Build Background

• Provide photographs of salmon from a nonfiction children's book or children's encyclopedia. Use the photographs to initiate a discussion about salmon. Ask students if they know what a life cycle is and, if so, to explain the concept.
• Ask students to close their eyes and visualize, or picture in their mind, a salmon swimming in a river, leaping beautifully out of the water. Ask them to share what they see.

Preview the Book

Introduce the Book

• Give students a copy of the book. Have them preview the front and back covers and read the title. Have students discuss what they see on the covers and offer ideas as to what kind of book this is and what it might be about. Ask students whether they think this book is fiction or nonfiction.
• Show students the title page. Talk about the information on the page (title, author's name, illustrator's name).

Introduce the Strategy: Visualize

• Tell students that one strategy readers use to understand what they are reading is to make pictures in their minds as they read. Visualizing, or making mental pictures, helps readers understand and remember what they are reading.
• Model how to visualize.
  Think-aloud: Whenever I read a book, I always pause after several pages to create a picture in my mind of what the author is describing. This helps me keep track of the important information, and it also helps me make sure I understand the ideas in the book. I know that good readers do this when they read, so I am going to visualize as I read this book.
• Have students look at the glossary at the back of the book. Point out that the words are listed in alphabetical order with definitions and page numbers to tell readers where information about that word appears. Ask what page tells about predators (page 10).
• Invite students to preview the rest of the book by looking at the illustrations.
• As students read, they should use other reading strategies in addition to the targeted strategy presented in this section. For tips on additional reading strategies, click here.

Introduce Vocabulary

• Remind students of the strategies they can use to work out words they don't know. For example, they can use what they know about letter and sound correspondence to figure out the word. They can look for base words, prefixes, and suffixes. They can use the context to work out meanings of unfamiliar words.
• Model how to apply word-attack strategies. Have students find the bold word spawn on page 10. Tell students that they can look at the letter the word begins with and then use what they know about syllables and vowels (one vowel sound per syllable) to sound out the rest of the word. Tell students to look for a clue to the word's meaning in the sentence. Explain that other information in the paragraph or in the picture may also provide information about an unfamiliar word.
• Model how to use the glossary or a dictionary to find the word's meaning. Have a volunteer read the definition for spawn in the glossary. Have students follow along on page 10 as you read the sentence in which the word spawn is found to confirm the meaning of the word. If time allows, preview other vocabulary, such as fry and current, in a similar fashion before students begin reading.
• For additional tips on teaching word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Have students read the book to learn about the salmon life cycle. Remind them to stop and visualize as they read to help them remember and understand what they're reading.

Student Reading

• Guide the reading: Have students read to the end of page 9. If students finish early, encourage them to return to the text to reread and visualize what the author described in the book.
• Model visualizing.
  Think-aloud: When I read about the salmon practicing her special leaps in the ocean, I paused to picture in my mind how that would look. I saw a large salmon clearing the water and doing a triple-backward flip before splashing back down.
• Invite students to share pictures they visualized in their minds while reading.

    Tell 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, if any, they marked in their books. Use this opportunity to model how they can read these words using decoding strategies and context clues.
• Ask students how visualizing helped them understand and remember what they read. Encourage students to give examples to support their reasoning.
• Think-aloud: When I read about the salmon tricking the bear, I paused to picture in my mind the salmon leaping out of the current and flipping end over end as the bear watched. I envisioned the other salmon slipping by the bear unnoticed. This helped me to understand what I had read and to remember that part of the book.
• Have students complete the visualize worksheet to show how they used the strategy of visualizing to help them understand and remember what they read.

