Mrs. Kangaroo s Trip

Level D/6 Fiction Teacher s Guide Skills & Strategies Anchor Comprehension Strategy Analyze Character Phonemic Awareness Blend syllables Phonics Identify initial, medial, and final p Identify initial l High-Frequency Words come, now, saw, us Concept Vocabulary Number words Grammar/Word Study Quotation marks in dialogue Summary Mrs. Kangaroo is going to pick up her joey at the lake and gives several animals a ride on the way. Small Group Reading Lesson Skills Bank Reproducible Activity B e n c h m a r k E d u c a t i o n C o m p a n y

Small-Group Reading Lesson Australia Kangaroos hop pouch for babies Before Reading Activate Prior Knowledge Ask students what they know about kangaroos. If necessary, show the picture of the kangaroo on the cover. Begin a word web with the word Kangaroos in the center circle. In the outer circles write the details that students suggest. ell Support Tips for English-Language Learners Build Vocabulary and Language Patterns Take students on a picture walk. Make sure they understand that lizards, possums, and mice are small animals. Have them say the words as they look at the pictures of the animals. Write lizards and possums on the board, and underline the s at the end of each word. Point out that the s shows there is more than one lizard and possum. Say mouse and mice as you write the words on the board. Explain that the word mice means that there is more than one mouse. Note that mouse does not add an s; instead, there is a different word: mice. CUES FOR STRATEGIC READING Visual Cues Look at the beginning letter or letters (k in kangaroo; tr in trip). Look for familiar chunks within the word. (hop in hopped). Structure Cues Ask whether the sentence sounds right. Look for repeated language patterns: Mrs. Kangaroo hopped and hopped; The... jumped in. Meaning Cues Think about what makes sense in the sentence. Look at the picture to confirm the meaning of the word. 2 Model Visualizing Say: When you visualize, you make pictures in your mind. Think about a kangaroo going on a trip. What picture do you see in your mind? Have students close their eyes and make a picture in their minds. Say: I see the kangaroo hopping because that is how kangaroos move. I see her carrying things in her pouch. Have volunteers describe what they visualized. Say: Good readers make pictures in their minds when they read. They read the writer s words, and they picture the characters and the events in their minds. This helps them enjoy and understand the book. Preview the Book Display the book cover. Read the title and names of the author and illustrator to students. Ask: What do you see on the cover? Where do you think Mrs. Kangaroo is going? Who is going with her? Preview the book with students. Point to each picture and have students tell what is happening. Reinforce the language used in the text. For example, ask: What jumps into Mrs. Kangaroo s pouch? Set a Purpose for Reading Have students turn to page 2 and whisper-read the book. Say: Read to find out who Mrs. Kangaroo meets on her trip. Monitor students reading and provide support when necessary. Review Reading Strategies Use the cues provided to remind students that they can apply different strategies to identify unfamiliar words. Copyright 2011 Benchmark Education Company, LLC. All rights reserved. Teachers may photocopy the reproducible page for classroom use. No other part of the guide may be reproduced or transmitted in whole or in part in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. ISBN: 978-1-4108-2671-8

