Shared Reading: Somebody Cared for a Flower

Written by Laura Peetoom
Illustrated by Cynthia Nugent

Text Type: Fiction: Narrative — Poem

Summary: This illustrated poem demonstrates how a child saves a flower in a littered piece of ground, and how this small action leads to the development of a community garden.

Text Features
Print Concepts
• consistent placement of print at the top of each page, with illustrations below
• poetic language
• punctuation: periods and commas

Visual Literacy
• illustrations that add details to the text
• environmental print, e.g., labels on seeds and soil, ‘our garden’ sign


FIRST READING

Reading Strategies
Comprehension

• a range of comprehension strategies is integrated throughout the lesson (Analyzing, Sequencing, Making Connections, Predicting, Inferring, Synthesizing, Evaluating, Self-Monitoring)
• the comprehension purpose for reading focuses on Inferring/synthesizing

Working with Words
• comprehending vocabulary from context and pictures

Assessment Opportunities
Note each student’s ability to:
• attend to print
• analyze visual information and infer meaning from the pictures
• sequence story events
• ask and respond to questions
• apply the inquiry question to caring for plants

Time: approximately 30 minutes

 

BEFORE READING

Establishing the Inquiry Focus

  • We’ve learned how important it is to take care of giant pandas. Is it important to care for other animals? Which animals are you thinking about? Why do we need to take care of them?

    Ask students to think about what they have learned about caring for animals in our world.
    [Self-monitoring]


  • Now we are going to ead a poem about how we care for plants and trees in our world. What plants and trees do ou think we need to take care of? Why?

    Prepare the way for further inquiry to explore caring for plant life in the world.

 

  • What do you think the book will be about? Why do you think that? Does the title help ypu to think about it?

    Show students the front and back covers of Somebody Cared for a Flower and read the author’s and illustrator’s names to them. Provide prompts to discuss the possible content of the book. [Predicting]

  • We’ll think about taking care of plants and trees in our world.

    Explain to students that we not only need to care for animals that need help but we’ll see how we need to care for other things that grow in our world.

Activating and Building Background Knowledge

  • When i bought a new tree for my garden, I needed to give I new soil, some fertillizer, and water to help it grow.

    Ask students to think about how they have helped something to grow. Provide an example. [Making connections]

  • Students can discuss with a partner what things might need help to grow, or they can explain how they have helped something grow. Invite a few students to share their ideas with the class.

    Do you remember how we grew grass from seeds when we made our hair head? How did we help the grass grow?

    NOTE: If you have already read the Shared Reading text Hair Heads with students and grown the ‘plant hair,’ link this experience to your discussion. (See Literacy Place for the Early Years.)  [Making connections]
Setting a Purpose for Listening

  • The picture will add lots of information, so we’ll read slowly to let you look at them carefully

    Ask students to read with you to find out how people cared for plants and trees in this poem. (Inferring/synthesizing)

 

DURING READING

  • Begin reading Somebody Cared for a Flower and invite the students to join in. Track print with a pointer. (Joining in will likely be limited on the first reading as the text is unfamiliar.)

  • Pause to look at pictures after the conclusion of each complete thought, e.g., “Because somebody cared for a flower, somebody cleaned up the litter.”

  • Discuss content by offering prompts:
    • How did the little boy care for the flower? [Analyzing]
    • I’m wondering why he did that. [Inferring]
    • Why do you think the children cleaned up the litter? [Inferring]
      Do you think the little boy told his friends about the messy piece of ground? Why do you think that? [Evaluating/inferring]
    • What happened next? [Sequencing]
    • Why are they raking the soil? [Inferring/predicting]
    • What was planted in the garden? [Analyzing/synthesizing]
    • How did the City truck help? [Inferring/analyzing]
    • What happened in the end? [Synthesizing]

  • Show me how you would rake the soil.

    Clarify any vocabulary that may limit comprehension, e.g., ‘sprinkled,’ ‘raked.’ Use the pictures to support the discussion. Invite students to act out some of the verbs to solidify their understanding of unknown vocabulary.

 

AFTER READING

  • Talk to your partner about how people cared for the plants and trees, and then we’ll talk together.

    Ask how the people cared for the plants and trees in this poem.
    (Inferring/synthesizing) Look back at the pages that relate to the students’ comments.

  • Use the Somebody Cared for a Flower BLMs and ask students to help you put the events in order.
    Use the pocket chart to build the story. [Sequencing]

  • What happened first? Then children saw the flower propped up and…

    Offer prompts and refer back to the big book often.


