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

Teacher’s Guide

• Small Group Reading Lesson • Skills Bank • Reproducible Activities

science

Anchor Comprehension StrategiesMake Inferences •Summarize Information •

Phonemic Awareness�Listening�for�short�vowel�sounds�in�the���•middle�of�words

Phonics CVCe�pattern��•Digraph�ch��•

High-Frequency Wordsdown,�myself,�went��•

Concept Vocabulary Playground�words���•

Grammar/Word Study Compound�words���•

Science Big Idea Playgrounds�offer�many�physical�activities���•for�children�to�enjoy.�

skills & strategies

Playground FunLevel D/6

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2Playground Fun

© 2011 Benchmark Education Company, LLC

Before Reading

Activate Prior KnowledgeEncourage students to draw on prior knowledge and build background for reading the text. Create an overhead transparency of the graphic organizer “At the Playground” (left) or copy the organizer on chart paper, leaving the columns blank. Ask students to predict what kinds of activities they might expect to do at a playground. Re cord students’ suggestions in the “Before Reading” column of the chart. Tell students they will return to the chart after they read the book.

Preview the BookRead the title and names of the authors to students. Ask:

• Who do you see in the picture on the cover? What are the boy and girl doing? Are they having fun? Why do you think that?

Show students the title page. Ask:

• What do you see in this picture? How can children have fun on this playground equipment?

Preview the photographs with students, reinforcing the language used in the text. Say: I see a mom pushing her son on the swing. That makes the swing go high. Is it fun to swing? How does a dad help his son on the seesaw? What does the seesaw? Is the boy having fun?

Set a Purpose for ReadingHave students turn to page 2 and whisper-read the book. Say: I want you to read the book to find out what fun things the boy does at the playground. Monitor students’ reading and provide support when necessary.

Review Reading StrategiesUse the cues provided to remind students that they can apply different strategies to identify unfamiliar words.

Small Group Reading Lesson

ViSuAl CueS• Look at the beginning letter

or letters. (t in tires; sw in swing)

• Look for familiar chunks within the word. (play in playground)

StRuCtuRe CueS• Think about whether the

sentence sounds right.• Look for repeated language

patterns. (“I got on . . .”; “It was so much fun!”)

MeAning CueS• Think about what makes

sense in the sentence. • Look at the picture to

confirm the meaning of the word.

At the Playground

Before Reading

What we predict we can do

swing

slide

run

seesaw

eat snacks

After Reading

What the book shows us

swing

seesaw

tires

slide

monkey bars

ball

food

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3© 2011 Benchmark Education Company, LLC

Observe and Prompt Reading StrategiesObserve students as they read the book. Take note of how they are problem-solving on text. Guide, or prompt, individual students who cannot problem-solve independently.

Reflect on Reading StrategiesOnce students have completed their reading, encourage them to discuss the reading strategies they used. Reinforce the good reading behaviors you noticed by saying:

• [Student’s name], I noticed that when you came to a word you didn’t know, you went back and reread the sentence. Did this help you figure out the word?

• I noticed, [student’s name], that when you came to the word playground, you looked for familiar parts. That was good reading.

Build ComprehensionASK And AnSWeR QueStiOnS

Help students review text content and relate it to what they already know by asking some or all of the following questions.

• What playground things does the book tell about? Let’s write them in the “After Reading” column of our prediction chart. (swing, p. 4; seesaw, p. 6; tires, p. 8; slide, p. 10; monkey bars, p. 12; ball, p. 14; food, p. 16) (Locate facts)

• Look at the things we listed on the chart. Which ones are mentioned in the book? (Answers will vary.) (Compare and contrast)

• What was the first thing the boy did at the playground? What was the last thing he did? (He went on the swing. He ate with his family. pp. 4, 16) (Locate facts/Identify sequence)

• What do you like to do at the playground? Why? (Answers will vary.) (Use creative thinking)

Playground Fun

Teacher Tip

After Reading

using the Skills BankBased on your observations of students’ reading behaviors, you may wish to select activities from the Skills Bank (pp. 6–9) that will develop students’ reading strategies.

