Lesson Plans
Activity card
Blackline master A crocodile’s day
Same and different Think about crocodiles and plovers. How are they the same? How are they different? Use your ideas to fill in the Venn diagram.
1. Cut out the six photos below. 2. Paste the photos onto a strip of paper in the order that these events happen in the book.
Fluent reading stage Level K (20)
3. Under each photo, write a sentence to explain what is happening. Hint: Refer to A Long Day at the River to check when each event happens.
✂
Crocodiles
Plovers
A Long Day at the River describes a day in the life of a female crocodile and how she survives.
This traditional tale gives an explanation as to why people once thought that crocodiles and plovers had a friendly relationship.
Running words: 639 Text type: Report – descriptive
Running words: 673 Text type: Narrative – traditional tale
Content vocabulary
body temperature claws cold-blooded crocodile drought egg tooth eggs guard hatch hatched hunt nest plover predators prey protect reptiles scaly senses survive
Phonics
• I dentifying the long /i/ sound made by “i_e” as in crocodile, reptile, survive • Identifying ‘o’ making the short /u/ sound as in plover
Text features A Long Day at the River
• Contents page • Headings and sub-headings; index
The Crocodile and the Plover
• Full-color illustrations • Chapters with headings; a note from the author
Reading strategies
• Using headings and sub-headings to predict content • Decoding multisyllabic words
Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills
Flying Start to Literacy Lesson Plans A Long Day at the River / The Crocodile and the Plover © 2016–2019 EC Licensing Pty Ltd.
Assessment Can the student sequence events from a text? Can the student write appropriate sentences to describe photographs? Flying Start to Literacy Lesson Plans A Long Day at the River / The Crocodile and the Plover © 2016–2019 EC Licensing Pty Ltd.
Developed by Eleanor Curtain Publishing
© 2019 EC Licensing Pty Ltd. This work is protected by copyright law, and under international copyright conventions, applicable in the jurisdictions in which it is published. The trademark “Flying Start to Literacy” and Star device is a registered trademark of EC Licensing Pty Ltd in the US. In addition to certain rights under applicable copyright law to copy parts of this work, the purchaser may make copies of those sections of this work displaying the footnote: “© 2019 EC Licensing Pty Ltd”, provided that: (a) the number of copies made does not exceed the number reasonably required by the purchaser for its teaching purposes; (b) those copies are only made by means of photocopying and are not further copied or stored or transmitted by any means; (c) those copies are not sold, hired, lent or offered for sale, hire or loan; and (d) every copy made clearly shows the footnote copyright notice. All other rights reserved.
okapi educational publishing
Text: Kerrie Shanahan Consultants: Susan Hill and Jenny Feely Designed by Derek Schneider Printed in China through Colorcraft Ltd., Hong Kong Distributed in the USA by Okapi Educational Publishing Inc. Phone: 866-652-7436 Fax: 800-481-5499 Email: info@myokapi.com www.myokapi.com www.flying-start-to-literacy.com
Phonics 2(2) (B) (i) Decoding words with short, long, or variant vowels, trigraphs, and blends. 2(2) (B) (iii) Decoding multisyllabic words with closed syllables; open syllables; VCe syllables; vowel teams; r-controlled syllables; and final stable syllables. Reading 2(6) (C) Make, correct, or confirm predictions using text features, characteristics of genre, and structures. 2(7) (B) Write brief comments on literary or informational texts that demonstrate an understanding of the text. 2(10) (A) Discuss the author’s purpose for writing text.
Writing 2(7) (B) Write brief comments on literary or informational texts that demonstrate an understanding of the text. Speaking and Listening 2(1) (A) Listen actively, ask relevant questions to clarify information, and answer questions using multi-word responses.
Lesson 1 A Long Day at the River
Lesson 2 The Crocodile and the Plover
Key concepts
• Crocodiles are successful hunters. • Crocodiles lay eggs in nests and look after their young when they hatch.
Returning to the book
Key concept
Provide multiple opportunities for students to read and interact with the book again – with teacher support, with a partner, and independently. Choose activities that are appropriate for your students.
• Traditional tales give explanations about why things are a certain way.
Returning to the book Provide multiple opportunities for students to read and interact with the book again – with teacher support, with a partner, and independently. Choose activities that are appropriate for your students.
Developing fluency
Developing fluency
Have students read aloud with a partner, taking turns to read a section each. Remind students to read fluently. Say: Remember to read smoothly through the line breaks and pause when you come to full points and commas.
