At the Lake aa
Focus Question:
What can you see at the lake?
Book Summary
Text Type: Fiction/Realistic
At the Lake provides students with a look at the things you can see and different
kinds of activities you can do when you visit a lake. Detailed, colorful illustrations will
engage students in the text, and repetition of the high-frequency word this supports
early emergent readers. Students will also have the opportunity to classify information
and to ask and answer questions to better understand the text.
Lesson Essentials
Instructional Focus
Ask and answer questions to better
understand text
Classify information in a text
Describe information provided
by illustrations
Identify words that rhyme
Identify word family -ock
Recognize and use periods
Identify and use the high-frequency
word this
Materials
Book: At the Lake (copy for each student)
Classify information, word family -ock,
periods worksheets
Retelling rubric
Vocabulary
Boldface vocabulary words also appear
in a pre-made lesson for this title on
VocabularyA–Z.com. (*) word appears
in the lesson but not the book.
• High-frequency word: this
• Words to Know
Story critical: boat (n.), dock (n.), fish (n.),
lake (n.), rock (n.), swimsuit (n.)
• Academic vocabulary: classify*, information*
© Learning A–Z All rights reserved.
Guiding the Reading
Before Reading
Build Background
• Place on the board photographs of different bodies
of water. Explain to students what a lake is and ask
how it is different from the other bodies of water. Talk
about what people do and see when they visit lakes.
• Ask students to work with a partner to discuss
what they might see at a lake. Have students draw
on a separate piece of paper a picture of a lake
and some things they would see or do there. Invite
volunteers to share their picture with the rest of
the class.
Introduce the Book
• Give students their copy of At the Lake. Guide
them to the front and back covers and read the
title. Have students discuss what they see on the
covers. Encourage them to offer ideas as to what
type of book it is (genre, text type, and so on)
and what it might be about.
• Show students the title page. Discuss the
information on the page (title of book, author’s
name, illustrator’s name).
Introduce the Reading Strategy:
Ask and answer questions
Explain to students that engaged readers ask and
answer questions while reading to better understand
what they are reading. Draw a KWL chart on the
board and explain what each section stands for (What
I Know, What I Want to Know, What I Learned). Make
a list on the board of things students can see at a lake
under the What I Know section. Then, have students
think about what questions they have about lakes
and record the questions under the What I Want to
Know section on the board. Explain that students will
look for the answers to these questions while reading
in order to better understand text.
Introduce the Comprehension Skill:
Classify information
• Explain to students that readers often think
about the objects in a story and what they have
in common. Explain that thinking about what the
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Guiding the Reading (cont.)
objects have in common and sorting them into
groups is called classifying information.
• Write the headings Living and Nonliving on the
board. Read the headings aloud with students.
Explain to students that as they read each page,
they should pause and determine whether the
object belongs in the Living or Nonliving category.
• Read page 7 to students and have them discuss
which category to classify the fish (Living) and write
this information under the correct heading on the
board. Remind students that classifying information
will help them better remember and understand
what they read.
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
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.
Set the Purpose
• Have students read to find out more about the
lake. Write the Focus Question on the board. Invite
students to look for evidence in the book to support
their answer to the question.
• Have students make a small question mark in their
book beside any word they do not understand or
cannot pronounce. These can be addressed in a
future discussion.
During Reading
Text-Dependent Questions
As students read the book, monitor their understanding
with the following questions. Encourage students to
support their answers by citing evidence from the book.
• What is a dock? (level 1) page 4
• Why is the boy wearing a life jacket? When would
you need to wear one? (level 3) page 5
• How are the frog and the fish alike? How are they
different? (level 2) pages 7 and 9
• Is a rock a living or nonliving thing? How do you
know? (level 3) page 8
• How do you think the boy feels when he is at the
lake? How can you tell? (level 2) multiple pages
• What else would you find at a lake that is not listed
in this book? (level 3) multiple pages
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At the Lake aa
Text Features: Illustrations
Explain to students one important part of reading is
paying close attention to the pictures, or illustrations,
because they provide readers with extra information.
Readers can use this information, combined with
what they already know, to draw conclusions about
the story. Have students work with a partner to
review the picture on page 10. Ask students: Do you
think the boy likes the lake? What else can you tell
about the lake from the picture? Is it a place you
would like to visit? Have students work with a partner
to review the remaining illustrations and discuss how
the pictures help them to better understand and
remember the story.
Skill Review
• Model for students how to ask and answer
questions as you read. Have students look for
answers to their questions from the KWL chart
on the board. Record any answers they find in the
What I Learned column. Discuss with students how
asking and answering questions helped them to
better remember and understand what they read.
