Before Reading

Lesson Plans for SMELLY CLYDE Level L

Before Reading

Introducing the Book

Direct attention to the cover of the book. Read the title of the story and the names of the author and illustrator. Ask children to look at the illustrations. Ask: What does this illustration tell you? Does it help you to predict what will happen in the story? Why do you think the author titled the book, Smelly Clyde?
Turn to the Title Page. Tell children that the title of the story, and the author and illustrator names are always on this page. Ask them to look closely at the illustration. Ask: What is different about this page and the cover? Why do you think the illustration is different? Where do you think Clyde is going? Tell them that the title page gives a clue about the setting of the story.

Building Background
Introduce the story word, manure. Tell children that manure is waste matter of animals that is used to fertilize soil. When you put manure into the ground, it helps fertilize plants and flowers and helps them to grow. Ask: Have you smelled manure when a family member was fertilizing your yard, when you went to a county fair, or when you visited a farm? What did it smell like? Did it have an odor? Tell them that odor is a synonym for smell – it’s a word that is spelled differently but has the same meaning. Discuss other vocabulary words that relate to smell, like sniff and whiff. Ask: What do you do when you sniff? What do you do if you take a whiff of something? If you sniffed a bad smell, what do you do? Would you hold your nose or turn away? What would you do if it were a good smell, like a chocolate cake? What kind of smell does soap have?

Have children act out what they would do with good smells and bad smells. Tell them that there are many words that describe good smells and bad smells. Write Good Smells and Bad Smells on the chalkboard or chart paper. Help children to generate a list of words under each heading. As prompts, use the words delightful, heavenly, and refreshing from the story.

Introduce the word habit. Explain that a habit is something that a person has done so often without thinking about it that it becomes difficult to stop. For example, there are "bad" habits like twisting your hair, chewing on pencils, etc. and there are "good" habits like washing your hands, saying "yes, please", etc. Ask children to give examples of both bad and good habits, and list them on the chalkboard. Then ask them to think about the habits that they have or someone they know has. Draw a big circle in the middle of a chalkboard or chart paper and write the word Habits inside. Draw several lines out from the big circle and make smaller circles at the end of each line. As the children share their habits, write them in the circles.

Tell children that good habits are ones they want to keep; bad habits are those they may want to change. In order to break bad habits or to stop doing whatever it is that has become a problem, you need to think of solutions. Help children brainstorm ideas for breaking each of the bad habits in the circles. Draw a line from the smaller circles and write the word, solutions. Under solutions, write suggestions for eliminating the bad habit. Ask if one of the children will volunteer to try breaking their habit, using the ideas generated by the class. Tell them that after a few weeks, they can share what happened – did they break their habit?

Book Walk
Go through the book with the children paying attention to the illustrations and pausing on difficult words and complicated ideas.

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