Model reading the first chapter of the book with fluency. Have students record themselves reading aloud using an audio–recording device. When they listen to the recording, have them note how clear and smooth their voice is.
Before reading
After reading
Word work
Before reading
After reading
Word work
Getting ready to read
Talking about the book
Phonics
Getting ready to read
Talking about the book
Phonics
Encourage students to activate their prior knowledge. Draw up a T-chart with the headings Knew and New. Ask: What do you know about crocodiles? Discuss students’ ideas and add these to the first column on the chart. Keep the chart to revisit.
Ask students to talk about the book. Encourage discussion by choosing questions that are appropriate for your students. Ask them to support their answers by referring to the photographs and the text. How are young crocodiles born? (Literal) Why is this crocodile a successful hunter? (Inferential) Is the crocodile a “good” mother? Why do you think this? (Synthesizing) Do you like the way the information is presented in this book? Why or why not? (Critical)
Write the words crocodile, reptile, and survive on the board. Ask: What sound do these words all have in common? What letters represent this sound? Draw out that the long /i/ sound is represented by “i_e”. Have students list other words with the long /i/ represented this way (e.g. bike, spike, hive).
Encourage students to activate their prior knowledge. Ask: Do you think a crocodile and a plover would be friends or enemies? What makes you think this?
Ask students to talk about the book. Encourage discussion by choosing questions that are appropriate for your students. Ask them to support their answers by referring to the illustrations and the text. Why did the crocodile and the plover have to say goodbye at the end of Chapter 2? (Literal) Why didn’t the crocodile eat the plover? (Inferential) What other explanation could account for the fact that crocodiles don’t seem to want to eat plovers? (Synthesizing) Did the author’s note help you to understand why this story was written? If so, how did it do this? (Critical)
Write the word plover on the board. Ask students to identify the sounds they can hear in the word. Ask: What letter makes the /u/ sound in this word? What other words have the letter “o” making this sound? (love, glove, wonder, none, mother) Explain that this is an uncommon way to represent the sound.
Reviewing reading strategies
Writing
Show photos of crocodiles on an interactive whiteboard or in books. Discuss what crocodiles look like, where they live, what they eat, and how their young are born.
Vocabulary building Have pairs of students list five words they predict will be in a book about crocodiles. Use their lists to compile a group list.
Introducing the book Give each student a copy of the book and have them read the title and the contents page. Ask: How is the information in the book organized? What will you find out about when you read each section? Have students prepare for reading by thinking and talking about the book with support. Ask: Do you think this is an information text? What makes you think this?
During reading Ask each student to read the text independently. Monitor students as they read and support them where appropriate. If necessary, ask them to stop reading and remind them to use the reading strategies you are focused on. Say: Before you keep reading, check what the heading says. This helps you to know what you will be reading about.
Reviewing reading strategies Encourage students to identify what they did to help themselves as readers. Say: I noticed that you read all the headings and sub-headings. This is a good strategy. Knowing what the text will be about helps you to read it.
ELL support • Chapter headings indicate time line. • Headings and sub-headings signal content. • Photographs support the written text.
Exploring words Revise what an adjective is. Have students find adjectives used to describe the crocodile and its body parts in the book (e.g. scaly skin, webbed feet, sharp claws, strong legs). Discuss the importance of using accurate, factual adjectives. Have students draw a crocodile and label it using adjectives to describe the body parts.
Writing On a page, draw lines to create four squares. In each square, write a heading – Morning, Midday, Evening, and Night. Use students’ ideas to model writing a sentence in each box that gives information about one thing that happened during each time of day (e.g. Morning – The crocodile lay in the sun to warm up its body). Have students use what they know about crocodiles to write a report. Discuss appropriate headings for the report (e.g. What they look like, Where they live, What they eat, and How their young are born). Have students do further writing about crocodiles by completing the Blackline master provided.
Sharing and presenting Have students share their reports in small groups.
Discuss that a traditional tale is an explanation as to why something is how it is. Read another traditional tale as an example (e.g. How Moose Learned to Swim in Level J(18).
Vocabulary building Explain that students will be reading a traditional tale about a plover and a crocodile. Say: In the book, a drought hits the river where the two animals live. What is a drought? What problems does a drought cause? Discuss.
Introducing the book Give each student a copy of the book and have them read the title and the contents page. Have students turn to page 24 and read the author’s note. Ask: What is a myth? What is a traditional tale? Have students prepare for reading by thinking and talking about the book with your support. Explain that The Crocodile and the Plover is a type of narrative called a traditional tale – it explains why something is thought to be the way it is.
