Kindergarten - ELA
1: Letters
Unit 1: A - A Is for Musk Ox
Lesson 1
Day 1
The lesson asks the child to point to the front cover and to the names of the author and illustrator and explains that a story illustrator draws the pictures for books. The lesson has the child listen to a full reading of the book and then answer comprehension questions about characters and content (e.g., which animals talk).
Lesson 3
Day 3
The text directs the adult to ask the child to find the picture that matches each marked word and to point to the first letter while saying the letter aloud. It gives a concrete example: on the 'C is for clown' page the child is to find the clown in the illustration. The text also instructs the adult to ask about the meaning of 'herd' and discuss why that word fits the book's context, linking vocabulary to the pictured idea.
Lesson 4
Day 4
Activity 1 directs students to look at a world map, identify continents, and view pictures of musk oxen and tundra so students see images alongside informational talk about where musk oxen live and why their fur helps them survive. Activity 2 gives students a Musk Ox coloring page and asks them to add cotton and yarn to simulate qiviut, so students engage with an illustration of the animal and its physical features. Activity 3 has students match pictures to beginning letters and glue pictures under letters, requiring students to identify what each illustration represents and connect it to a written letter/label.
Lesson 5
Day 5
The Reading Workshop asks the child to "spend some time with the book independently, practicing tracing the words" and explicitly says he "can also spend time exploring the illustrations in the book." The Writing Workshop asks the child to draw a picture to accompany his dictated story and instructs that "his picture should relate to the story in some way, in the same way that an illustrator's pictures enhance the author's words." Both activities prompt interaction with illustrations and a connection between pictures and written text.
Unit 2: H - Hondo and Fabian
Lesson 1
Day 1
The teacher script directs an adult to show the child the front cover, have the child point to and read the title, and then "encourage him to consider the illustration on the front cover and ask how the picture might relate to the title." The script also asks the child to find the name of the author and illustrator and to discuss what the illustrator did to create the pictures. After reading, children are asked questions about the characters that can be referenced to the cover illustration and text.
Lesson 2
Day 2
Students are shown the cover of Hondo and Fabian and asked to name the two characters, prompting them to identify the people depicted in the book illustration. Students are shown the picture of the dog on the "Bingo!" page and are asked to point to the letters as the song is sung, linking the illustration of the dog to the name spelled in the text. Students are encouraged to point to the letters themselves, reinforcing a connection between the picture and the written name.
Lesson 3
Day 3
The retelling prompt asks the child to "use the pictures to guide his retelling," which asks students to relate illustrations to story events. Activity 4 has students identify the characters in the book, label die-cuts, and use words or phrases to describe the two characters, linking images of the characters to their names and traits. The Student Activity Page includes a labeled illustration of a horse next to handwriting practice, prompting the child to connect that picture with the word "horse." Activity 2 asks the child to point to the sight word "he" on story pages, connecting text on the page to the book illustrations.
Lesson 4
Day 4
Activity 1 asks students to page through the book to see if Hondo or Fabian moved in other ways, prompting them to use the book's pictures to identify actions. Activity 2 directs students to look at pictures of Hondo and Fabian together and to paint an activity they do with a friend, then dictate a sentence to attach to their painting, linking an illustration with a written sentence. The Student Activity Pages require students to identify images (heart, ant, house, axe, hand, hat; lizard, horse, hammer) and match them to letters, which has students name what each illustration depicts.
Lesson 5
Day 5
In Reading Workshop, students are asked to look at Hondo and Fabian, move their finger under the print, and are asked whether the names seem like good ones for those characters, which links character names (text) to character appearance. In Writing Workshop, students draw a picture of themselves and write about themselves on the lines, creating an illustration paired with written text and being encouraged to 'read' their writing aloud.
Unit 3: I - The Little Island
Lesson 1
Day 1
The lesson's Skills list explicitly states that students will "describe the relationship between illustrations and the story in which they appear (e.g., what moment in a story an illustration depicts)." During reading, students are asked to "observe the illustration on the cover and ask her what she notices" and to "talk about the little island on the cover of the book," prompting them to link an illustration to the text. In Activity 1 students create a picture of the island and place/glue items (rock, trees, fireflies, bushes) to match specific textual descriptions, requiring them to produce and align illustrations with text details.
