HMH Storytown 2009Grade K
Theme: 9, Animals All Around/Lesson 25
Title of Read Aloud: How Many Spots Does a Leopard Have?
Suggested Time: 4 days (30 minutes per day)
Common Core ELA Standards
RL.K.1; RL.K.3;RL.K.4; RL.K.5; RL.K.6; RL.K.7; RL.K.10; RF.K.1;RF.K.3; W.K.2;SL.K.1; SL.K.2; L.K.1; L.K.2; L.K.5
Teacher Instructions
Refer to the Introduction forfurther details.
Before Teaching
- Read the Big Ideas and Key Understandings and theSynopsis. Please do not read this to the students. This is a description for teachers, about the big ideas and key understanding that students should take away after completing this task.
Big Ideas and Key Understanding
It is easy to be tricked when you don’t know the answer.
Synopsis
This ancient African folktaleis a trickster tale about a vain leopard who does not know how to count, but wants to know how many spots he has. The Leopard promises a “magnificent prize” to the animal that can count his spots. However, the other animals he encounteredcannot count high enough to count all of the Leopard’s spots. At the end of the story, Rabbit said, “I know the answer to that…It’s really quite simple…Leopard has only two spots-dark ones and light ones.” Although Leopard knows something is wrong with Rabbit’s counting, he feels he has no choice but to give Rabbit the magnificent prize… a picture of himself. Rabbit tricked Leopard and the other animals, but his prize was not what Rabbit expected.
2. Read entire main selection text, keeping in mind the Big Ideas and Key Understandings.
- Re-read the main selection text while noting the stopping points for the Text Dependent Questions and teaching Vocabulary.
During Teaching
- Teacher reads the main selection text aloud.
2. Teacher re-reads the selection aloud while stopping to engage students in responding to and discussing the questions and returning to the text. A variety of methods can be used to structure the reading and discussion (i.e.: whole class discussion, think-pair-share, group work, etc.)
Instructional Focus
Recalling and inferring details from text read aloud
Text Dependent Questions
Text Dependent Questions / AnswersListen to me reread the title of the folktale and look at the picture on the first page of the folktale (teacher will project on board or hold up book).Which character from the folktale is mentioned in the title and shown in the picture?
Now, listen to me reread the first part of the folktale(page 68):
What was the one thing that Leopard enjoyed doing most?
Superb means something is great and wonderful.
What did Leopard think was more superb than anything in creation? / Leopard is the character mentioned in the title and in the picture.
Leopard enjoyed looking at his reflection in the lake.
Leopard thought the spots on his coat where more superb than anything in creation.
Listen to the next part of the story on page 69. (Teachers read from “Leopard’s rapture….all of creation”).
When someone is vain, they think they are better than others. Why did crocodile think Leopard was vain? / Crocodile caught Leopard looking at himself again. Leopard likes to look at himself.
Listen to what happens next. (Teacher reads from “Leopard was not embarrassed…” to “too many for me to count myself.”)
What did Crocodile accuse Leopard of being in love with?
What idea did this give Leopard?
What problem did this pose for Leopard?
Let’s read some more. (Teacher reads aloud the rest of page 69).
Who does Leopard meet next while walking along the shoreline?
Why can’t Weasel solve Leopard’s problem?
What advice does Weasel give Leopard? / Crocodile told Leopard that he was probably in love with his (Leopard’s) spots and spent a lot of time counting the spots.
This gave Leopard the idea to count his spots.
Leopard cannot count.
Leopard meets Weasel.
Weasel does not know how to count, so he can’t count Leopard’s spots.
Weasel told Leopard to ask the animals at the lake when the animals go to drink from the lake.
Before asking the question, re-read the second paragraph on page 70.
What did Leopard offer to the animal that could count his spots?
Let’s go back a page and reread the last paragraph on page 69.
What different word did the author use that means “magnificent” to describe the prize here? / Leopard offered a “magnificent prize” to the one who could count his spots.
The author used the word “grand” for “magnificent”.
Before asking the question, re-read the sixth paragraph on page 70.
Listen to the next part of thefolktale when Leopard is at the lake with the other animals. (Teacher reads page70)
Who was the first animal to help Leopard? Why did this animal get to be first?
What did the elephant not want the other animals to do? / Elephant was the first since he was the biggest and the oldest.
Elephant did not want the others animals to interrupt him while he is counting.
Teacher continues now to reread page 71 aloud to students, then asks:
Why don’t the other animals know what elephant is talking about?
An engagement is when you have a plan to go someplace and meet someone. Why did Elephant “brighten” or get happy when he told Leopard he had an important engagement and had to leave? / Elephant is using big words that the other animals don’t understand.
Elephant couldn’t count the spots, either; so he used the excuse of needing to be somewhere else at an engagement in order to leave.
Plaintively means to ask or speak in a whiney voice. Listen to me read aloud the next part of the story (page 72, top of page).
What is Leopard asking about in a plaintively voice? Why is Leopard frustrated and using a whiney voice? / Leopard is frustrated because none of the animals are able to count the number of his spots.
Before asking the question, re-readpage 72 until Rabbit arrives at the bottom of the page.
