Level D/6
Rainy Day, Sunny Day
Fiction Teacher’s Guide
Skills & Strategies
Anchor Comprehension Strategies
•• Analyze Story Elements
•• Identify Sequence of Events
Phonemic Awareness
•• Segmenting and blending sounds in words
Phonics
•• Long a
•• Word family –ew
High-Frequency Words
•• came, stopped, then
Concept Vocabulary
•• Clothes for different kinds of weather
Grammar/Word Study
•• –ed ending (verbs)
Summary
•• Rabbit goes out on a rainy day and plays in
the rain until it stops. She then plays in the
sun, too.
B
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• Small Group Reading Lesson
• Skills Bank
• Reproducible Activities
e n c h m a r k
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Small Group Reading Lesson
What Happens in
Rainy Day, Sunny Day?
What we
predict might
happen in the
story
What we predict What happened
will happen
in the story
next
The story might Rabbit will stay
outside and
be about a
continue to play.
rabbit and
what she does
on rainy days
and sunny days.
Rabbit took off
her rain clothes
and went out to
play in the sun.
Before Reading
Activate Prior Knowledge
Encourage students to draw on prior knowledge and build
background for reading the text. Ask them what they like to do on
rainy days and sunny days. Help students compare and contrast
rainy-day activities and sunny-day activities. Ask students which
kind of weather they prefer and why.
Preview the Book
Read the title and names of the author and illustrator to students.
Ask:
• What do you see on the cover?
• What kind of day do you think it is going to be? Why?
Visual Cues
• Look at the beginning letter
or letters. (b in boots; sh in
she)
• Look for familiar chunks
within the word. (win in
window; sun in sunny)
Structure Cues
• Think about whether the
sentence sounds right.
• Look for repeated language
patterns. (“She put on her
. . .”; “She took off her . . .”)
Meaning Cues
• Think about what makes
sense in the sentence.
• Look at the picture to
confirm the meaning of the
word.
2
Create an overhead transparency of the graphic organizer “What
Happens in Rainy Day, Sunny Day?” (left) or copy the organizer on
chart paper, leaving the columns blank. Ask students to predict,
based on the cover, what might happen in the story. Write their
ideas in the first column of the prediction chart.
Preview the book with students, but do not show them the last
three pages. Reinforce the language used in the text. For example,
ask: What did Rabbit see when she looked out the window?
Show students the spread on pages 12 and 13. Then talk about their
first prediction. Ask them what they think will happen next in the
story now that they have looked at the pictures. Write their
predictions in the second column of the chart.
Set a Purpose for Reading
Have students turn to page 2 and whisper-read the book. Say: I
want you to read the book to find out what happens next. Monitor
students’ reading and provide support when necessary.
Review Reading Strategies
Use the cues provided to remind students that they can apply
different strategies to identify unfamiliar words.
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During Reading
Observe and Prompt Reading Strategies
Observe students as they read the book. Take note of how they
are problem-solving on text. Guide, or prompt, individual
students who cannot problem-solve independently.
After Reading
Reflect on Reading Strategies
After students have completed their reading, encourage them to
share the reading strategies they used. Reinforce the good reading
behaviors you noticed by saying:
• I noticed, [student’s name], that when you came to a word you didn’t
know, you went back and reread the sentence. Did this help you figure
out the word?
• [Student’s name], I saw that you tried to sound out the word
breakfast. You looked at the beginning letters and then you checked
the picture. That was good reading.
Build Comprehension
Ask and Answer Questions
Help students review the text content and relate it to what they
already know by asking some or all of the following questions.
• What happened in the story? Let’s write this in the third column of
our chart. (Rabbit took off her rain clothes and went out to play
in the sun. pp. 14–16) (Locate facts)
• What made Rabbit think it was going to rain? (She saw the clouds
coming. Rain comes from clouds, so clouds often mean that it
will rain.) (Identify cause and effect/Draw conclusions)
• What did Rabbit do when she thought it was going to rain all day?
What does this tell you about her? (She put on her rain clothes
and went out to play in the rain. Answers will vary. One
possible answer: She is practical. She did not just sit inside and
mope. She made the best of the situation.) (Summarize
information/Infer character traits)
• What is an activity that you can do outside on both rainy days and
sunny days? (Answers will vary.) (Use creative thinking)
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Teacher Tip
Using the Skills Bank
Based on your observations of
students’ reading behaviors, you
may wish to select activities
from the Skills Bank (pp. 6–9)
that will develop students’
reading strategies.
Question Types
Students need to understand that
they can use information from
various places in the book, as well
as background knowledge, to
answer different types of
questions. These lessons provide
four types of questions, designed
to give students practice in
understanding the relationship
between a question and the
source of its answer.
• Questions that require students
to go to a specific place in the
book.