Lesson 2
Day 2
In Activity 1 students page through The Little Island and are asked to note how the pictures progress through the seasons and to say what is changing on the island, linking illustrations to seasonal events in the story. The Student Activity Page (Option 1) includes a small illustration of an igloo labeled "igloo," giving students an opportunity to match an image to the word and recognize what thing the illustration depicts. Activity 3 has students paint an island seen from above and discusses how islands appear on maps, reinforcing recognition of a place depicted visually.
Lesson 3
Day 3
Students are prompted to reread The Little Island and to tell the story in their own words while being encouraged to use the illustrations to guide their retelling (Question #1). In Activity 3 students look at pages of the book to find examples of where animals move and are shown pictures from the book to identify whether each animal moves in the air, on land, or in the water. The teacher also prompts students to point to the title and cover illustration before reading, linking text and picture.
Lesson 4
Day 4
Students look at a picture of the stormy ocean and discuss how waves form, connecting what they see in the illustration to causes (wind). Students turn to the first page of the story, hear/read the lines about the island and winds, and act out motions of the winds, clouds, fish, fog, and kitten in relation to the island, using the page as a referent. Students name and match images on the letter-sound activity pages (e.g., ant, astronaut, igloo), identifying what each illustration depicts while selecting the correct beginning letter.
Lesson 5
Day 5
Activity 2 asks the child to look at the book and identify what she sees on the front cover (including an illustration of the island), to flip to the back cover and "talk about what she sees," and to open the title page and discuss its purpose and contents. Activity 2 also has the child spend several minutes looking at the book alone and then answer questions about her opinion and favorite part, which invites discussion of pictures and text. Activity 3 has the child draw a picture of a visit to the island and then write or dictate text about that picture, pairing an illustration with related written ideas.
Unit 4: T - What Do You Do With a Tail Like This?
Lesson 1
Day 1
Students are asked to preview the book noting the title and authors/illustrators and to predict what the book will be about based on what they notice in the pictures. After reading, students are prompted to refer back to the pictures while discussing what they learned about animals and how animals use their ears, eyes, and noses. In Activity 1 students find animal stickers and place each pictured animal into a box labeled by number of legs, and in Activity 2 students draw animal picture cards and state one similarity and one difference in the animals' structures.
Lesson 2
Day 2
Students are directed to look specifically at pages in What Do You Do With a Tail Like This? and to "talk about the purpose of that part of the animals' structure," which asks them to connect pictures of tails with their functions. Students cut out animal picture cards that are missing tails and find and glue the matching tail pieces, using the animal illustrations to identify the correct tail. The Student Activity Pages present animals with designated glue areas and separate tail pieces that students must match and attach, requiring them to use the illustrations to make matching decisions.
Lesson 3
Day 3
The lesson has the adult show the sight word card "this," point to the word on the book's front cover, and then show the word in other places in the book for the child to read, linking print on the page to places in the book. The lowercase t handwriting sheet includes a small turtle illustration next to the word "turtle," so the child sees a picture paired with its printed label while practicing letter formation. The "Pin the Tail on the Monkey" activity has the child place tails on a printed monkey image, requiring the child to attend to and interact with an illustration of a character.
Lesson 4
Day 4
Students are asked to circle the correct beginning letter for each picture and to cut and paste letters under the correct letter on the "Letter Sounds: T" pages, which requires them to identify what each illustration depicts and connect it to letter/sound patterns. The animal activity page shows pictures of animals with incomplete three-letter labels so students must use the illustration to fill in the missing letters of the animal names. The "Beginning Letter Sounds" page asks students to match images (taxi, ambulance, hand, tree, island) to corresponding beginning letters by drawing lines, directly tying each illustration to the word text.
Lesson 5
Day 5
Activity 3 has students draw a picture of an animal body part they researched and write or dictate 1–3 facts about that part, which are written as complete sentences under their drawing. The dictation and written sentences place text directly beneath the student-created illustration. Activity 2 has students spend time independently with the book and identify the order of the body parts, which requires them to look through the book's content.
