Text Type: Fiction/Fantasy
Page Count: 16
Word Count: 223

Book Summary
Bonk keeps a lucky buckeye in his pocket. One night he puts the lucky buckeye on his dresser, and in the morning it is gone. Then he begins to have bad luck. How will the monsters solve this mystery? Bonk and the Lucky Buckeye provides an opportunity for readers to practice retelling and identifying cause-and-effect relationships. Illustrations support the text.

About the Lesson

Targeted Reading Strategy

• Retell

Objectives

• Use the reading strategy of retelling to understand and remember story events
• Identify cause and effect
• Segment syllables
• Identify short /u/ vowel
• Identify and use present-tense verbs
• Place words in alphabetical order

Materials

• Book -- Bonk and the Lucky Buckeye (copy for each student)
• Chalkboard or dry erase board
• Cause and effect, short /u/ vowel, present-tense verbs worksheets
• Discussion cards

      Indicates an opportunity for students to mark in the book. (All activities may be demonstrated by projecting book on interactive whiteboard or completed with paper and pencil if books are reused.)

Vocabulary

• High-frequency words: good, puts, says, this, with
• Content words: acorn, buckeye, lucky, monsters, mystery, pocket

Build Background

• Write the word lucky on the board and point to the word as you read it aloud to students. Repeat the process and have students say the word aloud.
• Ask students whether they can give some examples of things that might bring good luck.

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 Bonk and the Lucky Buckeye. (Accept all answers that students can justify.)
• Show students the title page. Discuss the information on the page (title of book, author's name, illustrator's name).

Introduce the Reading Strategy: Retell

• Explain that good readers stop now and then during reading to retell in their mind what is happening in the story. Stopping to retell the events of the story helps readers remember and understand what they are reading.
• Explain that when people retell a story or event, they explain the details in order. Point out that people retell stories as part of their daily lives, such as sharing what happened at school or the events on a television show.
• Model retelling a familiar story in detail, such as Little Red Riding Hood.
  Think-aloud: In Little Red Riding Hood, Little Red Riding Hood finds out that her grandmother is not feeling well, so she decides to go visit her. First, she packs a basket full of food and begins her trip down the path through the woods. Next, she stops to pick some flowers for her grandmother. A wolf sees her and stops to talk with her. When Little Red Riding Hood says that she is on her way to visit her grandmother, the wolf leaves her to go to the grandmother's house. Then, the wolf swallows the grandmother and waits to swallow Little Red Riding Hood.
• Invite students to suggest information for the retelling, and continue retelling in detail to the end of the story.
• Have students place sticky notes on pages 6, 8, 10, 12, and 14. Explain that as they read, they should stop on these pages to think about what has happened so far in the story. Encourage students to retell in their mind what happens in the story as they read.
• 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: Cause and effect

• Explain to students that one way to understand information in a story is to think about what happened and why it happened. Point out that a cause is something that makes something else happen, and an effect what happens because of the cause. Explain that asking the question Why did it happen? reveals the cause, and asking the question What happened? reveals the effect.
• Create a two-column chart on the board with the headings Cause and Effect. Model how to identify an effect and its cause.
  Think-aloud: One way to understand a story is to think about the events that happen and try to figure out the reason they happened. This keeps me involved in the story and excited about what might happen next. For example, if a character in a story is laughing, I read to find out the reasons he or she is laughing. The character might have seen something funny on television. The effect, or what happened, would be laughing, and the cause, or why the laughing happened, would be seeing something funny on television.
• Write this cause-and-effect relationship on the board. Invite students to suggest other possible causes for the effect of the character laughing (hearing a joke, being nervous, and so on). Write these new cause-and-effect relationships on the board.

Introduce the Vocabulary

• While previewing the book, reinforce the vocabulary words students will encounter in the story. For example, while looking at the picture on page 3, you might say: It looks as though Bonk thinks that this buckeye brings him good luck.
• Remind students to look at the pictures and the letters with which a word begins or ends to figure out a difficult word. For example, point to the word nickel on page 4 and say: I am going to check the picture and think about what would make sense to figure out this word. The picture shows Bonk finding some money. When I look at the first part of the word, it starts like /n/. However, the word money begins with the /m/ sound, so this can't be the word. I know that a nickel is piece of money. The word nickel ends with the /l/ sound. The sentence makes sense with this word. The word must be nickel.
• For additional tips on teaching high-frequency words and word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Have students read to find out what happened to Bonk's lucky buckeye. Remind them to stop reading at the end of each page with a sticky note to quickly retell in their mind the details of the story so far.

Student Reading

• Guide the reading: Give students their copy of the book. Have them read to the end of page 6 and then stop to think about what has happened so far in the story. Encourage students who finish before others to reread the text.
• Model retelling.
  Think-aloud: I stopped after a few pages to retell in my mind what I had read so far. I learned that Bonk carries a lucky buckeye in his pocket. He had the buckeye when he found a nickel and when he won the spelling bee. One night, he put the buckeye on his dresser. I think that something might happen to his lucky buckeye. I will keep reading to find out.
• Draw a cause-and-effect T-chart on the board.
• Have students reread pages 3 and 4. Tell them the cause on these pages is that Bonk has a lucky buckeye. Explain that the effect will be what happens because he has the lucky buckeye. Ask for a volunteer to tell the effect of the cause. (He found a nickel.) Say: I will write Bonk has a lucky buckeye under the Cause heading, and I will write He found a nickel under the Effect heading.
• Introduce and explain the cause and effect worksheet. Have students write information they know so far about the cause-and-effect relationship discussed above.
• Check for understanding: Have students read to the end of page 8. Have them retell what they have read so far. Ask them to write on their worksheet what caused Bonk to have bad luck (his buckeye disappeared). Have students record any additional cause-and-effect information on their worksheet.
• Have students read the remainder of the book. As they read, remind them to retell what they have read so far and think about cause-and-effect relationships to help them understand and remember the events 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.

