Build Background

• Ask students if they have ever disliked someone and then changed their mind later. Ask what made them change their mind about the person. Did they dislike the person because of his or her personality, or because of something else?
• If students have read other Monsters stories, create a character web on the board and have students brainstorm the monsters' names and traits.

Book Walk

Introduce the Strategy: Make personal connections to the text

• Show students the covers of the book and have them look at the illustrations. Read the title. If students have read other Monsters stories, model making connections to previous experiences with the characters.
• Think aloud: I recognize the characters on the cover from other books we’ve read. They are the Monsters. I remember that Jupe is usually very kind and often helps the other characters. Bonk is usually a leader who thinks of games to play or things to do. As I read, I’m going to remember what I know about the Monsters, because that will help me understand this book.
• If students have not read any other Monsters stories, model how to make connections to the illustrations by talking about similar or familiar experiences, such as bike riding.
• Think aloud: It looks like one of the Monsters is doing a trick on his bike. I remember that when I was young, I always tried to ride my bike without hands. I fell a couple of times, but luckily, I was wearing my helmet and pads. I eventually learned how to ride no-handed. (Comments should be tailored to fit personal situations.)
• Continue previewing the book, asking students if they see anything familiar in the pictures. Allow students to share personal experiences that the illustrations bring to mind. Ask students to look at the illustration on page 7 and guess how Bonk might be feeling. Why might he feel this way? Ask if students have ever felt that way themselves.

Introduce the Vocabulary

• As you preview the book with students, reinforce any difficult language patterns or vocabulary. On page 5, say: What can Cuke do in this picture? Yes, he can spit watermelon seeds.
• Review with students how to use reading strategies, such as using what they know about sound/symbol relationships, to decode unfamiliar words.
• Point out the word tricks on page 3. Ask students how they might figure out this word if they don’t know it. Say: First, I look at how the word starts. It starts with an r-family blend: tr. Next, I try the short vowel sound: /i/. The next sound is /k/ because I remember that the letters c and k together make /k/. I see the word ends with /s/. I blend the sounds together and get tricks. Now I’ll read the sentence to see if tricks makes sense. I want you to tell me if you think it does.
• Ask students what a cuke might be, and discuss the phrase “cool as a cucumber.”
• For additional teaching tips on reading and word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Give students books. As they read, they should think about how the events and characters in the book are like events and characters they know from their own lives.

Student Reading

• Guide the reading: Ask students to read to the end of page 6. Ask them what has happened in the story so far. Ask them what they learned about Cuke on these pages. Ask what things Cuke can do. Ask if they have ever done any of those things or known someone who could. Ask for any other personal experiences that students linked with the story.
• Ask students to read to the end of the story. Remind them to use what they know about letters and sounds and the context to read any unfamiliar words.
• As students read, monitor their reading and intervene to help them work out difficult words.

    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 Reading Strategies

• Ask students what strategies they used to work out unfamiliar words. Have them tell you any places in the text that they have marked with a question mark, and suggest strategies they could use to work out the words.
• Ask students whether the story reminded them of anything that ever happened to them. Ask how thinking about their own experiences helped them to understand the story.

Comprehension: Analyze character traits

• Introduce and model: Remind students that all stories have characters. We can learn about characters from what they say, what they do, and what others say about them.
• Check for understanding: Using the Character Web worksheet as a model, create a character web on the board for Cuke. Have students work with partners to look in the book and find as many sentences as they can about Cuke. Ask: If Cuke can do all these things, what does that tell you about him? What words can we use to describe someone who is good at many things? He or she might practice a lot, or he or she might be really talented. Write their responses on the web.
• Read page 6 with students. Ask why the monsters acted this way and what this can tell them about Cuke. Then ask what they can figure out about Cuke from how he acted at the end of the story.
• Independent practice: Have students complete the Character Web worksheet by writing words that describe Bonk. Tell them to think about how he acts in the story and what others say about him.
• Extend the discussion:

    Instruct students to use the last page of their book to draw a picture of their favorite Monster from the story. Have them write a sentence telling why they chose this Monster.

Phonemic Awareness: Orally manipulate medial sounds

• Say the word meet and have students repeat. Ask them to tell you the middle sound in the word.
• Tell students you want them to replace the long /e/ sound in the middle of the word meet with the short /e/ sound. Ask what word they have made by changing the sound (met).
• Next, have students change the short /e/ in met to long /i/. Ask what new word they have made (might).
• Finally, have them change the long /i/ in might to short /i/. Ask what new word they have made (mitt).
• Repeat with the following: change long /o/ in hope to short /o/ (hop); change short /o/ in hop to short /i/ (hip); change short /i/ in hip to long /e/ (heap); change the long /e/ in heap to long /o/ (hope).

Phonics: Digraph ee

• Have students follow along as you read the first two sentences on page 3. Have them listen for a word with long /e/. Write the word meet on the board and underline the two letters that stand for long /e/.
• Have students work with partners to find other words with the ee digraph on pages 5, 7, 10, 11, and 14. On the board, record the words they find, and have volunteers come up and circle the letters that stand for long /e/.
• Have students practice reading ee digraph words on the Digraph ee worksheet.

Grammar, Mechanics, and Usage: Nouns

• Tell students that some words name people, places, and things.
• Explain that some of these nouns are called proper nouns, and they need a capital letter at the beginning. These words are individual names, such as Tom or Joan. They can also be the names of individual places, such as Baltimore or Toronto. Create two columns on the board: Proper Nouns and Nouns.
• Have students turn to page 3 and find all the nouns (cousin, Cuke, Uzzle, monsters, bike). As students find the nouns, have them tell you in which column they belong. Point out the capital letters in the proper nouns.
• For practice, continue with other pages in the book. When students are ready, give them the Nouns worksheet.

Vocabulary: Figurative language

• Read the title of the story again and remind students of the saying "cool as a cucumber." Use one of the students’ names with the phrase: Juanita is as cool as a cucumber. Talk about how this describes the student.
• Have students follow along as you read the sentence on page 5: He can whistle like a bird. Talk about what the whistle is being compared to. Ask students if they think this comparison is accurate. Ask: Can a whistle sound like a bird? Does this description make you hear the sound of a bird in your head?
• Provide other oral examples of comparative phrases and have students decide whether they make good comparisons. Some examples are: The cat is as black as night; She is as wise as an owl; He runs like a cheetah.
• Give students the Figurative Language worksheet and have them create their own comparative phrases.

Independent Reading

• Allow students to read their books independently or with a partner. Partners can take turns reading in the book.

Home Connection

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

Writing

• Help students brainstorm an activity that all of the monsters in the story could do together. Have students use the text on page 5 as a model to help them write a paragraph about the activity. The first sentence names the activity. The following sentences tell what each of the monsters do. Remind students to use what they learned about the characters to help them brainstorm what each monster does. The group text might look something like the following: The monsters have a race. Cuke runs very fast. Bonk runs fast, too. Lurk goes slowly. Uzzle falls down.
• After the group writing activity, have each student write his or her own story, using an idea from the brainstormed list on the board.

Monitor students to determine if they can:

• infer character traits from character actions, words, and from other characters' reactions to them.
• orally manipulate medial sounds to make new words.
• identify and read words with the ee digraph.
• identify and categorize nouns.
• use figurative language to make comparisons.