Unit 5: L - We're Going on a Leaf Hunt
Lesson 1
Day 1
The lesson prompts children to look at the book cover and answer: "What does she notice? What season does she think is depicted? What clues give her that idea?" It asks students to "look back through the story as you discuss it," encouraging reference to pictures while discussing the text. On the first page students are asked what the children want to find (leaves) and what kind (colorful), linking a text detail to how it appears on the page.
Lesson 2
Day 2
In the Getting Started section students are asked to look at the second page of the book where the children are coming to a mountain and to answer "What kind of mountain is it?" Students are guided to find the word "tall," which is explicitly tied to the mountain illustration, and are prompted to say "a tall mountain." The activity also directs attention to how the font changes (gets taller) to reflect the idea in the illustration.
Lesson 3
Day 3
Students are asked to construct a simple map of the children's journey, drawing the tall mountain, maple tree, dark forest, waterfall, pond, and bush and using arrows to show the path, which requires matching pictured places to events in the text. The Student Activity Page shows an illustration of a lion next to the word "lion," and the reading activity directs students to point to the sight word "go" on a specific page, connecting pictures/print to words. The reading prompts also ask students to notice how font reflects words and to identify descriptive words for the forest, waterfall, lake, and skunk, encouraging observation of visual-text relationships.
Lesson 4
Day 4
Students are asked to circle the correct beginning letter for each picture and to cut and paste letters under the correct images on the "Letter Sounds: L" pages, which requires them to identify what each illustration depicts (e.g., leaf, igloo, ladder) and match it to letter text. The second Student Activity Page asks students to match images (axe, hand, teepees, igloo, ice cream) to corresponding beginning-letter squares, reinforcing identification of the pictured object and its label. These tasks explicitly have students use illustrations as cues to select or write the matching text/letters.
Lesson 5
Day 5
Activity 2 asks students to spend time with the book, look for describing words, and practice reading left to right while using their finger to guide across the words. Activity 3 Option 1 has students draw a picture of an imagined adventure and then dictate or write text to go along with their illustration. Activity 3 Option 2 has students draw five things they like and think of or write a describing word for each picture.
Unit 6: F - Fireflies
Lesson 1
Day 1
The Skills section explicitly states: "With prompting and support, describe the relationship between illustrations and the story in which they appear (e.g., what moment in a story an illustration depicts)." The Reading and Questions directions ask the child to look at the cover and describe what they see (e.g., "What are the children doing?") and to read and discuss specific pages. Question #2 asks the child to find evidence in the pictures for how the boy feels, and Question #1 directs the child to look back at a particular page to identify what is flickering.
Lesson 2
Day 2
Students are asked to look at the middle page of the book showing children collecting fireflies and to discuss words on that page, linking words to meaning. Students are prompted to look at the "Insects" page pictures and decide whether each creature is an insect, explaining which visual clues (body parts, legs, wings) guided their decision. Students follow a step-by-step craft page that pairs illustrated steps with instructional text, using the pictures to assemble the insect model. Students are asked to find the uppercase letter F on the front cover, connecting a printed letter/word to the cover image.
Lesson 4
Day 4
Students are asked to talk about the creatures in the pictures, color them appropriately, cut them into cards, and sort them into insects and non-insects, which requires identifying what each illustration depicts. In the Letter Sounds — F activities, students circle the correct beginning letter for each picture and cut and paste picture boxes under the correct letter, which requires matching pictured items to their written/phonetic labels. The Beginning Letter Sounds page lists images (butter, head, flag, orange, ax) that students must identify and associate with letters.
Lesson 5
Day 5
Activity 2 asks the child to spend time reviewing the illustrations on his own and then to tell the story in his own words using the illustrations as a guide. The teacher/parent is prompted to discuss the book together with questions about parts of the story and the child's reactions, which supports linking pictures to events and feelings in the text.
Unit 7: E - But No Elephants
Lesson 1
Day 1
Students are prompted to look at the cover and say what they see and predict what the book will be about, and to explain why they have that opinion, which asks them to use illustrations to identify the subject of the text. Students are asked to identify each animal picture by name and to color each one according to the colors in the book, which requires matching illustrations to details in the text. Students use the pictures and the book as references to put the animals in the order they visited Grandma Tildy, practicing how illustrations show event sequence described in the text.
