Text Type: Nonfiction/How To
Page Count: 12
Word Count: 193 

Book Summary
Students will learn about how to make a snow person from paper and snow as they read this procedural text. High-frequency words and supportive photographs make this a great how-to book for early readers.

About the Lesson

Targeted Reading Strategy

• Visualize

Objectives

• Use the reading strategy of visualizing to understand text
• Sequence events
• Discriminate sound of initial consonant blend /sn/
• Identify initial consonant blend sn
• Recognize and use statements, questions, and exclamations
• Identify order words

Materials

• Book -- How to Make a Snow Person (copy for each student)
• Chalkboard or dry erase board
• Sequence events, consonant blend sn, sentence types worksheets

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

Vocabulary

• High-frequency words: have, make, then, this, will, you, your
• Content words: add, details, first, frowning, materials, middle, need, person, second, smaller, smiling, snow, supplies, third

Build Background

• Write the words snow person on the board and point to the words as you read them aloud to students. Repeat the process and have students say the words aloud.
• Ask students whether they have ever made a snow person. Encourage them to explain what they would need to make one and how they would make it.

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 How to Make a Snow Person. (Accept all answers that students can justify.)
• Show students the title page. Discuss the information on the page (title of book, author's name).

Introduce the Reading Strategy: Visualize

• Explain to students that good readers often visualize, or make pictures in their mind, as they read to help them better enjoy the information. Readers often use what they already know about a topic to make the pictures in their mind.
• Read page 3 aloud to students. Model how to visualize.
  Think-aloud: When I read a book, I pause after a few pages or after reading a description of something to create a picture in my mind of the information I've just read. This helps me understand and enjoy what I read. For example, when I read that a snow person has a bottom, a middle, and a top, I pictured children rolling up different sized balls of snow in their yard. They were wearing coats, hats, and mittens, and seemed to be having fun.
• Invite students to share what they visualized when they heard the page read aloud.
• 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: Sequence events

• Review or explain that stories are told in order from beginning to end.
• Model sequencing the main steps of a familiar process, such as getting ready to go to sleep. Write key words about each event in order on the board as you describe them to students.
  Think-aloud: When I do something, I often seem to follow certain steps. For example, when I get ready to go to sleep, I first take a bath and dry off. Next, I put on my pajamas and slippers. Then, I brush my teeth. Then, I climb in bed and read for a while. Last, I turn out the light and fall asleep. I have a plan for how to get ready to go to sleep each night. Since this book might be about how to make a snow person, I will think about the steps I might take to make one. As I read, I will look for words that describe these steps.
• Explain to students that certain words are often used to explain a sequence of events. Read the list of events on the board to students in order, using words such as first, second, next, then, and last. Have students use the key words on the board and sequencing words to tell you the process of getting ready to go to sleep.
• Have a volunteer use the key words on the board to sequence the events out of order. Ask students to explain why the order of the steps is important (the process does not make sense if it's out of order). Discuss with students that a process for doing something makes sense only if the events are in order.

Introduce the Vocabulary

• While previewing the book, reinforce the vocabulary words students will encounter in the book. For example, while looking at the picture on page 5, you might say: It looks as though they might roll up a smaller ball. This will be the middle of the snow person.
• 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 supplies on page 3 and say: I am going to check the picture and think about what would make sense to figure out this word. The picture shows the materials needed to make a snow person. When I look at the first part of the word, it starts like /s/. I know the word materials starts with the /m/ sound, so this cannot be the word. I know that another word for materials is supplies. The word supplies begins with the /s/ sound. The sentence makes sense with this word. The word must be supplies.
• For additional tips on teaching high-frequency words and word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Have students read to find out how to make a snow person. Remind them to visualize as they read. Have them think about the steps that happened first, next, and so on.

Student Reading

• Guide the reading: Give students their copy of the book. Have them read to the end of page 6 and think about what they visualized and the sequence of steps for making a snow person. Encourage students who finish before others to reread the text.
• Cut apart pages 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, and 11 of an extra copy of the book. Place them out of order in a pocket chart or along the chalkboard ledge. Model how to visualize and sequence events.
  Think-aloud: As I read each page, I created a picture in my mind of the steps for making a snow person. For example, on page 4, I pictured two children rolling a huge ball of snow across the ground. I can see the tracks they left in the snow as they rolled the big ball around to make it larger and larger. I will place the picture of the children rolling the big ball of snow and the hands rolling the big ball of paper first in the sequence.
• Have students tell which events come next. Have volunteers choose the appropriate pictures and place them in the correct order in the sequence.
• Check for understanding: Have students read to the end of page 9. Invite volunteers to share what they pictured in their mind when they read about making the body and adding the details. (Accept any answers that show students understand how to visualize.)
• Use the cut-out pictures to discuss the sequence of events for making a snow person through the end of page 9. Encourage students to use words such as next and then when identifying the steps.
• Have students read the remainder of the book. Remind them to continue visualizing the sequence of events as they read.

