Unit Plan • Unit 8: How Animals Live

Grade: Kindergarten
Subjects: English Language Arts, Social Studies, Science
Time Frame: Four Weeks
Description: Children will learn about their senses and how they help us learn about the
world around us. They will discuss the heart and discover how exercise helps keep their hearts and
bodies healthy and strong. They will also discuss members of the mammal family and what animals
need to live, and learn how to research information on topics of interest.
This unit includes a review week that provides suggested activities as additional review of skills introduced in
Weeks 15-23 for struggling children, and more challenging activities for children who demonstrate mastery of
skills and are functioning at or above grade-level.
The phonic focuses for this unit are short-o and digraphs sh /sh/ and -ck /k/.

Essential Questions:
• (RL.K.1-3) How can asking and answering questions about important parts of the story help us understand
the books we read?
• (RF.K.3d) How does knowing one word help us read a word that has many of the same letters?
• (SL.K.1a,b,c) How can we learn about topics and books by talking to our classmates?
• (SL.K.1a,b,c) What rules do we follow while talking to classmates?
• (SL.K.4,5) What are some things we can do to help us add descriptions and details to our writing?
• (W.K.2) How can we plan and write a nonfiction piece?
• (W.K.7) How does researching information help us become better writers?
• (Science) What did the author want us to learn in the story The Popcorn Book?
• (Science) How do our senses help us learn about our world?
• (Science) Why is exercise important? What might happen if we never did any exercise?
• (Social Studies) How did Helen Keller make a difference in the world?
• (Social Studies) How can you make a difference by knowing sign language?

Common Core + Starfall Standards & Benchmarks

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.K.1 With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.K.2 With prompting and support, retell familiar stories, including key details.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.K.3 With prompting and support, identify characters, settings, and major events in a story.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.K.4 Ask and answer questions about unknown words in a text.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.K.6 With prompting and support, name the author and illustrator of a story and define
the role of each in telling the story.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.K.9 With prompting and support, compare and contrast the adventures and experiences
of characters in familiar stories.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.K.10 Actively engage in group reading activities with purpose and understanding.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.K.2 With prompting and support, identify the main topic and retell key details of a text.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.K.3 With prompting and support, describe the connection between two individuals,
events, ideas, or pieces of information in a text.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.K.4 With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about unknown words in a text.

UNIT PLAN • UNIT 8 1

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.K.6 Name the author and illustrator of a text and define the role of each in presenting the
ideas or information in a text.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.K.9 With prompting and support, identify basic similarities in and differences between two
texts on the same topic (e.g., in illustrations, descriptions, or procedures).
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.K.2a Recognize and produce rhyming words.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.K.2c Blend and segment onsets and rimes of single-syllable spoken words.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.K.2e Add or substitute individual sounds (phonemes) in simple, one-syllable words to
make new words.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.K.3 Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.K.3b Associate the long and short sounds with the common spellings (graphemes) for the
(five major) three vowels.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.K.3c Read common high-frequency words by sight (e.g., the, of, to, you, she, my, is, are, do, does).
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.K.2 Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose informative/
explanatory texts in which they name what they are writing about and supply some
information about the topic.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.K.3 Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to narrate a single event or
several loosely linked events, tell about the events in the order in which they occurred,
and provide a reaction to what happened.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.K.6 With guidance and support from adults, explore a variety of digital tools to produce
and publish writing, including in collaboration with peers.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.K.7 Participate in shared research and writing projects (e.g., explore a number of books by
a favorite author and express opinions about them).
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.K.8 With guidance and support from adults, recall information from experiences or gather
information from provided sources to answer a question.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.K.1 Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about kindergarten
topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.K.2 Confirm understanding of a text read aloud or information presented orally or
through other media by asking and answering questions about key details and
requesting clarification if something is not understood.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.K.4 Describe familiar people, places, things, and events and, with prompting and support,
provide additional detail.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.K.6 Speak audibly and express thoughts, feelings, and ideas clearly.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.K.1b Use frequently occurring nouns and verbs.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.K.1d Understand and use question words (interrogatives) (e.g., who, what, where, when, why, how).
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.K.2a Capitalize the first word in a sentence and the pronoun I.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.K.2d Spell simple words phonetically, drawing on knowledge of sound-letter relationships.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.K.4a Identify new meanings for familiar words and apply them accurately (e.g., knowing
duck is a bird and learning the verb to duck).
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.K.4b Use the most frequently occurring inflections and affixes.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.K.5b Demonstrate understanding of frequently occurring verbs and adjectives by relating
them to their opposites (antonyms).
Starfall Science Observe and describe similarities and differences in the appearance and behavior of
plants and animals.