Lesson 2
Day 2
Activity 1 directs students to look at a book illustration and describe the positions of animals using words like "in," "on," "under," "beside," and "behind." The activity includes example student responses that name specific characters and describe what the illustration depicts (e.g., "The elephant's legs are under the floor," "The canary is on the elephant"). The prompt to recall a predicament Grandma Tildy faced and the specific reference to the picture in which the elephant has fallen through the floor ties the pictured event to the story context.
Lesson 3
Day 3
During reading, the child is asked to explain what happened in the story after reading, which can draw on information from illustrations. The Student Activity Page shows an illustration of an egg that is explicitly connected to the lowercase letter "e," so students view and connect an image to a word/sound. Activity 3 provides animal pictures and asks students to sort them by number of legs, requiring students to identify what each picture depicts and relate that depiction to a counting task.
Lesson 4
Day 4
Students are asked to look back at the first page picture and answer guided questions such as 'What is Grandma Tildy doing? What kind of work is she doing? Why is she doing that?' Students look through the story pictures to identify each pet and explain how that pet helped Grandma Tildy meet a want or a need (e.g., canary provides singing/company, beaver cuts wood for warmth). Students make and use animal stick puppets and hold up each animal as it is introduced, linking the visual puppet to the corresponding part of the text.
Lesson 5
Day 5
In Activity 1, students use the elephant pictures as visual cues to count ears and feet and see the connection between the pictures and written equations (e.g., showing two elephants and writing 2+2=4). The Student Activity Page provides repeated elephant illustrations that students color and use as concrete referents while counting. In Activity 2, students are encouraged to "read" by looking at the pictures and retell the story in their own words, using the illustrations to model what reading looks like.
Unit 8: C - Millions of Cats
Lesson 1
Day 1
The lesson instructs an adult to "Look at the cover of the book together" and to ask the child "what he sees and what he thinks the book will be about," which prompts the child to describe the cover illustration and connect it to the title and book content. The Reading and Questions section includes guided discussion prompts about characters and events that can be linked to illustrations (e.g., discussing the old man, old woman, and the cats). The Activities include an image (Venn diagram) with a small illustration of a cat, which students can use to identify which character the picture depicts and compare illustrated characters across texts.
Lesson 2
Day 2
Students are directed to talk about the text passage "And he set out over hills… He trudged through cool valleys" and then make landforms with playdough, linking physical features to wording on page three. Students are asked to look at the front cover to find the uppercase C and work with a worksheet that shows an illustration of a cat with the word "cat" underneath, connecting image and text. Students are asked to decorate the "A Pretty Cat" illustration to represent the prettiest cat the man could have picked for his wife, tying an image to a character/idea from the story.
Lesson 4
Day 4
Students match pictured objects to beginning letters on the "Beginning Letter Sounds" activity page and cut/paste picture boxes beneath the correct beginning letter, which requires identifying what each illustration depicts and linking it to written letters/words. On the scrambled-word "Letter Sounds: C" page, students unscramble letters to write the correct word for each image, connecting images to their written labels. In the pet-care activity, students draw pictures (and may include words) on a poster to explain how to care for a pet, aligning illustrations with informational text they produce and use when giving a "pet talk."
Unit 9: G - The Real Mother Goose
Lesson 1
Day 1
Activity 1 directs students to read poems and then look at the corresponding illustration and ask if they know the shape of the face of a clock, a well, a button, and a pancake, prompting identification of what the illustration depicts. Activity 1 also has students locate circles in the room after viewing illustrations, reinforcing the connection between pictured objects and text references. Activity 2 has students move their fingers along lines while looking at the picture, answer "What is happening?", and act out the poem, which engages students in describing the scene shown in the illustration relative to the text.
Lesson 2
Day 2
Students read the poem "The Year" and then use the "Months of the Year" sheet where each month is represented by an image that symbolizes that time of year. Students color and cut out the box for January and are prompted to "talk about what happens in January" and to describe the weather and activities. Students are invited to draw their own pictures or find and cut out magazine pictures that represent the month, explicitly linking images to the month's events or characteristics.
