Text Type: Nonfiction/Informational
Page Count: 12
Word Count: 115

Book Summary
Have you ever wondered why some animals hibernate during the cold winter months? Where do they sleep? How do they survive? Hibernation provides information about animals that hibernate and how they stay alive during the winter months. Amazing pictures bring the text to life and draw young readers into the book.

Book and lesson also available at Levels I and M.

About the Lesson

Targeted Reading Strategy

• Connect to prior knowledge

Objectives

• Use the reading strategy of connecting to prior knowledge to understand nonfiction text
• Compare and contrast information
• Segment onset and rime
• Recognize and read words with long /e/ digraphs
• Read and identify common nouns
• Correctly alphabetize words

Materials

• Book -- Hibernation (copy for each student)
• Chalkboard or dry erase board
• Compare and contrast, common nouns, alphabetical order 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: all, as, have, they, their, this
• Content words: animals, breathe, hearts, hibernate, hibernating, winter

Build Background

• Ask students if they have ever thought about how animals survive during the cold winter months. Ask if they know the word scientists use to describe the long sleep that some animals enter for the winter (hibernation). Write the word hibernation on the board. Have students identify some animals with which they are familiar that hibernate. List the animals on the board.

Preview the Book

Introduce the Book

• Give students their copy of the book. Guide them to the front and back covers and read the title. Have students discuss what they see on the covers. Encourage them to offer ideas as to what type of book it is (genre, text type, fiction or nonfiction, and so on) and what it might be about.
• Show students the title page. Discuss the information on the page (title of book, author's name).
• Show students the table of contents. Read the contents together and have students discuss what they already know about food and winter survival, predictions of how animals survive, and types of animals that hibernate.

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 they are more likely to understand what they are reading if they already know something about the topic. Tell students that as they read, they should think about their experience with the topic to make connections to the new information in the book.
• Model how to connect to prior knowledge.
  Think-aloud: As I look at the cover of this book, I notice that the picture shows bats in a cave. I already know that many bats sleep in a cave or another dark place during the day. I predict that I am going to learn that bats hibernate in caves during the winter, too. I will probably learn new information about other animals and where they hibernate. The section about bats will be easier for me to understand because I can connect any new information with what I already know. If other parts of the book are about another familiar animal, I'll think about what I already know about it as I read the new information.
• 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: Compare and contrast

• Explain to students that when reading a book or story, readers can do things to help them understand and remember what they read. One way to organize new information is to explain how objects are alike and different. Tell students that this is called comparing and contrasting. Write the words compare and contrast on the board. Write the word alike under compare and the word different under the word contrast. Tell students to think of the terms as partner words.
• Explain that one way to compare and contrast is to use a graphic organizer called a Venn diagram. Draw a Venn diagram on the board or on a piece of chart paper. Explain or review that when comparing and contrasting using a Venn diagram, details that are the same are listed in the middle where the circles overlap; details that are different are listed on the corresponding sides.
• Introduce and model the skill: Provide a simple model of comparing and contrasting by using two familiar items to complete a Venn diagram as a group. Have students tell how the items are the same and how they are different. Provide the following example: A pen and a pencil are the same because they are both used for writing. A pencil is different because it has lead instead of ink and usually has an eraser at the end. A pen may write in various colors, usually cannot be erased, and usually has a lid or cap. Encourage students to offer similarities and differences, and include these in the group comparison.
• As a group, complete the sample Venn diagram. Write the characteristics of the pen and pencil in the correct areas of the diagram. Review the similarities and differences. Encourage students to use the words alike/different and compare/contrast.

Introduce the Vocabulary

• As you preview the book, ask students to talk about what they see in the pictures and use the vocabulary they will encounter in the text. Ask them to tell whether they recognize the animals in the pictures and what they know about those animals.
• Reinforce new vocabulary by incorporating it into the discussion of the pictures. For example, on page 6, you might say: When animals--people included--sleep, their heart rate slows down. Their hearts work harder when they are awake.
• Introduce or remind students that they can help themselves when they come to a tricky word by checking the pictures, thinking about what they have read, and masking, or covering, parts of an unknown word with their finger.
• Model the masking strategy students can use. For example, point to the word hibernate on page 4. Have students use a finger to cover all of the word except hi. Uncover the next part of the word, ber, then and finally uncover the last part, nate. Then read the sentence to students and ask if the word hibernate makes sense and looks right.
• For tips on teaching high-frequency words and word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Have students read the book to find out more about hibernation. Remind them to stop after every couple of pages to think about what they already know about hibernation and how animals survive during the winter.

Student Reading

• Guide the reading: Give students their book and have them put a sticky note on page 7. Tell them to read to the end of this page. Have students reread the pages if they finish before everyone else.
• When they have finished reading, ask students what words they had trouble with. Have them review what they read about hibernating and how using what they already knew helped them understand new information.
• Model connecting to prior knowledge.
  Think-aloud: When I read about the breathing and heartbeats of animals that hibernate slowing down, I thought of a time when a science teacher I knew had students take their heart rates just after waking and again later after exercising. The heart rates of students were much lower upon waking compared to after exercising. Thinking of this helped me understand what happens when animals hibernate, and it helped me read about heartbeats and breathing. If I hadn' t connected that part to the experiment I remembered, it might have been harder for me to know what the book was explaining.
• Check for understanding: Have students share some of the things they thought about as they read information on the pages so far. Select volunteers to share connections they made between prior knowledge and the text.
• Have students read the remainder of the book. Encourage them to connect new information to their prior knowledge as they read. Remind them also to look for similarities and differences regarding the topics in the book. Tell them that comparing and contrasting the information will help them to remember and better understand what they read.

