LESSON 25 TEACHER’S GUIDE
Rabbit’s Garden Troubles
by Rowan Obach
Fountas-Pinnell Level L
Fantasy
Selection Summary
Rabbit and Badger decide to help each other plant flower gardens.
They buy seeds, then plant, water, weed, and fertilize their gardens.
They have beautiful flowers all summer, and look forward to next
year’s gardens. But only Badger’s flowers come back, although both
friends water and fertilize. Finally owl explains that Badger’s flowers
are perennials, but Rabbit’s are annuals, which live for just one year.
Number of Words: 652
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
• Events told in chronological order
• Problem presented in middle of story
• Problem solved on last page by a new character
• Creating gardens, enjoying flowers
• Animal characters working together, supporting each other
• Enjoying success, coping with disappointment
• Beautiful things, like flowers, are valuable.
• Working with a friend is rewarding.
• Learn from your mistakes; don’t give up when things don’t work the first time.
• Third person narrator
• Natural dialogue
• Questions
• Short to longer simple sentences with phrases and/or clauses. Example: “I look forward
to seeing them come back again,” said Rabbit.
• Compound sentences. Example: Badger wanted to help his friend, but he did not know
what to do.
• Many gardening terms, some of which might not be familiar, such as crops, blossomed,
fertilized, tended, shoots, drooping, perennial, annual
• A few multisyllable words, some of them challenging, such as fortunate, underneath
• Colorful drawings support the text
• Thirteen pages of text, five to thirteen lines of text per page
• Illustrations on every page
© 2006. Fountas, I.C. & Pinnell, G.S. Teaching for Comprehending and Fluency, Heinemann, Portsmouth, N.H.
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Rabbit’s Garden Troubles
by Rowan Obach
Build Background
Help children use their knowledge of gardens to visualize the story. Build interest by
asking a question such as the following: If you could have a garden of your own, what
would you like to grow? Read the title and author and talk about the two animals on the
cover. Explain that a badger is a forest animal that looks a little like a raccoon. Tell children
that this story is fantasy, so at least some parts of it could not really happen.
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. Here are some
suggestions:
Page 2: Explain that this is a story about two friends, Rabbit and Badger. They are
out taking a walk and they see some gardens that they like.
Suggested language: Turn to page 2 of this book and look at the illustration.
Rabbit and Badger are comparing two kinds of gardens: gardens where crops grew
and gardens where flowers blossomed. What vegetable crops can you see near
Rabbit? What color flowers have blossomed on Badger’s side?
Page 3: Read the last sentence: The two friends promised to help each other with
their gardens. Do friends usually keep their promises to each other? Why?
Pages 4–5: Point out that the story has many gardening words. Make sure
children understand the words tended, fertilized, sprouting, soil, and sprayed and
that they are familiar with the steps in creating a garden. Look at page 5. Badger
is spraying the plants to keep harmful bugs away. How can bugs be harmful to
plants? What might bugs do to the crops?
Page 12: All of Rabbit’s friends are trying to help Rabbit with his garden. Everyone
has a different idea. How can you tell what the animals are saying? Would this be
helpful or confusing to Rabbit?
Now turn back to the beginning of the story and read to find out what happened
when Rabbit and Badger planted their gardens.
Target Vocabulary
blossomed – produced flowers,
p. 2
crops – plants that are grown for
food, p. 2
drooping – hanging or leaning
downward, p. 8
Grade 2
fortunate – very lucky, p. 4
harmful – having a bad effect or
causing damage, p. 5
promised – stated that you will
do something, p. 3
2
sprouting – starting to grow out
of a seed, p. 5
underneath – directly below or
beneath, p. 4
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Read
Have children read Rabbit’s Garden Troubles silently while you listen to individual children
read. Support their problem solving and fluency as needed.
Remind children to use the Monitor/Clarify Strategy
to figure out what doesn’t make sense.
, and to find ways
Discuss and Revisit the Text
Personal Response
Invite children to share their personal responses to the story.
Suggested language: How do you think Rabbit felt at the end of the story? How would
you feel?
Ways of Thinking
As you discuss the text, help children understand these points:
Thinking Within the Text
Thinking Beyond the Text
Thinking About the Text
• Badger and Rabbit plant flower
gardens together.
• Hard work can be fun and
worthwhile, especially if you
work with a friend.
• The author included lots of
details about gardens to make
the story realistic.
• Everybody makes mistakes at
times. Mistakes can teach you
something.
• Having animals that talk and
wear clothes makes the story a
fantasy.
• If you’re not successful at first,
try again.
• The friends talk the way friends
really would talk.
• The first year they both have lots
of beautiful flowers.
• The next year they both tend
their gardens, but Rabbit’s
garden does not grow.
• Owl explains that Rabbit planted
annual flowers. He decides to
plant perennials next time.
• The story is fiction, but you can
still learn some things about
flowers and gardens.
© 2006. Fountas, I.C. & Pinnell, G.S. Teaching for Comprehending and Fluency, Heinemann, Portsmouth, N.H.
Choices for Further Support
• Fluency Invite children to choose a passage from the text to present as Readers’
Theater. Remind them to read dialogue with good expression, as if the characters were
actually speaking.
