Where Is Cub? - Lesson Plans

Where Is Cub?
Level F

About the Book

Text Type: Fiction/Fantasy
Page Count: 10
Word Count: 153

Book Summary
Where Is Cub? tells the story of a mother bear who awakens to find her cub missing. She visits several animal friends to learn if they have seen the little bear. Finally, she asks a buzzing bee. The bee has indeed seen her cub and is not at all happy about it. Strong illustrations support the story structure.

About the Lesson

Targeted Reading Strategy

Make, revise, and confirm predictions

Objectives

Make, revise, and confirm predictions based on text information
Sequence story events
Blend phonemes
Identify and read VCe long /a/ words
Identify and use quotation marks
Identify and use high-frequency words my and our

Materials

Book -- Where Is Cub? (copy for each student)
Chalkboard or dry erase board
Sequence events, high-frequency words worksheets
Word journal (optional)

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: she, her, my, look, cannot, ask, have, goes, mother, our, my
Content words: bear, fox, deer, rabbit, raccoon, bee, honey

Before Reading

Build Background

Ask students if they have ever played the game hide-and-seek. Ask where they hid and from whom they were hiding.
Continue the discussion by asking students how they think their family or friends feel when they can't find them. Ask students if they think their family or friends worry. Check students' understanding of the word worried. Ask students what they would do if they couldn't find someone they loved. Discuss places they would look and who they would ask for help.

Book Walk

Introduce the Book

Show students the front and back covers of the book and read the title with them. Ask what they might read about in a book called Where is Cub? (Accept any answers students can justify.) Ask whether or not the picture on the back cover looks anything like the picture they made in their mind during the Build Background discussion.
Show students the title page. Discuss the information on the page (title of book, author's name, illustrator's name).

Introduce the Reading Strategy: Make, revise, and confirm predictions

Explain to students that good readers make predictions, or guesses, about what will happen in a story. Explain to them that making predictions can help people to make decisions, solve problems, and learn new information. Emphasize that knowing how to make predictions is more important than whether the prediction is right, or confirmed.
Model using the cover pictures of the book to make a prediction.
Think-aloud: I know that good readers look at the cover of a book to get an idea of what the book is about. Looking at the front cover, I see a bear looking in a cave. She appears to be looking for something. The title of the book is Where is Cub? I know that the word cub is the name for a baby bear. I wonder if the bear looking in the cave is the cub's mother. I think the baby is lost and the mother is looking for it. Making predictions about the book gives me a purpose for reading it because I want to find out if my predictions are right.
Have students use the pictures on the covers and title page to make a prediction before reading the book. Invite them to share their prediction.
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 Vocabulary

Introduce any words that may be difficult for students. For example, say the names of each of the characters as you talk about the picture. For example, ask: What do you think Freddy Fox is saying to Mother Bear?
Model how to apply word-attack strategies. Point to the word missing on page 3.
Think-aloud: I recognize the -ing ending on the word, so this helps me pick out the root part of the word. It is a word I can easily sound out /m/ /i/ /s/: missing. Now I'll read the sentence aloud to check whether this word makes sense.
Encourage students to add the new vocabulary words to their word journals.
For additional tips on teaching high-frequency words or word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

Have students read to find out whether or not their prediction about the story is correct or it needs to be revised.

During Reading

Student Reading

Guide the reading: Give students their copy of the book. Have a volunteer point to the first word on page 3. Read the word together (Mother). Point out where to begin reading on each page. Remind students to read words from left to right. Point to each word as you read it aloud while students follow along in their own book.
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: I predicted that the bear on the cover was a mother looking for her cub. This prediction is correct. She asks other animals if they have seen the cub, but they have not. I wonder where the cub is. I know that children sometimes like to explore new places. I predict that the cub went exploring and got lost.
Ask students if they can confirm their prediction based on the words they read and the pictures. Have them revise their prediction or make a new prediction.
Have students read the remainder of the book. Encourage them to continue to make, revise, and/or confirm predictions as they read the rest of the story.

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.

After Reading

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.
Invite students to discuss whether their prediction turned out to be true or whether it needed to be revised. Reinforce that making predictions about what they are reading helps them get meaning from the book and gives them a purpose for reading.
Think-aloud: I predicted that the cub got lost while exploring. This prediction was not correct. The cub was in a tree trying to gather honey.
Discuss additional strategies students used to gain meaning from the book.

