Text Type: Fiction / Fantasy
Page Count: 14
Word Count: 468 

Text Summary
It looks like Anna's school picnic will be ruined by rain. But Oma tells Anna about Opa's magic coat, which can change the weather. Anna dons the enormous coat and commands the sun to shine. In the beautiful weather, everyone has fun at the picnic—everyone except Anna. How can she enjoy a picnic while wearing a coat that makes her too slow to play and too hot to eat? 

About the Lesson 

Objectives

• Analyze character
• Identify r-controlled vowels
• Identify and use adjectives
• Identify and use figurative language: similes and personification 

Targeted Reading Strategy

• Make text-to-text and text-to-self connections 

Materials

• Book – Anna and the Magic Coat (copy for each student)
• Chalkboard or dry-erase board
• Character Analysis, R-Controlled Vowels, Adjectives, Figurative Language worksheets
• Word journal (optional)

    Indicates an opportunity to use the book interactively (all activities may be completed with paper and pencil if books are not consumable) 

Vocabulary

• Oma, Opa, cupcakes, murmured, whoever, undid, swirled

Build Background

• Have students brainstorm words associated with picnics, and especially school picnics. Create a word web for the topic of picnics and record their words on the web. Have them include words about food, games, places, and weather.
• Ask students if they have read any other stories in which a character discovers a magical object. What did that object do? How did the character use it? Did the object result in good or bad things for the character? Given what students have just talked about concerning school picnics, how do they think Anna might use the magic coat? What might the magic coat do? 

Preview the Book

Introduce the Strategy: Make text-to-text and text-to-self connections

• Give students their copies of the book and have them look at the front and back covers and read the title. Ask students what they think the book is about.
• Model how to make personal and literary connections to the text based on the cover information. Remind students of the stories they mentioned during the Build Background section.
• Think aloud: The title of this book makes me think about a book I read about a boy who found a magic ring. He made wishes that made him happy at first, but then the ring and the wishes he made got him into trouble. I wonder if Anna will have trouble with her magic coat? (Tailor comments to your own situation.)
• Ask students to share what the illustrations and/or title make them think of. Think aloud: Good readers make connections to what they read. If you can think of a time when something happened to you that is like what happened to the character, it can help you understand how that character might be feeling. When you think of events that are similar, you can better understand what’s happening in the story.
• Click here for more reading and word-attack strategies. 

Introduce the Vocabulary

• Review with students how to use other reading strategies (for example, what they know about word structures and context) to read unfamiliar words.
• Read page 3 with students and point out the words Oma and Opa. Ask students what they think these words mean. Encourage them to notice that Anna is talking to her grandmother, and help them make links to the words grandpa and grandma. 

Introduce the Comprehension    Skill: Analyze character

• Model character analysis: Remind students that all stories have characters, setting, and plot. Remind them that they can learn about characters by what they say, what they do, what they think, and what others say about them.
• Think-aloud: When I read a story, I try to think of times when I felt like the character in the book. This helps me better understand how that character might be feeling. Characters can have lots of different feelings in stories, just as real people do. As things happen in the story, the characters react in different ways and have different feelings.
• Check for understanding: Have students read the first paragraph of the story. Ask them if they have ever looked forward to something but were afraid it might be ruined by something uncontrollable like the weather. Ask them to describe how they felt. Ask them to describe how Anna might be feeling right now. Have them think of words to describe her feelings, such as worried, anxious, concerned, or unhappy.
• Give students the Character Analysis worksheet. Have them record Anna’s feelings in the first column.  

Set the Purpose

• Tell students that you want them to pause when they think that Anna is feeling a new way. They should think about how they might feel themselves if they were in the same situation. As Anna's feelings change, students will record them on the chart.

