Build Background

• Ask students what they know about snails and slugs. Create a KWL chart on the board. Review or explain what each letter stands for. Give students the Main Facts and Details worksheet (KWL chart) and have them fill in the first column with things they know about snails and slugs. Discuss their responses.

Preview the Book

Introduce the Strategy: Ask and answer questions

• Tell students that asking questions about a topic before reading and looking for the answers as they read will help them understand and remember what they read.
• Show students the front and back covers of the book. Ask them to read the title. Ask what they think the book will be about. Model how to ask questions using the pictures on the covers and write the questions on the KWL worksheet.
• Think aloud: Let's look at the front cover. I see a snail climbing on a piece of grass. I wonder if a snail is as slimy as I think it is. I'll write that question on the worksheet. On the back cover I see a very strange creature that looks like it might be underwater. I wonder how it moves around. I'll write that question on my chart, too.
• Have students write questions about snails and slugs in the second column on the worksheet. Tell them that as they read, they will be looking for answers to the questions they wrote.
• Show students the table of contents. Explain or review that the table of contents lists the big ideas about snails and slugs that are covered in the book. Tell students that they can use the chapter titles to think of other questions about snails and slugs. Model by adding a question such as "Are snail bodies and slug bodies alike?" Have students add their questions to their worksheets.
• Show students the title page. Talk about the information that is written on the page (title of book, author's name, illustrator's name).
• Show students the glossary and index. Explain the purpose of each.
• 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 and word-attack strategies, click here.

Introduce the Vocabulary

• Go through each page of the book with students. Talk about the illustrations and use the vocabulary they will encounter in the text. Ask 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 the picture. For example, ask the students to point to the illustration of the snail on page 6. Ask the students to say the name of the animal and tell what sound they hear at the beginning. Ask the students to find the word on page 6 and explain how they know that the word is snail. Ask the students to look at the picture and decide if the word snail makes sense. Repeat with other vocabulary words if necessary. Remind the students to look at the beginning and ending sounds in words and/or recognizable parts to help them sound out the words.
• Encourage the students to add the new vocabulary words to their word journals.

Set the Purpose

• Have students read the book to find answers to their questions about snails and slugs.

Student Reading

• Guide the reading: Give students their books and direct them to read to the end of page 7. Tell students to reread the pages if they finish before everyone else.
• Have students underline answers to any of the questions they've written on their worksheets. Model answering a question on the KWL worksheet.
• Think aloud: I didn't find the answer to the first question I wrote on my KWL chart, but I did find the answer to the second one. I wanted to know how snails and slugs move. I read on page 6 that they move by crawling on one foot. I didn't know snails and slugs have a foot! I'll write this on the KWL chart in the section titled "How They Move."
• Read the headings under the "What I Learned" section of the worksheet. Ask students which, if any, of their questions were answered. Have them circle the questions that were answered, and help them decide under which heading to write the information.
• Ask students if they had other questions as they read the pages. Have them add the questions to their worksheets.
• Tell students to read the remainder of the book, continuing to look for information that will answer the questions written on their worksheets.

    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

• Word attack: Ask 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 last sentence on page 9. Ask how they know that the second word is disgusting. Ask what sound it begins with and what sound it ends with. Ask what other words around it might give students a clue about the word and its meaning. Ask if the word disgusting fits in the sentence.
• Discuss additional strategies students used to gain meaning from the book.
• Comprehension: Reinforce that asking questions before and during reading and looking for the answers while reading keeps students interested in the topic, encourages them to keep reading in order to find the answers to their questions, and helps them understand and remember what they have read.

Comprehension: Main facts and details

• Introduce and model: Review or explain that many books are about one main thing. Ask students what the book they just read is about (snails and slugs).
• Direct students to the table of contents. Explain that each chapter in this book tells facts and details about snails and slugs. Have students look at the first chapter title. Explain that this chapter told them facts and details about the bodies of snails and slugs. Have students turn to page 5. Tell them that there are 3 facts about snails and slugs in the second paragraph. Ask students to find them. Tell students that the 3 facts are as follows: Snails and slugs have soft bodies, no backbones, and most have shells. Explain that the last sentence adds a detail to the fact about shells. Explain that finding facts and details in a book helps them understand what the book is about.
• Check for understanding: Direct the students to page 7 in the book. Ask them to find what snails and slugs have instead of arms (tentacles). Then have them find 3 details about tentacles (eyes are at the ends of top 2, top 2 are used to smell, bottom 2 are used to feel their way).
• Independent practice: Have students complete the "What I Learned" section of the KWL worksheet. Discuss their responses.
• Extend the discussion:

    Have students use the inside cover of their book to write 3 facts and details they learned about snails and slugs.

Phonics: S-family blends

• Write the words snails and slugs on the board and have students find and read the sentence in which the words are found on page 5. Ask students what sound they hear at the beginning of each word.
• Explain that in these words, the letter s combines with the letters n and l to form the blends sn and sl.
• Write the following words on the board: snake, sled, snap, slap. Have students read the words. Ask volunteers to come up and circle the blends.
• Write the word squids on the board and have students find and read the sentence in which it is found on page 5. Ask students what sounds they hear at the beginning of this word and what letters blend together to make the sounds. Point out that 3 letters blend together in this word. Ask a volunteer to come up and circle the letters that make the blend.
• Write the blends sc, sl, sk, sm, sn, sp, squ, st, and sw on the board. 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 S-family Blends worksheet, go over the example provided, and instruct students to complete the worksheet. When completed, discuss their answers.

Grammar, Mechanics, and Usage: Naming part of a sentence (subject)

• Direct students to the first sentence on page 5 of the book. Read the sentence and ask students what the sentence is about. Circle the words Snails and slugs. Tell students that this is the naming part of the sentence, and that it tells who or what the sentence is about. Explain that this sentence is about 2 things, snails and slugs.
• Have students read the last sentence on page 11. Ask them to tell what the sentence is about. Explain that the naming part of this sentence only tells about one thing. 
• Write the following sentences on the board. Ask individual students to circle the naming part of each one.

This snail has a striped shell.
Some slugs and snails live in water.
Crops and gardens can be damaged by snails.
He likes to eat snails.

• Select sentences from the book and have students take turns finding the naming part of each.

Vocabulary: Synonyms

• Direct the students to page 9 of the book. Have them find and read the sentence in which the word awful is found. Tell students that there are many words that mean the same thing. Explain that instead of using the same word all of the time, they can choose another word. Ask students to think of other words for awful (terrible, horrible, bad, etc.). Ask students if the new words make sense in the sentence.
• Check for understanding by having students read the last sentence on the page in which the word disgusting is found. Ask them to think of another word that means the same or almost the same as the word disgusting (yucky, gross).
• 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 the places "Sammy Snail" might visit during the day. Tell students that "Sammy" can be a he or she. Have students illustrate their stories with maps of the places "Sammy" visited. Have students share their stories with the group.

Science Connection

• Provide resources for students to research other animals that have shells. Make a chart titled "We Have Shells" and post it in the room. Tell students to add to the chart as they find new animals. Encourage them to add pictures cut from magazines.

Monitor students to determine if they can:

• use the reading strategy of asking and answering questions to understand nonfiction text.
• identify facts and details in nonfiction text.
• recognize s-family blends.
• identify the naming parts of sentences.
• identify synonyms.