During Reading Observe and Prompt Reading Strategies Observe students as they read the book. Take note of how they problem-solve on text. Guide, or prompt, individual students who cannot problem-solve independently. After Reading Reflect on Reading Strategies After students have completed their reading, encourage them to share the reading strategies they used. Reinforce the good reading behaviors you noticed by saying: I noticed, [student s name], that when you came to a word you didn t know, you looked for familiar chunks within the word. Did this help you figure out the word? [Student s name], I saw that you tried to figure out the word lizards. You sounded out the first letter and then you looked at the picture. That was good reading. Build Comprehension: Discuss Concepts Draw inferences: Who is Mrs. Kangaroo s joey? (her baby) Locate facts: Why does Mrs. Kangaroo go to the lake? (Her joey is playing there.) Summarize: What happens to Mrs. Kangaroo on her trip to the lake? (Lizards, mice, and possums ask her for a ride.) Draw conclusions: How many animals in all take a ride in Mrs. Kangaroo s pouch? (9) Locate facts: What does Joey ask for at the end of the story? (a ride in his mother s pouch) Use the Comprehension Assessment Tips on page 4 to evaluate how students answer different types of questions. To practice text-dependent strategies, use the Comprehension Through Deductive Reasoning card provided for. ell Support Tips for English-Language Learners Ask students to tell how a kangaroo moves. Elicit the word hops and have students pretend to be kangaroos as they hop around the room. Make a list on the board of other animals that hop (rabbit, grasshopper, frog). Have students describe each animal and then say the following sentence as they pretend to be each of the animals: A hops. Use the Skills Bank Based on your observation of students reading behaviors, you may wish to select activities from the Skills Bank (pages 6 7) that will develop students reading strategies. Assessment Skills Support tips Tip Check a student s reading strategies by asking the student to read a page of the text aloud to you while other students whisper-read. Note whether the student is using visual, structure, and/or meaning cues to self-correct and to make sense of the text. Make Fiction-to-Fact Concept Connections If students have read Hats On!, ask: How are the hats in Hats On! like the animals in? (There are different numbers of each, and we can count them.) The boys and girls in Hats On! pretend to be pirates and clowns by putting on hats. How could you pretend to be a kangaroo? (Answers will vary. You could hop or pretend to have a pouch on your body.) 2011 Benchmark Education Company, LLC 3

Small-Group Reading Lesson COMPREHENSION ASSESSMENT TIPS Monitor Comprehension Are students able to locate specific answers to text-dependent questions in the text? If they are having difficulty, show them how to match the wording of the question to the wording in the text. Are students able to find answers to questions that require a search of the text? If they are having difficulty, model how you would search for the answer. Can students combine their background knowledge with information from the text to draw conclusions? You may wish to model how you would answer the question. Are students answers to creative questions logical and relevant to the topic? Do students completed graphic organizers reflect an ability to analyze the characters in a story? If necessary, provide more modeling. Build Comprehension: Analyze Characters Model Create an overhead transparency of the graphic organizer Mrs. Kangaroo s Trip or copy the chart on the board. Help students identify the characters in the story. Model how to complete the chart. Use the following think-aloud. Characters are the people or animals in a story. I can figure out what a character is like by looking at what the character does in the story. I can use a graphic organizer like this one to write my ideas. What does Mrs. Kangaroo do? She hops to the lake to find her joey. She gives rides in her pouch to several animals. I will write these things in the second column. What do I think these things show about Mrs. Kangaroo? She is kind. She is friendly. She works hard. I will write these things in the third column. Now let s look at what the lizards do in the story. Practice and Apply Guide students as they describe the actions of the other characters in the story and decide what character traits these actions show. If you think students can complete the chart independently, distribute copies of the graphic organizer (page 8) and monitor their work. Allow students time to share their recorded information. Character Mrs. Kangaroo What Does the Character Do? She hops to the lake to find her joey. She gives rides to several animals in her pouch. What Is the Character Like? She is kind. She is friendly. She works hard. Lizards Mice Possums Joey They ask Mrs. Kangaroo for a ride in her pouch. They ask Mrs. Kangaroo for a ride in her pouch. They ask Mrs. Kangaroo for a ride in her pouch. He plays at the lake. He asks his mother for a ride in her pouch. They are polite. They like to go places. They are polite. They like to go places. They are polite. They like to go places. He likes to play. He likes to ride in his mother s pouch. 4 2011 Benchmark Education Company, LLC