Encourage students to identify what they did to help themselves as readers. Say: A good strategy when reading long words is to break them down into smaller parts. I saw you trying to do this. Well done!
ELL support hapter headings signal content. • C • The author’s note provides background.
List text connectives used in the book to indicate time (many years ago, one hot day, as the months went by, after some time, years passed, one day, and to this day). Have students locate these in the book. Ask: How do these phrases help us when we are reading?
Model writing a response to a question about a text. Ask: Why do you think that plovers and crocodiles are often seen near each other on the riverbank? List students’ responses and discuss which ones are plausible and which ones are not. Use these ideas to model writing a response to this question in the language used in a traditional tale. Have students use the ideas listed to write a response to the question above. Encourage students to use story-like language in their responses as in The Crocodile and the Plover.
Sharing and presenting
During reading Ask each student to read the text independently. Monitor students as they read and support them where appropriate. If necessary, ask them to stop reading and remind them to use the reading strategies you are focused on. Say: I can see you’re having trouble reading that word. Try breaking it down into chunks or syllables.
Exploring words
Compile students’ written responses about why plovers and crocodiles are often seen together into a book. Read the book to the group.
Synthesizing: Talk about the pair Revisit the T-chart created during the “Getting ready to read” section of Lesson 1. Ask: What new information do you now have about crocodiles? Add students’ ideas to the second
column of the chart. Have students work further with the books by completing the Activity card provided.
Lesson Plans
Activity card
Blackline master A crocodile’s day
Same and different Think about crocodiles and plovers. How are they the same? How are they different? Use your ideas to fill in the Venn diagram.
1. Cut out the six photos below. 2. Paste the photos onto a strip of paper in the order that these events happen in the book.
Fluent reading stage Level K (20)
3. Under each photo, write a sentence to explain what is happening. Hint: Refer to A Long Day at the River to check when each event happens.
✂
Crocodiles
Plovers
A Long Day at the River describes a day in the life of a female crocodile and how she survives.
This traditional tale gives an explanation as to why people once thought that crocodiles and plovers had a friendly relationship.
Running words: 639 Text type: Report – descriptive
Running words: 673 Text type: Narrative – traditional tale
Content vocabulary
body temperature claws cold-blooded crocodile drought egg tooth eggs guard hatch hatched hunt nest plover predators prey protect reptiles scaly senses survive
Phonics
• I dentifying the long /i/ sound made by “i_e” as in crocodile, reptile, survive • Identifying ‘o’ making the short /u/ sound as in plover
Text features A Long Day at the River
• Contents page • Headings and sub-headings; index
The Crocodile and the Plover
• Full-color illustrations • Chapters with headings; a note from the author
Reading strategies
• Using headings and sub-headings to predict content • Decoding multisyllabic words
Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills
Flying Start to Literacy Lesson Plans A Long Day at the River / The Crocodile and the Plover © 2016–2019 EC Licensing Pty Ltd.
Assessment Can the student sequence events from a text? Can the student write appropriate sentences to describe photographs? Flying Start to Literacy Lesson Plans A Long Day at the River / The Crocodile and the Plover © 2016–2019 EC Licensing Pty Ltd.
Developed by Eleanor Curtain Publishing
© 2019 EC Licensing Pty Ltd. This work is protected by copyright law, and under international copyright conventions, applicable in the jurisdictions in which it is published. The trademark “Flying Start to Literacy” and Star device is a registered trademark of EC Licensing Pty Ltd in the US. In addition to certain rights under applicable copyright law to copy parts of this work, the purchaser may make copies of those sections of this work displaying the footnote: “© 2019 EC Licensing Pty Ltd”, provided that: (a) the number of copies made does not exceed the number reasonably required by the purchaser for its teaching purposes; (b) those copies are only made by means of photocopying and are not further copied or stored or transmitted by any means; (c) those copies are not sold, hired, lent or offered for sale, hire or loan; and (d) every copy made clearly shows the footnote copyright notice. All other rights reserved.
okapi educational publishing
Text: Kerrie Shanahan Consultants: Susan Hill and Jenny Feely Designed by Derek Schneider Printed in China through Colorcraft Ltd., Hong Kong Distributed in the USA by Okapi Educational Publishing Inc. Phone: 866-652-7436 Fax: 800-481-5499 Email: info@myokapi.com www.myokapi.com www.flying-start-to-literacy.com
Phonics 2(2) (B) (i) Decoding words with short, long, or variant vowels, trigraphs, and blends. 2(2) (B) (iii) Decoding multisyllabic words with closed syllables; open syllables; VCe syllables; vowel teams; r-controlled syllables; and final stable syllables. Reading 2(6) (C) Make, correct, or confirm predictions using text features, characteristics of genre, and structures. 2(7) (B) Write brief comments on literary or informational texts that demonstrate an understanding of the text. 2(10) (A) Discuss the author’s purpose for writing text.
