These Birds aa

Focus Question:
How are birds the same and different?
Book Summary
Text Type: Nonfiction/Concept
These Birds combines simple text and colorful photographs to introduce readers to all
kinds of birds. The book can also be used to teach students to compare and contrast and
to classify information.

Guiding the Reading

Lesson Essentials
Before Reading
Instructional Focus
Connect to prior knowledge Build Background
• Write the word birds on the board and read
Identify main idea and details
it aloud. Have students read it aloud with you.
Describe information provided
• Have students discuss what they know about
by photographs birds and which bird is their favorite. Ask guiding
Discriminate initial consonant Bb questions to connect their prior knowledge, such
Identify initial consonant Bb as What do all birds have?
Recognize and use nouns Introduce the Book
Recognize and understand the use of suffix -s • Give students their copy of These Birds. Guide
Materials them to the front and back covers and read the
title. Have students discuss what they see on the
Book—These Birds (copy for each student)
covers. Encourage them to offer ideas as to what
Main idea and details, initial consonant Bb, type of book it is (genre, text type, and so on) and
nouns worksheets what it might be about.
Retelling rubric • Show students the title page. Discuss the information
on the page (title of book, author’s name).
Vocabulary
Boldface vocabulary words also appear Introduce the Reading Strategy:
in a pre-made lesson for this title on Connect to prior knowledge
VocabularyA–Z.com. Explain to students that engaged readers make
connections between what they already know
• High-frequency words: these
and new information they read. Remind them that
• Words to Know thinking about what they already know about birds
Story critical: birds (n.), crows (n.), will help them understand as they read These Birds.
doves (n.), eagles (n.), geese (n.), hawks (n.)
Introduce the Comprehension Skill:
owls (n.), turkeys (n.)
Main idea and details
• Explain to students that most books have a big, or
main, idea, which is what the book is mostly about.
Read the title to students. Explain that the title of
a book often provides clues about the main idea.
• Invite students to share their predictions about
the main idea.

Vocabulary
Have students turn to the “Words to Know” box on
the copyright page. Point out that these words can be
found in the story and that understanding the meaning
of each word will help them better understand what
they read. Read the words aloud to the students and
as a group, discuss the meaning of each word. On the
basis of the definitions discussed, have students work in
groups to illustrate each vocabulary word on a poster.
Have students share their posters with the class.

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 These Birds aa

Guiding the Reading (cont.) After Reading

Ask students what words, if any, they marked in
Set the Purpose their book. Use this opportunity to model how they
• Have students read to find out more about birds. can read these words using decoding strategies and
Write the Focus Question on the board. Invite context clues.
students to look for evidence in the book to
support their answer. Skill Review
• Have students make a small question mark in their Graphic Organizer: Main idea and details
book beside any word they do not understand or Review the main-idea-and-details worksheet that
cannot pronounce. These can be addressed in a students started. Ask them to fill in the remaining
future discussion. spaces on the worksheet with other details from
the book. Assist them, as needed, with labeling
During Reading their pictures.
Text-Dependent Questions
Response to Focus Question
As students read the book, monitor their understanding
with the following questions. Encourage students to Have students cite specific evidence from the story
support their answers by citing evidence from the book. to answer the Focus Question. (Students should
include that all birds have feathers, have wings,
• What can hawks do? (level 1) page 4 and so on, but they can be different shapes, sizes,
• How are eagles and geese alike? (level 2) and colors and live in different places.)
pages 7 and 8
• What are the different places that birds live? Comprehension Check
(level 3) multiple pages • Retelling rubric

