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         Flap your Wings is a delightful book by P.D.Eastman. The story and text are suitable for early readers in a guided reading setting.  The suggestions on this page are examples of the activities I incorporate with my guided reading group using this text. 

                                

      Flap Your Wings (Beginner Books(R))

                 

                                     Getting Ready

 There are no page numbers in this book.  I divide the story into three parts for three days of guided reading as follows:

Day One:  Read to the page with the alligator in the nest.

Day Two:  Read to the page with the alligator in the tree.

Day Three - Read to the end of the story.

                                     Summary of the story:

  Mr. and Mrs. Bird came home one day. They were surprised to find an egg in their nest.  "That's not our egg," said Mrs. Bird.  "Look how big it is!"  What kind of egg do you think was sitting in this nest?

                                VOCABULARY

 The vocabulary for each section is listed below.  As students read, they can make a list of the words they know and new words in their reading journal response book.
 Part One:

path

around

flamingos

alligators

answered

empty

surprised

warm

wonder

excited

squeaking

right

 Part Two

mouth

hungry

brought

gulp

dragonflies

mosquitoes

centipede

matter

crowded

 

 

 

 

 

 Part Three:

 

air

ready

breath

yelled

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

      If you want to create vocabulary activities, you can do this yourself or go to Teaching Made Easier.  On this site, you can type in the words and the site generates many activities including word wall words.  http://www.TeachingMadeEasier.com

 

 Pre-Reading Directions

*  Review the book cover, title, author, illustrator.  Students will take a picture walk through the reading selection pages for the day.  After the students have looked at the picture, the teacher should model self-talk or think aloud "I wonder" questions to show students how to use pictures to think about the story elements.

*  Ask students an idea or question that they are thinking about as they look at the pictures.  They can write their prediction or question in their reading journal to share or orally share with a partner in the instructional group.

*  Discuss the genre of the story and the picture clues that tell you the story is fiction.

*  Direct the purpose for the guided reading activities.  For example, the first day they may want to read to find out the problem in the story and what events led up to the problem.

*  For EACH book that I use in guided reading, I script the questions, thinking activities, and ideas.  If you are using a paraprofessional, a parent volunteer, or student teacher/intern to work with a group, this ensures that your guided group is working on the specific word study, thinking, and decoding strategies that you have planned for the day. It does take time but well worth the effort.

        Reading Response Journal

 Students write and connect to the story by drawing and writing about their reading experience. Journal responses can be written in a composition book or one created for each reading selection.  The prompts can be guided or free writing.  Students illustrate as well as write about the reading selection.  The examples below are a few of the journal responses that can be incorporated with your guided reading group.

          Part One Journal Response Ideas:

  1.  Imagine that you were walking in the park one day. You were on a path and found an egg in front of you.  Write a story about this egg you found.  Tell what you did with the egg and what could be inside.  Draw a picture first to help you plan your writing.

2.  Tell what happened when the boy found the egg on the path one day.  What did he do to try to solve this problem?  What would you tell him to do with the egg?

         Part Two Journal Response Ideas:

  1. Use the T-chart graphic organizer.  Draw and label the foods that Mr. and Mrs. Bird brought to Junior.

2.  What was the problem at the beginning of this part of the story?  What was the problem at the end of this part of the story?

3.  Think about how Junior has changed in this part of the story. Then, draw what Junior looked like at the beginning and what he looked like at the end.  Use the T-Chart graphic organizer to record your ideas about "My I have Changed!"

           Part Three Journal Response Ideas:

 1.  Draw and write about how Mr. and Mrs. Bird taught Junior to fly.  Use speech bubbles in your picture to show what the characters were saying.  Write about your drawing of this scene.

2.  Divide your paper into three sections by folding it "shutter style".  Write the words beginning, middle, and end, one in each folded section of the paper.  Then, draw what happened in each part of the story.  Write a sentence to tell what your drawing shows.

 

 

       SEQUENCING EVENTS

                          AND SUMMARIZATION

     Many student find sequencing events and summarization difficult.  Research does demonstrate that students who can sequence and summarize are more successful reading all genres.  There are many activities that can make this learning experience painless.  By the end of the year, my first grade students can web, sequence without support, and summarize because they have had many experiences working with these learning skills all year long.  The following are FEW of the learning activities that will support this learning.

