Build Background

• Ask students if they have ever been to a farm. Ask them what they would expect to do on a farm and what types of animals they might expect to see.

Book Walk

Introduce the Book

• Show students the front and back covers of the book and read the title with them. Explain that the monsters on the front are Bonk and Jupe, two characters from the Monsters book series.
• Give students the make predictions worksheet. Have them predict what they think will happen to Bonk and Jupe based on the title and the pictures on the covers.

Introduce the Strategy: Make, revise, and confirm predictions

• Model using the covers to make a prediction.
• Think-aloud: When I look at the front cover, I see a picture of the Monsters playing with chickens and goats. On the back cover I see a monster looking at some horses. Based on the title and the pictures, I predict that the Monsters are going to visit a farm. I'll have to read the book to find out if my prediction is correct.
• Ask students to share the prediction they made on their worksheets.
• Show students the title page. Ask them to tell who they think the third character in the picture might be.
• As students read, they should 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

• Preview the remainder of the book, talking about the pictures and using the vocabulary students will encounter in the text. For example, on page 7 you might ask, What does Jupe see outside the bus window? (horses, fences)
• Model for students the strategies they can use to work out words they don’t know. For example, have students find the word skatepark on page 3. Ask them how they could read this word if they didn’t know it. Suggest that they might break the word into two smaller, familiar words (skate and park) and then put the words together. Read the sentence containing skatepark aloud, and ask students if the sentence makes sense.
• For additional tips on teaching high-frequency words or word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Have students read the book to find out if the prediction they made about Bonk and Jupe is correct.

Student Reading

• Guide the reading: Give students their books and have them put a sticky note on page 6. Direct them to read to the end of this page. Tell students to reread the pages if they finish before everyone else.
• When they have finished reading, ask students whether they think their prediction is correct. If necessary, have them revise their prediction on their worksheet based on new information they learned while reading.
• Model revising a prediction.
• Think-aloud: I predicted that the Monsters would visit a farm. I think that my prediction is correct. I didn't know that Bonk didn't like farms. But I think he will change his mind because he likes cookies, and Jupe hints that there will be cookies at the farm.
• Have students read the remainder of the book.
• Tell students to make a small question mark in their books beside any word they do not understand or cannot pronounce. These can be addressed in the discussion that follows.

Reflect on the Reading Strategies

• Ask students what words they marked in their books. Use this opportunity to model how they can read these words using word-attack strategies and context clues.
• Ask students if they were surprised to find out what Bonk and Jupe did at the farm. Ask whether or not their prediction about the story was correct and to tell why or why not. If their prediction was not correct, have them write what actually happened in the What happened section of their worksheet.

Comprehension: Identify characters and setting

• Discussion: Explain that fictional stories have characters and a setting. These elements help readers make sense of what is happening in the story.
• Introduce and model the skill: Review or explain that characters are who the story is about. Ask students to name the main characters in Farm Friends (Bonk and Jupe). There are also other characters in this book that are less important. Have students name the other two characters (Jupe's grandma and grandpa). Continue the discussion by explaining that the setting refers to where the story takes place. Explain that the setting in this book changes throughout the story. Have students turn to page 3 and discuss the setting (outside someone's house).
• Check for understanding: Have students turn to pages 4 and 5 and tell the setting (the bus stop). Then have them explain how they determined the setting (sign, someone else waiting and looking at his watch).
• Independent practice: Have students complete the characters and setting worksheet. Discuss their responses.
• Extend the discussion: Ask the students to tell whether or not they think Bonk changed his mind about liking farms and why.

Phonemic Awareness: Segment syllables

• Tell students that every word contains one or more parts. Explain that these parts are called syllables.
• Show students how to count syllables in words by clapping out each part. Demonstrate the technique with the words grandma and cookies.
• Say other words from the story (Bonk, grandpa, skatepark, cows, ready, watches, bus, window, sees, horses, fences, meow, dinner, barn, chickens, Jupe, monsters). Have students clap out the words and tell the number of syllables in each word.
• Extend the exercise by having students search through the book to locate the three-syllable word (page 8: animals).

Phonics: Digraph ee

• Have students turn to page 7. Ask them to point to the word that has a long /e/ sound (sees).
• Write the word sees on the board and circle the ee digraph. Tell students that these two letters stand for the long /e/ sound in the word. Have students count the number of times the word sees appears in the book (3).
• Have students find another word that contains the long ee digraph on page 8 (feed). Write feed on the board and circle the ee digraph. Have students count the number of times they can find the word feed in the book (2).
• Have students brainstorm other words that have the long /e/ sound and contain the long ee digraph (deep, beep, seep, Jeep).

Grammar and Mechanics: Quotation marks

• Have students read the first sentence on page 3. Ask them to tell who is talking in the sentence (Jupe). Ask them how they know (asks Jupe). Ask what other clues tell that someone is talking (quotation marks). Review or explain that quotation marks tell that someone is talking and what they are saying. Write "Is there a mall by the farm?" Bonk asks. on the board. Ask a volunteer to identify the question and who is asking it.
• Have students practice identifying dialogue by completing the quotation marks worksheet.

Vocabulary: Inflectional ending -s

• Write the words see and sees next to each other on the board and ask students to tell what is different about the words.
• Explain that -s is often added to action words to show who is performing the action. Have students use see and sees in oral sentences (I see the dog run. She sees the dog eat.)
• Have students find other action words with the inflectional ending -s in the book (ask/asks, say/says, tell/tells, give/gives, smell/smells). Have students use each of the words in oral sentences.

Independent Reading

• Allow students to read their books independently or with a partner. Encourage repeated timed readings of a specific section of the book. Additionally, partners can take turns reading parts of the book to each other.

Home Connection

• Give students their books to take home to read with parents, caregivers, siblings, or friends.

Writing and Art Connection

• Provide resources for students to research a farm animal from the book. Have them find out what the animal eats, where on the farm it lives, and what service or product it provides. Have students record the information they find in short sentences on a note card. They can draw a picture of the animal and post it on a barnyard bulletin board in the classroom along with their note and card.

Science Connection

• Have students brainstorm products they use or eat that come from barnyard animals. Write cows, horses, pigs, chickens, and goats on the board. Tally the number of products students come up with under each animal. Have students consider the results of the tally to write a sentence that tells which animal they would like to raise and why.

Monitor students to determine if they can:

• make, revise, and confirm predictions before, during, and after reading to complete a worksheet
• identify the characters and setting in the story in discussion and to complete a worksheet
• orally segment syllables in words from the book
• recognize that the letters ee stand for the long /e/ sound
• identify quotation marks in the book and on a worksheet
• identify words with inflectional ending -s and use them in sentences