      Have students make a question mark in their book beside any word they do not understand or cannot pronounce. Encourage them to use the strategies they have learned to read each word and figure out its meaning.

• 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

• Ask students to share any examples of how connecting with their prior knowledge helped them (Encourage them to think aloud for other students in the group.) Reinforce that stopping to think about what they already know and what they are reading helps them read unfamiliar words and understand new information.
• Think-aloud: When I came to the section called "How Do They Stay Alive?" I thought about animals I already knew of that sleep underground. Already knowing that the underground holes are called burrows made that section quite easy for me, so I could concentrate on reading about some of the other animals that hibernate.

Reflect on the Comprehension Skill

• Discussion: Remind students that one way to better understand a book is to compare and contrast information as they read. Thinking about how things are alike and different is helpful when reading material that contains many facts.
• Check understanding by having students turn to page 10 and reread the page. Have students evaluate how the hibernation of each animal listed is the same and different. Remind them to look at the pictures and read the captions, too.
• Independent practice: Introduce and explain how to complete the compare and contrast worksheet. Have students choose two animals from the book to compare and contrast.
• Enduring understanding: In this book, you read about the way some animals adapt to the changes that come with winter. Animals do not communicate in the same way as humans, and the way that they live is different, too. But as this book shows, they are capable of knowing what they need to do to survive. They are born with a survival instinct. What ways do you think we are the same as the animals in this book? What survival instincts do humans have?

Phonological Awareness: Segment onset and rime

• Say the word dog aloud to students. Tell them you are going to say the word a second time and leave off the /d/ sound. Say: /og/; dog without /d/ is /og/. Explain that the first sound of the word is called the onset.
• Have students name other words that end with the /og/ sound (log, fog, hog, and so on).
• Ask students to say the word need. Then have them say need with the /n/ sound left off (/eed/). Have them brainstorm other words that have the /eed/ sound.
• Have students work together to locate words in the book and practice saying them without the sound of the onset.  

Phonics: Long /e/ digraphs

• Write the word sleep on the board. Have students find the word on page 5 and read the sentence in which it is found.
• Ask students what vowel sound they hear in the middle of the word (long /e/). Circle the ee in the word and explain that in some words, two vowels together, called a vowel digraph, make one sound. Tell students that there are several examples in the book of vowel digraphs where two vowels appear together and make one sound. Write on the board the digraphs for long /e/: ee, ea, ie, ei.
• Write the following vowel digraph words from the book on a board or chart. Have students come up, circle the letters that make the long /e/ sound, and read the words together: breathe, beat, need.
• For additional practice, write examples such as eating, bodies, free, cheese, feet, green, keen, teeth, beach, leap, seal, treat, pennies, and thief on the board. Have students read the words together and circle the long /e/ digraphs.

Grammar and Mechanics: Common nouns

• Show students a pencil and write pencil on the board. Remind students that a noun names a person, place, or thing. Ask students to identify to which group of nouns pencil belongs (thing).
• Explain to students that nouns can also be classified as common or proper. Tell them that a common noun refers to a general thing. Provide an example by writing boy on the board. Say: The word boy refers to a general person, so the noun is common. If it were a proper noun, it would name a specific boy, such as Mike.
• Have students turn to page 10. Ask a volunteer to find a common noun on the page. Explain that common nouns are lowercase but may have a capital letter if they are the first word in a sentence.

      Check for understanding: Have students find all of the common nouns on page 10 and circle them. Ask student volunteers to read the words aloud. (snakes, frogs, turtles, mice, squirrels, bats)

• Independent Practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the common nouns worksheet.

Word Work: Alphabetical order

• Write the words bat and tiger on the board. Underline the first letter in each word. Ask students to tell what letter comes first in the alphabet: b or t.
• Explain that words are sometimes placed in a list by ABC, or alphabetical, order. Words are placed in alphabetical order by looking at the first letter in each word and deciding which letter comes first in the alphabet.
• Write the words animals and hibernate on the board. Ask students how they will decide which word comes first in alphabetical order. Underline the first letter in each word. Ask a volunteer to identify which word comes first (animals).
• Check for understanding: Write the following list of words out of order on the board: sleep, food, winter, hungry. Have volunteers come to the board and number them in correct alphabetical order.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the alphabetical order worksheet. Discuss answers aloud after they are finished.

Independent Reading

• Allow students to read their book independently. Additionally, allow partners to 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 practice comparing and contrasting information as they read.

Informational Writing Connection
Have students select one of the animals from the book that hibernates. Have them research in which part of the world the animal lives, what it eats, and any other details specific to the animal. Have students write a report with two main ideas and supporting details. Have them use a slide show program to present their information. Allow time for students to share their writing with the class.

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

Art Connection
Have students create a habitat of their favorite hibernating animal using a shoebox. Provide students with various materials to use in the making of their habitat. Encourage them to use realistic detail. Have students write a short informational page describing the scene and facts on the hibernating animal.

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.