Level G

Lesson Plan Rock Hunting

About the Book
Text Type: Fiction/Personal Narrative Page Count: 12 Word Count: 154

Book Summary
Rock Hunting captures a child’s curiosity to learn about
the world. The book tells the story of a child hunting for
rocks. Emergent readers will experience the joy of a rock
hunt and learn valuable scientific information about rocks.
Students will also practice the skill of comparing and
contrasting. Engaging photographs support the text.

About the Lesson

Targeted Reading Strategy
• Ask and answer questions

Objectives
• Use the reading strategy of asking and answering
questions to understand text
• Compare and contrast
• Segment and blend phonemes
• Identify the VCe pattern in words
• Identify and use adjectives
• Recognize and use position words

Materials
Green text indicates resources available on the website
• Book—Rock Hunting (copy for each student)
• Chalkboard or dry erase board
• Collection of rocks
• Rubber band
• Compare and contrast, VCe pattern, adjectives worksheets
• 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
*Bold vocabulary words also appear in a pre-made lesson for this title on VocabularyA–Z.com.
• High-frequency words: for, said, was, went
• Content words:
Story critical: counters (n.), granite (n.), hunting (v.), limestone (n.), obsidian (n.), slate (n.)
Enrichment: arrowheads (n.)

Before Reading
Build Background
• Bring a collection of rocks of different textures and appearances, and spill them on a table in
front of students. Pass out a piece of paper to each student. Have them draw pictures of the
rocks they like and write descriptive words about those rocks. Invite volunteers to share what
they wrote with the class.
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 Level G
Lesson Plan (continued) Rock Hunting
• Ask students if they have any special rocks at home. Have them share how they found the rocks
and what they look like.
• Explain to students that they will be reading a book about a boy who goes rock hunting and
discovers four special kinds of rocks outside his home.
• Create a KWL chart on the board. Explain to students that the K stands for what they already
know about a topic, the W stands for what they want to know about a topic, and the L stands
for what they learned about a topic. Fill in the K column with information students shared about
the rocks. Ask students if they know anything else about rocks that they would like to add to the
chart. Record this information on the board.

Preview the Book

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 Rock Hunting. (Accept all answers that students can
justify.)
• Show students the title page. Discuss the information on the page (title of book, author’s name).
• Write the following repetitive sentences on the board: I went hunting for rocks. I found a _____.
I showed the rock to my dad. He said it was ______. Read the sentences aloud, pointing to the
words as you read them to students. Have students read them aloud. Explain that these words
repeat throughout the book.
Introduce the Reading Strategy: Ask and answer questions
• Explain to students that good readers ask questions about the topic of the book, both before and
during reading, and then look for answers to their questions as they read. This helps them better
understand and remember what they read.
• Model asking questions using the information on the cover.
Think-aloud: The title of this book is Rock Hunting, and I see on the cover a girl picking up a rock
from the ground. This information makes me think of a couple of questions. What kind of rocks
will she find? What will she do with the rocks? I will look for answers to these questions as I read.
I will also stop to think of new questions as I read.
• Invite students to share any questions they have about rocks or about the book. Record this
information, along with your questions from the think-aloud, in the W column of the KWL chart
on the board.
• As students read, encourage them to use other reading strategies in addition to the targeted
strategy presented in this section.
Introduce the Comprehension Skill: Compare and contrast
• Explain to students that one way to organize new information in a book is to explain how objects
are alike or different. Write the words compare and contrast on the board. Explaining how things
are alike is called comparing, and explaining how things are different is called contrasting. Write
the word alike under compare and the word different under contrast.
• Draw a Venn diagram on the board. Label the left side Banana and the right side Orange.
• Model how to compare and contrast using the Venn diagram.
Think-aloud: I can compare and contrast a banana and an orange. A banana is yellow, but an
orange is orange. I will write yellow on the left side of the Venn diagram, under the heading
Banana, to show that only a banana is yellow. Similarly, I will write orange on the right side of
the Venn diagram, under the heading Orange, to show that only an orange is orange. A banana
and an orange are both fruit, though, so I will write fruit on the diagram where the circles
overlap to show one way that these foods are the same.
• Have students work with a partner to think of other ways that the two fruits are alike or
different. Invite volunteers to share their answers. Record student responses on the Venn
diagram under the appropriate headings.

