Build Background

• Ask students to share personal experiences they have had with getting haircuts. Have them tell how often they get their hair cut. Ask students to tell about trips to the barber or beauty shop.

Book Walk

Introduce the Book

• 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 if they recognize the characters shown on the cover illustration. Model how to make connections to other books students have read about the Monsters.

Introduce the Strategy: Make text-to-text connections

• Model making connections to the characters in the book.
• Think aloud: I've seen these characters before. I know that they are good friends and that like most good friends they try to help one another out. If I remember what I've read about them in other stories, it will help me understand what I read in this story. I can use what I already know about the characters to predict what they might do next.
• 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 what will happen in the story based on what they see on the covers, title page, and what they already know about the characters.

Introduce the Vocabulary

• As you preview the book, use the vocabulary students will encounter in the text. Ask students to talk about what they see in the illustrations. For example, show students page 9 and ask: Who are the characters in the picture? What did Bonk put on his head and on his back?
• Model for students the strategies they can use to work out words they don't know. Point out the word ponytail on page 5. Model for students how you recognize that the 2 parts of the word are smaller words that you are familiar with. Then read the sentence aloud and have students tell whether the word ponytail makes sense.
• Tell students to look for familiar parts in words they don’t know and to check that the word makes sense in the sentence.
• For additional teaching tips on word-attack strategies, click here .

Set the Purpose

• Have the students read the book to find out if their predictions about what happens to Bonk are correct.

Student Reading

• Guide the Reading: Give students their books and have them put a sticky note on page 7. 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 if their predictions were correct. Have them revise their predictions based on any new information they read.
• Model making connections to previously read Monster stories.
• Think aloud: I remember that the Monsters are good friends. I also remember that they always seem to help each other out when there is a problem. Remembering what the Monsters are like from other stories helps me predict what might happen in this story. I think Bonk is going to get tired of standing on his head to keep his fur out of his eyes! I think his friends will help him figure out what to do.
• Tell students to read the remainder of the story and to confirm or revise any other predictions they have made about the Monsters. 

    Tell the 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 the Reading Strategies

• Ask students what words they marked in their books. Use this opportunity to model how they could read these words using decoding strategies and context clues.
• Reinforce how using what they already know about the Monsters helped them understand what they read and make logical predictions about what might happen in the story.

Comprehension: Problem and solution

• Introduce and model: Explain that one way to understand a story is to think about a problem the character in the book has and how he or she plans to solve it. If you feel students may have difficulty understanding what problem and solution are, use a real-life or familiar scenario to model problem solving. For example, pretend that you ran out of gas on the way to school. First, identify the problem (the car won’t run). Next, tell why you have the problem (you forgot to put gas in on the way home from school the day before). Then, tell what would have happened if the problem hadn’t been solved (you would have been late to school or missed it completely). Last, explain how you solved the problem (friend helped, called husband, got ride with someone else).
• Check for understanding: Have students identify what Bonk’s problem is.
• Independent Practice: Give students the problem/solution worksheet to complete. Tell them to write Bonk’s problem in the first box and then tell why he has the problem, what will happen if he doesn’t solve the problem, and how the problem is solved. Discuss their responses.
• Extend the Discussion:

    Instruct students to use the last page of their book to draw a picture of the haircut they think Bonk should have gotten. Have students share their pictures with the group.

Phonemic Awareness: Orally segment phonemes

• Say the word grow and then segment the word into its sounds: /g/ /r/ /o/. Have students repeat the sounds.
• Explain to students that you are going to say some words, and that you want them to segment the words into their individual sounds in the same way you did with the word grow. Say each of the following words and ask students to segment the sounds: train, dress, bride, tree, crack, frame.

Phonics: r-family blends

• Write the words grow, dress, and tree on the board and read them with the students. Underline the gr, dr, and tr, and explain that these letters stand for the /gr/, /dr/, and /tr/ sounds. Ask students to repeat the words.
• Write the following blends on the board: gr, dr, tr, br, cr, pr. Next to the blends, write the following portions of words: ––––___ound, ___ives, ___ack, ___ush, ___ayon, ___oud. Provide the following clues and ask students to decide which r-blend goes at the beginning of the word: Where Bonk put his head with his feet in the air (ground). What a person does in a car (drives). What a train travels on (track). Instead of combing your hair, you ___ it. (brush). What you use to color pictures (crayons). How you feel when you win a race (proud).
• Give students the phonics worksheet, go over the example provided, and tell students to complete the worksheet. (Pictures on worksheet: truck, bride, crane, frog, crib, tree, bread, dress, crayon, grapes, drum, train)
• Extend the activity:

    Tell students to circle each word in the story that has an r-blend (grow, ground).

Grammar and Usage: Types of sentences and end punctuation

• Review or explain that a sentence begins with a capital letter and ends with a punctuation mark.
• Direct students to page 5. Have students tell the name of the punctuation mark that is at the end of each sentence (period). Review that these are “telling” sentences and that “telling” sentences end with periods. Tell them to write a “T” beside each period.
• Have students turn to page 12. Read the question Jupe asks and have students tell the name of the punctuation mark (question mark). Review that this is an “asking” sentence and that “asking” sentences end with questions marks. Tell them to write an “A” beside the question mark.
• Have students turn to page 4 and read the first sentence. Review or explain that this sentence shows excitement or surprise and that sentences that show surprise end with exclamation marks. Tell them to write an “E” beside the exclamation mark.
• Check for understanding by having students identify the asking sentence on page 14, and the telling and excited sentences on page 16.
• Have students mark the sentences as described above on pages 8 and 9 in the book.

Vocabulary: Compound Words

• Tell students that some of the words they read in the book are words made by putting 2 words together. Direct students to page 5 and ask them to find a word that is made up of 2 smaller words (ponytail).
• Write the word on the board. Ask students to tell the meaning of the word ponytail (a hairstyle that looks like a pony’s tail).
• Check for understanding by asking students to turn to page 4 and find a word made from 2 other words (haircut). Ask students to tell what each word means by itself, and what the compound word means.
• Click here for a compound word worksheet. Have students cut out the words and use them to make compound words. Tell them to write the words they make on a sheet of paper.

Independent Reading

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

Home Connection

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

Writing Connection

• Have students think about a problem they have had. Tell them to draw a picture of the problem and write a sentence that tells what the problem was and how they solved it.

Health and Science Connection

• Discuss growth. Talk about how children grow new hair and nails every day. Discuss ways to take care of their hair and nails.

Monitor students to determine if they can:

• use what they already know about the characters to make relevant predictions about how they will act in this story
• identify the problem in the story and the steps the characters took to solve it
• recognize and read r-family blends
• listen to segmented phonemes and blend them together to make words
• understand that there are different types of sentences and that different types of punctuation are used to help readers understand what they read
• understand that compound words are made from 2 smaller words and make compound words.

Comprehension Checks

• Retelling Rubric (Full Access Needed)