• Questions that require students
to integrate information from
several sentences, paragraphs, or
chapters within the book.
• Questions that require students
to combine background
knowledge with information
from the book.
• Questions that relate to the
book topic but require students
to use only background
knowledge and experience, not
information from the book.
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Small Group Reading Lesson
(continued)
Build Comprehension
Identify Sequence
Teacher Tip
Monitoring
Comprehension
•A
re students able to revisit
the text to locate specific
answers to text-dependent
questions? If they are having
difficulty, show them how to
match the wording of the
question to the wording in
the text.
•A
re students able to find
answers to questions that
require a search of the text?
If they are having difficulty,
model how you would search
for the answer.
•C
an students combine their
background knowledge with
information from the text to
draw conclusions? If they are
having difficulty, model how
you would answer the
question.
•A
re students’ answers to
creative questions logical and
relevant to the topic?
•D
o students’ completed
graphic organizers reflect an
ability to identify the
sequence of events in a
story? If students are having
difficulty, provide more
modeling.
4
Model Create an overhead transparency of the graphic organizer
“Rainy Day, Sunny Day” on page 12 or copy the chart on the board.
Help students recall what happened in the story. Model how to
complete the chart. Use the following think-aloud.
A story has events that usually happen in a certain order. To help me
remember the story, I can use a graphic organizer like this one to record
the main events in the order in which they happen. I ask myself, “What
happened first?” On page 2 I see the first thing that happened: Rabbit
woke up. I will write that in the box with the number 1: “Rabbit woke
up.” Now let’s look for what happened next in the story.
Practice and Apply Guide students as they identify the main events
in the story and decide what to write in each box. If you think
students can complete the chart independently, distribute copies of
the graphic organizer and monitor their work. Allow students time
to share their recorded information.
Rainy Day, Sunny Day
1
Rabbit woke up.
2
She got breakfast.
3
It began to rain.
4
Rabbit put on her rain clothes.
5
She played in the rain.
6
It stopped raining.
7
Rabbit took off her rain clothes.
8
She played in the sun.
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Interactive Writing
Have students use the information from the graphic organizer to
write sentences about events in the story. Say: Let’s look at our
chart. It is a good summary of what happened in the story. Let’s think
of a sentence we can write that tells about something that happened
in the story. (Possible sentences include “It began to rain.” and
“Rabbit played in the sun.”) Repeat the sentence aloud several
times with students so they can internalize the language pattern.
Collaborate with them to write the sentence on chart paper or on
the board one word at a time. Start by saying the first word slowly.
Ask: What sound do you hear at the beginning of this word? What
other sounds do you hear? Let students write the known sounds in
each word and then fill in the remaining letters for them.
Continue until the sentence is completed.
Write Independently
Have students write their own sentences based on the story.
Encourage them to articulate words slowly, use spaces between
words, and write known words fluently.
√√
When students have completed their sentences, confer with them
individually. Validate their knowledge of known words and letter/
sound correspondences by placing a light check mark above
students’ contributions. Provide explicit praise as you write the
message conventionally for students to see.
Rabbit played in the rain.
Reread for Fluency
Ask students to reread Rainy Day, Sunny Day independently. Then
have them retell the story to a partner using the pictures to help
them.
Connect to Home
Have students read the take-home version of Rainy Day, Sunny
Day to family members. Have them ask family members about
their favorite rainy-day and sunny-day activities.
√√ √ √ √ √ √
√√ √√√ √ √ √ √
raddit plaed in thu rane.
Teacher Tip
Modeling Fluency
• Read sections of the book
aloud to students to model
fluent reading of the text.
• Model using appropriate
phrasing, intonation, volume,
expression, and rate.
• Have students listen to you
read a portion of the text and
then read it back to you.
Rainy Day, Sunny Day
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Skills Bank
Phonemic Awareness:
Segmenting and blending sounds in words
Tell students that you are going to play a game. You will say the
sounds of a word and they are to blend the sounds and say the
word. Say the word clouds by segmenting its sounds: /kl/ /ou/ /d/ /z/.
Have students blend the sounds and say the word. Follow the same
procedure with the following words from the book: rainy, sunny,
day, woke, window, looked, put, ran, away, boots.
day
play
away
tray
rain
mail
pain
wait
came
take
face
made
Phonics: Long a
Write the words day, rain, and came on the board. Read the words
aloud with students. Ask them what vowel sound they hear in all
three words. (long a) Ask them what letters make the long a sound
in each word. (ay in day, ai in rain, a-e in came) Circle the long a
patterns in the words. Have students brainstorm other words that
have the long a sound. Write the words in random order on the
board as students name them: for example, take, mail, play, pain,
face, away, tray, wait, and made. Then draw three large circles on
the board. Label each circle with one of the words day, rain, and
came. Have volunteers choose a word from the list and write it in
the circle with the word that has the same long a pattern.