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 Level G
Lesson Plan (continued) Rock Hunting
Introduce the Vocabulary
• While previewing the book, reinforce the vocabulary words that students will encounter. For
example, while looking at the picture on page 10, you might say: The book says a kitchen counter
is made of granite. I see the granite in the picture on that long, flat surface by the sink. I have a
surface like that in my house. A counter must be a long and flat surface in a kitchen.
• Remind students of the decoding strategies they can use to work out unfamiliar words. Explain
that they will learn a new word-attack skill called chunking. Chunking is the action of breaking
a big word into smaller pieces to make it easier to decode. For example, point to the word
limestone on page 8 and say: I am going to look at the picture and chunk this word to figure out
how it sounds. The picture shows a building made of light brown rock. The word is long, but I can
break it into two smaller pieces. The second piece is a word I recognize, stone, which is another
word for rock. The first piece of the word has a silent e at the end, so I will sound it out. The
first piece sounds like the word lime. Now I put the two chunks together, and I have the word
limestone. That sounds like a type of rock that I have heard of before—a rock that looks like the
rock in the picture. The sentence makes sense with this word. The word must be limestone.
Set the Purpose
• Have students look for answers to their questions about different types of rocks to help them
read the book. As they read, remind them to compare and contrast the rocks in the book, or
think about how they are alike and different.

During Reading
Student Reading
• G
 uide the reading: Give students their copy of the book. Have a volunteer point to the first word
on page 3 (I). 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 page 3. Have them
read to the end of page 6, using their finger to point to each word as they read. Encourage
students who finish before others to reread the text.
• Model asking and answering questions.
Think-aloud: Now that I have read some of the book, I can answer the questions I had earlier. I
know that the boy has found two types of rock so far: slate and obsidian. I don’t think he has
finished finding rocks, though, so I will still look for answers to my question about what rocks he
will find. I have a new question, too: What other objects are made of rock? I will keep looking for
answers to all of my questions as I read.
• Invite students to share any answers they found. Record these in the L column of the KWL chart.
Have students think of a new question and invite volunteers to share. Record these questions in
the W column on the board. Remind students to keep looking for answers to all their questions.
• Review the Venn diagram on the board. Erase the information and label the left side Slate and
the right side Obsidian. Have students discuss how to compare and contrast these two rocks.
Write this information on the Venn diagram on the board.
• Check for understanding: Have students read to the end of page 8. Encourage them to think of
questions they asked or answered as they read. Add their questions and answers to the KWL
chart on the board. (Accept all answers that show students understand how to connect to ask
and answer questions.)
• Have students work with a partner to discuss how limestone and obsidian are alike and different.
Have them draw a Venn diagram on a separate piece of paper and write the comparisons and
contrasts on their diagram. Invite pairs to share their results with the class.
• Have students read the remainder of the book. Remind them to continue to ask and answer
questions as they read.

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 Level G
Lesson Plan (continued) Rock Hunting

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: Now I know all the rocks that the boy found: slate, obsidian, limestone, and granite.
I can also answer the question about what the boy was going to do with the rocks: he labeled
them with a name and asked his dad questions about them. I also know now that counters are
made from rock, and so are buildings and floors. I am sure that other things are also made from
rock, but I will have to look in other books to find out more information and fully answer my
question.
• Review the questions on the KWL chart and discuss the answers that students found. Record
any new answers in the L column of the chart. Emphasize the fact that not all questions can be
answered, and further reading on the topic might be needed.
• Ask students to explain how asking and answering questions helped them to understand and
remember the information in the book.

Reflect on the Comprehension Skill

• Discussion: Review the meanings of compare and contrast using the Venn diagram on the board.
Erase the information from the diagram and label the left side Limestone and the right side
Granite. Have students direct you how to fill out the Venn diagram.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the compare-and-contrast
worksheet. If time allows, discuss their responses.
• Enduring understanding: In this book, you learned about four kinds of rocks, their features, and
some kinds of objects made from them. Now that you know this information, what does this tell
you about rocks?