Lesson 4
Day 4
Students create and add symbols and pictures for each month in the "Months of the Year" book, linking illustrations to weather, activities, and special events for those months. The lesson has students reread the poem "The Year" and look at the pages of the months book they created, which connects text content to the images they add. In the letter-sounds activities, students circle the correct beginning letter for each picture and match cut-out picture boxes to letters, requiring them to identify what each illustration depicts.
Lesson 5
Day 5
Students dictate a poem and have it written down, then create an illustration to go along with their poem (Activity 3). Students read poems aloud and talk about the spherical objects described, identifying items mentioned in the text (Activity 1). These activities require students to connect text content with visual representation by producing or identifying images tied to the words.
Unit 10: O - Owl Babies
Lesson 1
Day 1
The lesson asks the child to "look at the cover of the book and describe what he sees" and to use that observation to predict whether the book will be factual or imaginary, which prompts students to connect an illustration (the cover) to the book's content. Activity 1 has students assemble an owl "as shown in the diagram," requiring them to interpret a pictured model and identify parts (circles, ovals, triangles) that represent features of the owl. The Owl Cookie image is labeled with arrows identifying eyes and beak, prompting students to name what the illustration depicts.
Lesson 2
Day 2
The lesson asks the child to look at the front cover and say what she sees (identifying a picture of an owl) and to talk about the difference between a photograph and a hand-drawn picture. The child is prompted to look through the pages and predict whether the book is fiction or nonfiction based on the photographs. After reading, the child is asked to confirm that it is nonfiction and to dictate or write facts she learned onto the spaces on the picture of the owl, connecting text information to the illustration.
Lesson 4
Day 4
Activity 1 asks students to look at pictures of different owls and observe what is different and similar, and asks students to explain how the book Owl Babies gives owls attributes they don't really have (for example, talking or having human-like feelings). Activity 3 has students identify pictures on letter-sound pages (e.g., octopus, goat, apple, orange) by circling the correct beginning letter and pasting letters under the correct picture. The student activity pages note decorative owl/penguin icons in the corners, indicating visual elements are present alongside text.
Lesson 5
Day 5
Activity 2 asks the child to examine two owl books and think about which is fiction and which is nonfiction and what clues in the books support that idea. The guidance explicitly points out that the fiction book's illustrations are paintings and show owls that talk and feel like people, while the nonfiction book uses photographs to illustrate factual information. Activity 3 provides a six-step drawing guide where each written step is paired with an illustration, so students practice using pictures to follow and represent written directions.
Unit 11: S - Seasons of Arnold's Apple Tree
Lesson 1
Day 1
The Reading and Questions section directs the child to look at the front cover, describe what she sees, and take a close look at the pictures of the four branches and say what they represent. The guide asks the child to look at what Arnold does with his tree during each season, prompting discussion of how illustrations show actions across seasons. The Skills list explicitly includes: "With prompting and support, describe the relationship between illustrations and the story in which they appear (e.g., what moment in a story an illustration depicts)."
Lesson 2
Day 2
Students are asked to look at the front cover of a book and find the uppercase letter S, linking a visual element (the cover) to a printed letter. The Weather Report chart provides pictorial icons (sunny, cloudy, rainy, snowy; wind icons; temperature options) with labels that students use to record observations by drawing, writing, or dictation. The "A Tree for All Seasons" diagram displays four labeled illustrations (Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter) with annotations pointing to specific decorations (green tissue paper, cotton balls, pom-poms) that students reproduce to match each season.
Lesson 4
Day 4
In Activity 1 students are asked to look at the page where Arnold's family works together to make the apple pie and cider and to explain how each family member contributes, which requires identifying people and actions shown on the page. In Activity 3 students use pictures to identify beginning letter sounds (circle the correct beginning letter for each picture and paste letters under the correct picture), which requires recognizing what each illustration depicts and linking it to a written letter/word.
Lesson 5
Day 5
In Activity 2 (Reading Workshop) students are asked to look through books with outdoor settings and identify the setting and the clues that helped them identify the season. The prompt asks the child to share the setting and the clues she used, which could involve attending to pictures as sources of clues. In Activity 3 (Writing Workshop) students draw a picture of their favorite season and then write or dictate things they know about that season, producing an illustration alongside text.
