Our Solar System by Martin 6-pack Author: Bill Nagelkerke ISBN: 9780790327341 Lesson Plan Blackline Master Grade Level: 1 Reading Level: G Strategy/Skill: Main ideas, Making connections, Visualizing Genre: Nonfiction Theme/Topic: Science and Technology, Space Classification: Nonfiction Fluency: Early

Overview

This simple text is presented as if written by a child as part of a school project.  Using photographs and childlike drawings, it includes brief descriptions of our solar system, such as the hottest planets, the biggest planets, moons, asteroids, and comets.  (Big idea: Scientists study Earth and space.)

Suggested Purposes

This book supports the following comprehension strategies:

• making connections between prior knowledge and the text
• identifying the main ideas
• visualizing

It supports the following nonfiction strategies:

• gathering information from labels
• gaining information from photographs
• how to personalize factual information
• using a glossary (boldface type)

Features of the Text

• Nonfiction features:
  • cover flap, which provides support for identifying the big ideas and anchor words
  • the topic (our solar system), which expands on pages 10 and 11 of the anchor book Being a Scientist
  • preview question on the back cover
  • labeled diagrams
  • photographs
  • comparison chart
  • glossary (boldface type)
  • fact boxes
  • bulleted list
  • captions
• Word study:
  • proper nouns – Mars, Saturn
  • initial consonant blends – “sp-,” “pl-,” “dr-,” “cr-,” “cl-,” “gr-,” “thr-”
  • final blend – “-st”
  • initial digraphs – “ch-,” “th-,” “sh-”
  • contractions – it’s, that’s
• Exclamation points
• Comparative language – bigger than, more than, biggest, closest, hottest
• Report format as if written by a child

For more information please see our Lesson Plan