• 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.

Reflect on the Reading Strategy

• Retell in detail the events of the story after the squirrel takes the acorn.
• Think-aloud: When the squirrel takes the acorn, Jupe wakes up the other monsters. They follow the squirrel and see that it hides the buckeye in the ground. Bonk and the other monsters dig, too. They find the lucky buckeye and solve the mystery.
• Have students retell the story from the beginning to a partner. Listen for whether they include the following: correct events in detail, events in order, main characters, problem, and solution.

Reflect on the Comprehension Skill

• Discussion: Discuss the causes and effects that students wrote on their worksheet.
• Independent practice: Have students write any additional causes and effects on their worksheet. If time allows, discuss their answers.
• Enduring understanding: In the story, Bonk leaves his lucky buckeye on his dresser. In the morning, it is gone. He begins to have bad luck, and his friends try to help him solve the mystery of the missing buckeye. They work together to find Bonk's buckeye. Now that you know this information, why is it important to let friends know when you need help?

Phonological Awareness: Segment syllables

• Say the word lucky. Tell students that you are going to count the syllables, or parts of the word. Repeat the word, clapping on each syllable. Tell students that you clapped two times because there are two parts to the word. Use clapping to demonstrate syllables for the following words: jelly, bad, dresser.
• Ask students to say the word acorn and clap for each syllable they hear in the word.
• Check for understanding: Say the following words, one at a time, and have students clap the syllables: pocket, luck, found, mystery, monsters, everyone.

Phonics: Short /u/ vowel

• Write the word buckeye on the board and say it aloud with students.
• Have students say the short /u/ sound aloud. Then run your finger under the letters in the word as students say the word aloud. Ask students which letter stands for the short /u/ sound in the word buckeye.
• Write the following words that have the short /u/ sound on the board, leaving out the medial vowel: cup, but, sun, buck. Say each word, one at a time, and have volunteers come to the board and add the short u in each word. Have students blend the sounds together as you run your finger under the letters.
• Check for understanding: Have students search the story to locate and highlight words that have the short /u/ sound.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the short /u/ vowel worksheet. If time allows, discuss their responses.

Grammar and Mechanics: Present-tense verbs

• Review or explain that some words name actions. These words are called verbs. Have students name action words they know and then act them out.
• Have students turn to page 3 in their book. Read the first sentence aloud together. Ask students to name the word that identifies an action (carries).
• Write the following sentence on the board: Bonk puts the buckeye in his pocket. Have a volunteer come to the board and underline the verb in the sentence. Ask another volunteer to act out the underlined verb.
• Write the words carries and puts on the board. Explain that these words tell about actions that are happening right now, or in the present.

      Check for understanding: Have students search the story with a partner to locate the verbs and highlight them. When they have finished, make a list of action words together on the board.

• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the present-tense verbs worksheet. If time allows, discuss their responses.

Word Work: Alphabetical order

• Review or explain to students that words are sometimes placed in a list by alphabetical order. Words are placed in alphabetical order by first looking at the beginning letter in each word and then deciding which letter comes first in the alphabet.
• Write the words monster and pocket on the board. Underline the first letter in each word. Ask students which letter comes first in the alphabet, m or p. Explain that the word monster would come first in an alphabetical list.
• Write the words mystery and buckeye on the board. Have students identify the initial letter in each word (m and b). Ask students to identify which letter comes first in the alphabet (b). Explain that the word buckeye would come first in an alphabetical list.
• Check for understanding: List these words in the following order on the board: buckeye, acorn, lucky, found, dresser, and jelly. Have students write the words in alphabetical order on a separate piece of paper. When they have finished, discuss their answers.

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. Have students retell the story to someone at home. Remind them to identify some cause-and-effect relationships in the retelling.

Fantasy Fiction Writing Connection
Have students draw a picture of one of the monsters having good luck on one half of the paper and one of the monsters having bad luck on the other half. Have them write a sentence to tell about each picture.

Science Connection
Discuss squirrels and the foods they eat. Provide Internet and other resources about squirrels. Have each student write one fact that they learned about squirrels and draw a picture about the fact. Put the pages together to create a class book about squirrels.

Skill Review
Discussion cards covering comprehension skills and strategies not explicitly taught with the book are provided as an extension activity. The following is a list of some ways these cards can be used with students:

• Use as discussion starters for literature circles.
• Have students choose one or more cards and write a response, either as an essay or a journal entry.
• Distribute before reading the book and have students use one of the questions as a purpose for reading.
• Cut apart and use the cards as game cards with a board game.
• Conduct a class discussion as a review before the book quiz.