• Comprehension Based on your observations of the children’s reading and discussion,
revisit parts of the text to clarify or extend comprehension. Remind students to go
back to the text to support their ideas.
• Phonics/Word Work Provide practice as needed with words and word parts, using
examples from the text. Remind children that longer words are often formed by adding
prefixes and suffixes to base words. For example, the word harmful, on page 5, is
formed by adding the suffix –ful (full of) to the base word harm (full of harm). The
word carefully, on page 5, is formed by adding two suffixes: –ful and –ly (like) to the
base word, care.
Grade 2
3
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Writing about Reading
Critical Thinking
Have children complete the Critical Thinking questions on BLM 25.8.
Responding
Have children complete the activities at the back of the book. Use the instruction below as
needed to reinforce or extend understanding of the comprehension skill.
Target Comprehension Skill
Sequence of Events
Remind children that they can tell the order in which
things happen in a story to better understand the story. Model the skill, using a “Think
Aloud” like the one below:
Think Aloud
First, Badger and Rabbit decide to plant gardens, just like the chart on
page 15 says. Next, they plant seeds and take care of them. Then, the
flowers grow! But when winter comes, the flowers stop growing.
Practice the Skill
Have children share three more events that happen in the story when spring comes again.
Remind children to tell the events in the order they happen.
Writing Prompt: Thinking Beyond the Text
Have children write a response to the prompt on page 6. Remind them that when they
think beyond the text, they use what they know and their own experience to think about
what happens in the story.
Assessment Prompts
• Which words on page 8 help the reader understand the meaning of the word
drooping?
• How does Rabbit feel before Owl explains why his flowers did not grow?
Grade 2
4
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English Language Development
Reading Support Make sure the text matches the children’s reading level. Language
and content should be accessible with regular teaching support. Provide more support for
children by clarifying tricky vocabulary, such as fertilized, underneath, perennial, annual.
Cognates Point out the English/Spanish cognates fortunate/afortunado (page 4).
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: What do Rabbit and Badger
want to do?
Speaker 1: How do the friends tend their
gardens?
Speaker 2: grow flowers
Speaker 2: They water and fertilize. They
spray. They pull weeds.
Speaker 1: Why did Badger’s
flowers grow the second year,
but Rabbit’s didn’t ?
Speaker 1: What do they buy?
Speaker 2: seeds
Speaker 1: Who has trouble growing
flowers?
Speaker 1: What did Rabbit and Badger
grow the first summer?
Speaker 2: Badger bought seeds
for flowers that grow every year.
Rabbit bought seeds for flowers
that only grow one year.
Speaker 2: They grew lots of beautiful
flowers.
Speaker 2: Rabbit
Lesson 25
Name
BLACKLINE MASTER 25.8
Date
Think About It
Rabbit’s Garden Troubles
Think About It
Read and answer the questions.
1. Why don’t Rabbit’s flowers grow again the next
year?
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2. Why do you think people like flowers?
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3. How would you describe the owl in the story?
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Making Connections Do you share any hobbies or activities
with one of your friends? How do you learn about the hobby
or activity from each other?
Write your answer in your Reader’s Notebook.
Read directions to children.
Think About It
Grade 2, Unit 5: Changes, Changes Everywhere
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Grade 2
5
Lesson 25: Rabbit’s Garden Troubles
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Name
Date
Rabbit’s Garden Troubles
Thinking Beyond the Text
Think about the questions below. Then write your answer in one or two
paragraphs.
Sometimes people say, “If you never make a mistake, you’ll never learn
anything new.” What new thing did Rabbit learn in this story? How did he
learn it? Do you think Rabbit would agree with the saying? Why or why not?
Grade 2
6
Lesson 25: Rabbit’s Garden Troubles
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Lesson 25
Name
BLACKLINE MASTER 25.8
Date
Think About It
Rabbit’s Garden Troubles
Think About It
Read and answer the questions.
1. Why don’t Rabbit’s flowers grow again the next
year?
2. Why do you think people like flowers?
3. How would you describe the owl in the story?
Making Connections Do you share any hobbies or activities
with one of your friends? How do you learn about the hobby
or activity from each other?
Write your answer in your Reader’s Notebook.
Grade 2
7
Lesson 25: Rabbit’s Garden Troubles
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Student
Lesson 25
Date
BLACKLINE MASTER 25.12
Rabbit’s Garden Troubles
Rabbit’s Garden Troubles
Running Record Form
LEVEL L
page
2
Selection Text
Errors
Self-Corrections
Accuracy Rate
Total SelfCorrections
One sunny day, Badger and Rabbit walked
down the lane. They saw gardens where crops
grew and gardens where flowers blossomed.
“These gardens are nice,” said Badger.
“The vegetable crop looks ready to
eat, but I like the flowers best. They are
so beautiful.”
“I love the flowers!” cried Rabbit.
“I would like to have flowers like these.”
3
“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
asked Badger.
“I think so. We should plant a flower
garden,” answered Rabbit.
Comments:
(# words read
correctly/77 × 100)
%
Read word correctly
Code
✓
cat
Repeated word,
sentence, or phrase
®
Omission
—
cat
cat
Grade 2
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
1413846
Behavior
1
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