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.