LESSON 20 TEACHER’S GUIDE
Putting Frosting on the Cake
by Gina Parnell
Fountas-Pinnell Level D
Fantasy
Selection Summary
When Dee and Mom put frosting on the cake, they make a pretty cake
until Dee takes a lick of frosting and needs to fix the hole. She makes
the cake even prettier—and she makes a mess, too!
Number of Words: 120
Characteristics of the Text
Genre
Text Structure
Content
Themes and Ideas
Language and
Literary Features
Sentence Complexity
Vocabulary
Words
Illustrations
Book and Print Features
• Fantasy
• Third-person narrative describes what happens when Dee tries to fix the cake.
• Cause and effect structure
• Making a cake
• Mother and daughter activity
• It’s fun to bake with Mom.
• Disobeying a parent has consequences.
• You need to clean up your own messes.
• Simple dialogue assigned to speaker
• Simple, repeated sequence of events
• Amusing, engaging characters in familiar settings close to children’s experience
• Some sentences with more than six words: Then Dee and Mom put frosting on the cake.
• Some sentences with prepositional phrases
• Exclamatory sentence
• One and two syllable words familiar to child
• Important content words supported by illustrations (cake, frosting, carrot, garden, floor)
• Many high-frequency words (and, put, want, eat, said, after, out some, no)
• Nouns, verbs, pronouns, prepositions, adjective, adverbs
• Lively, cartoon-like drawings with more details support and extend the text.
• Nine pages of text, illustrations on every page.
• Print in large, plain font and in same position on every page.
• Some sentences turn over the line.
© 2006. Fountas, I.C. & Pinnell, G.S. Teaching for Comprehending and Fluency, Heinemann, Portsmouth, N.H.
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Putting Frosting on the Cake
by Gina Parnell
Build Background
Read the title to children and talk with them about what the little girl rabbit is doing in the
cover illustration. What do you think the little girl rabbit will do in this story? Encourage
children to use what they know about making a cake to think about the story. Ask
questions such as the following; What do you think is the best part of a cake, the cake or
the frosting?
Introduce the Text
Guide children through the text, noting important ideas, and helping with unfamiliar
language and vocabulary. Explain important text features, such as labels in illustrations.
that identify important content words in the story. Here are some suggestions:
Page 2: Explain that in this story a little girl rabbit named Dee and her mom bake a
cake together.
Suggested language: Turn to page 2 of this book. You see Dee and Mom in their
kitchen. The sentence reads: Dee and Mom made a cake. What color is the cake?
Page 3: Point out that next Dee and Mom put frosting on the cake. Say put.
What is the first sound you hear in put? Find the word and point to it. What color
frosting did they put on? Does the cake look delicious to you? Dee thinks so! Look
at her tongue. “I want to eat our cake now!” said Dee.
Page 4: Explain that Mom told Dee: “We can eat the cake after dinner.” Say after.
Find the word after and put your finger under it.
Page 5: What is Dee doing in the picture? Do you think she is trying the cake
before dinner or after dinner?
Now turn back to the beginning and read the story. On every page you will read
more about what happens to Dee’s cake.
Words to Know
after
more
Grade 1
now
put
2
said
want
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Read
As the children read, observe them carefully. Guide them as needed, using language that
supports their problem solving ability.
Respond to the Text
Personal Response
Ask children to share their personal responses to the story. Begin by asking what they
liked best about the story, or what they found interesting.
Suggested language: What do you think of the different ways that Dee tries to fix the
cake? Would you want to share this story with your friends? Why or why not?
Ways of Thinking
As you discuss the text, make sure children understand these teaching points:
Thinking Within the Text
Thinking Beyond the Text
Thinking About the Text
• Dee and Mom made a cake
together.
• It’s fun to make a cake with
someone.
• The funny pictures add to the
humor in the story.
• Dee took some frosting off the
cake.
• You should listen to your Mom.
• The dialogue sounds the way a
young child would talk.
• Dee tries to fix the cake by
adding more frosting.
• It’s fun to read about what
happens when Dee tries to add
frosting to the cake.
© 2006. Fountas, I.C. & Pinnell, G.S. Teaching for Comprehending and Fluency, Heinemann, Portsmouth, N.H.
Choices for Support
Concepts of Print
Practice early reading behaviors by asking children to locate the first and last letters of
words in continuous text.
Phonemic Awareness and Word Work
Provide practice as needed with words and sounds, using one of the following activities:
• Listening Game Materials: pairs of words. Have children listen for words that rhyme.
