Build Background

• Ask students to tell what they know about sound. Ask if anyone knows how sound travels from its source to our ears.
• Ask students to close their eyes and visualize, or picture in their minds, a guitar string vibrating back and forth as it is being plucked. Ask them to share what they see.

Preview the Book

Introduce the Book

• Give students a copy of the book and 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.
• Invite students to preview the rest of the book by looking at the photographs. Have them look at the glossary and index at the back of the book while you review their uses. Point out that the words are listed in alphabetical order and have page numbers after them to indicate where to go to find more information. Ask what page tells about vocal cords (page 8). Ask a volunteer to tell the difference between a glossary and an index (a glossary provides a definition for each word, whereas an index does not).

Introduce the Strategy: Visualize

• Explain and model visualizing.
• 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 strategy helps me keep track of everything, and it also helps me make sure I understand the descriptions in the book. I know that good readers do this when they read, so I am going to visualize what is being described in this book as I read.
• 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 the 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 word vibrates on page 8. 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.
• Explain that to determine the meaning of an unfamiliar word, students can look for context clues or other information in the paragraph that explains the word's meaning. For example, the meaning of the word vibrates can be figured out by finding the context clue listed inside commas after the word (or moves back and forth very quickly). Further explain that the definition for bolded words, such as vibrates, can be found in the glossary.
• Remind students that they should check whether a word makes sense by rereading the sentence in which it is found.
• For additional tips on teaching word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Have students read the book to find out more about sound around us. 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 8. Ask them if they stopped to visualize, or create a picture in their mind of, any of the images the author described in the book.
• Think-aloud: When I read about vocal cords vibrating in people's throats, I paused to picture in my mind how that would look. I used the guitar strings in the photograph on that page to help me visualize what it might look like inside a person's throat. I visualized a person opening her mouth to sing, and the cords moving back and forth very quickly to create sound.
• Have students share the images they visualized 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 they marked in their books. Use this opportunity to model how they can read these words using decoding strategies and context clues.
• Have students share any other questions they had while they were reading. Ask how using the strategy of visualization helped them understand and remember what they read.
• Think-aloud: When I read about sound volume, I paused to picture in my mind how much a lion's roar must vibrate. I envisioned a huge lion roaring very loudly and visible sound waves vibrating out from his mouth. This picture helped me understand what I had read and remember the information in the book.
• Have students complete the visualize worksheet.

Teach the Comprehension Skill: Cause and effect

• Discussion: Discuss cause-and-effect relationships. Explain that a cause makes something happen, and the effect is what happens because of, or as a result of, the action or event. For example, if the temperature drops below 32 degrees, a puddle will freeze. The cause is the temperature dropping; the effect is the puddle freezing.
• Introduce and model the skill: To illustrate a cause-and-effect relationship from the text, have students turn to page 10. Read the page aloud as students follow along. Ask what the cause of the sound is (the air vibrating around the falling tree). Ask what the effect of the vibrating air is (the sound of a tree crashing to the ground).
• Check for understanding: Have students review the text to find the cause of tiny bones in the inner ear vibrating (sound waves moving through the ear) and the effect of the vibration (the person hears a sound). Allow time for students to share their findings.
• Independent practice: Have students practice identifying cause-and-effect relationships by completing the worksheet. When they have finished, have them discuss their work and explain their answers with references to the text. 
• Extend the discussion: Have students turn to page 12 and work with a partner to solve the Math Minute problem. Invite students to share their ideas once they've solved the problem.

Grammar and Mechanics: Captions

• Review or explain that captions are words under or to the side of photographs, maps, or diagrams that give the reader more information. Captions are short sentences or phrases that are typically in a different font from the rest of the text. Explain that when reading a page containing a caption, the reader should first finish the text and then refer to the caption for more information.
• Have students turn to page 6. Ask them to identify the caption on the page, and ask a volunteer to read what it says. (A prairie dog makes a noise to warn that danger is near.) Ask why a photo with this caption would be placed on this page (because the text is telling about animals using sound to communicate). Point out that the words in the caption are printed in smaller letters than the rest of the text. They are separated from the paragraph and are placed directly under the photo.
• Have students turn to page 8. Ask how many captions are on this page (one). Explain that the caption is different from the explanatory text on the photograph. Direct students to other captions in the book. Discuss the purpose for choosing a particular caption for each photo. Point out that some captions are short phrases or single words, while others are complete sentences.

    Check for understanding: Have students go through the book and circle all of the captions. Check individual work for their understanding of the concept.

Word Work: Compound words

• Review or explain that two words can be combined to form a new word, called a compound word.
• Write the words bagpipes, hard-working, and sound waves on the board. Tell students that these are examples of different types of compound words. Each has two parts that make up one word meaning; some compound words are joined, some are separated by hyphens, and some are separate.
• Ask students to identify the two separate words that make up each compound word, and write them on the board next to the corresponding compound word (bag and pipes, hard and working, sound and waves).
• Discuss how knowing the meanings of the words bag and pipes can help them understand the meaning of bagpipes. Remind students that they can use what they know about the words that make up a compound word to help them determine the meaning of an unfamiliar compound word.
• Have students turn to page 9 and find two compound words (rubber band and shoebox). Write the words on the board with the two parts that make up each compound word (rubber and band, shoe and box). Discuss the meanings of the word parts and the compound words.

    Check for understanding: Have students turn to the glossary and find two entries that are compound words (sound waves and vocal cords). Tell them to circle the words and write the term compound word in the margin in order to help them remember the terminology.

• Independent practice: Give students the compound words worksheet. Discuss their answers aloud.

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 the necessary materials for students to perform the experiment described on page 9. After students have crafted their own shoebox instruments, have them work to create a song, either as a solo or a group. Have them perform their songs.

Writing Connection

After completing the Science Connection above, have students write at least two paragraphs about the experience. One paragraph should be dedicated to answering the questions at the bottom of the experiment: How are the sounds different? Why?

Monitor students to determine if they can:

• use the reading strategy of visualizing to better comprehend and remember information in nonfiction text; complete a graphic organizer
• accurately recognize and explain cause-and-effect relationships in discussion and on a worksheet
• identify and understand the use of captions in a book
• recognize and form compound words; identify compound words on a worksheet

Comprehension Checks

• Book Quiz
• Retelling Rubric