Date: June 17, 1998

Grade Level(s): Kindergarten, 1

Subject(s):

• Language Arts/Reading

Student Objective:

The student will learn strategies to read color words by using the following strategies:

1. letter/sound relationship.
   
2. confirm using picture clues from the story.

Materials:

• Big Book: The Birthday Cake
• Teacher made big book of The Birthday Cake
• Individual Birthday Cake worksheets
• Crayons

1. Begin by singing or reading a color poem or song.

2. After singing, ask the students if they can recall the color words from the song.

3. Write down the words that they brainstorm on a large piece of chart paper so that the children can see them easily.

4. Ask the students to look closely at the words to see how we might tell the difference between the words.  Hopefully, the students will notice that the there is a difference with spelling.

5. Tell the children that they will be reading a story with color words in it today.

Procedures:

1. Prior to beginning the lesson, the teacher must cover the birthday cake illustrations in the book.

2. To begin the lesson, the teacher shows the big book The Birthday Cake to the students. Review with students what the parts of the book are and then have the students predict what the story is about by looking at the illustrations on the front and back cover.

3. After predicting, explain to the students that you, the teacher, need their help to read the story. Explain to the students that they will be reading the book a little differently than usual.

4. Tell the students that you have covered the pictures so that they can focus on the words. The words that they will be predicting are color words. Explain to the students that after predicting the color words, you will uncover the pictures to see if they predicted correctly.

5. Read through the story pointing to the words as you read. Have children predict what the color words are and then look at the pictures to confirm.

6. Next, the students are given their own birthday cakes similar to the one in the book. Each layer of the cake will be labeled with a different color. Use the color words that were used in the story. Have the students color the appropriate layer with its corresponding color. As students are completing the cakes, the teacher is walking around to assist students. As the children finish coloring in their cake, have them choose books from an assortment of color books and read.

Closure:

1. Bring students back together on the rug and have them pair up and share with each other the strategies they used to read the color words. Then have a couple students share with the whole group.

2. Bring out a teacher made book of The Birthday Cake . This book is different because it has different color words. Ask the children to help you read the words in this book using graphophonic clues. Again, confirm your predictions by uncovering the illustrations.

3. Review with students the strategies that they used to predict the words in the story:
   
   1. letter/sound relationship
      
   2. confirm using the picture clues in the story.

Evaluation:

1. On method of evaluation will be the discussion. After asking the children to predict what the color words are, ask them why they think it is the word.

2. Teacher observation during the independent activity-students filling in their own birthday cake.

3. Individual Birthday cake Worksheet-Write the color words on each cake in a different order. This way you will know whether or not a child completed the activity on their own.