Have them raise their hands if the words rhyme, and keep their hands in their laps if
the words do not rhyme. Says pairs of words, for example: cake, bake; eat, egg; fix,
mix; Dee, bee; nose, mess.
• Clapping Syllables Have children hear and say syllables in words from the book:
made, cake, frosting, need, garden, another, nose, carrot. Have them clap on each
syllable: made, cake, frost-ing, need, gar-den, an-oth-er, nose, car-rot.
Grade 1
3
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Writing About Reading
Critical Thinking
Read the directions for children on BLM 20.7 and guide them in answering the questions.
Responding
Read aloud the questions at the back of the book and help children complete the activities.
Target Comprehension Skill
Cause and Effect
Tell children that the effect tells what happens in a story.
The cause tells why it happened. Model how to think about cause and effect.
Think Aloud
In this story I read that Dee made a carrot with the frosting. Then there
was frosting all over her nose and shirt. Making the carrot with frosting
was the cause. Getting frosting all over her nose and shirt was the effect.
Practice the Skill
Have children find another example of cause and effect in this story.
Writing Prompt: Thinking Beyond the Text
Have aloud the following prompt. Have children draw and write their response, using the
writing prompt on page 6.
Draw a picture to show what will happen next to Dee and her mom.
What are Dee and her mom doing?
Grade 1
4
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English Language Learners
Front-Load Vocabulary Use the illustrations and labels to reinforce the meanings of:
cake, frosting, carrot, floor, mess.
Oral Language Development
Check children’s comprehension, using a dialogue that best matches their English
proficiency level. Speaker 1 is the teacher, Speaker 2 is the child.
Beginning/ Early Intermediate
Intermediate
Early Advanced/ Advanced
Speaker 1: Point to the girl in the story.
Speaker 1: When does Mom want Dee
to eat the cake?
Speaker 1: How does Dee fix the
cake?
Speaker 2: after dinner
Speaker 2: She makes carrots
with the frosting.
Speaker 2: [Points to the girl]
Speaker 1: Point to her mother.
Speaker 2: [Points to mother]
Speaker 1: What do the girl and her
mother make?
Speaker 1: After Dee takes some
frosting off the cake, what does she
need to do?
Speaker 1: What else does Dee
make?
Speaker 2: fix the cake
Speaker 2: She makes a mess.
Speaker 2: a cake
Lesson 20
BLACKLINE MASTER 20.7
Name
Think About It
Putting Frosting on
the Cake
Think About It
Write an answer to the question.
Responses may vary.
1. Why does Dee want to fix the cake?
She did not want her mother to know
that she had tasted the cake.
Making Connections Think about something
you have tried to fix. Write some sentences
about what happened.
Read directions to children.
9
Think About It
Grade 1, Unit 4: Exploring Together
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Grade 1
5
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Name
Date
Putting Frosting on the Cake
Draw a picture to show what will happen next
to Dee and her mom.
What are Dee and her mom doing?
Grade 1
6
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Lesson 20
BLACKLINE MASTER 20.7
Name
Think About It
Putting Frosting on
the Cake
Think About It
Write an answer to the question.
1. Why does Dee want to fix the cake?
Making Connections Think about something
you have tried to fix. Write some sentences
about what happened.
Grade 1
7
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Student
Lesson 20
Date
BLACKLINE MASTER 20.12
Putting Frosting on the Cake
Putting Frosting on the
Cake
Running Record Form
LEVEL D
page
2
Selection Text
Errors
Self-Corrections
Accuracy Rate
Self-Correction
Rate
Dee and Mom
made a cake.
Then Dee and Mom
3
put frosting on the cake.
‘‘I want to eat our cake
now!’’ said Dee.
Mom said, “We can eat
4
the cake after dinner.”
Then she went out
to the garden.
Dee took some frosting
5
off the cake and ate it.
“Oh no!” said Dee.
6
Comments:
(# words read
correctly/54 × 100)
(# errors + #
Self-Corrections/
Self-Corrections)
%
1:
Read word correctly
Code
✓
cat
Repeated word,
sentence, or phrase
®
Omission
—
cat
cat
Grade 1
Behavior
Error
0
0
1
8
Substitution
Code
cut
cat
1
Self-corrects
cut sc
cat
0
Insertion
the
1
Word told
T
cat
cat

Error
1413440
Behavior
1
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