1.  Write the story sequence on sentence strips.  Give students the sentence strips in random order. Have them move to form a line showing the sequence in the right order.

2.  Use pictures from the story.  Place the pictures in pocket charts. Students can move the pictures to sequence the events in order as they orally retell the story.

3.  Copy the events on an overhead sheet. Cut the events strips and place them on the overhead projector.  Read each event and have the students indicate the order.

4.  The following is an example of a sequence activity that I incorporate with my reading groups.  Each chapter or section has a sequence activity that involves reading, cutting, and gluing the events in the correct order. 

                Part One Sequence of Events

            Read, cut, and glue the event strips in the correct order.

Mr. and Mrs. Bird came home and were surprised to find a strange egg in their nest.
One day a boy was walking along a path and found an egg.
Mrs. Bird heard the egg squeak and called for help. The egg was cracking.
The boy asked the animals about the egg but none of them answered.  So, he climbed a tree and put the egg in an empty nest.
Mr. and Mrs. Bird took turns sitting on the egg to keep it warm.

 

 

      Rereading for Understanding and Fluency

Rereading a text may seem like a chore for many students.  Once they have read the story, they think that they are "done".  So, there are a few teacher tricks that will get the kids back into the text without saying the words, "read the story again."

1.  For each reading section,  I make a "cloze" activity.  I simply copy selected sentences from the text leaving out key words.  The students read the text again to find the missing words in each cloze sentence.

2.  Partner read - Students share the reading.  They can read chorally or share pages.

3.  Act out the story - students select roles that they want to play, designate a narrator or narrators, and read the text orally with their acting voices.

4.  Find your favorite sentences,  Read the sentences with a partner.  Compare and share.

5.  Read to the music.  Have students read to the beat of a song.

6.  Copy sections of the story on chart paper.  Place the chart paper in the "Read the Room" center.  Use pointers that complement the story (bird house on the end of a stick, bird pointer).

7.  Place sentences from the story in a birdhouse.  Students work with a partner.  Each student takes turn pulling a card with the sentence from the birdhouse.  They read the sentence.  If they read it correctly, they keep the card.  If they need help, their partner may help them read the card but they must return it to the birdhouse.  If they pull a card that says "CHICKEN FEED" they have to return all of the cards to the birdhouse and start again. (This game is a big favorite!)

8.  Brain Busters: This game can be played in a small group or with teams.  To make the game, you need to type questions or clues on labels. I use labels because you can make several team sets quickly and we need to save time.  Then, put the labels on index cards or the Carson Dellosa note pads that have pictures (for this book, I use the bird note pad).  Each group of students uses the book and question set.  They work as a team to read the text, review key events and characters, and discuss the story.  After a designated amount of time, I bring all of the teams together and collect their brain buster team card sets.  I use only one set in the whole group game.  I put the cards in my hand (like you are holding cards in a card game) so the students cannot see the question.  I rotate from team to team.  One person from each team picks one question at a time.  If they answer the question well, other groups give them the "thumbs up" sign. If not, "thumbs down".  If they answer the question correctly, team keeps the card.  If not, I mix that card in with the other cards in my hand.  The game continues until all of the cards in my had are gone.  The team with the most brain buster cards wins.

 

           MATCHING ACTIVITIES

     With each literature book, I create matching activities.  The activities are created using center materials or a black line that I create on the computer.  There are many ideas and topics to use in creating matching activity such as "who said that?" or character match, event matches, word matches, or story event matches.  Here is an example of one I created for the book, Flap Your Wings.

   

Word Bank:

    egg               nest                  teeth               worms             boy

    fly             squeak                mosquitoes        centipede         path
 

1.  This is the person who found the egg in the path _____________

2.  Mrs. Bird brought these to feed Junior. ________________

3.  Mr. and Mrs. Bird brought a pink and green one of these to Junior. _____________

4.  Mr. Bird brought this food to Junior. _________________

5.  At the beginning of the story, the boy found an egg in this place.

____________________

6.  Mr. and Mrs. Bird took turns sitting on this ______________

7.  Junior grew too big to live in this _____________

8.  The nest was too crowded so Mr. and Mrs. Bird wanted to teach Junior how to do this. _________________

9.  This is the noise that Mrs. Bird heard coming from the egg in the nest.

____________________

10.  When Junior opened his mouth, Mr. and Mrs. Bird saw these in Junior's mouth. __________________

 

 

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