Writing 2(7) (B) Write brief comments on literary or informational texts that demonstrate an understanding of the text. Speaking and Listening 2(1) (A) Listen actively, ask relevant questions to clarify information, and answer questions using multi-word responses.
Lesson Plans
Activity card
Blackline master A crocodile’s day
Same and different Think about crocodiles and plovers. How are they the same? How are they different? Use your ideas to fill in the Venn diagram.
1. Cut out the six photos below. 2. Paste the photos onto a strip of paper in the order that these events happen in the book.
Fluent reading stage Level K (20)
3. Under each photo, write a sentence to explain what is happening. Hint: Refer to A Long Day at the River to check when each event happens.
✂
Crocodiles
Plovers
A Long Day at the River describes a day in the life of a female crocodile and how she survives.
This traditional tale gives an explanation as to why people once thought that crocodiles and plovers had a friendly relationship.
Running words: 639 Text type: Report – descriptive
Running words: 673 Text type: Narrative – traditional tale
Content vocabulary
body temperature claws cold-blooded crocodile drought egg tooth eggs guard hatch hatched hunt nest plover predators prey protect reptiles scaly senses survive
Phonics
• I dentifying the long /i/ sound made by “i_e” as in crocodile, reptile, survive • Identifying ‘o’ making the short /u/ sound as in plover
Text features A Long Day at the River
• Contents page • Headings and sub-headings; index
The Crocodile and the Plover
• Full-color illustrations • Chapters with headings; a note from the author
Reading strategies
• Using headings and sub-headings to predict content • Decoding multisyllabic words
Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills
Flying Start to Literacy Lesson Plans A Long Day at the River / The Crocodile and the Plover © 2016–2019 EC Licensing Pty Ltd.
Assessment Can the student sequence events from a text? Can the student write appropriate sentences to describe photographs? Flying Start to Literacy Lesson Plans A Long Day at the River / The Crocodile and the Plover © 2016–2019 EC Licensing Pty Ltd.
Developed by Eleanor Curtain Publishing
© 2019 EC Licensing Pty Ltd. This work is protected by copyright law, and under international copyright conventions, applicable in the jurisdictions in which it is published. The trademark “Flying Start to Literacy” and Star device is a registered trademark of EC Licensing Pty Ltd in the US. In addition to certain rights under applicable copyright law to copy parts of this work, the purchaser may make copies of those sections of this work displaying the footnote: “© 2019 EC Licensing Pty Ltd”, provided that: (a) the number of copies made does not exceed the number reasonably required by the purchaser for its teaching purposes; (b) those copies are only made by means of photocopying and are not further copied or stored or transmitted by any means; (c) those copies are not sold, hired, lent or offered for sale, hire or loan; and (d) every copy made clearly shows the footnote copyright notice. All other rights reserved.
okapi educational publishing
Text: Kerrie Shanahan Consultants: Susan Hill and Jenny Feely Designed by Derek Schneider Printed in China through Colorcraft Ltd., Hong Kong Distributed in the USA by Okapi Educational Publishing Inc. Phone: 866-652-7436 Fax: 800-481-5499 Email: info@myokapi.com www.myokapi.com www.flying-start-to-literacy.com
Phonics 2(2) (B) (i) Decoding words with short, long, or variant vowels, trigraphs, and blends. 2(2) (B) (iii) Decoding multisyllabic words with closed syllables; open syllables; VCe syllables; vowel teams; r-controlled syllables; and final stable syllables. Reading 2(6) (C) Make, correct, or confirm predictions using text features, characteristics of genre, and structures. 2(7) (B) Write brief comments on literary or informational texts that demonstrate an understanding of the text. 2(10) (A) Discuss the author’s purpose for writing text.
Writing 2(7) (B) Write brief comments on literary or informational texts that demonstrate an understanding of the text. Speaking and Listening 2(1) (A) Listen actively, ask relevant questions to clarify information, and answer questions using multi-word responses.