TIM SEES A FOX
Stage: Partial Alphabetic
Skill Level:
Purpose: Post and read these statements with students to set a purpose for reading.
I can sound out words I don’t know.
I can use the words and pictures to help me understand what I read.
I can retell what I learned from the book.
Materials: Print the vowel letters in a different color from the consonants.
Letter cards (n, a, p, i, h, o, t, s, f, g, d, u, r, n) or wipe-off board and marker.
Color copy of the book on the computer screen.
Individual black and white copies of the book for the students.
Sequence words (first, next, then, after that, finally) and connecting words (but, so, because).
High-frequency words printed on cards or in sentence frames: the, gets, his, about, in, on
Lesson Guide
Activity 1 Making Predictions about the Book Cover
Before doing this activity become familiar with the demonstration and explanation for Exploring the Book
Cover activity.
Read the Title (Tim Sees a Fox ) with students. Then look at the illustration on the cover to have
students predict what the topic of the story is about. Help students to think about how the title and the
picture help us predict what we will read.
Predict type of text : Is this a story or is it an informational book? ( I think it will give us information about
a fox because I see a real photo of a fox).
Predict topic: What do you think is the topic of the book? (foxes that live in the forest)
How do you know? ( It looks like there is a fox in the forest.)
Think Aloud: “I see a character Tim, and it says that he wrote the book. I see a photo of a fox in the
forest. The title says, Tim Sees a Fox. So I think Tim will be taking a photo of a fox and just like in other
books we read the pictures will be of real animals in the forest.”
Activity 2 Word Work: Sounding Out Words and Recognizing
Words
Before students read the book, use these activities to prepare them to read the words accurately.
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Phonemic Awareness
Point a finger for each sound you hear in a word. Use pictures whenever possible so students will
recognize the vocabulary.
Words with 2 sounds: see, we, too
Words with 3 sounds:run, hop, nap, sit, dig, Tim
Words with 4 sounds: fox
Sound-By-Sound Blending
run, hop, nap, sit, dig, Tim.
Write one letter on the board and have students say the sound, then after they pronounce the vowel,
blend the consonant and vowel together. Next, say the last consonant sound and blend all the letters
together.
Word Chain
Use letter cards: n, a, p, i, h, o, t, s, f, g, d, u, r, n
Before doing this activity become familiar with the demonstration and explanation for Word Chain
activities.
In the word chain activity students learn to listen for a one sound change as the teacher says the next
word in the chain. Students will listen for a change in one sound, the addition of a sound, or the deletion
of a sound. They respond by making the change of letter(s) to represent the change of sounds.
Announce the first word for students to spell. After students spell the first word, say the following: “You
are going to listen carefully to how I change each word by just one sound. You can only change one
sound each time to spell a new word.”
Follow the steps for the word chain. Try to show a picture or explain the meaning of any words students
don’t know. Connecting spelling to meaning will help students to recognize words faster when they see
them in print.
Follow the steps for the word chain.
Say to students: Spell nap.
Say: Change nap to nip.
Say: Change nip to hip.
Say: Change hip to hop.
Say: Change hop to hot.
Say: Change hot to hit.
Say: Change hit to sit.
Say: Change sit to fit.
Say: Change fit to fig.
Say: Change fig to dig.
Say: Change rug to rut.
Say: Change rut to run.
Say: Change run to fun.
Notes:
Nip is a pinch a squeeze or a bite.
Rut is a hole.
Fig is a fruit.
Hip is a part of your body.
High-frequency words
Word cards: we, too, see, the, can
Before doing this activity become familiar with the demonstration and explanation for High Frequency
Word activities
Use the book cover and illustrations.
Label: the fox, the boy, the tree, the snow.
Ask: What can you see?
Students repeat: We can see ______________.
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Activity 3 Individual Reading with Feedback from Teacher
Let students try to read the words in the book on their own. This allows students to apply their decoding
skills to read the unfamiliar words in the book. The teacher can listen to one student read at a time and
give each student individual help as needed with their pronunciation. When a student makes an error on
reading a word, help that student to sound out the word and then blend the sounds back together. Try
not to tell the word to the student, instead help the student sound it out.
Activity 4 Second Reading of Book: Do a choral reading of the
book with students
My Turn, Your Turn.
The teacher reads a line from the text and the students follow in their books with their finger. Then the
students read the same line. Look to see if students are pointing to each word.
Example:
Teacher: “My turn. Run fox, run. Your turn…”
Students: “Run fox, run.”
Activity 5 Third Reading of Book: Oral Language Practice and
Comprehension
Introduction of Close Reading of Text
Reread each page of the text with students. Guide students to understand the story and make
inferences with help from the illustrations. Ask questions or do a think aloud to help students
understand what words means or how an illustration helps us understand about the story. Ask
questions that require inferences based on careful attention to the text or pictures. Ask text-dependent
questions that help guide students to understand the author’s meaning. Important steps in the close
reading process are:
Students answer questions and reread parts of the book to show the evidence for their answers to the
questions the teacher asks. Example: “Read me the part that tells what the fox is doing.”