Question typesStudents need to understand that they can use information from various places in the book, as well as background knowledge, to answer different types of questions. These lessons provide four types of questions, designed to give students practice in understanding the relationship between a question and the source of its answer.

• Questions that require students to go to a specific place in the book.

• Questions that require students to integrate information from several sentences, paragraphs, or chapters within the book.

• Questions that require students to combine background knowledge with information from the book.

• Questions that relate to the book topic but require students to use only background knowledge and experience, not information from the book.

During Reading

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4Playground Fun

© 2011 Benchmark Education Company, LLC

Build ComprehensionSuMMARize infORMAtiOn

Model Create an overhead transparency of the graphic organizer “Playground Fun” on page 12 or copy the chart on the board. Review with students the activities that the boy does at the playground and what the boy says about each activity. Model for students how to record the information on the chart. Use the following think-aloud.

When I read a nonfiction book, I can better remember what I read by organizing the information on a chart. This book tells me about playground activities. The activities are listed in the first column of this chart. I will note some characteristics or traits of each activity. They are also listed on the chart. Let’s look at the first activity: “swing.” Does a swing go fast? Go in and out? Go up? Go high? Go down? First I look at page 4. The boy says that he went up high on the swing. So I will write “yes” under “Go up” and “Go high.” From my own experiences with swings, I know that they go down and they go fast, but they don’t go in and out. So I’ll write “yes,” “yes,” and “no” in the other columns. Let’s read the next activity together.

Practice and Apply Guide students as they consider the characteristics of the next activity on the list. Remind them that they are to write “yes” or “no” in each column, depending on whether or not they think the activity has that characteristic. If you think students can complete the chart independently, distribute copies and monitor their work. Allow time for them to share their

MonitoringComprehension• Are students able to revisit

the text to locate specific answers to text-dependent questions? 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? If they are having difficulty, 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 summarize information by finding and recording key facts in the book? If students are having difficulty, provide more modeling.

Teacher Tip

Small Group Reading Lesson (continued)

Playground fun

go fast

yes no yes yes yes

no no yes yes yes

no yes no no no

yes no yes yes yes

no no yes yes no

yes no yes no no

swing

seesaw

tires

slide

bars

ball

go in and out

go up go high go down

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5Playground Fun

© 2011 Benchmark Education Company, LLC

recorded information.

interactive WritingHave students use the information from the graphic organizer to write summary sentences about the book. Say: The book tells about activities the boy does on a playground. Let’s think back on what we read. Our chart can help us remember details about the activities. Let’s think of a sentence we can write that describes the playground activities. (Possible sentences include “You can go fast on a seesaw.” and “You can go up and down on a swing.”) Repeat the sentence aloud several times with students so they can internalize the language pattern. Collaborate with them to write the sentence on chart paper or the board one word at a time. Start by saying the first word slowly. Ask: What sound do you hear at the beginning of the word? What other sounds do you hear? Let students write the known sounds in each word and then fill in the remaining letters for them. Continue until the sentence is completed.

Write independentlyHave students write their own sentences based on the text. Encourage them to articulate words slowly, use spaces between words, and write known words fluently.

When students have completed their messages, confer with them individually. Validate their knowledge of known words and letter/sound correspondences by placing a light check mark above students’ contributions. Provide explicit praise as you write the message conventionally for students to see.

Reread for fluencyAsk students to reread Playground Fun independently. Suggest that after they read, they take turns summarizing the book for a partner.

Connect to HomeHave students read the take-home version of Playground Fun to family members. Suggest that students and family members discuss other things they can do for fun at a playground.

Teacher TipModeling 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 read it back to you.

√ √ √ √ √ √ √√ √√ √√ √√ √ √ √ √

You can go up hi on a swg.

You can go up high on a swing.

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Phonemic Awareness: listening for short vowel sounds in the middle of wordsSay the word fun. Ask students what vowel sound they hear in fun. (short u) Ask them where they hear the short vowel sound in the word. (in the middle) Help students confirm this by having them identify the beginning and ending sounds in fun. (/f/ and /n/) Repeat the procedure with these words: mom, dad, went, much, got, swing, ran, fast, get, hit, sat, had.