UNIT PLAN • UNIT 8 2

 Starfall Science Identify major structures of common plants and animals.
Starfall Science Know stories sometimes give plants and animals attributes they do not really have.
Starfall Science Seek information through observation, exploration, and investigations.
Starfall Science Show an awareness of changes that occur in themselves and their environment.
Starfall Science Observe common objects by using the five senses.
Starfall Science Communicate observations orally and through drawings.
Starfall Social Studies Understand how people lived in earlier times and how their lives would be different today.
Starfall Social Studies Know the triumphs in American legends and historical accounts.

Assessments
Formative: Summative:
• Generate a list of medial short-o words after constructing • Starfall Progress Monitoring Weeks 21, 22, 23
a short-o puzzle to assess individually phonological and phonics
• Discriminate between short- and long-o words using skill presented
hand gestures • Evaluation of expository writings about wolves
• Discriminate between /ch/, /sh/, and /th/ picture cards • Evaluate journal writings related to exercise for
while playing the Starfall Speedway game capitalization, spaces between words, punctuation,
• Answer comprehension questions about The Three Little Pigs and inventive spelling
• Correctly sequence the story Mox’s Shop using picture • Summarize one of the Unit stories in their own
cards, sentence strips, and word cards words individually
• Classify picture cards into nouns and verbs • Evaluate the use of sensory words in a writing
• Locate high-frequency words on a word search about marshmallows
• Categorize picture cards by word families, -og and -ock • Choose activities from the Week 24 Curriculum
Review to review skills from Weeks 15-23
• Contribute to sensory word list on chart paper
• Create a sentence in the Reading & Writing workbooks
that uses words in a word bank
• Find and circle high-frequency words found in a newspaper
Week 24 is a review week of content covered from Week 15 to Week 23. See Starfall Kindergarten Curriculum
pages 552-561 for all skills and activities.

UNIT PLAN • UNIT 8 3

Unit Readings and Vocabulary
Fiction: Nonfiction:
Mox Jogs (decodable) Get to Know Helen Keller Poster
Mox’s Shop (decodable) Hop, Bend, Stomp (decodable)
One Fine Day How I Know About My World: A book about the senses
Pop! Pop! Pop! (decodable) The Popcorn Book
The Three Little Pigs (Starfall) Wolves

Essential Unit Vocabulary

Week 21 Week 22 Week 23 Week 24
curious jog archaeologist
doubts lap blizzard
exhausted muscle boil
factual nouns colonist
research verbs examine
hull
kernel
method
senses

Unit Learning Outcomes

As a result of this unit, children will:
• Categorize • Participate in cooperative learning activities to share
• Change and identify new words by delete and knowledge learned from informational text
substitute phonemes • Predict the outcome of a story
• Classify words as nouns, verbs, and adjectives • Produce a graph using words from a story
• Compare and contrast the wolf in The Three Little Pigs • Produce expository stories related to wolves
with wolves in the nonfiction story Wolves • Produce expository writings related to exercise
• Demonstrate the ability to research information using • Recall and discuss information from Wolves,
non-fiction books and a computer search engine The Popcorn Story, and How I Know My World
• Discuss how exercise impacts our lives • Recognize and identify vocabulary words in stories
• Distinguish words through decoding nonsense words that they do not know the meaning of
• Give examples of ways the senses are used to learn • Recognize the value of exercise
about our world • Retell stories in their own words
• Identify medial short-o • Summarize stories
• Make text-to-self connections throughout the unit • Use information learned to write expository stories
throughout the unit

