LEVEL B

Lesson Plan Where Is Water?

About the Book
Text Type: Nonfiction/Descriptive Page Count: 10 Word Count: 38

Book Summary
In this simple, easy-to-decode leveled reader, students learn
about all of the places where they can find water. Rivers, lakes,
streams, oceans, and even underground caves are introduced
through patterned text and beautiful photographs.

About the Lesson

Targeted Reading Strategy
• Connect to prior knowledge

Objectives
• Use the reading strategy of connecting to prior knowledge to understand text
• Main idea and details
• Differentiate initial sounds in oral words
• Sound out words beginning with Ww
• Use capital letters and periods in sentences
• Understand meanings of content vocabulary

Materials
Green text indicates resources available on the website
• Book—Where Is Water? (copy for each student)
• Chalkboard or dry erase board
• Fact web, letter Ww, capitalization and punctuation worksheets
• Capital letters on construction paper: W, T, A; three periods on construction paper
• Discussion cards

Indicates an opportunity for students to mark in the book. (All activities may be
demonstrated by projecting book on interactive whiteboard or completed with paper and
pencil if books are reused.)

Vocabulary
• High-frequency words: in, is, the
• Content words:
Story critical: ground (n.), lakes (n.), ocean (n.), rivers (n.), sky (n.), water (n.)

Before Reading
Build Background
• Ask students to tell about large bodies of water they have seen or been in, or other places
where they have seen water. Encourage students to tell what the water looked and/or felt like.
• Expand the discussion by talking about different uses for water, water conservation, and
any large (or small) bodies of water that might be nearby.

Book Walk
Introduce the Book: Connect to prior knowledge
• Show students the front and back covers of the book and read the title. Ask students what they
think this book will be about based on the cover information. Model how to use prior knowledge.

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 LEVEL B
Lesson Plan (continued) Where Is Water?
Think-aloud: When I read a new book, I try to think about what I already know about the topic
in the book. When I look at the picture of the surfer, I remember what I know about surfing
from my own experience. I’ve never been surfing, but I’ve watched people do it. I know it has
to be done in water that has waves. I can predict that there may be other things in the book
that can be done in water.
• Show students the title page and ask them what they see in the picture. Ask them if they have
ever seen a stream like this one. Turn the pages in the book so students can see the pictures.
If necessary, model once more how you draw on your personal knowledge to make predictions
about the book.
Introduce the Vocabulary
• Go through each page of the book with students, talking about what they see in the pictures and
encouraging them to use the vocabulary they will encounter in the text. Ask them to name what
they see in the pictures and have them draw on prior knowledge and experience with each body
of water. For example, ask: What is this place? What do you know about it?
• Point out the words on the page. Explain that the words on the page tell the story and that the
words are read left to right.
• Ask a student to come up and point on the book you are holding to the place where he/she
should start reading and which direction he/she should go while reading.
• Reinforce new vocabulary and word-attack strategies by modeling how students can read
unfamiliar words. Ask a volunteer to point to the word water. Ask students how they know this
word says water. Model how they can use the beginning sound to help them. Point out that they
can look at the picture and think about what word starts with /w/ and would make sense. Read
the sentence aloud with the word water and ask if they think the sentence makes sense. Repeat
with other vocabulary words if you feel students need more modeling. Remind students to look at
the beginning and ending sounds in words and/or parts within words to help them sound out the
word. They should check whether the word makes sense by looking at the picture and rereading
the sentence.

Set the Purpose

• Have students read the book to find out about places they can find water. Remind them to think
about what they already know about water as they read.

During Reading
Student Reading
• Guide the reading: Give students their book and have them put a sticky note on page 6. Direct
them to read to the end of this page. Tell students to reread the pages if they finish before
everyone else.
• When they have finished, ask students to tell the places where water is found that they have
read about so far. Have students point out the places they have been to or seen where there
was water and tell how this helped them understand the book.
• Model making connections to prior knowledge.
Think-aloud: I’ve seen water in the same kinds of places that are in the book. It helps me
understand what I am reading if I can think about what I already know about those kinds
of places.
• Tell students to read the remainder of the book.

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 the discussion that follows.

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 LEVEL B
Lesson Plan (continued) Where Is Water?
After Reading
• Ask students what words they marked in their book. Use this opportunity to model how they
could read these words using word-attack strategies and context clues. For example, point
out the word is and ask students how they know this word doesn’t say it. Encourage them
to recognize that the word it has the /t/ sound at the end, and this word doesn’t end with
a t. Point out that the word it doesn’t make sense in the sentence.

Reflect on the Reading Strategy

• Reinforce how using what they already knew about water and the places where they can find
water helped them understand what they read. (Connecting life experiences and using prior
knowledge of a topic helps students personally relate to and remember what they have read.)