Unit 12: D - Dinosaurs Big and Small
Lesson 1
Day 1
Students are asked to look at the book cover and describe what they see and predict what the book will be about, prompting them to link the illustration to the topic. Students are asked to identify the author and illustrator and to state the illustrator's role (e.g., drew accurate pictures of dinosaurs). In Activity 1, students find picture #3 (Caudipteryx), note its labeled length (3 feet), and physically measure and compare that illustration's information to their own length, directly connecting an illustration to text-provided facts.
Lesson 2
Day 2
The Review asks the child to show a dinosaur from the book and name one interesting characteristic, which requires looking at an illustration and describing a feature. The Student Activity Page pairs an illustration of a dinosaur with the printed word "dinosaur," and Activity 2 has the child look at the front cover to find the uppercase D and connect the letter/word to "dinosaur." These items require students to identify and name pictured things and link pictures to words or letters.
Lesson 3
Day 3
The lesson asks the child to use the picture on page 27 (a lizard and a crocodile) to guess the meaning of the word "sprawl," explicitly linking the illustration to the sentence about how dinosaurs walked. The Describing Dinosaurs activity directs the child to look at pictures in Dinosaurs Big and Small and come up with adjectives to describe specific dinosaurs (Seismosaurus, Brachiosaurus, etc.), prompting students to attend to images when talking about dinosaur characteristics. The poem activity asks children to point to words as they recite and then look at book pictures to identify describing words, which connects text descriptions with accompanying images.
Lesson 4
Day 4
Students identify what pictures depict when they circle the correct beginning letter for each picture on the "Letter Sounds: D" page and cut/paste letters under the correct image. Students may write the correct word in blank spaces beneath images on the activity pages, linking an illustration to its written word. Students create a drawing of a dinosaur and dictate five facts that are recorded beneath the drawing, pairing student-generated text with an illustration.
Lesson 5
Day 5
Activity 2 asks the child to read a page of Dinosaurs Big and Small and to look for adjectives in the text, and it asks nonreaders to look through books and think about describing words that fit the pictures they see. The activity prompts the child to share adjectives found or thought about after independent time with the books. Activity 3 has the child cut out realistic dinosaur pictures and paste them in a journal, then dictate or attempt to write factual sentences about the dinosaurs similar to nonfiction text.
Unit 13: P - Harold and the Purple Crayon
Lesson 1
Day 1
Students are asked to look at the cover and state what color they see and what they think the book will be about, prompting them to use the cover illustration to predict the text. Students turn to pages where Harold is drawing buildings and are asked to identify that the illustrations depict rectangles (buildings) and squares (windows) and to describe attributes of those shapes. Students are offered an optional extension to draw how Harold solved a predicament, linking a text event to their own illustration.
Lesson 2
Day 2
Students are asked directly about illustrations in Harold and the Purple Crayon by answering "What shape is the moon in the story? Does the moon always look that way?" Students cut out, sort, and glue moon-phase pictures and their matching word labels into a circular diagram, matching each illustration to its label (new moon, full moon, half moon, sliver, crescent). The provided image and activity require students to identify which picture corresponds to each named phase of the moon.
Lesson 3
Day 3
The lesson directs students to look at specific pages (e.g., the boat page and the pages where Harold drew buildings) while asking about word meaning and sight words, which prompts students to use pictures alongside text. Activity 3 has students compare Harold's drawn buildings on the page to real three-dimensional buildings, trace the bottoms of a cube and prism, and count faces/edges/corners while referencing the book pages. The Word Play activity asks students to turn to the picture of the boat to infer the meaning of "trim" in that sentence, using the illustration to support word meaning.
Lesson 4
Day 4
Activity 1 asks students to compare their neighborhood to Harold's and to name the important places he would include, prompting discussion about what places illustrations represent. Students are instructed to use provided building pictures (some labeled: Hospital, Fire Station, Bank, Police Station, Post Office, School, etc.) to construct a neighborhood map and to cut/paste or place those images on butcher paper. The activity directions and student pages have labeled and unlabeled illustrations that students handle, sort, and place while describing where each building goes and using a toy car to travel from place to place.
