Build Background

• Draw a word web on the board as students tell their favorite kinds of pie. Write the word pie in a large center circle, and add smaller circles attached with lines for each type of pie suggested. Point out that if all of the pies were real, there would be more pie than the students could eat.
• Erase all but the center circle labeled pie. Ask students what they would do if there was only one pie and everyone wanted to have a piece. (Elicit cutting the pie into the same number of pieces as there are students.)

Preview the Book

Introduce the Strategy: Retell

• Explain to students that one way to understand a book is to remember what happens so they can tell the story to someone else.
• 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.
• Model retelling as you preview the book.
• Think aloud: Here's what I know so far. The title of the book is Crows Share a Pie. The front cover shows some crows and a pie. It looks like one of the crows is cutting a piece of pie. Four crows and a pie are also on the back cover, so I'm sure that the book has something to do with crows and a pie. I'll have to read the book to find out.
• Show students the title page. Talk about the information that is written on the page (title of book, author's name, illustrator's name).
• Direct students to page 4 and point out the dialogue. Review or explain that quotation marks are used to enclose a speaker's words.
• As students read, they should use other reading strategies in addition to the targeted reading strategy presented in this section. For a review of additional reading strategies, click here.

Introduce the Vocabulary

• Go through each page of the book with the students. Talk about the illustrations and use the vocabulary they will encounter in the text. Ask the students to talk about what they see in each picture. Provide opportunities for students to say the new vocabulary words, talk about their meanings, and use the words in sentences.
• Reinforce new vocabulary and word-attack strategies by pointing to an object in a picture. For example, ask the students to point to the illustration of the pie on page 7. Ask the students to say the word and tell what sound they hear at the beginning. Ask the students to find the word on the page and to explain how they know that the word is pie. Ask the students to look at the picture and decide if the word pie makes sense. Repeat with other vocabulary words if necessary. Remind the students to look at the beginning and ending sounds in words and/or familiar parts within words to help them sound out the words.
• Encourage the students to add the new vocabulary words to their word journals.
• As students read, they will use a variety of word-attack strategies. For a review of additional word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Have students read the book and think about how they can retell what they read.

Student Reading

• Guide the reading: Have students read to the end of page 11. Tell them to think about what they will want to tell someone about the story. If they finish before everyone else, they should go back and reread.
• Have students tell the parts of the story they would include if they were telling the story to another person.
• Model retelling the story.
• Think aloud: I've read that a crow found a pie on a windowsill. Just as he was getting ready to eat it, another crow flew up. The second crow asked the first crow to share it with her. The first crow said he would, and they decided they would cut the pie in half. Just as they were getting ready to eat, two more crows landed on the windowsill. They asked the first two crows to share with them, which the first two crows agreed to do. They decided to cut each half into halves so each crow would get one-fourth of the pie.
• Ask students what they think will happen next. Have them read the remainder of the story to find out. Remind them to think about what happens so they can tell the story to someone else.

    Tell the 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

• Word attack: Ask the students what words were difficult for them. Ask how they figured out the words. Reinforce any strategies used, such as sounding out the word and verifying by context and/or picture clues. For example, have students look at the first sentence in the second paragraph on page 8. Ask how they know that the third word is sliced. Ask what sound is at the beginning of the word, and what sound it ends with. Ask what words on page 7 give them a clue about the word and its meaning. Ask if the word sliced fits in the sentence.
• Comprehension: Discuss how thinking about what happened in the story to retell it keeps them actively involved in the reading process and helps them understand and remember what they read.
• Discuss additional strategies students used to gain meaning from the book.

Comprehension: Main idea and details

• Introduce and model: Review or explain that the main idea of a story is the most important idea in it. Sometimes the author tells what the main idea is, but most of the time readers use clues and details to figure it out. Remind students that details are words, phrases, or sentences that give the reader more information about the main idea.
• Direct students to pages 6 and 7. Read the pages with the students. Ask them to tell the most important idea (sharing). Have them look at page 6 as you point out the following details: ...enough pie for two…you'll feel better sharing …than …getting a tummy ache from eating the entire thing. Reinforce that finding the main idea and important details helps them understand and remember what the story is about.
• Check for understanding: Have students look at page 7. Ask them to find details that support the main idea of sharing.
• Discussion: Ask students how the illustrations helped them understand the story. Draw the "pie" on the board and have students tell you how to divide it into pieces. Discuss the facial expressions on the crows' faces. Ask students how what they read in the story made them feel about sharing with others.
• Independent practice: Have students complete the Main Idea and Details worksheet. Discuss their responses.
• Extend the discussion:

    Instruct students to use the last page of the book to write a sentence or paragraph telling about the last time they shared something with another person.

Phonics: R-family blends

• Write the word crow on the board and have students find and read the sentence in which it is found on page 3. Ask students what sound they hear at the beginning of the word.
• Explain that in this word, the letter r comes after another consonant to form the cr blend.
• Write the following words on the board: creep, crab, crash, crate. Have students read the words. Ask volunteers to come up and circle the blends.
• Write the word bright on the board and have students find and read the sentence in which it is found on page 8. Ask students what sound they hear at the beginning of this word and what letters blend together to make the sounds. Ask a volunteer to come up and circle the letters that make the blend.
• Write the following blends on the board: cr, br, dr, gr, pr, tr, wr. Have students brainstorm words they know that start with each of the blends. Write the words on the board under the appropriate blend as students say them.
• Explain the R-family Blends worksheet, go over the example provided, and instruct students to complete the worksheet. When completed, discuss their answers.

Grammar, Mechanics, and Usage: Describing words (adjectives)

• Direct students to the first sentence on page 3. Read the paragraph with students. Ask them to tell what kind of day it was (delightfully sunny), what kind of crow flew over the house (large), what kind of pie the crow saw (big, freshly baked), and how the crow felt about pie (favorite). Circle the words sunny, large, big, baked, and favorite. Tell students that these are all words that describe people or things. Explain that they can tell which one, how many, or what kind.
• Explain that the words delightfully and freshly are another kind of word that describes, but instead of telling something about a thing, they tell the reader more information about another word. Delightfully describes sunny and freshly describes baked.
• Write the following sentences on the board. Ask volunteers to circle the describing words in each one.

The black crow saw a large pie.
Oh boy, cherry pie!
"What a tasty-looking pie," said the big, black bird.

    Select sentences from the book and have students take turns finding the describing word or words in each.

Vocabulary: Synonyms

• Direct the students to page 7 of the book. Have them find and read the sentence in which the word large is found. Tell students that there are many words that mean the same things. Explain that instead of using the same word all of the time, they can choose another word. Ask students to think of another word for large (big, huge, enormous). Ask students if any of the new words make sense in the sentence.
• Check for understanding by having students read the last paragraph on page 4 in which the word delicious is found. Ask them to think of another word that means that means the same or almost the same as the word delicious (yummy, tasty).
• Click here for a Synonyms worksheet.

Independent Reading

• Allow the students to read their books independently or with a partner. Partners can take turns reading parts of the book.

Home Connection

• Give the students their books to take home to read with parents, caregivers, siblings, or friends.

Writing

• Have students write a story about another favorite food the crow finds and shares with three other crows. Have students illustrate their stories and share with the group.

Math Connection

• Provide materials students can manipulate into halves, fourths, and eighths.

Monitor students to determine if they can:

• use the reading strategy of retelling to understand and remember text.
• identify main idea and details in text.
• recognize r-family blends.
• identify words that describe.
• identify synonyms.

Comprehension Checks