teacher’s guide...are going to play rhyme time. you will say two words that rhyme. you want them...

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

social studies

Anchor Comprehension Strategies

Make Predictions •Summarize Information •

Phonemic AwarenessRhyming•••

Phonics Initial•f•••

Concepts About PrintPeriods•••

Concept of words •High-Frequency Words

am,•I•••

Concept Vocabulary Words•about•farm•life•••

Social Studies Big IdeaIt•is•important•to•learn•about•the•daily••••activities•of•people•at•work.

skills & strategies

Life on a FarmLevel A/1

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2Life on a Farm

© 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 “On the Farm” (left) or copy the organizer on chart paper, leaving the columns blank. Begin a discussion about activities on a farm. Ask students to predict what happens on a farm. Record students’ suggestions in the first column. Tell students that they will come back to the chart when they have finished reading the book.

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

• Who do you see in the picture?

• What is the woman holding?

• Why do you think there are chickens here?

Preview the photographs with students, reinforcing the language used in the text. For example, say: I see someone milking a cow. Why do they milk a cow on a farm? Here someone is driving a machine. What machine is it? Why is he doing this? Why is this girl picking apples? What could she do with them next?

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 people do on a farm. 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. (m in milking; d in digging)

• Look for familiar chunks within the word. (saw in sawing)

StRuCtuRe CueS• Look for repeated language

patterns. (“I am . . .”)

MeAning CueS• Think about what makes

sense in the sentence. • Look at the picture to

confirm the meaning of the word.

Before Reading

What we think happens on a farm:

grow corn

milk cows

feed animals

grow pumpkins

ride on a tractor

grow beans

After Reading

What the book tells us happens on a farm:

get eggs

milk cows

drive a tractor

ride a horse

pick apples

dig a garden

saw a tree

feed animals

cook food

On the Farm

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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 Strategies Once students have completed their reading, encourage them to discuss 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 went back and reread the sentence. Did this help you to figure out the word?

• [Student’s name], I saw you try to sound out the word cooking. You recognized the word cook and the –ing ending. 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.

• Look at the things we listed on our prediction chart. Which ones are mentioned in the book? Let’s check. We can list what the book says happens in the second column. (Answers will vary. pp. 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16) (Locate facts/Compare and contrast)

• What animals could you find on a farm? (chickens, pigs, cows, horses. cover, title page, pp. 3, 7, 15) (Classify and categorize)

• How does driving a tractor help grow food? (A tractor pulls a plow or a machine to work on crops that we eat.) (Make inferences)

• If you were a farmer, what kinds of foods would you grow? Why? (Answers will vary.) (Use creative thinking)

Life on a Farm

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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4Life on a Farm


Build ComprehensionSuMMARize inFORMAtiOn

Model Create an overhead transparency of the graphic organizer “Summarize Information” or copy the web on the board. Begin a discussion about the kinds of activities on a farm. Model for stu-dents how to record this information. Use the following think-aloud.

When I read nonfiction material, I can better remember what I read by organizing the information on a chart. On this chart I can list the things that happen on a farm. The first farm job I read about was milk-ing. The girl was milking a cow. I’ll write “milking cows” in one of the circles. Now let’s find and record the next farm job together.

Practice and Apply Guide students as they find and describe jobs on a farm that are named and illustrated in the text. Help them paraphrase the information and record it on the chart. If you think students can complete the chart independently, distribute copies and monitor their work. Allow time for students to share their recorded information.

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 make inferences? 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 the ability to summarize information by pinpointing key words in the text? If students are having difficulty, provide more modeling.

Teacher Tip

Small Group Reading Lesson (continued)

Summarize information

Farm life

milking cows

driving a tractor

riding horses

digging the soil

sawing wood

cooking food

picking apples

feeding animals

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5Life on a Farm


interactive WritingHave students use the information from their graphic organizer to write summary sentences about the book. Say: The author showed us some of the things that happen on a farm. Let’s think back on what we read. Our chart is a good summary that can help us remember. Let’s think of a sentence we could write that would tell about something that happens on a farm. (Possible sentences include “A farmer plows the ground with a tractor.” and “A farmer feeds the cows.”) 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 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 independentlyHave students write their own sentence based on the text. Encourage them to articulate words slowly, use spaces between words, and write known words fluently.

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

Reread for FluencyAsk students to reread Life on a Farm with a partner. Have them take turns reading the text to each other while the partner tells about what is happening in the picture.

