Frog and Toad Are Friends - The Story

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Teacher Background Knowledge and Preparation

Today we are diving further into the story with Chapter 2.  We are covering a great many skills today.

I wanted to talk about some of the important parts of today's lesson.  Toad does several things to think of a story.  I have the students sequence what he did.  This addresses standard RL1.3 Describe characters, settings, and major events in a story, using key details. If I continually work on this skill with my students I am setting them up to achieve the anchor standard for R.3 - CCRA.R3 - Analyze how and why individuals, events, or ideas develop and interact over the course of a text. 

We are also analyzing plot in this story by discussing the problem and solution.  This addresses standard RL1.2 Retell stories, including key details, and demonstrate understanding of their central message or lesson.  By giving my students experience with this skill I am helping them to achieve the anchor standard for R.2 in future years - CCRA.R2 -  Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas.

I've really been working on having my students cite evidence in their answers.  They are having to do inferring in this chapter to determine why Frog got out of bed and also to describe both Frog and Toad.  This addresses RL1.7- Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events. By addressing this standards you can see what students will have to do in future years with the anchor standard.

I am quite confident that by addressing these standards today, I am setting the foundation for students to be able to achieve the anchor standards in future years.  Please view the video in this section to get an understanding of what you will be doing today.  The students will need their "Frog and Toad" packets from yesterday, and you will need your "Frog and Toad"  Smartboard lesson.

Reading Of the Story and Student Writing

20 minutes

    I started Chapter 2 and read until pg 17. At this point I read what was on the Smartboard lesson.  I said to the students, "How would you describe Toad?  What is happening in the story to make you think what you do?  Discuss this with your table mates." After discussing we had a class discussion. The students wrote their adjectives in the bubble map on their packets for Toad.  Then we went to the problem/solution chart on the student packet and the students wrote down what the problem in the story was.  I wanted to see what each student knew so I didn't let them talk to the people at their tables.

     I continued on and read to pg 24.  Toad did several things to think of a story.  After I had read these pages I directed the students to the flow map on their student packets.  I had the student sequence the events of what Toad did to think of a story.  I wanted them to do this independently so I didn't let them talk to partners.  Some of them looked like a deer caught in the headlights so I said, " Do I need to read these pages again?" They quickly said yes.  So I read these pages one more time and then gave them a few minutes to retell and sequence these events.  I have a video of my students doing this activity here in the resource section if you would like to see how they handled this independently.

    After completing the sequencing activity I read the rest of the chapter.  Then I read the page on the Smartboard lesson with the think aloud about why Frog would get out of bed and why Toad would fall asleep.  This was the inferring part which I know is a difficult skill for young students so I let them talk with their table mates.  We then went back to our student packet and wrote down what the solution was.

Independent Practice

20 minutes

     Even though we had done some writing together, I wanted my students to answer some questions independently.  There are 4 questions in the student packet listed under where it says "Questions For Chapter Two".  These questions are:

  • How would you describe Toad?  What is your evidence from the story?
  • What is the problem in the story?  What is your evidence?
  • Do you really think Frog feels better? If he doesn't feel better why would he get out of bed?
  • Why do you think Toad fell asleep? 

I walked around the room, offering feedback to students and questioning them if they didn't have the correct answer written.  You can see how my students did in the video here in the resource section.


5 minutes

     If you've seen any of my other lessons, you know I like my closures to be short and sweet.  I took a hacky sack and we summarized the lesson by tossing the hacky sack to each other.  I started first and asked several questions such a:

  • What was the problem in the story?
  • How would you describe Toad? What is your evidence?
  • What did Toad do to think of a story?
  • Why is it important to be able to retell a story?
  • Why is it important to be able to describe characters? 

After the first question I threw the hacky sack and had a student answer the question.  After each question I asked the student who answered the previous question got to throw the hacky sack to someone knew.  It's a great way to assess what students know and its fun and easy too.