Guide the Reading

• Ask students to read to the end of page 8. If they finish before the others, they should go back and reread the pages.
• When students have all read to page 8, talk about Anna’s feelings. Have them talk about a time when they might have felt the same way. Encourage them to think of a variety of emotions. For example: "She was excited," "She was impatient to get to the picnic," "She was happy."
• Think aloud: It looks like Anna has found a solution to her problem with the weather. I know that when I find solutions to problems, especially problems that I didn't think I could solve, I am very happy and excited. I'll write those words, happy and excited, on my worksheet.
• Ask students how Anna’s feelings have changed from what they were on page 4. Discuss why she feels differently.
• Have students read the rest of the story, noting Anna’s feelings and making connections to their own experiences.
• As students read, monitor their reading and intervene to help students work out words that they are having difficulty with.

    Tell students to make a question mark in their books beside any word or phrase they do not understand. These can be addressed in the discussion that follows. 

Reflect on Reading Strategies

• Talk about how making connections to personal experiences helps students understand character actions and motives. Ask how having read other stories in the same genre helps them better understand the story.
• Ask students what other strategies they used to work out unfamiliar words. Have them tell you any places in the text that they have marked with a question mark, and model strategies they could use to work out the words. 

Apply the Comprehension    Skill: Analyze characters

• Discussion: Ask volunteers to retell the story. Have them refer to their worksheets and any words they wrote down about how Anna felt during different parts of the story. Encourage them to make the connection that characters' feelings often affect what happens in the story; for instance, Anna feels upset and frustrated with her magic coat, so she takes it off. Ask students if they can think of other words to describe her feelings, and have them add the words to the worksheet.
• Independent practice: Have students complete the comprehension worksheet, describing how she felt at page 12 and at the end of the story.
• Extend the discussion: Have students share their worksheets when they are finished. Have them explain why Anna felt the way she did and how they know this.  

Phonics: R-controlled vowels

• Write the word murmured on the board and have students read it. Point out the r-controlled u and remind them that some vowels before r have neither the long nor short vowel sound.

    Challenge students to find as many words as they can in the book that have vowels with r. You might want to have students work in pairs to complete this activity.

• When students have found the words, have them read out the words while you record them on index cards.
• Have students organize the cards into categories according to the sound of the r-controlled vowel (sailor, better, her, third, stronger, hurt, swirled; dark, darn; their, wears). Ask students if they can think of other words that have the same vowel sound as storm.
• Have them complete the R-Controlled Vowel worksheet. 

Grammar, Mechanics, and Usage: Adjectives

• Remind students that adjectives are words that describe people, places, and things.
• Have students find the words that describe the sky and the icing on pages 3 and 4. (pink, blue)
• Have them find the words that describe the coat on page 6. (long, gray, magic)
• Have students brainstorm a list of words to describe something in the classroom.
• Introduce and explain the Adjectives worksheet. Students will use the picture to provide adjectives in the sentences. 

Vocabulary: Figurative language: similes and personification

• Explain that a simile is a kind of descriptive language that compares something to something else using like or as. Ask students to find the simile on page 6. (gray as a cloud)

    Challenge students to find another example of a simile in the book and underline it. They will find the simile quick as lightning. Ask them whether they think this is a good simile to describe how Anna moved.

• Tell students that this story also contains examples of personification. The author describes nonhuman things as if they had human characteristics.
• Have students read the first sentence in the second paragraph on page 8. Ask how the author describes how the wind moves in this sentence. Point out that the wind can’t really play, but by using this description, the author tries to create a visual picture of the wind as if it were mischievous and playful. Have them find other ways in the paragraph that the author describes the wind.
• Challenge students to find the example of personification on page 10. (The breeze tickled her cheek.) Have them explain why this is an example of personification.
• Instruct students on how to complete the Figurative Language worksheet. 

Independent Reading

• Allow students to read their books independently or with a partner. Have partners take turns reading the book. 

Home Connection

• Have students take their books home to share with family members.

Writing

• Have students write a descriptive paragraph using strong adjectives and examples of figurative language. Help them choose a familiar topic for their description, such as a pet, the weather, or a garden. 

Monitor students as they interact during group activities and review their completed worksheets to determine if they can:

• make connections before and as they read by referring to personal experiences and previous stories they have read.
• understand how characters' feelings change throughout a story depending on the story events.
• locate and read words with r-controlled vowels.
• recognize adjectives and use them in their writing.
• recognize examples of figurative language and use them in their writing.