UNIT PLAN • UNIT 8 4

Instructional Skills by Week
Week 21:
• Answer questions about The Three Little Pigs • Identify the short-o sound
• Compare and contrast fictional and factual animals • Locate additional information on a topic with assistance
• Contribute to a class report • Recognize high-frequency words give, him, and your
• Identify and discriminate /sh/ in the initial and final position • Recognize that animals may take on human
• Identify and discriminate short-a and short-e words characteristics in stories
• Identify and discriminate short-o in the medial position • Recognize the -ot and -op word families
• Identify mammal characteristics • Sequence Mox’s Shop
• Identify rhyming words • Use illustrations to retell a story
• Identify story elements (characters, setting) • Write a non-fiction piece on wolves

Week 22:
• Answer questions about stories • Introduce digraph -ck /k/
• Blend and segment phonemes • Introduce exercise and the heart
• Blend sounds to form words • Produce rhyming words
• Create sentences using high-frequency words • Recognize word families -ox, -og, and -ock
• Distinguish initial and final phonemes in words • Recognize healthy and unhealthy activities
• Distinguish nouns and verbs • Recognize high-frequency words: of, were
• Identify and discriminate initial and final /sh/ words • Substitute individual phonemes to create new words
• Identify story elements (characters, setting, plot) • Write a story about exercising with Mox
• Identify the front cover, author, and illustrator of a book
Week 23:
• Answer questions about a story • Recognize Helen Keller and be familiar with her story
• Be aware of how senses help us learn about the world • Recognize high-frequency words this, and than
• Blend sounds to write words • Recognize quotation marks and their purpose
• Complete a graph • Recognize that a nonfiction writing includes
• Contribute to a shared writing factual information
• Distinguish digraphs /ch/, /sh/, /th/ in the initial and • Substitute phonemes to create new words
final positions • Use adjectives to write about marshmallows
• Identify and discriminate initial and medial /o/ • Use illustrations to tell a story
• Predict what a story is about using illustrations • Use sensory words (adjectives) to describe objects
• Realize American Sign Language is a means of communication • Write a letter about facts learned about popcorn

UNIT PLAN • UNIT 8 5

Instructional Resources
• Author’s Chair • Play dough or magnet letters (one set per child)
• Backpack Bear, Plush Mox, Peg and Zac • Pocket chart
• Blank Vocabulary Word Cards • Reading and Writing Workbooks (p. 23 - 34)
• “Blend Practice 2” Generator • Short-a and short-e CVC Word Cards
• Classroom books • Short-o picture and word cards
• Classroom whiteboard • Short-o puzzle word search
• “Color by Word” practice pages • Short-o puzzles
• Computer • Star Writer Melodies
• Flashlight • Starfall Dictionaries
• Generated practice page • Starfall Sing-Along CD
• Graph pages • Starfall Speedway Game
• High-Frequency Word Cards • Superhero h puppet
• High-Frequency Sentence Strips • Technology: Mimio or Smartboard, CD Player,
• High-Frequency word search Computers, tablets
• Individual whiteboards and markers • “This Bright-Star Award” for each child
• Letter Card sh • Vocabulary Word Cards
• Medial Short-o Picture and Word Cards • Wall Card: shell /sh/
• Mox’s Shop Individual Word Cards • Website: more.Starfall.com
• Mox’s Shop Sentence Strips • Words to “Diddle, Diddle, Dumpling”
• Mox’s Shop Sequence Cards • Writing paper
• Picture Cards /ch/, /sh/, /th/

Cross-Curricular Link(s)
Science
• Demonstrate an understanding of the five senses
• Learn the characteristics and behaviors of wolves
• Make a connection between their heart and the importance of exercise
• Participate in making popcorn to integrate the knowledge learned from The Popcorn Book
Social Studies
• Understand the impact that Helen Keller had in the world

UNIT PLAN • UNIT 8 6