Building Background

• Ask students to tell you the games they most like to play. Ask students if they have ever played hide and seek. Talk about how the game works.
• If students have read other books in the Monster series, ask students to recall what they know about the characters. Recall experiences that the Monsters have had in previous stories. Ask what they know about Jupe. When you are previewing the book, link this information from past reading experiences with the new text.

Preview the Book

• Show students the book cover and read the title.
• Ask what other information is on the cover besides the title (author’s and illustrator’s names).
• Ask students what this Monsters book might be about based on the title and the cover illustration. Ask who they think Zog might be.
• Open the book to the title page. Discuss what students see in the picture and what further ideas they have about the story.
• Show students the illustrations through page 10 and have them make predictions about what might be happening in the story. Reinforce any language that you feel might be difficult for students by incorporating it into the discussion. For example, on pages 3 and 4 you might ask, "Who moves next door to Jupe? What is Zog doing in these pictures? Why does she hide?"
• Stop after page 10 and ask students to predict who is behind the bushes and what might happen. Don’t show students the ending. 

Introducing the Comprehension    Skill: Analyze characters

• Model: Using the Build Background discussion, describe Jupe's characteristics based on her previous adventures. Tell students that you remember when Bonk had a loose tooth. While the other monsters told him scary stories, Jupe told him about the Tooth Monster. Jupe's actions make you think that Jupe is nice, and that she cares about other people.
• Check for Understanding: Ask students to recall the story in which Jupe gets a pet. If necessary, remind students of the other monsters' funny suggestions (snake, alien, etc.) and Jupe's responses. What do we know about Jupe from her responses? (Jupe is realistic and practical.) 

Set the Purpose
Tell students that as they read, they should think about what the characters say and do. What do those words and actions tell us about what kind of people (or monsters) these characters are? 

Word-Attack Strategies
Remind students to use any or all of the following strategies when they come to unfamiliar words:

• Use picture clues. Students can look at the pictures on the page. They can ask themselves if the pictures give any clues that help them figure out the word.
• Reread the sentence. They can read the sentence more than once and think about what word might make sense in the sentence.
• Sound out the word. They can use what they know about sound/symbol relationships to blend the sounds in the word together. They should think about whether the word they've sounded out makes sense in the sentence.
• Look for chunks in the word. They can look for parts of words they know within larger words.
• Keep reading. They can read past the word they don't know and think about what word might make sense in the sentence. They should then go back and reread the sentence with the word they thought of to check for sense.