Reading Level:
J

Word Count:
380

Pages:
14

Text Summary
Ocean Animals is about various animals that can be found in oceans around the world. Animals are a topic of high interest for children, who will enjoy reading this book and learning fascinating facts about these ocean creatures. Each page has both a photo and a line drawing of the animal discussed.

Reader Supports

• High Interest Topic
• Simple sentence structure
• High frequency words
• Repetitive patterns
• Familiar topic

Reader Challenges
Some of the words used to describe the animals in the book may be new to some children and may be seen as a challenge for some. The pictures should help them decode some of these words.

Lesson Objectives

Reading Strategies
Children should use a variety of strategies to decode words and bring meaning to print. The targeted strategy for this lesson is: Using context clues

Children are likely to use various strategies to help them decode words in this book. Encourage them to go back and reread to make sure the sentence makes sense, to use the pictures in the book to help them with the more difficult words, and to look for words within words.  

To check for comprehension, you may want to us these strategies: asking questions before and during reading, visualizing, and making connections between what they are reading and what they already know. The follow-up worksheet will also help you to see how much children understood.

Word and Print Skills

Phonological Awareness
Initial and Final Consonants

Phonics
Syllabication

Word Work

High Utility Words
am, have, live, like, eat

Word Work
Punctuation

Each page begins with the words, "I am a(n)...". This is a great book to introduce and discuss when and how to use commas and periods in text.

Comprehension
You will likely address a number of comprehension skills as children work to understand the text. The targeted comprehension strategy for this lesson is: Main ideas and details

The follow-up worksheet that goes with this book is a wonderful tool to find out how much each child has comprehended. By having children write the correct animal name next to the description, you will be able to see what children know and/or learned from the book. For any children that may need it, you can allow them to use the book to help themselves as they are completing the worksheet.

Visual Learning
Before reading the book, you can have children look at the pictures and brainstorm words associated with the pictures on each page. You can have the pictures alone on a blank page, then pass the page around and have each child write a word that comes to mind when they see the picture. You can talk about the words as a group or compare them to the words on the page and see if they came up with the same ideas as the author. This will connect the visuals with vocabulary that may help comprehension of the book.

Targeted Vocabulary Words

High Utility Words
am, have, live, like, eat

Content
These content words fall into the category of types of ocean animals. You may wish to have children add words to the list, such as these: dolphin, walrus, hammerhead shark, California sea lion, octopus, great white shark, manta ray, seahorse, leatherback turtle, and blue whale

Before Reading

Introducing the Book
Before handing out the book, introduce it by showing the front and back cover, and the title page.

Ask: What do you see on the covers? What does this tell you about the book's contents? What do you think the book will be about? There should be a lot of prediction going on at this stage.

Building Background
Ocean Animals is a great book to use if you are doing a unit of study on the ocean. You may want to ask questions to elicit prior knowledge and build background to help children get an idea of what they are going to read and help you to see how much they know about this topic. Depending on where you live, you will get a different level of knowledge.

Ask: Have they had any experience with the ocean or animals that live in the ocean? What do they know about the animals that live in the ocean? What makes these animals special or unique? Have them think about the different animals using their senses. Ask: What do the animals look, smell, and feel like?

Book Walk
You might consider doing a book walk with children before they begin reading the book. You don't need to go through each page, but you may want to point out any words you think they may have difficulty with. You might want to show them what the text looks like to help them feel more comfortable with the amount on each page, etc.

Reading Strategies
Discuss any reading strategies children can use to help them read. Maybe you have a list of reading strategies they have used in the past. You may want to review these strategies or brainstorm ways children can help themselves as they are reading. Stress that children make sure the sentences make sense and they use context clues to help them. You should ask questions such as:

• How will the pictures help you read the words?
• What can you do when you come to a word you cannot read?
• What can you do if you don't understand a part you have just read?

During Reading

Model Reading
Consider reading the story aloud to children in order to model the proper intonation and fluency. You can stop periodically to discuss and reflect on what has been read, and to check for understanding. You should pause to ask questions to allow for reflection and to see what children understand from the text. You can talk about the pictures and the context clues to make sure they are following the text and the author's main ideas.

Student Reading
Hand out the books and instruct children to read quietly and aloud at their own pace. Children should point to each word as they read. It is also important for them to listen to themselves as they are reading to make sure that what they are saying makes sense. If it doesn't make sense, they should go back to the beginning of the page and read it again. They can also move over any words that they are having difficulty with to see if the next few words can help them.

After Reading

Comprehending the Text
Along with the worksheet, you can ask questions to see what children learned from the book. Ask: What did you find most interesting about this book? What did you learn that you didn't know before? What there anything that you already knew? Is there an animal living in the ocean that you know about that wasn't in this book? etc.

Visual Learning
Much can be gained from looking at photos in books. Ask questions to see what children gained from the illustrations/photos in the book. Ask: Which picture did you like the most and why? Was there any animal in the book you hadn't see before that was in the book? Which picture did you like the least? If you were the illustrator of this book, would you have done anything differently?

Building Skills

Phonological Awareness
Initial and Final Consonants
Have children identify and enunciate the initial and final consonant sounds of the words they read in the book. This will help them as they are reading both now and in the future as their reading level increases.

Phonics
Syllabication
The following worksheet for this book provides an excellent opportunity to introduce syllables to children. As you are going over the book and looking at the words in the text, you can explain what syllables are. You can talk to children about different word parts and tell them they are called syllables. Have children go through the book and, as they are listening/reading, have them count the number of word parts/syllables that each word has. You can even have them look for the word with the most number of syllables. 

For some children, clapping the number of syllables on one hand with the fingers from the other hand is helpful. You can practice this with the word "animals." Have children take the fingers of one hand and clap them onto the other, one at a time, as they say the word parts of the word "animals." The first part would be "an", the second would be "i", and the third would be "mals." Children should use three fingers to represent the three word parts.

Word Work
High Utility Words
am, have, live, like, eat  

Mechanics activity
Punctuation
Each page begins with the words, "I am a(n)...", this is a great book to introduce and discuss when and how to use commas and periods in text. Have children pair up and write a sentence that incorporates the "I am a(n)" and uses either a period or comma within the sentence.

Expand the Reading

Writing Connection
Have children create another page of the book with an animal that wasn't in the book. They can draw a picture and describe the animal as the author did in this book Ocean Animals.

Science/Art/Writing Connection
See the Writing Connection section above.

Reading Independently
Have children read the book independently or with a partner. You can also encourage them to read other books of their choice at the appropriate level.

Home Connection
Send the book home to be read to or with parents and siblings. You can also have children take home the page they created to show parents "their page" in the book.

Assessment

• Monitor children's responses in the Comprehending Text section to assess how well they understand the story.
• Monitor reading to see if children are using the effective reading strategies.
• Assess student knowledge of syllabication.