Rationale: The grade level that this text set focuses on is kindergarten. It is intended for a variety of reading levels, ELLs (English language learners), and students that are just starting to learn to read. This literacy set is intended for a unit all about animals, so the main theme throughout these pieces of text is the ANIMAL KINGDOM. Under this umbrella can be subtopics such as habitat, environment, animal facts, and more. The animal kingdom is a very important topic for students to study because it teaches them not only about animals and different climates, environments, and places around the world, but also how to research and find information that they are looking for. According to 3P Learning, “the power of literacy lies not just in the ability to read and write, but rather in a person’s capacity to apply these skills to effectively connect, interpret and discern the intricacies of the world in which they live.” Kindergarteners are in a stage of not knowing very much about animals yet, but are so curious and want to know more, so this text set is to enlighten, excite, and teach students more about many different animals.
Basic Info • Ed’s Egg • David Bedford / Karen Sapp • Sandy Creek Publisher • ISBN: 9781435130814 • 22 pages • Fiction •
Summary: Ed’s Egg is a fiction book about a little chick that loves his egg so much that he doesn’t want to leave it! He goes on little adventures inside of it, encounters other animals, and eventually ends up cracking his egg and meeting his mother. By the end of the story, he is warmed by his mother and brothers and sisters instead of the egg, and decides he loves that even more.
Reading First Component associated with this text: Fluency
Standard: RL.K.1- With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
Objective: Students will be able to draw a picture of the main character in the story.
Listening and Viewing is focused on
Additional Resources: Giving the students a video to see how eggs hatch in real life would really help them understand! This YouTube video is a great resource to show the students and explain how eggs hatch after reading the book. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lenb1zuo-eE
Basic Info • Ping Pong Pig • Caroline Jayne Church • Scholastic Inc. Publisher • ISBN: 9780545229319 • 26 pages • Fiction
Summary: Ping Pong Pig is a fiction book about a little pig that lives on a farm full of animals. All of the animals do their chores around the farm, but Ping Pong Pig just wants to fly! His friends eventually give him a trampoline and he then uses it non-stop because he loves it so much. The book ends with him landing in a pond and causing the fish to fly up in the air…Ping Pong Pig loves this and makes a joke about fish flying, too.
Reading First Component associated with this text: Fluency
Standard: RL.K.3- With prompting and support, identify characters, settings, and major events in a story.
Objective: Students will be able to write a few words about the main beginning, middle, and end of the story on a plot chart.
Listening and Viewing is focused on
Basic Info • Little Chick’s Breakfast • Mary Deball Kwitz / Bruce Degen • Harper & Row Publishers • ISBN: 0060236744 • 32 pages • Fiction
Summary: Little Chick’s Breakfast is about a joyful little chick that wakes up early and eager for her breakfast. She wakes up before the other animals in the barn excited to eat, but she has to wait until the sun is in just the right spot to be fed by the farmer, so she goes through the different stages that she waits through every day for her breakfast. We see the different animals and what they do every morning, and finally, little Chick gets her breakfast and is very, very happy.
Reading First Component associated with this text: Fluency
Standard: RL.K.2- With prompting and support, retell familiar stories, including key details.
Objective: Students will be able to tell in words what the chick watched happen on the farm before getting to eat.
Listening is focused on
Basic Info • Animals / Los animales • Clare Beaton • Barron’s Publishing • ISBN: 31111025031459 • 22 pages • Non-fiction
Summary: This book is a book that has many different animal names in English, and then at the bottom of the page, it also has them in Spanish! The animals in the book are from a farm, so there is a variety of different animals.
Reading First Component associated with this text: Phonemic Awareness
Standard: RL.K.4- Ask and answer questions about unknown words in a text.
Objective: Students will be able to recognize Spanish / English words (depending on their native language) based on the pictures that they see.