Build Skills
Phonological Awareness: Segment and blends phonemes
• Use a rubber band to show students how you can segment and blend sounds into words. Explain
to students that you are going to say a word from the story slowly by stretching out the sounds.
Stretch the rubber band as you emphasize the phonemes. Explain that you are now going to
blend the sounds together.
• Write the following words on the board: rock, name. Have students work in pairs to segment the
words into phonemes and then blend the phonemes together.
• Check for understanding: Say the following words to students: hunt, dad. Pause after each word
and have students identify the phonemes in that word.
Phonics: Identify the VCe pattern in words
• Write the word slate on the board and say it aloud with students. Ask students what sound the
first vowel in the word slate makes. Explain that this is the long vowel sound for the letter a.
Circle the e at the end of the word and explain that when a word ends with this silent e, the
first vowel sound is long. In other words, the silent e at the end of the word makes the vowel a
say its name.
• Write the letters VCe over the corresponding letters in the word. Point out that the silent e rule
works when a word has a vowel in between two consonants followed by a silent e. Write the
words lime and stone on the board. Have students read the words with you and identify the long
vowel sound.

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 Level G
Lesson Plan (continued) Rock Hunting
• Have students turn to page 4. Read the last sentence on the page. Ask students to point to the
word that has the long /a/ sound in the middle and a silent e at the end (made, slate). Write
the words on the board and then write the letters VCe over the corresponding letters. Remind
students that not all words that end in e have long vowel sounds.

Check for understanding: Have students work in groups to search for other VCe long vowel
words in the story. Have them underline all the words they find. Invite volunteers to share words
they found and have students give the thumbs-up signal if the word follows the VCe pattern.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the VCe pattern worksheet.
If time allows, discuss their answers.
Grammar and Mechanics: Adjectives
• Have students turn to page 3. Read the second sentence with students. Have students point to
the words that describe the rock (flat and gray). Point out that these words tell the reader what
the rock looks like.
• Review or explain that certain words describe nouns, or people, places, or things. These special
words are called adjectives. Explain to students that the words flat and gray are both adjectives
that describe the noun rock in that sentence.
• Have students read page 5. Ask them to say aloud the words that describe the rock on that page
(glassy and black). Invite students to share other adjectives that could be used instead of glassy
and black to describe the rock.
• Remind students that adjectives can describe the way a noun looks, feels, sounds, smells, or
tastes.

Check for understanding: Have students locate and circle all of the adjectives in the book. Then
have them work with a partner to create oral sentences that use those adjectives.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the adjectives worksheet. If
time allows, discuss their responses.
Word Work: Position words
• Write the following sentence on the board: The dog is under the bed. Underline the word under.
Invite students to explain the meaning of the word.
• Write the following sentence on the board: The bird is above the cloud. Underline the word
above. Invite students to share the meaning of that word.
• Explain that under and above are both position words. Have students think-pair-share about
what a position word means: think on their own, pair and discuss with a partner, and share with
the class. Confirm with students that a position word tells the location of persons or things.
Brainstorm a list of other position words: on, behind, in, beside, and so on.
• Have students turn to page 11 and read along with you. Ask students to identify the two position
words (on and under).
• Check for understanding: Ask students to play a game with you: Guess That Position Word! Take
a piece of paper and place your hand over it, under it, on it, behind it, and so on. Have students
identify the position word that describes the location of your hand. Record these words on the
board.

Build Fluency
Independent Reading
• Allow students to read their book independently. Additionally, partners can 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 compare and contrast the rocks with someone at home.

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 Level G
Lesson Plan (continued) Rock Hunting
Extend the Reading
Personal Narrative Writing and Art Connection
Take students on a nature walk and have them draw images of one nature item of their choice—
leaves, bugs, rocks, flowers, and so on. After returning to the classroom, ask students to write three
sentences describing their nature hunt and attach these sentences to their drawings.
Visit WritingA–Z.com for a lesson and leveled materials on personal narrative writing.

Science Connection
Take students on an outdoor rock hunt. Have them collect three different rocks and bring the
rocks back to the classroom. Have students draw and describe each rock. Check out books on rocks
from the library and have students look to see if any of the photographs in the books match the
appearance of their rocks. When possible, identify and label the rocks.

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.
• Conduct a class discussion as a review before the book quiz.

Assessment
Monitor students to determine if they can:
• consistently ask and answer questions to understand text
• accurately compare and contrast objects during discussion and on a worksheet
• properly segment and blend phonemes during discussion
• consistently identify the VCe pattern during discussion and on a worksheet
• correctly use adjectives during discussion and on a worksheet
• accurately use position words during discussion

Comprehension Checks
• Book Quiz
• Retelling Rubric

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