    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 create pictures in my mind of the steps for making a snow person. When I read page 10, I pictured how I would decorate my snow person. I pictured a large carrot nose in the middle of its face and a knitted cap on top of its head. Picturing the events in my mind helped me to understand and remember the sequence of events in the book.
• Have students share how visualizing helped them better understand and enjoy what they read. Invite students to explain how they visualized a step for making a snow person.

Reflect on the Comprehension Skill

• Discussion: Discuss the sequence of events through the end of the book. Place the pictures in order in the pocket chart or along the chalkboard ledge. Have students practice telling the sequence for making a snow person to a partner using the pictures on the board.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the sequence events worksheet. If time allows, discuss their responses.
• Enduring understanding: In this book, you learned that you follow certain steps to make a snow person. Now that you know this information, what steps will you follow to make a snow person of your own?

Phonological Awareness: Discriminate initial consonant blend /sn/

• Say the word snow aloud to students, emphasizing the /sn/ sound. Have students say the word aloud and then say the /sn/ sound.
• Read page 10 aloud to students. Have them raise their hand when they hear a word that begins with the /sn/ sound.
• Check for understanding: Say the following words one at a time and have students give the thumbs-up sign if the word begins with the /sn/ sound: snow, person, smile, snowflake, snake.

Phonics: Identify initial consonant blend sn

• Write the word snow on the board and say it aloud with students.
• Have students say the /sn/ sound aloud. Then run your finger under the letters in the word as students say the whole word aloud. Ask students which two letters together stand for the /sn/ sound in the word snow.
• Have students practice writing the sn letter combination on a separate piece of paper while saying the sound the letter combination stands for.
• Check for understanding: Write the following words that begin with the /sn/ sound on the board, leaving off the initial blend: snug, ship, snap. Say the words, one at a time, and have volunteers come to the board and add the initial sn blend to each word. Have students practice blending the sounds together to say each word.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the initial blend sn worksheet. If time allows, discuss their answers.

Grammar and Mechanics: Sentence types

• Explain to students that books contain several types of sentences, and that all sentences have a signal at the end so readers know when to stop reading. Point out that the signal helps readers know which type of sentence it is.
• Have students turn to page 4. Read the first sentence aloud with students. Explain that this sentence tells readers something. It is a telling sentence, and telling sentences end with a period.
• Have students turn to page 10. Read the first sentence aloud with students. Explain that this sentence asks readers something. It is a question sentence, and questions end with a question mark. Have students explain the difference between how a telling sentence and an asking sentence are read.
• Have students turn to page 12. Read the first sentence aloud with students. Explain that this sentence ends with an exclamation mark. Point out that the exclamation mark tells readers to read the sentence with an excited voice.

    Check for understanding: Have students reread the book, find examples of the different types of sentences, and underline them. Have them practice reading the sentences to a partner using the correct voice expression for each sentence.

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

Word Work: Order words

• Turn to page 4 and read the first sentence aloud. Point to the word First. Explain that this word tells the order in which steps are to be completed. It is called an order word.
• Read the first sentences on pages 5, 6, 7. Point out the order words Second, Third, and Fourth. Explain to students that these words are also order words.
• Read the second sentence on page 7 and 8. Point out the order words Then and Next. Explain that these words also tell about the order in which steps should be completed.
• Read page 11 aloud with students and locate the order word Finally. Explain that this order word usually tells about the last step in a sequence of events.
• Write the words first, second, third, fourth, next, then, and finally on chart paper.
• Check for understanding: Give students materials to make a paper snow person. Have students make a paper snow person using the book as a guide. When finished, have them explain to a partner their process for building the paper snow person using order words.

Independent Reading

• Allow students to read their book independently or with a partner. 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 share the steps in the sequence for making a snow person with someone at home.

Procedural Writing and Art Connection
Have students think of another object they know how to make and the steps involved in making it. Ask them to draw and label the steps for completing the task.

Math Connection
Discuss with students the things they like to do in snow, and make a list. Have students rank the ideas, and make a graph to show which activities are their favorites. Determine which activities are the most and least liked.

Monitor students to determine if they can:

• accurately and consistently share examples of visualizing while reading
• accurately sequence events during discussion and on a worksheet
• accurately discriminate the initial consonant blend /sn/
• identify and write the letter symbols that stand for the initial consonant blend sn
• understand and identify telling, question, and exclamatory sentences on a worksheet
• understand and use words that indicate order during discussion 

Comprehension Checks

• Book Quiz
• Retelling Rubric