Teacher helps students make inferences about the topic. Tell why something happens using the
words and pictures as evidence to support their inference. Why do you think the fox is running? (The
fox is trying to catch another animal, the fox is running away from danger.)
Text-Dependent Questions
On each page there are questions for students who at different levels of English language development.
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Page 2: (Teacher page)
Oral Language Level 1:
Point to the teacher, point to Tim, point to the other students, point to the fox.
Oral Language Level 2+:
What does Tim want to do? (Share pictures of foxes in their habitats.)
Page 3 Text: Tim can see the fox.
Oral Language Level 1:
Point to the fox. Point to Tim.
Oral Language Level 2+:
Where is Tim? (Tim is in the forest.) What is Tim doing? (Tim is taking a picture of a fox).
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Page 4 Text: Run fox, run.
Oral Language Level 1:
Point to fox. Point to the snow.
Oral Language Level 2+:
What is the fox doing ? (The fox is running in the snow).
Infer why the fox is running? (Maybe he is chasing another animal. Maybe he is running away from
danger. )
Page 5 Text: Hop fox, hop.
Oral Language Level 1:
Point to the fox.
Oral Language Level 2+:
What is the fox doing? (The fox is hopping in the grass.)
How do you know? Read the text, look at the photo ).
Infer: Why is the fox hopping? (Maybe he is trying to catch a mouse.)
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Page 6 Text: Nap fox, nap.
Oral Language Level 1:
Point to the fox.
Oral Language Level 2+:
What is the fox doing ? (The fox is napping.)
Where is the fox napping? ( Maybe in the dirt)
After one student gives an answer to a question, the teacher repeats the correct answer in a complete
sentence. Then have all the students repeat the answer.
Ask the students who gave the answer to show the other students where the answer came from in the
book or picture.
Page 7 Text: Sit fox, Sit.
Oral Language Level 1:
Point to the fox. Point to the grass.
Oral Language Level 2+:
What is the fox doing? (The fox is sitting in the grass. )
Infer: where the fox might be? (Maybe near a park.)
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Page 8 Text: Dig fox, dig.
Oral Language Level 1:
Point to the fox. Point to the snow.
Oral Language Level 2+:
What is the fox doing? (The fox is digging in the snow. )
Infer what the season might be? (Maybe it is winter because I see know.)
How can you describe the habitat of the fox in this photograph?
How is the fox adapted for living in cold, snowy weather? (It has thick fur and a bushy tail.)
Page 9 Text: We see the fox, too.
Oral Language Level 1:
Point to the fox.
Oral Language Level 2+:
Ask: What does the author mean by the word “too.” Say: The word too means also. We see the fox,
also. It is different from the word spelled to.
What does the fox look like? (Reddish fur, bushy tail, pointy ears, long snout, looks like a dog.)
What have you learned about the habitats of foxes?( Answers can vary.)
Have students reread the book chorally or with a partner.
Give each student one page of the book to read.
Have partners take turns reading alternating pages.
Activity 6 Oral Language Practice with High-Frequency Words
Act out the meaning of all the action words (verbs).
Use sentence frames.
The fox digs in the _________.
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The fox hops in the _________.
The fox sits in the ___________.
The fox naps in the _________.
The fox runs in the _________.
Activity 7 Cut-Up Sentences
Before doing this activity become familiar with the demonstration and explanation for the Cut-up
Sentences activity.
Directions: Prepare the sentences on a strip of paper and then cut each sentence into individual words,
but leave the period with the last word of the sentence as a clue. It is helpful to write each sentence in a
different color or on a different color paper so students don’t mix up the words from different sentences.
Guide students to use strategies to put the words back in order to make sense.
The first clues students can learn to use are the uppercase letter for the first word in the sentence and
the punctuation after the last word in the sentence.
Talk about the comma (,). Remind students that the comma lets the reader know to pause. The period
lets the reader know to stop.
Sit fox, sit.
Dig fox, dig.
Run fox, run.
Nap fox, nap.
Hop fox, hop.
Activity 8 Give Information or an Explanation
Model for students using the sentence frame how to tell about something you learned from reading the
book or looking at the pictures.
Prompt for discussion: What did you learn about foxes?
Sample sentence frame: I learned that foxes can _________________
Examples:
I learned that foxes can dig in the snow.
I learned that foxes can nap in the sun.
After you have modeled a sentence or two, have students answer this question in pairs. Then, call on
students to state their opinions to the class.
Activity 10 Draw and Write
Students write one sentence about what a fox can do. It can be from the book, or they can be creative.
Example: A fox can run.
Draw a picture of a fox in one of the habitats where foxes live.
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