Phonics: CVCe patternWrite the word like on the board. Point to each letter and ask students to identify it as a consonant or vowel. Label the letters C, V, C, V. Point out that the last vowel is an e, and change the V to e. Ask students what vowel sound they hear in like. (long i) Explain that words with a CVCe pattern often have a long vowel sound. Write these words on the board: tire, slide, made, game, home, pole, huge. Have volunteers write C, V, C, e above the letters in each word and identify its vowel sound.

Phonics: digraph chPoint out the word much on page 2. Have students read the word and identify its final sound and the letters that make the sound. (/ch/, ch) Write much on the board and have students brainstorm other words that end in /ch/, such as such, touch, beach, reach, peach, teach, rich, couch, and ouch. Write the words on the board as students say them. Have students use the words in oral sentences.

C V C el i k e

C V C eg a m e

C V C ep o l e

6Playground Fun

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Skills Bank

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7

High-frequency Word VocabularyWrite the words myself, went, and down on the board. Say the words together. Ask: Which word is made up of two smaller words? What are the words? Which word means “to go in the past”? Which word is the opposite of up?

Concept Vocabulary: Playground words Have students review their pre-reading charts and look through the book for words they associate with playgrounds, such as swing, seesaw, tires, slide, bars, and ball. Write the words on the board as students name them. Have students draw pictures of things they could find on a playground and label their pictures with one or more of the words on the board.

Word Study: Compound wordsWrite the words myself, playground, and seesaw on the board. Explain that each word is a compound word, or a word made of two or more smaller words. Point out that most compound words are written with no spaces between the smaller words. Have students write the compound words on their papers and divide each one into the two smaller words that make up the compound.

myselfwentdown

my/selfplay/ground

see/saw

Copyright © 2011 Benchmark Education Company, LLC. All rights reserved. Teachers may photocopy the reproducible pages 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# 978-1-4108-0004-6

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Skills Bank

8Playground Fun

©2011 Benchmark Education Company, LLC

Build ComprehensionMAKe infeRenCeS

explain • Create an overhead transparency of the graphic organizer “Playground Fun” on page 9 or draw it on the board. Say: An author doesn’t tell us everything we need to know in a book. We figure out some things on our own. We use the author’s words and photographs for clues. Figuring something out using one or two clues is called making an inference.

Model • Say: Let’s make an inference about Playground Fun. The title of the book gives us our first clue: this book is about having fun at a playground. So let’s make inferences about the fun things to do at a playground. We will need to use the photographs and the text to find our clues. On page 4, I read that the boy had fun on the swing. In the photograph on page 5, I see that the boy is swinging high. In the first Clues box on the graphic organizer, write The boy has fun on the swings. He swings high. Then say: Now we will use these clues to make an inference. We can infer that swinging is fun because you can go high in the air. In the first Inference box, write Swinging is fun because you go high in the air.

guide • Say: Let’s make an inference about another way you can have fun at a playground. Look at pages 8 and 9. I have never played on tires. I wonder how you play on them. What can you learn from the words? What can you see in the photograph? (Allow time for students to respond, assisting if needed.) Yes, the text says the child went “in and out.” The photo shows me that the tires are set all different ways. In the second Clues box on the graphic organizer, write You can go in and out. The tires are set all different ways. Then ask: What can we figure out about playing on tires? (Again allow time for students to respond.) Yes, we can infer that you play on tires by crawling through their holes. In the second Inference box, write You climb through the holes in the tires when you play on them.

Apply • Ask students to work with a partner to make inferences throughout the rest of the book. Remind them to use word and photograph clues to figure out things the author doesn’t say. After each partnership shares, record their ideas on the graphic organizer. Finally, read the completed graphic organizer aloud and invite students to echo-read.

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name _______________________________________________________ date __________________

©2011 Benchmark Education Company, LLCPlayground Fun

Playground funMake Inferences

Clues Inference

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Notes

Playground Fun©2011 Benchmark Education Company, LLC10

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Notes

11©2011 Benchmark Education Company, LLCPlayground Fun

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© 2011 Benchmark Education Company, LLC

name _______________________________________________________ date __________________

Playground fun

go fast

swing

seesaw

tires

slide

bars

ball

go in and out

go up go high go down

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