Lesson Plans for A VISIT TO THE ZOO level I

Building Skills

Phonological Awareness
Initial and Final Consonants
Look through the book and look for words that begin and end with consonants—for example: visit, sisters, turns, doesn’t, school, animals, children, etc. Write them on the board or a piece of paper. Have children look at and pronounce the words. Make sure that they are saying the words in a way that allows you to hear the initial and ending sounds.

Phonics
Vowel Digraphs
Looking through the text, there are many words that contain vowel digraphs. Explain to children that vowel digraphs are two or more vowels that are next to each other in a word that make up only one sound. The following words from the book contain vowel digraphs: aunt, each, hears, doesn’t, near, teachers, learning, you’ll, guess, wearing, please, tortoise, their, and treats. Write three or four of the words from the book on the board or paper. Have children look at the words and say them, listening to the sounds that the digraphs make. See if they can look through the book and find others. Remind them to say the word aloud and listen to make sure that the vowels are only making one sound. You can use lion or Indian as examples of words that have two vowels together that make more than one sound.

Word Work
Synonyms
Talk to children about the fact that the words used to describe the animals are called adjectives and are describing words. Have them look through the book and tell you all the describing words used. List them on the board or a chart. Next, talk to children about the fact that other words can be used to describe the animals as well. Ask them to come up with words that could have been used in the book that would have meant the same or almost the same thing as the word used. Write these new words next to the original word used in the book. Tell children that the words they came up with are called synonyms. If you have a thesaurus available, you can share it with them and explain that a thesaurus is a book that is full of synonyms and antonyms to help writers be more creative as they write.

Mechanics/Grammar
Quotation or Talking Marks/Word Clues
Throughout this book, Fran and Danni have various conversations. Look through the book and ask: What clues are there that show us that the girls are talking? (Word clues like says or asks and quotation or talking marks.) Have children go through the text, raise their hands, and tell you some of the quotes from the book.


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