sinks and the paper wad floats. On page 5, I read about a marble and a cork. I think that the cork might sink because it is bigger than the marble. I will continue reading to find out whether my prediction is correct.
• Model to students making a check mark in the Float column for the paper wad and in the Sink column for the rock on the worksheet. Have students repeat the procedure on their worksheet.
• Have students review the predictions they made before reading. Invite them to share a revised or confirmed prediction.
• Discuss with students the author's purpose for writing the book based on the pages they have read so far (to teach). Ask them to tell what the book is teaching readers about (objects that sink or float).
• Check for understanding: Have students read to page 9. Remind them to use pictures, sentences, and what they already know to revise predictions as they read. When they have finished reading, discuss the outcome of their predictions. Have them make, revise, and/or confirm a prediction.
• Continue to discuss with students how they know that the purpose of the book is to teach readers about something. Have students provide support for the purpose using examples from the book.
• Have students read the remainder of the book. Encourage them to continue to make, revise, and/or confirm predictions and record them on their worksheet 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.

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: As I read, I continued to revise and confirm my predictions. I was unsure whether an apple or a watermelon would sink or float. They are both big objects. However, in the case of the marble and the cork, I learned that just because something is big doesn't mean it will sink in water. I've noticed that all of the other pairs of objects had one that floated and one that sank. I think that since the watermelon is heavier than the apple, it might sink. I revised my prediction. When I read on, I discovered that both the watermelon and the apple floated. Making predictions and reading on to revise or confirm them helped me understand and enjoy the information in the book.
• Have students share how making, revising, and confirming predictions helped them better understand and enjoy what they read. Invite students to explain a prediction they made and the outcome of that prediction.

Reflect on the Comprehension Skill

      Discussion: Discuss the author's purpose through the end of the book. Have students write teach on the inside front cover of the book.

• Enduring understanding: In this book, you learned that some objects float and other sink. Now that you know this information, what do you think causes some objects to float and others to sink?

Phonological Awareness: Discriminate initial consonant blend /fl/ sound

• Say the word float aloud to students, emphasizing the initial /fl/ sound. Have students say the word aloud and then say the initial /fl/ sound.
• Read pages 3 and 4 aloud to students. Have them raise their hand when they hear a word that begins with the /fl/ 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 /fl/ sound: flush, water, sink, flap, flag, paper.

Phonics: Initial consonant blend fl

• Write the word float on the board and say the word aloud with students.
• Have students say the /fl/ sound aloud. Then run your finger under the letters in the word as students say the word aloud. Ask students which two letters together represent the /fl/ sound in the word float.
• Have students practice writing the fl letter combination on a separate piece of paper while saying the sound the letter combination represents.
• Check for understanding: Write the following words that begin with the /fl/ sound on the board, leaving off the initial blend: flop, flip, flap. Say each word, one at a time, and have volunteers come to the board and add the initial blend in each word. Have students practice blending the sounds together to say each word.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the initial consonant blend fl worksheet.

Grammar and Mechanics: Question marks

• Explain that there are several types of sentences used in books. All sentences have a signal at the end so readers know when to stop reading. The signal helps readers know which type of sentence it is and how to read it.
• Have students turn to page 3. Read the first sentence aloud with students. Explain that this sentence tells readers some information. It is a telling sentence, and telling sentences end with a period.
• Read the third sentence on page 3 aloud with students. Explain that this sentence asks readers something. It ends with a question mark and is called a question sentence.
• Point out to students the voice inflection at the end of a question sentence. Have students reread the sentence aloud using the proper inflection.

     Check for understanding: Have students reread the book, locate examples of question marks, and underline them. Have them practice reading the sentences to a partner using the correct voice inflection for each sentence.

• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the question marks worksheet. If time allows, discuss their answers.

Word Work: High-frequency word will

• Tell students that they are going to learn a word that they will often see in books they read. Write the word will on the board and read the word aloud. Have students read the word with you.
• Ask students to write the word will on the top of their desk with their finger as you spell it aloud with them, pointing to each letter on the board as you say the letter name with students.
• Read the third and fourth sentences on page 3 aloud to students. Point to the word will. Ask students to tell what type of sentences you just read (question). Explain that the word will is a word often used at the beginning of a question sentence to point out whether or not something might happen. Have students use the word will in oral sentences.

      Check for understanding: Have students locate and highlight the word will in the book. Have them write the word on a separate piece of paper several times. Invite each student to use the word in an oral sentence.

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 identify the author's purpose for writing the book and have someone at home name the facts they learned from hearing the book read aloud.

Informational Writing and Art Connection
Have students divide a piece of paper in half. On one half, have students draw a picture of an object that sinks. On the other half, have them draw a picture of an object that floats. Have them write a sentence describing each picture.

Visit Writing A–Z for a lesson and leveled materials on informational report writing.

Science Connection
Work with students to create a list of objects that might sink or float. Try each item and create a chart together. Write statements with students about the outcome with each object.

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 cards 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.