Speaking is focused on
Additional Resources: Letting the students get familiarized with the words and then watching a video based on it will help the words stick even better. This video is a great resource for the students. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84SlqWqk49c
Basic Info • Meow! Katie’s Big Book of Animals • Liesbet Slegers • Clavis Publishers • ISBN: 9781605371894 • 48 pages • Non-Fiction
Summary: This book is about a little girl who tells us (as the audience) about different animals. She knows many different facts and shows us different animals. Katie shows us what animals are meant to get along and what animals are not naturally friends.
Reading First Component associated with this text: Fluency / Vocabulary
Standard: RL.K.10- Actively engage in group reading activities with purpose and understanding.
Objective: Students will be able to answer questions verbally when asked about key animals in the text.
Viewing is focused on
Basic Info • National Geographic Little Kids First Big Book of Animals • National Geographic • National Geographic Children’s Books Publisher • ISBN: 1426307047 • 128 pages • Non-Fiction
Summary: This book goes through different environments and habitats that animals live in. Under each category of habitat, it has many different animals that live there, and facts about them. There are grassland, ocean, desert, forest, and polar animals, along with parent tips, a map, glossary, and index at the back of the book.
Reading First Component associated with this text: Vocabulary
Standard: SL.K.2- Confirm understanding of a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media by asking and answering questions about key details and requesting clarification if something is not understood.
Objective: Students will be able to verbally explain the different habitats seen in the additional resource video and the book.
Listening is focused on
Additional Resources: Giving the students an animal to research and learn about would be a great project for the students to work on! National Geographic is a great resource for that. http://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/index/
Basic Info • The Lion and the Mouse • Jerry Pinkney • Little Brown and Company Publishing • ISBN: 9780316013567 • 31 pages • Fiction / Picture Book
Summary: The Lion and the Mouse is a book about two animals that are normally not friends in the wild. The Lion catches the Mouse at the beginning of our story, but lets him go. So then, when humans catch the Lion, the Mouse helps free him. This is a story about friendship between two animals that were not meant to be friends.
Reading First Component associated with this text: Phonemic Awareness
Standard: SL.K.3- Ask and answer questions in order to seek help, get information, or clarify something that is not understood.
Objective: Students will be able to write one question that they have from the story on a notecard.
Visually representing with critical thinking is focused on
Basic Info • Do You Want to Be My Friend? • Eric Carle • Scholastic Inc. Publisher • ISBN: 0590223224 • 28 pages • Fiction / Picture Book
Summary: This is a story about a little mouse that is trying to find a friend that he belongs with. He searches many, many different animals and places to find a friend. We see him try to make friends with different animals, and finally at the end he finds the friend who is meant to be with him. He meets another mouse and they become friends.
Reading First Component associated with this text: Phonics
Standard: SL.K.6- Speak audibly and express thoughts, feelings, and ideas clearly.
Objective: Students will be able to verbally talk about how the mouse felt during the story and at the very end.
Viewing is focused on
Basic Info • Happy Animals: A first rhyming picture book about animals for children • Gerald Hawksley • Gerald Hawksley Publishing • ISBN: B004RPMVSI • 22 pages • Fiction / Picture Book
Summary: This is a picture book about different animals smiling. It’s engaging and fun for students to look at. The different animals in the book are house pets and farm animals.
Reading First Component associated with this text: Phonics
Standard: W.K.8- With guidance and support from adults, recall information from experiences or gather information from provided sources to answer a question.
Objective: Students will be able to answer questions about the animals’ feelings and appearance.
Viewing is focused on
Basic Info • Lions: Animals for Children • Youtube • 6 minutes and 40 seconds • Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnaXJf_yaj8
Summary: This video is about different animals around the world. It is presented with a little character that takes us to different places and we see animals in action in their environment and habitat. There are many animals in this video, and we get to see them in the wild.
Reading First Component associated with this text: Comprehension
Standard: SL.K.2- Confirm understanding of a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media by asking and answering questions about key details and requesting clarification if something is not understood.
Objective: Students will fill in a chart about what animals eat based off of the video that they watch.
Viewing and Listening is focused on