Teach the Comprehension Skill: Sequence of events

• Discussion: Discuss the sequence of events involved in the life cycle of a salmon. Review or explain that a life cycle is the sequence of events in the life of a plant or animal, from birth to death. Explain that all living things complete a life cycle and that all living things, large and small, depend on each other. Ask how the bear would survive without fish to eat.
• Introduce and model the skill: Review or explain that common sequencing words, such as first, next, then, after that, now, and finally, are used to show the specific order of events in a salmon's life cycle. The author also uses other time-order words in this book to indicate the order of events, such as at last, for a while, soon, years later, and before long. Point out how these phrases help the reader understand the sequence and time in which the events occur.
• Ask students to turn to page 5. Read through this page together, having students identify the time-order, or sequencing, words they see used in the text (for a while, as she ate, then, now). Write their responses on the board under the heading Time-Order Words. Repeat the process with page 14, having students identify the time-order words they see used (at last, final, before long).
• Point out how the book follows the life cycle of a salmon, beginning with her birth on page 4 and ending with her final task, laying hundreds of eggs, on page 14. Explain that after a salmon returns to its home to spawn, its life is over soon after. The old salmon die as the new salmon are born, bring the salmon life cycle full circle.
• Check for understanding: Have students work in pairs to identify the sequence of events in chapter three, "The Bear." As they share their findings, allow volunteers to write the sequence of events on the board. Discuss the specific order in which these events occurred (the salmon began their journey upstream to spawn; they encountered strong currents, rapids, waterfalls, and predators; they saw a bear at a waterfall; they were in danger; the lovely leaper distracted the bear; the bear watched her perform all of her tricks; the other salmon jumped the waterfall and swam away; the lovely leaper followed). Point out how two events actually occurred at the same time (the bear watching the lovely leaper perform her tricks; the other salmon jumping the waterfall and swimming away).
• Independent practice: Have students practice identifying the sequence of events by completing the sequence events worksheet. Discuss answers aloud when each student has finished.

    Extend the discussion: Ask students what they thought of the book. Ask whether students would be interested in learning about the life cycle of other living creatures. Discuss where they might find books and other sources of information on animal life cycles.

Grammar and Mechanics: Pronouns

• Explain or review that a pronoun is a word used in place of a noun. Examples of pronouns are: I, he, it, they, and we. Write the following on the board: The lovely leaper did a double twist! Ask a volunteer to replace the words The lovely leaper with a pronoun. (She did a double twist.)
• Ask students to turn to page 12. Write the following sentence from the book on the board: He watched her flip end over end, and then backward! Ask students to identify the pronouns (he, her). Ask which words He replaces (bear). Ask which words her replaces (the lovely leaper). Ask a volunteer to repeat the sentence using the bear and the lovely leaper in place of the pronouns he and her. (The bear watched the lovely leaper flip end over end, and then backward!) Write the sentence under the first example. Then invite a volunteer to find a sentence with two or more nouns and to write the sentence on the board. Invite a second volunteer to rewrite the sentence, replacing the nouns with the appropriate pronouns. Repeat this activity, changing nouns to pronouns, as time allows.
• Discuss the reason authors use pronouns in the place of nouns (to make the writing flow better, to avoid repeating the same words, to make the paragraph sound better, and so on).
• Check for understanding: Have students work with a partner to find and list the pronouns in the book. Allow time for pairs to discuss their lists.
• Independent practice: Give students the pronouns worksheet. When students have finished, review answers aloud.

Word Work: Compound words

• Review or explain that when two short words are combined to form a new word, the new word is called a compound word.
• Have students turn to page 7 in the book. Read the last sentence: They swam downstream and headed for the ocean. Have students find the compound word (downstream). Ask students to identify the two separate words that make up the compound word (down and stream). Discuss the concept of compound words (combining two separate words that can stand alone to make a new word). Explain that the definitions of the two separate words can help students figure out the meaning of the bigger word (down the stream of water). Encourage students to name other compound words they know.
• Have students turn to page 13 to find a compound word (waterfall). Ask students which two words to make the compound word (water and fall) and what the bigger word means (falling water).
• Check for understanding: Repeat the exercise above on page 10. Have students look for two compound words (upstream and waterfalls).

   Extend the discussion: Have students use the inside front cover of their book to write compound word along with the definition of the term (combining two separate words that can stand alone to make a new word). Have them write the examples discussed (downstream, upstream, waterfall) after their definition.

Independent Reading

• Allow students to read their books independently or with a partner. Encourage repeated timed readings of a specific section of the book. Additionally, 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.

Science Connection

• Provide print and Internet resources for students to learn more about the web of life and life cycles of living things. Point out that all plants and animals are part of the web of life. Discuss how all livings things depend upon each other.

Writing Connection

• After completing the Science Connection, have students write a persuasive piece that focuses on the need to protect the lives of all living things. They may focus on the importance of keeping Earth's environment clean and healthy, or on the importance of protecting the homes, or habitats, of all living things.

Monitor students to determine if they can:

• confidently use the reading strategy of visualizing to better comprehend and remember nonfiction text
• accurately recognize and recall the sequence of events in the salmon life cycle using time-order words
• identify and understand the use of pronouns
• recognize and form compound words 

Comprehension Checks

• Book Quiz
• Retelling Rubric