Build Background

• Involve students in a discussion about going swimming and/or learning how to swim. Have them share any personal experiences they have had.

Book Walk

Introduce the Strategy: Make text-to-text connections

• Show students the front and back covers of the book and read the title. If students have read other books about the Monsters, ask them whether they recognize the characters shown on the cover illustration. Model how to make connections to other texts.
• Think aloud: I recognize the Monster characters in the picture. I remember that they are good friends. I also remember that they are sometimes funny. It will help me understand what I read in this story if I remember what I have read about the Monsters before.
• Ask students what they remember about other Monsters stories they have read.
• Show students the title page and ask them what they see in the picture. Have them make predictions about the plot of the story based on what they see on the cover and on the title page, and what they know about the characters.

Introduce the Vocabulary

• Go through each page of the book with the students, talking about the illustrations and using the vocabulary they will encounter in the text. Ask them to predict what is happening in the story by using what they see in the pictures and prior experience with other Monsters stories. For example, on pages 3 and 4, ask: Who do you see on these pages? What do you think they are talking about? Based on what you already know about Jupe and Bonk, what do you think might happen next?
• Turn to the next page and have students revise or confirm their predictions. Ask what the Monsters are doing and where they might be going. Continue previewing the illustrations, having students predict based on what they know about the Monsters from previous books. As you preview the book, reinforce how students can understand the characters and their actions better because they are familiar with them from other stories.
• Reinforce new vocabulary by incorporating it into the discussion of the pictures and modeling how to decode it using word-attack strategies. Have students tell you what the Monsters are putting on in the picture on page 5. Ask a volunteer to point to the word on the page that says swimsuits. Ask students how they could read this word if they didn’t know it. Suggest that they might recognize the smaller word swim in the larger word, they might look at how the word starts, or they might try the short vowel sound for the first vowel. Read the sentence to them and ask them if the word swimsuit makes sense.
• For additional teaching tips on word-attack strategies, click here.
• For tips on teaching high-frequency words, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Have students read the book to find out how the Monsters' actions in this book are like the Monsters' actions in previous books. 

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, ask students whether their predictions about the Monster characters are correct. Have them revise any predictions based on new information.
• Model making connections to other stories about the Monsters.
• Think aloud: I remember that the Monsters are good friends and they always help each other out. I think that they will help Bonk. Remembering what the Monsters are like from other stories helps me predict what might happen in this story.
• Tell students to read the remainder of the story to check on further predictions they have made about the Monsters.

    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 words they marked in their books. Use this opportunity to model how they could read these words using word-attack strategies and context clues.
• Reinforce how using what they already knew about the Monsters helped them understand what they read. (Connecting prior knowledge of characters helps students make logical predictions about how they will act and what might happen in the story.)

Comprehension: Make inferences about characters

• Model: Tell students that an inference is a good guess about something. Tell them that they make good guesses every day, and use a real-life model to illustrate making an inference. For example, say: If I am inside and I see someone come in who is all wet, I can make the inference that it is raining outside, even though I might not be near a window. If my dog comes and stands next to me in the kitchen, I can make an inference that he is probably hungry and wants me to feed him. I could make another inference that makes sense here, too. I could make an inference that my dog wants me to pet him.
• Check for understanding: Give students other examples of real-life experiences and ask them what inferences they can make. Emphasize that sometimes we can make more than one good inference, and either one might be right. For example: a person walking down the street carrying a lot of books (the person is a teacher, the person is a student, the person is returning books to the library, the person likes to read); a person carrying a bag from a pet shop (the person has a pet, the person has bought a gift for someone who has a pet).
• Discussion: Explain to students that they can also make inferences as they read. They can make good guesses about what the character is like or what the character might do. Ask them what inferences they can make about Bonk when he tells the other Monsters he can swim really well. (Accept any reasonable inference. For example: he wants to be good at something; he wants to impress his friends; he is a boastful person.) Ask them to reread the part where Jupe is consoling Bonk on pages 11 to 14, and ask what inferences they can make about Jupe. (Jupe is kind, she knows when others are sad, she really likes Bonk, she is smart.)
• Independent practice: Give students the Inferences worksheet and have them read the paragraphs or look at the pictures and make inferences about them. Discuss their responses.
• Extend the discussion:

    Instruct students to use the last page of their book to draw a picture showing something they can do very well. Have students share their pictures with the group. 