Connect to HomeHave students read the take-home version of Life on a Farm to family members. Suggest that students share their sentences, too.

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.

√ √ √ √√√ √√ √√√ √√√ √√√ √ √ √√√ √√√

I w e d l i k t o g e t t h e e g z f a m t h e n e s .

I would like to get the eggs from the nest.

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Phonemic Awareness: RhymingSay the words am and Sam. Ask students what they notice about the words. (They rhyme.) Explain that am and Sam rhyme because they have the same middle and ending sounds. Tell students you are going to play Rhyme Time. You will say two words that rhyme. You want them to repeat the words and then add a third word that rhymes with the first two. Use these rhyming words: meat/seat (eat), rake/take (cake), ride/wide (side), dig/wig (big), saw/paw (draw), feed/seed (need), cook/look (book).

Phonics: initial fPoint to the word farm in the title of the book and ask students what sound the letter f makes in this word. (/f/) Then ask them to find another word in the book that begins with the same sound and letter. (feeding) Write the word on the board. Ask students if they can think of other words that begin like farm and feeding. (food, far, fan, find, fast, fun, fill) Record students’ suggestions on the board. Have volunteers come to the board and circle the f in each word. Then have students pick two words from the list and write them on their paper, circling the initial letter in each.

Concepts About PrintWrite the sentence I am milking on the board. Emphasize the spaces between words by drawing a colored square after I and after am. Read the sentence aloud, pointing to each word as you say it. Explain that the letters grouped together make a word and that each word is set off from the next word by a space. Point out the period and explain that this mark tells readers that they have come to the end of a sentence—a group of words that tells a complete idea. Have students choose one sentence in the book to write on their papers. Ask them to check their sentences to be sure they put spaces between words.

6Life on a Farm


Skills Bank

f e e d i n gf o o df u n

I am milking .

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7

High-Frequency Word VocabularyWrite the phrase I am on the board. Ask students to count how many times these words appear in the book. Then have volunteers read aloud sentences in which the words appear.

Ask students to think of something they enjoy doing and to pantomime the activity for the class. After classmates guess the activity, the student can explain his or her action: I am reading. I am dancing. Write each student’s sentence on the board. Then have students write the sentences on their paper.

Concept Vocabulary: Words about farm lifeDisplay the graphic organizer “Summarize Information.” Talk with students about the activities listed on the web. Make connections between the words on the web and the ideas in the text. List farm activity words on chart paper. The list may include milking, driving, riding, picking, digging, sawing, feeding, cooking, and gathering.

Ask volunteers to pantomime such farm activities as milking, gathering eggs, digging in soil, picking apples, and sawing wood. Encourage students to describe the activities and tell which ones they think would be most fun, hardest, and so on.

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# 978-1-59000-992-5

milking

digging

picking

feeding

driving

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Skills Bank

Life on a Farm©2011 Benchmark Education Company, LLC8

Build ComprehensionMAKe PRediCtiOnS

explain • Create an overhead transparency of the graphic organizer “Life on a Farm” or draw it on the board. Say: We make predictions before we read a book and while we read. Then we check our predictions. Making predictions helps us pay close attention to our reading.

Model • Say: What prediction might someone make before reading Life On a Farm? The title tells us the book is about life on a farm. The picture on the cover shows a chicken. The book could be about all the animals that live on a farm. Write this in the first Prediction box on the graphic organizer. Then say: We check the prediction by beginning to read the book. Take a picture walk through the first few pages. Say: We can’t mark Yes because the prediction is not correct. The book is about people who live and work on a farm. Write this statement in the first No box on the graphic organizer.

guide • Say: Now let’s think about another prediction. Look at page 3. What might someone predict about this photograph? (Allow time for students to respond, assisting if needed.) Yes, readers might think this girl is milking a cow. Write the page number and prediction in the second row of the graphic organizer. Then say: We check the prediction by reading the book. Read page 2 aloud. Say: We can mark Yes because the prediction is correct. Draw a check mark in the Yes column.

Apply • Ask students to work with a partner to think of other predictions readers might make based on the photographs. After each partnership shares, record some of the predictions and results 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, LLCLife on a Farm

life on a FarmMake Predictions

Prediction Yes No

Before reading someone might predict …

On page _____, someone might predict …

On page _____, someone might predict …

On page _____ , someone might predict …

On page _____ , someone might predict …

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name _______________________________________________________ date __________________

Summarize information

Farm life

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teacher’s guide...are going to play rhyme time. you will say two words that rhyme. you want them...

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