Teach the Comprehension Skill: Sequence events

Discussion: Ask students how they might use the clues on page 9 to figure out that the cub was eating honey. (Mother Bear talks to a bee. Bees make honey, and bears like to eat honey.)
Introduce and model the skill: Tell students that a story is a series of events that happen in a particular order. First one thing happens, then something else, and so on. Explain that the order in which the events happen is called the sequence. Point out the sequence in this story.
Think-aloud: The first thing that happened in the story is that Mother Bear discovers that her cub missing. Next, she looks in a cave, but he's not there. Then she asks Mr. Fox if he's seen the cub, but he hasn't. I don't include all the details of the story, as I would in a retelling. I only tell the most important events in order to tell the story correctly.
Check for understanding: Have students share the sequence of events through the end of the story. If necessary, use the pictures in the book as a guide.
Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the sequence events worksheet. If time allows, discuss their answers.

Have students use the inside back cover to tell what they think Mother Bear might say to the cub now that she has found him.

Build Skills

Phonological Awareness: Blend phonemes

Say the word buzz by segmenting it into its sounds: /b/ /u/ /z/. Model how to blend the sounds together to say the word.
Say the following words to students by segmenting them into their individual sounds: looks, find, bee, fox, honey. Pause after saying each word and have students blend the sounds together to say each word.

Phonics: VCe long /a/

Write the word tap on the board. Read the word aloud with students. Identify the consonants and the vowel in the word. Label the consonants and vowel in the word (CVC).
Write the letter e at the end of the word tap. Read the word aloud with students. Ask them to tell how the word changed.
Explain to students that when the letter e is added to the end of a CVC word, the vowel often becomes long and says its name. Repeat the process with the word tap.
Have students turn to page 3 and read the first sentence. Ask them which word in the sentence has the long /a/ sound in the middle of the word (wakes). Write the word wake on the board. Circle the -ake letter combination and remind students that this is the CVCe pattern that has a vowel between two consonants followed by a silent e.
Write the following words on the board: space, shade, page, flake, whale, blame, scrape, plate. Have students say each word with you as you run your finger under the letters in each word.

Grammar and Mechanics: Quotation marks

Explain that special marks, called quotation marks, are used to show when someone is speaking. Say: If I am writing and I want to show someone is speaking, I put quotation marks around the words they said.
Model using quotation marks when writing a sentence on the board: Have you seen my cub? she asks. Read the sentence together as a group and discuss which words are spoken words. Add the quotation marks in the correct places.
Have students turn to page 5. Ask students to reread the page and locate the quotation marks. Ask them to tell who was speaking in each sentence and what was said.
Encourage students to generate one or more examples of sentences that require quotation marks. Write their sentences on the board and have volunteers place the quotation marks in the correct places.
Have students work with a partner to locate the other quotation marks in the story and circle them. Have partners discuss who is speaking and how they know.

Word Work: High-frequency words my and our

Tell students they are going to learn words that they need to be able to recognize and read quickly. Write the words my and our on the board and read the words aloud. Have students read the words with you.
Ask them to write the words my and our on the tabletop 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.
Show students various personal objects. Point to and identify each object using the word my (my shirt, my shoes, my hair). Explain to students that the word my refers to objects that belong to you.
Show students various class objects. Point to and identify each object using the word our (our classroom, our supplies). Explain to students that the word our refers to objects that belong to the group.
Ask volunteers to identify an object using the words my or our. Have them use individual dry-erase boards or paper to write or draw the name of the object, preceding the name with the word my or our. For students needing additional support, use magnetic letters to have them build the word, trace the word with their pointer finger, and then write the word.
Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the high-frequency words worksheet. If time allows, discuss their answers.

Build Fluency

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.

Extend the Reading

Writing and Art Connection
Have students work in pairs to write another ending for the story. Tell them they may add new characters or use the ones from the story. Before students write individually, have them brainstorm ideas. Provide prompts such as: What did Mother Bear say to the cub? Where did they go once the cub came down from the tree? Was the cub punished for slipping away while its mother was sleeping? How did the mother make sure the cub didn't disappear again? What did the bee do? Did the other animals in the woods have anything to say? Ask students to illustrate their story ending and share it with the group.

Social Studies Connection
Provide students with resources about various types of bears. Discuss different bears with which students are familiar. Make a KWL chart that students can fill in as they read about different types of bears. For example:

What I know
Polar bears like to be cold. What I want to know
Where do they live? What I learned
Polar bears live in Alaska.

Assessment

Monitor students to determine if they can:

consistently make, revise, and confirm predictions while reading
correctly squence events in the story
orally blend sounds to say words
correctly identify and read VCe long /a/ words
accurately identify and use quotation marks
correctly read and write high-frequency words my and our

Comprehension Checks

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