Book Summary
Manatees are large, gentle sea mammals that are shaped like chubby dolphins and have pudgy, wrinkled faces. This book describes the various species of manatees, where they can be found, and their behaviors. It concludes with a discussion of the threats to manatee survival and steps being taken to protect these endangered animals.

Lesson Objectives

Reading Strategies
Children should use a variety of strategies to determine word meaning and comprehend text. The targeted strategy for this lesson is: Summarizing
Summarizing after each chapter will allow children to focus on small chunks of text. This will help them fully understand each section before they move on. As children put the ideas in their own words, their comprehension and retention will increase.

Word and Print Skills
Identify and discuss compound words such as shipwrecked, eyelid, underwater, and bodysurf.

Phonics
The long e sound can be produced by a double e, as in manatee or sweet or teeth, or by ea as in sea or eat, or by ei as in protein, or by ey as in money or monkey.

Word Work
Mechanics: Capitalization
Word Structure: Multiple syllable words

Comprehension
You will likely address a number of comprehension skills as children work to understand the text. The targeted comprehension strategy for this lesson is: Classification
Through the book, the children learn there are three species classified as manatees. When children learn that manatees are a type of sea mammal and that sea mammals are mammals, they learn about a hierarchical classification system. Keeping track of the characteristics of each level will help them comprehend what they are reading.

Visual Learning
On page 9, there is a map that shows where manatees and the related dugongs live today. On page 11, there is a drawing that compares the sizes and shapes of the three species of manatees.

Targeted Vocabulary Words

Content words
Children may be surprised to learn that an animal that lives in the sea and never comes ashore can be a mammal. In determining what makes something a mammal, it may be useful to consider what they know about a number of mammals. The following are the specific mammals mentioned in the book:

cow, dog, dolphin, dugong, horse, manatee, walrus, whale

These are words that children will encounter in the reading. You may want to review and discuss what the children know about these animals before they read the book.