  • What do you believe the little boy was thinking about? Why?

    Ask students to notice what and who are in the first and last pictures.

 

SECOND READING

Reading Strategies
Comprehension

• a range of comprehension strategies is integrated throughout the lesson
• the comprehension purpose for reading focuses on Inferring/synthesizing/evaluating

Working with Words
• learning high-frequency words
• identifying letters

Assessment Opportunities
Note each student’s ability to:
• show interest in the inquiry
• participate in reading along with you
• demonstrate understanding by dramatizing appropriate gardening actions
• understand the cause and effect sequence of “because…then”
• recognize high-frequency words

Time: approximately 20 – 25 minutes


BEFORE READING

Revisiting the Inquiry Focus

  • Could they have made the garden without working together? Why do you think this?

    Ask students to look at the sequenced pictures from the Somebody Cared for a Flower BLMs and talk to a partner about how people worked together to make the garden. Invite a few students to share their ideas with the class. [Analyzing/inferring/synthesizing]

Activating and Building Background Knowledge

  • Could you rake more ground if there were lots of you doing it?

    Ask students to think about how they have helped something to grow. Provide an example. [Making connections/evaluating]
Setting a Purpose for Reading
  • Ask students to read the story with you and think about why the garden was made. [Inferring/synthesizing/evaluating]


DURING READING

  • As the poem has a repeated pattern and good picture support, most students will be able to join in with part or all of the rereading. Encourage participation.

  • So why do you think the garden started? Was it important that the little boy cared for the flower? Could the little boy have made the garden on his own? What would have happened if the boy hadn’t cared for the flower?

    Pause at the end of the first thought (“Because somebody cared for a flower, somebody cleaned up the litter”) and revisit the purpose for reading. Pausing at the ends of complete thoughts avoids disrupting the sense and language flow. [Inferring/synthesizing/evaluating]

  • Pause at the end of each complete thought and offer prompts that lead students to consider the cause-and-effect nature of the events and the importance of working together. Some prompts include:
    • Would they have raked the soil if there had been litter on the ground? [Inferring/evaluating]
    • Did one action lead to another? How? [Inferring/synthesizing/evaluating]
    • Do you think the people talked to each other? Could a child who cleaned up the litter have talked to family members to tell them about the litter clean-up. Why do you think that? [Inferring/synthesizing/evaluating]

AFTER READING

  • The women planted the tree on her own, or did she? Would she have planted the tree if the ground had been covered in litter? Who helped her?

    Ask students to talk with a partner about why they thought the garden was made. Invite some students to share their ideas with the class. Dig deeper to encourage students to think about one person making a difference to nature, but also one person needing the support of others. [Inferring/synthesizing/evaluating]

  • Provide students with the opportunity to grow their own plants and care for them. [Making connections]
   You may want to grow flowers from seeds in paper cups with drainage holes made in the bottom.
   Alternatively, you may wish students to see the process of plant growth as well as encourage
   assuming responsibility for caring for plants. Consider growing beans with students as they are large
   seeds and grow quickly. Students could keep a plant diary and draw or write about how their plan
   is growing each day.

   Process:
    • Each student is provided with a plastic sandwich bag, some paper towel, and a bean seed.
    • Each bag is labelled with the student’s name.
    • The bean is wrapped in damp paper towel and placed in the bag in a sunny spot. The paper towel should be kept damp and the paper can be carefully unwrapped to check on progress.

Note: Plants will need to be transferred to soil when the secondary leaves appear if you want students to see a fully developed bean and help them to understand that nutrients are needed from the soil.

Teaching Tip: If you want to use small glass jars to enable students to see the growing process, place two or three pieces of damp paper towel in the middle of the jar and place the bean seed between the jar and the paper towel.

  • You may also refer to the students’ experiences in growing grass hair if you have already created Hair Heads (Literacy Place for the Early Years Shared Reading text) with the students. Or, you may choose to extend the unit by introducing this Shared Reading text after completing Somebody Cared for a Flower.

Working with Words
  • There are three words on the kindergarten high-frequency word list in the book: ‘a,’ ‘in,’ ‘the.’ Identify one word, e.g., ‘the,’ reread the text containing the word and frame it with a cardboard word frame, a rectangle of coloured acetate, or Wikki Stix.

  • How many letters can you count in the word? Let’s say them together and clap for each letter, t…h…e… says ‘the.’

