Build Background

• Draw a web on the board with the word caves in the center circle. Have students tell what they know about caves. Attach smaller circles filled with the information students already know.

Preview the Book

Introduce the Book

• Give students a copy of the book and have them preview the front and back covers. Have students discuss what they see on the covers and offer ideas as to what kind of book Mysterious Caves might be. Have them predict what they might learn about caves.
• Show students the title page and read the title. Talk about the information on the page (title, author’s name).

Introduce the Strategy: Summarize

• Tell students that one way to understand and remember what they read is to summarize paragraphs, sections, or chapters of a book in their mind or on paper. Explain that a summary is a brief overview of the most important information in the book, or section of the book.
• Direct students to the table of contents. Remind students that the table of contents provides an overview of what the book is about. Each section heading provides an idea of what they will read about in the book.
• Think-aloud: To summarize what I've read, I need to decide what's important and what isn't. Then, in my mind, I organize the important information into a few sentences and think about them. If I need to write a summary, I put the information in my own words. Since I haven't read the book yet, it's difficult to decide what's important and what isn't. I think all of the chapters will probably contain important information about caves, but I'll have to read the book to find out.
• Have students preview the rest of the book, looking at photos and captions. Point out the boxes with information on pages 6, 13, 17, and 19. Show students the box on page 24 titled "Explore More." Explain that this section provides additional resources to learn more about caves. Point out the glossary on page 23 and the index on page 24. Explain their purposes. (A glossary is an alphabetical list of words used in the book, along with their meanings. An index is an alphabetical list of people, places, or topics in the book along with the page numbers on which they are mentioned.)
• 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 a word. They can look for base words within words, prefixes, and suffixes. They can use the context to work out meanings of unfamiliar words.
• Model how to apply word-attack strategies. Point out a word in bold, such as the word stalactites on page 12. Model how students can use context clues to figure out the meaning of the word. Read the three sentences following the word that explain what stalactites are and how they are formed. Tell students they can substitute limestone rock icicles for the word stalactites. Remind students that they should check whether words make sense by rereading the sentence.
• Have students turn to the glossary on page 23. Have them read the glossary words and their definitions aloud. Next, have students turn to the pages indicated and read the sentence in which the glossary word appears. Use context clues in the surrounding sentences to work out unfamiliar vocabulary words, as necessary.
• For additional tips on teaching word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Have students pause at the end of each section and quickly summarize what they have read about caves. Students can summarize mentally or use a pencil and scrap paper.

Student Reading

    Guide the reading: Have students read to the end of page 10. Tell them to identify the main idea in each chapter (what the chapter is about). Then tell students to underline the most important information, or the supporting details, in each chapter. Have students go back and reread the chapters, if they finish before everyone else.

• Ask students to tell what the chapter titled "What Are Caves?" is about. (This is an overview, or summary, of the book.) Ask students what they underlined and make a list on the board.
• Model summarizing the important information in the chapter.
• Think-aloud: I think the main idea of this chapter is that caves are a natural phenomenonAs I read, I underlined the words, phrases, and sentences I thought were most important. (Add any information that was not generated by students to the list on the board. Review the list and explain which details are important and which are not, crossing out the unimportant details as you go.) After sorting through the information and deciding what was important and what wasn’t, I put the information in my own words to make a summary. (Sample summary to write on the board: Caves are formed by nature and are thousands or millions of years old. Caves are found underwater, underground, and aboveground in every state in the United States and many other countries. Many people explore caves to find out about ancient civilizations.)
• Have students read the remainder of the book, looking for the most important information about caves in each section.

    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.
• Reinforce that summarizing the important information in each section as they read keeps them involved in the reading and helps them understand and remember what they have read.

