Building Skills
Word Skills
Root Words and Suffixes
Children who will be reading this book should be more comfortable with reading and have more skills to identify various types of words and word parts. As you go through the reading, discuss with children what a root word is and what a suffix is. Explain that a suffix is added onto a root word to slightly change the meaning of the word. Give some examples of root words with suffixes that are found in the book. Write them on the board or on a piece of paper—for example: fastest, running, telling, located, stronger, communication, and highly.
Talk to children about what the root word is for each of the words you wrote on the board. Have them look at the words. Ask children if the root word had to be altered or changed in any way when adding the suffix. It is important for children to recognize that there are words that require minimal changes to occur when adding a suffix. For example: an extra n is added to run for running; rather than adding ed to locate, you simply added a d; and an e must be removed from communicate when writing communication.
As children are reading the book, they should look for words that have suffixes added to them. If the book is consumable, you can have them underline, circle, or highlight the words. If they are not consumable, you can have them put post-it notes under the words or on the lines where the words are found. You may want more than one color of post-its or highlighters, since children may have an opportunity to use them while looking for other unique qualities in the text.
Phonics
Vowel Digraphs vs. Vowel Diphthongs
Before children begin reading, talk to them about words that have two different vowels in them that are next to each other. Explain that these vowels are special and are called either vowel digraphs or vowel diphthongs. Explain to children the difference between the two. Digraphs are vowels that are next to each other but make only one sound. Diphthongs are vowels that are together and make two sounds. As you and children will notice, there are far more digraphs than diphthongs. Here are some examples from the book.
Digraphs (have a 2 to 1 sound): people, search, centuries, their, streamlined, sailfish, through, eat
Diphthongs (have a 2 to 2 sound): going, hours, found, air, train, brains, tried
As children are reading the book, they should look for words that have two vowels together. If the book is consumable, you can have them underline, circle, or highlight the words. If they are not consumable, you can have them put post-it notes under the words or on the lines where the words are found.
Word Work
Parentheses
Have children go through the book and look at how the author used parentheses. Talk about the way he used parentheses to show the comparison between mph and kph. You may want to point out that this is so these books can be used in various parts of the world. You can even bring up the fact that in various parts of the world the system used for measurement is different.
The author also used parentheses to help children understand the words he used within the text (page 16). Talk to children about what parentheses are and the proper way to use them in writing.
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