    Ask students to identify the word on other pages. Do a brief activity to help them remember the word. [High-frequency words]
  • You may wish to provide more hands-on practise by having students make high-frequency words with large-size letter cards. (See the Jumbo Letters lesson plan in the Kindergarten Working with Words Guide, p.78.)
  • Focus on a target letter, such as ‘t,’ mask it, and identify that letter within words in the text. (See the Focusing on a Target Letter in the Morning Message lesson plan in the Kindergarten Working with Words Guide, p. 40.)

 

THIRD READING

Reading Strategies
Comprehension

• a range of comprehension strategies is integrated throughout the lesson
• the comprehension purpose for reading focuses on Inferring/predicting

Working with Words
• building words

Assessment Opportunities
Note each student’s ability to:
• join-in with the reading
• evaluate information (e.g., decide if it was a good idea to make a garden)
• infer/predict what will happen next
• build words from letters

Time: approximately 20 – 25 minutes


BEFORE READING

Revisiting the Inquiry Focus

  • I think it was a great idea because it made a home for birds to nest. Why do you think it was a good idea?

    Ask students if they think it was a good idea to change the waste land into a garden. Model a response to offer support. [Evaluating]

Activating and Building Background Knowledge

  • What does it show us they need in the story? What did we learn they needed when we planted our seeds?

    Ask students what they are learning about what plants need to grow, e.g., sunlight, water, soil. [Self-monitoring/synthesizing]

Setting a Purpose for Reading

  • Now that they have the garden, what do you think will happen next? Think about it as we read.

    Ask students to read and think about what will happen next. [Inferring/predicting]

DURING READING

  • Read the story together, encouraging student participation in the reading. Most students should be joining-in more confidently during the third reading.

  • Pause at the end of complete thoughts and discuss what plants need to grow. Offer prompts:
    • These plants need soil. Are we growing our beans in soil? Will they need soil at some stage? Why do you think that?
      [Making connections/inferring]
    • Do these plants need water? Why? [Inferring]
    • Do they have the same needs as our beans? [Making connections]

AFTER READING

  • Do you notice what came into the garden? Why did that happen?

    Look at the last two pages of the text and place the last two images of the Somebody Cared for a Flower BLMs in the pocket chart. Ask students what they think happened after the garden grew (e.g., birds nested, insects visited, became a home for living creatures, flower had company, little boy happy). [Analyzing/inferring]

  • What happens to gardens in the fall? What needs to happen then? What about next spring? What will happen then?

    Ask students to talk with a partner or in a small group about what will happen to the garden next. Invite students to share an idea with the class. Offer prompts to set a context.
  • Extend the ideas in the poem using a modelled/shared writing session to say what the students think will happen next to the garden. Chart their ideas and invite their participation in the writing by having them contribute ideas and by ‘sharing the pen.’ Student illustrations can be added to the writing.
  • Dramatize the poem. Students could act out making the garden together. If you wrote an addition to the text in modelled/shared writing, invite students to dramatize this as well.
  • Place the Somebody Cared for a Flower sequence pictures in a centre for students to rebuild and dramatize during centre time.

Working with Words

  • For a demonstration lesson for the following word solving and building activity, see Literacy Place for the Early Years Kindergarten Working with Words Guide, pp. 61–64. See also the reproducible large letter cards on pp. 115-128 and small letter cards on pp. 111–114 in the Kindergarten Working with Words Guide. [Building words]

Key Word: planted
Context: Somebody Cared for a Flower, pages 7–8

Building Words


at
an 		pet
let
net
pat
lap
pal		 plant planted

Word Pattern Sorts
Words starting with ‘p’ rhyming pattern ‘et’
pet
pat
pal
plant
planted 		  pet
let
net		  

Transfer to a Reading Context
  • set (Set the table please.)
  • put (Put the food on the table.)

Transfer to a Writing Context
  • get (I want to write ‘I will get the dog.’ Which rhyming pattern will help me spell get?)
  • pick (I am writing a notice that says ‘Pick the flowers.’ Which letter does pick start with?)

    •  

FURTHER READINGS

Many texts benefit from being reread with students to enable the books to become familiar and to increase participation in the shared reading. Over time, share the pointer with students in turn, so that they demonstrate how to track print in the big book.

Teaching Tip: Rereadings can occur with a whole-class group or in small groups. If you have students who need more support, consider a small-group session using the small versions of the text to provide more individualized assistance.

In each rereading, select ideas from the following three areas based on the needs of your students:

Print Concepts, Book Handling, and Text Features
  • Encourage students to participate in using the pointer to track print.