Interactive Writing Have students use the information from the graphic organizer to write sentences about the characters in the story. Say: Let s look at our chart. It tells about the characters in the story. Let s think of a sentence we can write that tells about one of these characters. (Possible sentences: The lizards ask for a ride and Mrs. Kangaroo takes animals for rides. ) Repeat the sentence aloud several times with students so they internalize the language pattern. Collaborate with them to write the sentence on chart paper or on the board, one word at a time. Start by saying the first word slowly. Ask: What sound do you hear at the beginning of this word? What other sounds do you hear? Let students write the known sounds in each word, then fill in the remaining letters for them. Continue until the sentence is completed. Write Independently Have students write their own sentences based on the story. Encourage them to articulate words slowly, use spaces between words, and write known words fluently. Conference with students about their sentences. Validate their knowledge of known words and letter/sound correspondences by placing a light check mark above students contributions. Praise students as you write the message conventionally for students to see. Reread for Fluency Ask students to reread independently. Then have them take turns with a partner retelling the events in the story. Connect to Home Have students read the take-home version of to family members. Have them talk with family members about what they know about kangaroos and Australia. Ms Kagro is kin. Mrs. Kangaroo is kind. FLUENCY SUPPORT TIPS Model Fluency Read sections of the book aloud to students to model fluent reading of the text. Model using appropriate phrasing, intonation, volume, expression, and rate. Have students listen to you read a portion of the text and then have them read it back to you. 2011 Benchmark Education Company, LLC 5

Skills Bank Phonemic Awareness: Blending Syllables Say: kangaroo. Divide it into its three syllables and say each syllable separately: kan/ga/roo. Have students repeat the syllables. Then have them blend the syllables together to say the whole word: kangaroo. Repeat the process using the following words: go/ing, jo/ey, liz/ards, pos/sums. Beginning Middle puddle deeper pencil hoping poke tapping come now saw Ending snap soap cup us Phonics: Initial and Medial p Write the word pouch on the board. Ask students to identify its beginning sound and the letter that makes that sound. Have them find other words in the book that begin with /p/. (pouch, possums) Say: hop. Ask students where they hear /p/ in the word. Say: happy. Ask them where they hear /p/ now. Point out that /p/ can be at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of words. Write hopped and hop on the board. Note that sometimes /p/ is spelled with two p s. Say: I will say some words with the /p/ sound. Tell me whether the /p/ sound is at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of each word. Say: puddle, deeper, snap, pencil, hoping, soap, tapping, poke, and cup. Write each word in the appropriate column of a chart. Phonics: Initial l Say: look. Ask: What sound do you hear at the beginning of look? What letter makes that sound? Which of these story words has the same beginning sound as look: lake, possums, hopped, mice, lizards, ride? Go around the room and ask each student to say a word that begins with l, such as leaf, lion, lunch, land, life, leg, lemon, lick, lip, and loaf. If students have difficulty thinking of l words, say a pair of words, such as duck, luck, and have students identify the word that begins with /l/. High-Frequency Word Vocabulary Make word cards for the four high-frequency words come, now, saw, and us. Show each card, read the word aloud, then say and spell the word with students. Place the word cards on the board ledge. Say: I will give you a clue about each of these words. Tell me which word I am talking about. It begins with n. (now) It rhymes with bus. (us) It has four letters. (come) It has an a in the middle. (saw) 6 2011 Benchmark Education Company, LLC

Concept Vocabulary: Number Words On the board write the numbers 2, 1, 4, 3 in one column and the words four, two, three, one in another column, with space between the two columns. Ask a student to come to the board and draw a line from the number 2 to the word for that number. (two) Continue until all the numbers and words have been correctly matched. Write the number words one, two, three, and four on index cards. Place sets of 1, 2, 3, and 4 objects on a table. Give the number cards to students. Have them read the words and place the correct number cards in front of the sets of objects. Grammar/Word Study: Quotation Marks in Dialogue Have students turn to page 4. Read the third sentence aloud. Point to the quotation marks. Say: These are quotation marks. We use quotation marks to show words the characters say. What words do the lizards say? Point out that the quotation marks appear before and after the words that the lizards say. Point to the following words: They said. Say: These words tell who said the words in quotation marks. Write the following sentences on the board without the quotation marks. Have students add quotation marks where they are needed. I will take you, said Mrs. Kangaroo. We want to go to the lake, said the mice. They said, Thank you. Joey said, I want a ride. 2 four 1 two 4 three 3 one They said, Will you take us with you? 2011 Benchmark Education Company, LLC 7

Name Date Character What Does the Character Do? What Is the Character Like? Mrs. Kangaroo Lizards Mice Possums Joey 2011 Benchmark Education Company, LLC