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Lesson Plan Farm Animals
About the Book
Text Type: Nonfiction/Concept Page Count: 10 Word Count: 16

Book Summary
Farm Animals is a simple book that
introduces seven charming farm animals,
most of which will be familiar to the
reader. The playful illustrations support
one-to-one picture-to-text correspondence.

About the Lesson

Targeted Reading Strategy
• Connect to prior knowledge

Objectives
• Connect to prior knowledge to understand text
• Identify main idea and details
• Identify rhyme
• Identify initial consonant Pp
• Recognize and use nouns
• Categorize words

Materials
Green text indicates resources available on the website
• Book—Farm Animals (copy for each student)
• Chalkboard or dry erase board
• Main idea and details, initial consonant Pp, categorize words worksheets

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
*Bold vocabulary words also appear in a pre-made lesson for this title on VocabularyA–Z.com.
• High-frequency words: the
• Content words:
Story critical: animals (n.), chicken (n.), cow (n.), dog (n.), duck (n.), goat (n.), pig (n.),
sheep (n.)

Before Reading
Build Background
• Make two columns on the board and label them Farm and City. Discuss the meaning of each
word with students. Ask students if the same kinds of animals live on a farm as in the city.
• Have students suggest animals and tell in which list they should be written. Help students
brainstorm as many animals as possible. When finished, review the lists with students. Ask
students if any of the animals that live in the city could also live on a farm. Circle the names
of any animals written in both columns.

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Lesson Plan (continued) Farm Animals
• Discuss how some animals can live in both places. Have students look at the lists and tell the
animals that cannot live in both places. Discuss reasons those animals can only live in one place
or the other.

Book Walk
Introduce the Book
• Show students the front and back covers of the book and read the title with them. Ask what
they think they might read about in a book called Farm Animals. (Accept all answers that
students can justify.)
• Show students the title page. Discuss the information on the page (title of book, author’s name,
illustrator’s name).
• Write the following repetitive phrase on the board: The ____. Read the word aloud with students.
Explain that this word followed by the name of an animal repeats throughout the book.
Introduce the Reading Strategy: Connect to prior knowledge
• Explain to students that good readers make connections between what they already know and
new information they read. Remind them that thinking about what they already know about the
topic of the book will help them understand what they read.
• Model connecting to prior knowledge using the information on the covers.
Think-aloud: When I look at the front cover of Farm Animals, I see many animals. Since the title
of the book is Farm Animals, the animals that are in the picture probably live on a farm. I know
that animals that live on a farm are taken care of by a farmer. The farmer makes sure the animals
have the right kind of food and plenty of water. The information I already know about farms will
help me read and enjoy the information in the book.
• As students read, encourage them to use other reading strategies in addition to the targeted
strategy presented in this section.
Introduce the Comprehension Skill: Main idea and details
• Explain to students that every book has a big, or main, idea, which is what the book is mostly
about. Read the title to students. Explain that the title often provides clues about the book’s
main idea. Invite students to share predictions about the main idea of this book.
• Explain to students that the main, or big, idea of this book is: Farm Animals. Write the phrase
Farm Animals on the board. Point to each word as you read the phrase aloud with students.
• Model how to identify details.
Think-aloud: I know that every book has details that help explain the big idea. I know that this
book is about farm animals. On the back cover, I see a chicken pecking the ground. I know that
a chicken is an animal that lives on a farm. Since a chicken helps to explain the big idea, it might
be a detail in the book.
• Review animals that live on a farm that were discussed in the Build Background section. Discuss
whether any of these animals might be details in the book.
Introduce the Vocabulary
• Go through each page of the book with students. Ask them to talk about what they see in the
pictures and 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 animals they have
had or seen. For example, point to the dog on page 3 and ask: What animal is this? Be certain
that students are making the connection between the picture and the word.
• Point out the words on the page. Explain that the words on the page tell the story and that the
words are read from left to right. Ask a student to come up and point on the book you are holding
to the place where he or she should start reading and in which direction he or she should read.
• Reinforce new vocabulary and word-attack strategies by modeling how students can read
unfamiliar words. Ask a volunteer to point to the word pig on page 4. Ask students how they
know this word is pig. Model how they can use the picture clues to help them read words.

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Lesson Plan (continued) Farm Animals
Set the Purpose
• Have students use what they already know about farms and animals to help them read the book.
Remind them to think about the details that support the main idea as they read.

During Reading
Student Reading
• Guide the reading: Give students their copy of the book. Have a volunteer point to the first word
on page 3 (The). Point out to students where to begin reading on each page. Remind them to
read the words from left to right.
• Ask students to place a finger on the page number in the bottom corner of the page. Have them
read to the end of page 5, using their finger to point to each word as they read. Encourage
students who finish before others to reread the text.
• Model connecting to prior knowledge.
Think-aloud: On page 4, I see a pig. I have seen a pig like this on a farm. Some pigs have pink skin.
They love to roll in the mud to keep cool. A pig is a farm animal.
• Invite students to share how they connected with what they already knew as they read.
• Review the main idea of the book: Farm Animals. Ask students to tell whether or not a pig
is a detail that supports the main idea of the book and to explain why (yes; a pig is an animal
you might see on a farm).
• Introduce and explain the main-idea-and-details worksheet. Discuss why the pig would be pasted
on the sheet and the lion would not.
• Check for understanding: Have students read to page 8. Encourage them to share how they
connected to prior knowledge as they read. (Accept all answers that show students understand
how to connect to prior knowledge.)
• Ask students to share other details they read that support the main idea Farm Animals.
• Have students read the remainder of the book. Remind them to use what they already know
about farm animals to help them understand new information as they read.