Phonics: Word family –ew
Write the word blew on the board. Say the word with students.
Explain that the letter pattern ew makes the vowel sound in blew.
Underline –ew. Point out that blew is one of many words in the
–ew word family. Have students brainstorm other –ew words, such
as chew, drew, flew, grew, knew, screw, stew, and threw. As students
name the words, write them on the board. Then read the words
together. Ask students what they notice about the words. (They
rhyme.) Explain that because words in a word family have the same
middle and ending sounds, they always rhyme. Have students
choose two of the words and use them in a sentence.
He threw away the screw.
A f ly f lew into the stew.
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High-Frequency Word Vocabulary
Write the high-frequency words came, stopped, and then on the
board. Say and spell the words with students. Then, blocking the
board so that students cannot see, erase one letter from one of
the words. Ask students to tell you which letter is missing.
Together spell the word and include the missing letter. Replace
the letter in the word on the board. Repeat the activity several
times, removing letters from each of the words.
Concept Vocabulary:
Clothes for different kinds of weather
Discuss with students how the weather influences the kinds of
clothes we wear. Ask them to brainstorm the clothes we wear in
cold, hot, and rainy weather. Write the words on the board as
students suggest them: for example, gloves, coats, hats, swimsuits,
shorts, sandals, rain boots, rain hats, and raincoats. Make a threecolumn chart on the board. Label the columns “Hot Weather,”
“Cold Weather,” and “Rainy Weather.” Read through the list of
words with students. Ask volunteers to tell you which column
the word belongs in, based on when we would typically wear that
item of clothing.
came
stopped
then
Hot
Rainy
Cold
Weather Weather Weather
swimsuits
gloves
rain boots
shorts
hats
raincoats
sandals
coats
rain hats
Grammar/Word Study: –ed ending (verbs)
Write the words rained, liked, and stopped on the board and read
them aloud with students. Ask: What do you see at the end of all
three words? (the ending –ed) Circle the –ed ending in each word.
Remind students that we add –ed to the end of an action word
when the action happened in the past. Write the base words rain,
like, and stop under their –ed forms. Point to the word like. Ask:
What happened to the word like when we added –ed to the end?
Students should note that we dropped the final e before adding
–ed. Point to the word stop. Ask: What happened to the word stop
when we added –ed to the end? Students should note that we
doubled the final consonant before adding –ed. Write the words
talk, grab, smile, wait, pat, and race in a column on the board.
Ask students to write the words on their papers and then write
each word with –ed. When they have finished, write the –ed
words on the board so that students can check their work.
Copyright © 2011 Benchmark Education Company, LLC. All rights reserved. Teachers may photocopy the reproducible pages for classroom use. No other part of the guide may be reproduced or transmitted in
whole or in part in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
ISBN# 978-1-4108-0061-9
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Skills Bank
Build Comprehension
Analyze Story Elements
••Explain Create an overhead transparency of the graphic organizer
“Rainy Day, Sunny Day” on page 9 or draw it on the board. Say:
We are going to analyze story elements. That means we think about
the characters, setting, and plot in a story. The characters are the
people or animals that a story is about. The setting is the time and
place in which a story happens. The plot is the events that happen in
the beginning, middle, and end of a story.
••Model Say: Let’s start by analyzing the first story element. We
will look at the characters in Rainy Day, Sunny Day. To analyze
characters, I need to ask myself whom this story is about. Take a
picture walk through the story and identify the animal in each
picture. Say: I see that the only character in this story is Rabbit. In
the Character box on the graphic organizer, write Rabbit. Then say:
We know who the character is: Rabbit. Now we need to analyze her,
or tell about who she is and why she acts the way she does. I think
Rabbit is happy and playful because she can find something fun to do
in any weather. Record this information in the Character box on the
graphic organizer.
••Guide Say: Now let’s analyze another story element: setting. Where
does the story take place? (Allow time for students to respond,
assisting if needed.) Yes, the story takes place in and around Rabbit’s
house. When does it take place? (Again allow time for students to
respond.) The time is a day that is first rainy and then sunny. Record
this information in the Setting box on the graphic organizer.
••Apply Remind students that the third story element is plot, or
what happens at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end
of the story. Ask students to work with a partner to analyze the
plot of the story. After each partnership shares, record their ideas
on the graphic organizer. Finally, read the completed graphic
organizer aloud and invite students to echo-read.
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Name _______________________________________________________ Date __________________
Rainy Day, Sunny Day
Analyze Story Elements
Character
Setting
Plot — Beginning
Plot — Middle
Plot — End
Rainy Day, Sunny Day
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Notes
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Notes
Rainy Day, Sunny Day
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Name _______________________________________________________ Date __________________
Rainy Day, Sunny Day
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