How did Bear distract or hide from Leopard and the other animals that he could not count Leopard’s spots? / Bear asked the other animals about the spots and complimented Leopard on his spots, saying they were beautiful and exquisite. Bear would repeatedly lose his count by talking to the other animals about the spots and telling Leopard about how beautiful his spots are.
Finish reading page 72 to students.
How do we know that Rabbit thinks he can solve Leopard’s problem?
Listen while I read the last page and the end of our folktale.
How did Rabbit trick Leopard and the other animals?
Was Leopard happy with Rabbit’s answer about his spots? How do we know? What is in the story that tells us what Leopard thinks about Rabbit’s counting? / Rabbit says “Is that all? I know the answer to that.”
Rabbit sorted the spots by color, light spots and dark spots. Rabbit said it was simple; Leopard has two spots, dark ones and light ones.
In the story, Leopard knows something is wrong about how Rabbit counted, but he can’t count and has to accept Rabbit’s answer.
At the end of the story what “magnificent prize” did Leopard give Rabbit? What does this tell us about Leopard? / A magnificent price which was a picture of Leopard of himself.
Leopard is vain and thinks he is so beautiful that his picture is a “magnificent prize”.
Using the illustration found on page 73, (teacher will project on board or hold up book) answer the following question.
Look atthe illustration from the end of the folktale. How did the illustrator draw Rabbit’s facial expression that tells us how Rabbit feels about the prize? / Answers will vary such as a sad face, frown, not happy, hurt, upset, not smiling, etc…, but should all be answering that Rabbit does not like the prize.
KEY WORDS ESSENTIAL TO UNDERSTANDING
BIG IDEAS OF TEXT
Words addressed with a question or task / WORDS WORTH KNOWING
Words to be part of systematic vocabulary instruction, not essential for understanding the big ideas of the text
TEACHER PROVIDES DEFINITION
not enough contextual clues provided in the text / Page 68 – superb
Page 69 – creation, grand
Page 72 – exquisite / Page 69 – rapture, embarrassed, handsome, probably, difficult
Page 70 – pardon
Page 71 – eminently, sensible, brightened,
Page 72 – plaintively
Page 73 – concluded, except
STUDENTS FIGURE OUT THE MEANING
sufficient context clues are provided in the text / Page 68 – reflection, magnificent
Page 69 – vain, creature
Page 70 – interrupt
Page 71 - frowned / Page 68 – coat
Page 69 – surface
Page 70 – gathered, announced, trunk, appreciate
Page 71 – suggested, engagement
Page 71 – crowded,
Page 72 – crowded, argued, arrived
Page 73 – exclaimed, pointed, continued, remarked
Culminating Task
Re-Read, Think, Discuss, Write, Illustrate, and Sort.
- Read the story once more to the students. Have a model sentence with the title of the story and a sentence frame (see below for example) on the board, smart board, overhead, etc. to give students guidance and support for sentence writing. Read it with students following along. Give students a paper with the title sentence (or have students copy it). Teachers will give studentsone four frame paper or one half folded paper (use front and back) and/or 1 sheet for each block to use for this activity depending on the needs of your students.
- In Block 1 direct and support the students to draw a picture of the character that was the trickster. Also guide them to include the characters personality as seen at the end of the story.
- In Block 2 direct and support the students to draw the main character in the story that was tricked. Also guide them to include the characters personality as seen at the end of the story.
How Many Spots Does a Leopard Have?
- Draw a picture of the character that was the trickster.
- Draw a picture of the main character that was tricked.
Additional Tasks
- As this story contains a high number of sight words, re-read using the Elmo or scanned pages shown on the smartboard, emphasizing using one-to-one correspondence (pointing them out or framing as you read them) the following common, high-frequency words: he, I, but, a, and me. Another option would be to use a Smartfile slide to review these words by moving a magnifying glass over them to make them visible. Or give each student two words written on white card stock with a white crayon. Then have them paint over it with water color paint, words will be revealed. Then the student will have to tell you the words. (RF.K.3)
- Before reading the story let the children know that it is a folktale and explain/remind them what a folktale is. (RL.K.5)
- Discuss the roles of an author and illustrator. (RL.K.6)
- Discuss characters, setting, and main idea. (RL.K.3)
- Remind students to follow the words from left to right and top to bottom when reading along from the board/overhead, etc. and/or insert a teacher think aloud about left to right, top to bottom and reading page by page on the last read of the story. (RF.K.1)
- Teachers could also take this opportunity to reinforce that words are separated by spaces in print after giving directions for the culminating assignment and/or when reading along with a projected text (not on first read). (RF.K.1)
- Show additional real life pictures of the unfamiliar animals mentioned in the story such as the Leopard, Crocodile, Weasel, Antelope, Crow, and Mule. This will give the studentsan opportunity to compare and categorize new animals to animals they have prior knowledge about.
- Teachers direct and guide the students to write what their favorite part of the story is and give their opinion as to why.
Note to Teacher
-Modify this lesson based on the individual needs of your students and classroom.
-Although there is recommending pacing and chunking of story parts read aloud, it is up to the teacher to customize this for students.
-Model and expect students to respond to questions in complete sentences. Teachers may need to expand on students’ responses and then prompt students to echo or repeat the answer.
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