Teach the Comprehension Skill: Main idea and details

• Discussion: Have students tell what the author's purpose was for writing the book (to provide information about caves). Ask what they learned about caves that they didn't already know.
• Introduce and model the skill: Review or explain that many books are mainly about one thing, or topic. Show students the book and ask them what the topic of this book is (caves). Remind students that in a book like this one, which has the topic as the title, it is easy to tell what it is about. In other books, it may be necessary to look at the table of contents or to read the book to identify the topic.
• Explain that main ideas are the most important points the writer wants the reader to know. Remind students that the headings of sections or chapters often give clues to the main ideas. Direct students to the table of contents on page 3. Explain that each chapter contains details about caves. Have students find the chapter title that follows "Cave Inhabitants" ({Exploring Caves"). Explain that this chapter tells about spelunkers exploring caves. Each paragraph gives details about safety issues, environmental issues, equipment needed, etc. Remind students that finding details will help them understand and remember what they read.
• Check for understanding: Have students look at page 18. Ask them to find one main idea and one detail about how not to damage a cave. (…it is best to leave a cave exactly as you found it. Thoughtless cave guests have broken off stalactite tips as souvenirs.)
• Independent practice: Give students the main idea and details worksheet. Tell them to add the details that support each main idea. Explain that organizing the information will help them remember what they read. Tell students to write, in their own words, a summary using the main ideas and supporting details. Have students complete the worksheet. Discuss their responses. Have students share their summaries.

    Extend the activity: Instruct students to use the inside cover of their book to write why they would or would not want to experience spelunking.

Grammar and Mechanics: Prepositional phrases

• Explain that writers choose their words very carefully when writing a story or an informational book like Mysterious Caves. Tell students that this author used many prepositional phrases to make her writing more interesting. Review or explain that a preposition is a word that shows the relationship of a noun or a pronoun to another word in the sentence. Prepositions may include (write these words on the board): in, into, at, down, to, by, behind, beside, of, with, for, through, in front of, and over. Tell students there are many more prepositions and these will be listed on the worksheet.
• Explain that a prepositional phrase modifies an adjective or an adverb, locates something in time and space, modifies a noun, or tells when or where or under what conditions something happened.
• Write the following sentence on the board: People are fascinated with caves. Ask students to identify the subject and verb in the sentence (people, are fascinated). Underline the words with caves and circle the word with. Explain that the preposition is with and the prepositional phrase is with caves.
• Write the following sentence on the board: All caves form slowly over a very long period of time. Ask students to identify the subject and verb in the sentence (caves, form). Ask a student to tell which words are prepositions (over, of), circle them, and underline the prepositional phrases (over a very long period, of time). Ask students what the phrase, over a very long period, modifies (the adverb slowly). Then explain that the prepositional phrase of time also refers to the adverb slowly.
• Check for understanding: Give students the prepositional phrases worksheet. Do the first sentence together. Tell students to complete the worksheet. Discuss student responses.
• Extend the activity: Ask students to tell what the prepositional phrases modify or refer to: a noun, an adjective or an adverb, the location of something in time and space, or tell when, where, or under what conditions something happened.

Word Work: Using a dictionary

• Write the content word acid on the board.
• Pass out student dictionaries. Tell students to find the word acid. Remind or explain that guide words are the words at the top of each page in a dictionary. They show the first and last entry words, in alphabetical order, on a page. Ask students to tell what the guide words are on the page.
• Remind or explain that dictionary entry words are divided into syllables. Each entry word has a respelling that shows how to pronounce the word. There is also an accent mark or marks to show which syllable should be pronounced with the most stress. Have a student write the word showing the syllables (ac/id), the pronunciation respelling (assid) and the accent mark (ac’id).
• Remind or explain that a dictionary also tells the part of speech for each entry word. For example: n. (noun), pro. (pronoun), v. (verb), adj. (adjective), adv. (adverb), or prep. (preposition). Ask students what parts of speech acid can be (noun or adjective, and acidly is an adverb).
• Remind or explain that a dictionary lists the definitions of the entry word. Sometimes a definition is followed by a sentence using the entry word. Ask students to read the definitions and sentences for the entry word acid and decide which definition best explains how the word acid is used in Mysterious Caves (a corrosive substance).
• Check for understanding: Have students complete the using the dictionary worksheet. Discuss their responses.

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.

Writing and Art Connection

• Have students write and illustrate an adventure story about exploring a famous cave. Tell students the story should be realistic fiction. Students will need to reread pages 17 through 21 and may need to do research for more information about famous caves. Have students share their adventures with the group.

Science and Art Connection

• Have students select an animal that never leaves a cave. Use Internet and library resources to make a poster that displays pictures and facts about the animal. Share the information with the class and display the posters of life in the dark.

Monitor students to determine if they can:

• summarize important information in text as they read
• identify main ideas and supporting details in the text
• identify prepositions and prepositional phrases on a worksheet
• use a dictionary to understand content words