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.

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.

Reflect on the Reading Strategy

• Think-aloud: When I read page 10, I thought about farms and all of the animals that live there.
The picture shows many animals that live on a farm. They all look happy. The farmer must be
taking good care of these animals. I used what I already knew to read this page and better
understand the story.
• Have students draw a picture on a separate piece of paper showing how they connected to prior
knowledge while reading. Invite them to explain their picture to the class.
• Ask students to explain how thinking about what they already knew helped them understand
and enjoy reading the book.

Reflect on the Comprehension Skill

• Discussion: Read the main idea on the board with students. Discuss the pictures of animals at the
bottom of the worksheet. Ask a volunteer to name one animal that supports the main idea. Have
him or her explain why.

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Lesson Plan (continued) Farm Animals
• Independent practice: Have students complete the main-idea-and-details worksheet.
• Enduring understanding: In this book, you learned about many animals that live on a farm.
Now that you know this information, why do you think these animals live on a farm?

Build Skills
Phonological Awareness: Identify rhyme
• Read aloud the rhyme that follows. Then read it a second time and have students identify
the rhyming words.
Dog, pig, chicken, goat,
ride the sea in a big green boat.
Cow, duck, sheep, cat,
ride the sea on a big yellow mat.
• Have students listen as you say the following pairs of words: pig/big, pig/duck, pig/dig, pig/rig,
pig/cow, pig/jig, pig/fig. Have them tap the table if the words rhyme. Have them sit quietly if the
words do not rhyme.
Phonics: Identify consonant Pp
• Write the word pig on the board and say it aloud with students.
• Have students say the /p/ sound aloud. Then run your finger under the letters in the word as
students say the whole word aloud. Ask students which letter stands for the /p/ sound in the
word pig.
• Have students practice writing the letter Pp on a separate piece of paper as they say the sound
of the letter.
• Check for understanding: Write the following words that begin with the letter Pp on the board,
leaving off the initial consonant: pat, pan, pit. Say each word, one at a time, and have volunteers
come to the board and add the initial Pp to the words. Then have them read the words aloud.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the initial consonant Pp
worksheet. If time allows, discuss their responses.
Grammar and Mechanics: Nouns
• Show students a picture of a person, a place, and a thing. Ask volunteers to identify the
pictures. Explain that some words name a person, a place, or a thing. These naming words
are called nouns.
• Have students turn to page 3 in their book. Invite them to read the first phrase together,
pointing to the words as you read them aloud. Ask students to point to the word that names
a thing (dog).
• Ask students to find the naming word on page 4 (pig). Reinforce that all of the names of the
animals in the book are naming words.
• Check for understanding: Ask students to identify other naming words that identify things that
are not in the book. Write students’ responses on the board.
Word Work: Categorize words
• Tell students that the words they read in the book are used to tell about animals that live on
a farm and that these words can be put into a group called Farm Animals. Draw a large circle
on the board with the word Farm Animals in the center.
• Check for understanding: Tell students that they can make other groups using these animals. Write
Animals with Feathers on the board. Ask students what farm animals from the book would go
in this group (chicken, duck). Write Animals with Fur on the board. Ask students to identify the
farm animals from the book that would go in this group (dog, cow, goat, sheep).

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Lesson Plan (continued) Farm Animals
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the categorize words
worksheet. Have students work with a partner to make other groups using the farm animals
from the book. Ask them to tell the name of each group. (Examples of groups include:
Animals with/without spots, animals that do/do not jump, animals with/without horns.)

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.
Have them share with someone at home how they connected with what they already knew
as they read the book together.

Extend the Reading

Writing and Art Connection
Have students use the pattern of the text in Farm Animals to create a new book as a class project.
Brainstorm a group of animals to write about, such as zoo animals, ocean animals, or desert
animals. Have students suggest names of animals. Write each animal’s name on a sheet of paper.
Have students illustrate the animals. When they are finished, bind their pages together into a book
and place the book in a learning center for all to read.

Social Studies and Music Connection

Show students the picture of the sheep on page 9. Point out that sheep are animals that live on
farms throughout the world. Explain that their bodies are covered with soft, curly hair called wool.
Tell students that wool is important to people because it is used to make clothes to keep us warm.
Tell students that farmers shear, or cut, the wool from the sheep. Point out that this doesn’t hurt
the sheep, and the wool grows back. Explain that the wool is sent to factories to be made into items
such as coats, sweaters, socks, and blankets. Ask students to think of clothes they have that might
be made of wool. Make a list on the board. Teach students the familiar song Baa Baa Black Sheep.

Assessment
Monitor students to determine if they can:
• consistently connect to prior knowledge to understand text
• understand that stories have a main idea that is supported by information from the text;
demonstrate finding the correct details by choosing the right farm animals to paste on
a worksheet
• accurately identify pairs of words that rhyme during discussion
• accurately identify and write the letter symbol that stands for the /p/ sound during discussion
and on a worksheet
• recognize that nouns tell the names of things during discussion
• categorize animals into groups of their choosing and explain reasons for categorization in
discussion and on a worksheet

Comprehension Check
• Retelling Rubric

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