    Where do we start reading? Point to the first letter in that word. Where do we move to now? (Movement to next line) Look at the top of the page.

    Their confidence will develop as the text becomes more familiar. Offer prompts to refine and expand print concepts. [Tracking print]
  • Look at the big (capital) ‘B’ and small ‘b,’ e.g., on page 2. [Print concepts]
  • Focus on the environmental print and how it helps you understand the story, e.g., ‘soil,’ ‘Poppy,’ ‘Sunflower’ on page 7, and ‘our garden’ on page 11.
    [Visual literacy]

Focusing on Comprehension
  • Reread to consider what people in the community thought about the garden, e.g., the man sitting on the bench on page 10, or the father and children on page 11. [Inferring/evaluating]
  • Reread to think of the little boy’s viewpoint. Offer prompts:
    • Do you think he expected people to make a garden after he cared for the flower? Why or why not? [Evaluating/predicting/inferring]
    • Do you think he helped to make the garden? How? [Evaluating/predicting/inferring]
    • Do you think he watched as the garden grew? How do you think he felt? [Evaluating/predicting/inferring]
    • What do you think he said to the people making the garden? [Evaluating/predicting/inferring]
    • How did he feel in the end? Why do you think that? [Evaluating/predicting/inferring]
    • How would you have felt if you were that boy? [Making connections]
  • Display the digital cloze version of the text on the Media Key. Working with the whole class, or with a small group, reread together and encourage students to supply the missing words (spaces for words highlighted in yellow). You may decide to pause to consider word predictions and prompt, “Does that make sense?” or “Does that sound right?” Then click on the colour-highlighted spot to reveal the word, saying, “Let’s check that out.” An option on the tool bar allows you to create your own cloze versions of the text to meet the needs of the students you are working with. Click on the ‘Help’ button to find out how to use the different features of the digital texts.

Working with Words

  • Take a word from the story (e.g., ‘that’) and build rhyming words with large-size letter cards in the pocket chart. (See the reproducible large letter cards

    I’ll take off the first two letters and now I have the word ‘at.’ How I can make the word ‘pat’ in the sentence, ‘I will pat the dog.’ Say the word ‘pat’ slowly. What sound are you hearing at the beginning of the word? Which letter should I choose?

    on pages 115–128 in the Kindergarten Working with Words Guide.) You may also encourage the students to make the words with small letters. (See the reproducible small letter cards on pages 111–114 in the Kindergarten Working with Words Guide.)

  • Try oral rhyming with words from the story, e.g., show the word ‘tree’, say the word, and ask students to think of rhymes (‘we,’ ‘see,’ ‘free,’ ‘gee,’ ‘he,’ ‘be,’ ‘bee,’ ‘key,’ ‘me,’ ‘knee’). Ask students to think of a sentence for each rhyming word. They can work in partners as they put each word in a sentence.

Teaching Tip: After several rereadings, the big book, the set sequencing pictures, the six small books, and the fluent reading of the text can be transferred to centres. They can be used for rereading and practising print tracking, for building fluency of an increasingly familiar text, and for extending comprehension through story retelling.

 

EXTENDING THE INQUIRY

You may consider using some of the following suggestions to extend the inquiry.

  • Continue to grow your plants (beans) with students and discuss conditions that help them grow. Transfer some beans to soil (pots or a garden) when they need more nutrition. Invite students to keep a drawn or written diary of the events.

  • Read aloud other stories that demonstrate the interconnectedness of the natural world and its importance to us. Some suggestions include:
Literacy Place for the Early Years materials:
    • Castles, Caves, and Honeycombs by Linda Ashman (Read Aloud)
    • Wonderful Worms by Linda Glaser (Read Aloud)
    • Say it Out Loud (Shared Reading): “Fuzzy Wuzzy, Creepy Crawly”
      by Lillian Schultz and “Polly” by Jack Prelutsky
    • 9-1-1 Quack by Vi Hughes (Shared Reading)
Other materials:
    • In My Backyard by Margriet Ruurs: Tundra Books, 2007
    • The Enormous Potato by Aubrey Davis: Kids Can Press Ltd, 1997
      (working together to harvest in a humorous tale)
    • The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle: Scholastic Canada, 2001
    • Plant a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert: Voyager Books, 1992
    • Jack’s Garden by Henry Cole: Greenwillow Books, 1997
  • You may consider requesting a small portion of a flowerbed in the school grounds to create a class garden with the students. Look up plants that
    attract bees, butterflies, and birds.