LESSON 7 TEACHER’S GUIDE
Busy Animals at Night
by Roxanne Horn
Fountas-Pinnell Level D
Informational Text
Selection Summary
Many animals move at night, looking for food. Bats fly in the sky,
looking for bugs. Cats run on the ground, looking for mice. Frogs,
owls, crickets, skunks, and snakes move as they look for food, too.
Even people sometimes move at night to find food.
Number of Words: 183
Characteristics of the Text
Genre
Text Structure
Content
Themes and Ideas
Language and
Literary Features
Sentence Complexity
Vocabulary
Words
Illustrations
Book and Print Features
• Informational Text
• Each page highlights a different animal and how it looks for food at night.
• Three sentences per page introduce the animal, tell what it is doing, and name the food it
is looking for.
• Nocturnal animals
• How animals move and search for the food they like
• Animals share different patterns of behavior, and some animals are nocturnal.
• Animals in the wild all must hunt for food to stay alive.
• Humans are like animals in some ways.
• Third-person narrator
• Rhythm created by repetition
• Sentence pattern repeats with slight changes for each animal
• Prepositional phrases
• Each page introduces a verb: flying, running, jumping, walking, sliding
• Each page introduces an animal: bats, cats, frogs, owls, crickets, skunks, snakes
• Some target vocabulary highlighted in text
• One- and two-syllable words; three-syllable word: animals
• Regular plurals formed with s
• Color photos support the text.
• Nine pages of text, photos on every page
• All sentences begin at left margin
• Some objects in pictures are labeled.
© 2006. Fountas, I.C. & Pinnell, G.S. Teaching for Comprehending and Fluency, Heinemann, Portsmouth, N.H.
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Busy Animals at Night
by Roxanne Horn
Build Background
Read the title to children and talk with them about what the frog is doing in the cover
illustration. Ask them what they think the book will be about. Encourage children to use
their knowledge of animals to think about the book by asking questions such as: What
other animals are awake at night? What do you think they do in the dark?
Front-Load Vocabulary Some everyday words may be unfamiliar to English
learners. Before reading, check understanding of the following words: flying, looking,
running, jumping, walking, and sliding.
Introduce the Text
Guide children through the text, noting important ideas, and helping with unfamiliar
language and vocabulary so they can read the text successfully. Call their attention to
any labels. Point out sentence patterns that are repeated on each page. Here are some
suggestions:
Page 2: Explain that this book tells about many animals that hunt for food at night.
Explain that the pictures in this book have labels that name things. The labels can help
make reading easier.
Suggested language: Turn to page 2. What do you see in the photos? The pictures
have a label: animals. The author says: Many animals move at night. The word
animals begins with the letter a. Read the label. Now find the word animals in the first
sentence and put your finger under it.
Page 3: Explain that on every page, a different animal moves at night, looking for food.
Remind children to use the label to help them with the name of the animal on each
page. Now on page 3, what animal do you see in this picture? If you read the label, you
know this animal is a bat. This bat is looking for bugs to eat. How does the bat move?
Page 4: Point out that some labels name things in the picture. On page 4, you see
a photo of a cat. What letter would you expect to see first in the word cat? Find the
label that says cat. The other label says ground. The author says: The cat is running
on the ground. Read the label, ground, and then find the word ground in the second
sentence.
Page 5: Call attention to the illustration and read the labels. On page 5, you can see a
picture of a frog jumping out of the water. Say the word of. Of is a little word, just two
letters. It begins with the letter o. Can you find of and put your finger under it?
Now turn back to the beginning of the book and read to find out what animals move at
night, and what they are looking for in the dark.
Words to Know
animal
eat
Grade 1
food
ground
2
night
of
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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
Invite children to share their personal responses to the book. Begin by asking what they
liked best about the book, or what they found interesting.
Suggested language: Which animal would you like to know more about? What is the
most interesting thing about the animal?
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
• Some animals move at night.
• Animals (and people) must find
food to stay alive.
• The writer uses almost the same
sentences on each page.
• The dark of night is a good time
for hunting.
• The writer talks about kids at the
end. It is funny and interesting to
compare kids’ eating habits with
those of animals.
• Animals move in different ways
and in different places.
• Animals hunt for different kinds
of food.
• All living things need to eat.