Teach the Comprehension Skill: Main ideas and details

• Introduce and model: Explain to students that organizing the facts they learn when they read will
help them understand the book and remember what they read. Give students a copy of the
fact web worksheet. Point out the large circle in the middle of the page. Tell students that this
is where they will write the word that tells what the book is about. Model how to figure out that
the book is about water by looking back through the book and finding what all of the sentences
in the book are about. Have students write the word water in the center circle. Next, model how
to go to page 4 to find the name of a place where water is found. Read the sentence: The picture
is of a river. I read the sentence and find out that water is in rivers, so I will write the word rivers
in one of the smaller circles. It doesn’t matter which one.
• Check for understanding: Have students tell the next place where water is found and write it on
the worksheet.
• Independent practice: Tell students to complete the worksheet. They should find the other places
where water is found and write one in each circle. Discuss their responses.

Extend the discussion: Instruct students to use the last page of their book to draw a picture
of a place they have seen water. Have students share their pictures with the group.

Build Skills
Phonological Awareness: Differentiating initial sounds
• Say the words water, wet, and river. Ask students to repeat the words. Tell them that water and
wet start with the same sound. Have students repeat the words, listening for the initial sound.
• Say the following sets of words. After each set, have students repeat the words and then tell
you the words that start with the same sounds: lake, lap, top; pool, man, pat; dog, cane, cap;
man, tin, met; sit, see, knee; run, bat, rat; ball, bag, fin.
Phonics: Letter Ww
• Write the word wet on the board and read it with students. Underline the w and explain that
this letter stands for the /w/ sound. Ask students to repeat the word. Show students a capital
and lowercase W.
• Sound out the phonemes in the word wet and model how to blend each sound: /w/ /e/ /t/.
Say the word.
• Repeat the above process with the following words: wig, web, wet, wag.
• Introduce, explain, and have students complete the letter Ww worksheet. When completed,
discuss their answers.
Grammar and Mechanics: Sentence capitalization and punctuation
• Write the following sentence on the board: Water is in rivers. Explain or review that there are
different kinds of sentences and that sentences like this one tell the reader something. Ask
students what a telling sentence always begins with (a capital letter). Circle the W and tell
students that this is a capital letter. Review that every sentence has a signal at the end so the

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 LEVEL B
Lesson Plan (continued) Where Is Water?
reader will know when to stop reading. Ask students what a telling sentence always ends with
(a period). Remind students that a period is used as a “stop sign.” Circle the period at the end
of the sentence.
• Write the following sentences on the board: water is in lakes / the lake has water / a wave is
made of water (no period). Ask individual students to come to the board. Give a student one
of the following capital letter cards (W, T, A) and a period. Ask the student to place the capital
letter at the beginning of the sentence and the period at the end. Ask the other students for
a “thumbs-up” if correct.

Word Work: Content vocabulary

• Tell students that the words they read in the book are used to tell about places where water
is found. Explain that these words are called naming words. Have students look at page 4.
Ask them to find the naming word that tells where the water is found.

Have students work in pairs to find the naming words in the book. Tell them to highlight
the words they find.
• Ask students to read aloud the words they find.

Build Fluency
Independent Reading
• Allow students to read their book independently. Additionally, allow partners to take turns
reading parts of the book to each other.

Home Connection
• Give students their book to take home to read with parents, caregivers, siblings, or friends.

Extend the Reading

Writing Connection
Write the sentence Water is in ____. on the board. Ask each student to provide a word to finish
the sentence and to illustrate their sentence on a piece of paper. Display their sentences and
illustrations on a bulletin board titled “We Know Where Water Is!”

Science Connection
Use this book as an introduction to a science unit about water conservation. Provide examples
of how water is wasted when left running while brushing teeth or washing hands, or when served
in a restaurant and not consumed. Brainstorm a list of ways students can save water. Make a chart
with their suggestions and post alongside the above sentences on a bulletin board titled “We
Know How to Save Water.”

Skill Review
Discussion cards covering comprehension skills and strategies not explicitly taught with the book
are provided as an extension activity. The following is a list of some ways these cards can be used
with students:
• Use as discussion starters for literature circles.
• Have students choose one or more cards and write a response, either as an essay
or as a journal entry.
• Distribute before reading the book and have students use one of the questions
as a purpose for reading.
• Cut apart and use the cards as game cards with a board game.

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 LEVEL B
Lesson Plan (continued) Where Is Water?
Assessment
Monitor students to determine if they can:
• connect to prior knowledge to make meaning from text
• locate and map facts relating to the topic of water
• differentiate initial sounds in oral words
• sound out CVC words with Ww
• capitalize and punctuate sentences
• understand content vocabulary

Comprehension Check
• Retelling Rubric

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