Phonemic Awareness: Substitute medial sounds

• Say the word swim and have students repeat the word. Ask them what sound they hear in the middle of swim. Ask students what word you would have if you changed the /i/ sound in swim to /a/ (swam). Have students say the word and repeat the new middle sound.
• Have students change the medial sounds in the following words to create new words: float, change /o/ to long /i/ (flight); mat, change /a/ to /e/ (met); big, change /i/ to /e/ (beg); rode, change long /o/ to long /i/ (ride); car, change /är/ to /âr/ (care); bet, change /e/ to long /e/ (beat).

Phonics: Variant vowel long /e/

• Write the word he on the board and have students find and read the sentence in which it is found on page 3.
• Ask students what vowel sound they hear. Explain that often, when words end with a vowel, the vowel sound is long. Write the words me, she, and be on the board, and have students read the words.
• Write the word feet on the board and have students find and read the sentence in which it is found on page 10.
• Ask students what vowel sound they hear in feet. Explain that often, when there are two letter e’s together in a word, the vowel sound is long. Write the words sleep, keep, tree, and meet on the board, and have students read the words.
• Write the word teacher on the board and have students find and read the sentence in which it is found on page 8.
• Ask students what vowel sound they hear in this word. Explain that often, when the two vowels e and a are together, they stand for the long vowel sound. Write the words beach, sea, eat, clean, and dream on the board, and have students read the words.
• Have students complete the Long /e/ worksheet.

Grammar, Mechanics, and Usage: Pronouns

• Have students re-read page 3. Ask who the page is about (Bonk).
• Have them find another word on the page that stands for Bonk (he). Tell students we call this word a pronoun, and we use pronouns to stand for the names of people or things.
• Read what Jupe says in the first sentences on page 4. Ask students who the pronoun you refers to. Then read the rest of the page and ask them what the pronoun they refers to.
• Have students help you build a chart of pronouns. Write the word Bonk on the board and write the words he, his, and him under it. Write the word Jupe on the board and write the words she, hers and her under it. Finally, write the words Jupe and Bonk on the board and add the following words: they, their, them.
• Read through the words with students. Have them take turns making oral sentences using the pronouns.
• Have students practice identifying pronouns using the Pronouns worksheet.

Vocabulary: Compound words

• Write the word swimsuits on the board. Tell students that this word is made up of two smaller words and is called a compound word. Circle the two words in different-colored chalk.
• Have students find the word without on page 7. Ask them what two smaller words make up the larger word.
• Repeat with the word bathtub on page 16.
• Remind students that recognizing smaller words in compound words can help them read new words and understand their meanings.
• Give students the Compound Words worksheet.

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

• Work with students to write some sentences that describe Jupe. Ask students to brainstorm some words they could use to describe her, and record these on a list on the board. Encourage them to use the picture information as well as the text to list words that describe her appearance as well as her character.
• Ask students to think of some sentences describing Jupe that use the words on the list. Write their sentences on the board. Read through each sentence with students as you record it.
• Then ask students to draw a picture of Jupe and write their own sentence under it. They can use the words listed on the board as models for their writing.

Monitor students to determine if they can:

• make logical inferences about real-life events as well as about characters.
• orally manipulate medial sounds in words to create new words.
• recognize that the long /e/ sound can be spelled in different ways.
• recognize pronouns and understand their purpose.
• identify compound words.

Comprehension Checks

• Retelling Rubric