© 2006. Fountas, I.C. & Pinnell, G.S. Teaching for Comprehending and Fluency, Heinemann, Portsmouth, N.H.
Choices for Support
Concepts of Print
Have children find the verb with the –ing ending on page 2 (looking). Ask children to say
and use the word with the ending and without it. Have them find and read a verb ending in
–ing on each page of the book.
Phonemic Awareness and Word Work
Provide practice as needed with words and sounds, using one of the following activities:
• Clapping Syllables Have children listen to words from the book and say the syllables.
Have them clap on each syllable, for example: an-i-mal, crick-ets, plants, fly-ing, of,
jump-ing, food, re-frig-er-a-tor, etc.
• Build Sentences List these high-frequency words from Busy Animals at Night: look,
for. Make a separate list of these story words: owls, snakes, frogs, cats, bugs, mice.
Have children say sentences using the two high-frequency words and two of the story
words. Have them choose one sentence to write and illustrate.
Grade 1
3
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Writing About Reading
Critical Thinking
Read the directions for children on BLM 7.9 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
Details
Tell children that noting important ideas and details in a book will
help them understand the book. Model how to think about details:
Think Aloud
Details can help me understand the book. I read that the bat is flying
when it looks for food. The cat is on the ground running when it looks for
food. The frog is looking for food in the pond. These details tell me that
different kinds of animals look for food in different places.
Practice the Skill
Have children share another detail from the book that helped them understand the story.
Writing Prompt
Read aloud the following prompt. Have children draw and write their response, using the
writing prompt on page 6.
Think about the animals in the book. What animals like to eat the same thing? Draw a
picture showing two animals that eat the same thing.
Write about what the animals like to eat.
Grade 1
4
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English Language Learners
Reading Support Pair advanced and beginning readers to read the story softly aloud.
You may also have children use the audio or online recordings. After listening or reading
aloud, have children talk about the new information they have learned.
Oral Language Development
Check the 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 bat.
Speaker 1: When do the animals move?
Speaker 2: [Points to the bat]
Speaker 2: The animals move at night.
Speaker 1: What are all the
animals doing?
Speaker 1: Point to the owl.
Speaker 1: What is the cricket looking
for?
Speaker 2: [Points to the owl]
Speaker 1: Who looks in the
refrigerator?
Speaker 2: They are all looking for
food to eat.
Speaker 1: Which animals are
looking for mice to eat?
Speaker 2: It is looking for plants to eat.
Speaker 2: The snake, the owl,
and the cat are looking for mice
to eat.
Speaker 2: a girl
Lesson 7
BLACKLINE MASTER 7.9
Name
Think About It
Busy Animals at Night
Think About It
Write the word that completes each
sentence.
bat
1. The frog and the
to eat.
snake
2. A cricket eats
bugs
cat
look for bugs
bat
leaves
leaves
.
mice
Making Connections Think of something else
the girl might look for in the refrigerator. Draw
a picture. Label your picture.
Read directions to children.
11
Think About It
Grade 1, Unit 2: Sharing Time
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Grade 1
5
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Name
Date
Busy Animals at Night
Think about the animals in the book. What
animals like to eat the same thing? Draw a
picture showing two animals that eat the same thing.
Write about what the animals like to eat.
Grade 1
6
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Lesson 7
BLACKLINE MASTER 7.9
Name
Think About It
Busy Animals at Night
Think About It
Write the word that completes each
sentence.
look for bugs
1. The frog and the
to eat.
snake
cat
bat
2. A cricket eats
bugs
.
leaves
mice
Making Connections Think of something else
the girl might look for in the refrigerator. Draw
a picture. Label your picture.
Grade 1
7
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Student
Lesson 7
Date
BLACKLINE MASTER 7.14
Busy Animals at Night • LEVEL D
page
Busy Animals at Night
Running Record Form
Selection Text
Errors
Self-Corrections
Accuracy Rate
Self-Correction
Rate
Many animals move
2
at night.
These animals are looking
for food to eat.
Bats move at night.
3
The bat is flying in the sky.
The bat is looking for bugs
to eat.
Cats move at night.
4
The cat is running
on the ground.
The cat is looking for
a mouse to eat.
Comments:
(# words read
correctly/57 × 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
1413371
Behavior
1
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