• Continue classifying objects from the story into the
categories on the board: Living and Nonliving.
• Model how to classify information into different
categories.
Think-aloud: The story is about what a boy sees at
a lake. As each object is introduced, I think about
a category that it would fit into. For example,
I see some animals, so I could group them together.
I also see that there are a couple words that end
in -ock, so I could group those words together.
There are many different ways to classify the
objects mentioned in the story. As I read, I pause
to consider how I will group the information.
Classifying information helps me understand
and remember what I have read.
• Have students work in small groups to create new
categories for classifying the objects mentioned in
the story. Invite them to consider other things that
would fall into these categories.
• Model how to complete the classify information
worksheet. Have students discuss the classifications
with a partner.
After Reading
Ask students what words, if any, they marked in
their book. Use this opportunity to model how they
can read these words using decoding strategies and
context clues.
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Guiding the Reading (cont.)
Skill Review
Graphic Organizer: Classify information
Review the classify information worksheet that
students completed. Have students share their work
in groups. Invite volunteers to share with the rest
of the class how they classified the pictures and
how they knew which group to place each picture in.
Discuss other ways they might classify the pictures.
Response to Focus Question
Have students cite specific evidence from the book
to answer the Focus Question. (For example: You can
see lots of things at the lake. You can see animals and
other things in nature, such as rocks and trees. You
can also see nonliving things, including a dock,
a boat, and a swimsuit.)
Comprehension Check
• Retelling rubric
Book Extension Activities
Build Skills
Phonological Awareness: Rhyme
• Say the word cake aloud and have students repeat
the word. Read the sentence on page 10 aloud to
students. Have them identify the word that sounds
like cake. Point out that cake and lake have the same
sound at the end of the word, so the words rhyme.
• Say the following words and have students repeat
them: bake, flake, make, rake. Periodically stop and
remind students that these are called rhyming words.
• Check for understanding: Say the following words one
at a time and have students raise their hand when
they hear a word that rhymes with lake: Blake,
boat, frog, fake, fish, sake, steak, swim, take, wake.
Phonics: Word family -ock
• Write the words dock and rock on the board and
read them aloud with students. Run your finger
under the letters of each word while saying the
sounds aloud. Explain to students that the words
belong in the word family -ock. Have students
discuss why they think the words are in the word
family -ock with a partner. Invite volunteers to
share their answers with the class.
• Write the ending -ock on the board several more
times and read the ending together. Explain to
students that, when creating a word family, the
first letter changes while the end stays the same.
Invite a volunteer to write the letter Ll at the
beginning of -ock on the board. Run your finger
under the letters in the word and read the word
aloud with the class (lock). Continue inviting
volunteers to write consonants at the beginning
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At the Lake aa
of -ock on the board. When finished, read each
word as a class. Remind students that the words are
all in the -ock word family. Point out that the words
in a word family all rhyme because they end with
the same sound.
• Check for understanding: Have students write the
letters Jj, Mm, SS, and Tt on a separate sheet of
paper. Hand them each a card with -ock written
on it. Have students work with a partner to practice
reading words they create by placing the -ock card at
the end of each consonant written on their paper.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have
students complete the word family –ock worksheet.
If time allows, discuss their answers.
Grammar and Mechanics: Periods
• Write the following sentence on the board: I like
to jump into the lake. Read the sentence aloud with
students. Explain that every sentence has a signal
at the end so readers know when to stop reading.
Circle the period at the end of the sentence.
• Explain that the signal is called a period. Have students
repeat the word. Explain that the period is similar to a
stop sign because it tells readers when to stop.
• Invite volunteers to tell what they like to do at the
lake. Write the sentences on the board without
periods. Read the sentences aloud without stopping.
Have students come to the board and add the periods
to the end of each sentence. Reread the sentences,
making sure to clearly stop at the end of each one.
• Check for understanding: Have students locate and
circle all of the periods in the book.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have
students complete the periods worksheet. If time
allows, discuss their answers.
Word Work: High-frequency word this
• Write the word this on the board and read it aloud
with students. Explain to students that they will
often see this word in books they read and they
should memorize it so they can decode it right away.
• Spell the word aloud while students write each
letter in the air.
• Write the following sentence on the board: This
lake is really big. Read it aloud with students and
discuss with them the meaning of the word this.
• Have students practice spelling this in shaving
cream spread on their desk.
• Check for understanding: Have students work in pairs
to create oral sentences using the word this. Call
on students to share a sentence with the rest of the
class and ask other students to give a thumbs-up
signal if they used the word this correctly.
Connections
• See the back of the book for cross-curricular
extension ideas.
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