Text Features: Photographs

Explain that photographs are helpful when reading Book Extension Activities
because they give the reader important information.
Have students review the photographs throughout Build Skills
the book and discuss how the photographs in the Phonological Awareness: Initial consonant Bb
book give them information about the various birds. • Say the word bird aloud to students, emphasizing
Have students tell what other photographs could the initial /b/ sound. Have students say the word
have been added to the book. Ask students: What aloud and then the /b/ sound.
colors are the birds? What are the birds doing? • Have students practice saying the /b/ sound to
How are the birds alike or different? a partner, and then brainstorm to produce a list
Skill Review of words that begin with the /b/ sound. Invite
volunteers to share a word with the rest of the
• Guide students to an understanding that there are
class, and have other students give a thumbs-up
many types of birds is the main idea since the story
signal if they agree that the word begins with
is all about this subject. Write there are many types
the /b/ sound.
of birds on the board.
• Check for understanding: Say the following words one
• Model identifying details that support the main
at a time and have students give a thumbs-up signal
idea of the story.
when they hear a word that begins with the /b/
Think-aloud: I know the main idea of this story:
sound: ball, crow, bill, duck, bike, basket, owl,
there are many types of birds. On the cover, I see
and bark.
flamingos. On the title page, I see ducks in the
water. I know that these birds are different colors Phonics: Initial consonant Bb
and different shapes, but they are both types of • Write the word bird on the board and read it
birds. I will continue to look for more types of birds aloud with students.
as I read.
• Have students say the /b/ sound aloud. Then, run your
• Model and discuss how to complete the main-idea- finger under the letters in the word as students say
and-details worksheet. Write the word duck on the whole word aloud. Ask students to identify which
the board. Have students write the word and draw letter represents the /b/ sound in the word bird.
a picture that represents the word duck in one of
• Have students take turns writing the letter Bb
the spaces on their worksheet.
on the board while saying the /b/ sound.

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 These Birds aa

Guiding the Reading (cont.) • Write the following words on the board: bird, eagles,
girls, chair, swings, toy. As you point to each word
• Check for understanding: Write the following words and read it aloud, have students hold up one finger
that begin with the /b/ sound on the board, leaving to indicate that it is singular (just one) or all five
off the initial consonant: bag, bun, bat. Say each fingers to indicate that it is plural (more than one).
word, one at a time and have volunteers come • Check for understanding: Write several more singular
to the board and add the initial Bb to each word. nouns on the board and have students copy them
Point to the new words and have students read on a separate piece of paper. Have them add the
them aloud. suffix -s to the end of each noun and draw a
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and picture to go with each plural noun.
have students complete the initial consonant Bb
worksheet. If time allows, discuss their answers. Connections
• See the back of the book for cross-curricular
Grammar and Mechanics: Nouns extension ideas.
• Show students a picture of a person, a place, and
a thing. Ask volunteers to identify the pictures.
Explain that words that name people, places,
and things are called nouns.
• Have students turn to page 3. Ask them to name
the object in the picture (doves). Ask if it is a
person, place, or thing. Then read the sentence
with students, pointing to the words as you read
them aloud. Ask students to point to the word
that names the thing in the picture. Explain
that this word is a noun.
• Check for understanding: Have students look at the
object in the picture on each page of the book.
Point to the words as you read each page aloud
with students. Have them underline the nouns
in the book. Discuss the words they underlined.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have
students complete the nouns worksheet. If time
allows, discuss their answers.

Word Work: Suffix -s

• Write the words birds, ducks, and owls on the
board. Remind students that these words are nouns
because they are all things. Invite volunteers to come
to the board and circle the last letter in each noun.
Ask students what letter is at the end of each noun.
• Erase the letter -s and read the words aloud with
students. Ask them how the word changed. Add
the letter -s back to the words and read the words
aloud again. Have students discuss with a partner
how each word’s meaning changes when the letter
-s is added.
• Explain to students that when we add one or more
letters to the end of a word, we are adding a suffix.
A suffix is a letter or group of letters added to the
end of a word that changes its meaning.
• Point out that when an -s is added to the end of
a noun, it changes the meaning of the noun to be
more than one, making it plural. Plural nouns name
more than one person, place, or thing.

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