Lesson 5
Day 5
Students are asked to look at a provided diagram while constructing shapes ("Show her how to construct a square using the toothpicks and marshmallows. (See diagram.) What does she notice about the square?"). Students are also asked to draw a picture and then write or dictate a description or story about that picture, which has them create text that corresponds to an image ("Have your child choose a color and draw a picture... Then have her write or dictate a description or story about the picture.").
Unit 14: B - Blueberries for Sal
Lesson 1
Day 1
Students are asked to look at the cover and say what they notice, predict what the book will be about, and explain whether the child on the cover looks like she likes blueberries and how they can tell. Students are prompted to find the name of the illustrator and to flip through the book to notice what color the illustrator used. The teacher/parent is told to read the book and then discuss questions about characters and events, linking discussion to the pictures on the cover and the book's illustrations.
Lesson 2
Day 2
Activity 1 asks students to look through the book and find clues from the pictures (model of the car, clothing, hairstyle, cast-iron stove) that show the story takes place in the past, directly linking illustrations to the book's setting. Activity 3 shows a pictured spread and asks students to describe what the picture shows about Little Bear hustling and to infer the meaning of the word 'hustle' from the illustration; it also has students page through the book, read movement words, and act out how the pictured characters move.
Lesson 3
Day 3
Students read Blueberries for Sal and are asked to retell the story in their own words after reading. Students may use the pictures to prompt their retelling, which requires them to look at illustrations while recounting events. During reading the adult points to words (e.g., the sight word "she") and encourages the child to track text while viewing the page.
Lesson 4
Day 4
Students are asked to read Blueberries for Sal and create a two-column list naming fictional and non-fictional elements about bears, which requires referring to content from the book. The activity includes an image/chart with a drawing of a bear and labeled "Fiction" and "Non-fiction," which students can view while listing story elements. The Letter Sounds and Beginning Letter Sounds pages require students to identify what each picture represents (e.g., astronaut, bat, guitar) and match or circle the correct beginning letter, so students practice naming what illustrations depict.
Lesson 5
Day 5
Activity 2 directs the child to spend time looking independently at books (like Blueberries for Sal) and to search for clues that help identify the setting as the past. The activity prompts the child to consider visual details such as the kinds of clothes characters are wearing and the technology shown (how people cook, listen to music, drive, or do farm work). The child is asked to share findings about these visual clues after independent examination.
Unit 15: R - Rain
Lesson 1
Day 1
Students are asked to look at the book cover and note that the small words look like rain falling down, linking visual appearance to the concept of rain. During reading, students are prompted to point to words and to point out the colors that match the text and to predict what the rain will fall on next, connecting illustrations and visual cues to story events. In Activity 1, students place die-cut pictures (raindrops, clouds, sun, trees, car, etc.) on a sky mat to recreate the progression of the story, mapping images to parts of the text.
Lesson 2
Day 2
Students are asked to draw a picture of the object they name for each sentence in the Making a Rainbow Book, which has them produce an illustration that corresponds to a written sentence (e.g., "I see a red apple" and a drawing of a red apple). The Uppercase R activity directs students to look at the front cover and find the letter R and links the letter to the word "rain," and the Uppercase R student page includes an illustration of a raindrop labeled "raindrop." The Rainbow Sentences activity page presents sentences with color prompts and an outlined rainbow graphic, which requires students to select or represent an object that matches the text.
Lesson 3
Day 3
Students are asked to manipulate die-cuts to match each page after the book is read, linking the picture pieces to the corresponding text. Students are prompted to read back the book while pointing to words, allowing them to connect specific words (e.g., "rain," "on") with illustrations. In Activity 3, students arrange and glue die-cuts to recreate the scene from the last page and point to each object while using its describing word (for example, "purple flowers").
Lesson 4
Day 4
Students are asked to circle the correct beginning letter for each picture and to cut and paste letters under the correct picture on the "Letter Sounds: R" pages, which requires them to identify what each illustration depicts. Another activity asks students to look at a picture of a rainbow to remember the order of the colors, linking the illustration to the concept of color sequence. The Student Activity Page titled "Beginning Letter Sounds" has images (ladder, elephant, football, tennis ball, star) aligned with letters for students to match, prompting students to connect each illustration to its initial letter.
Lesson 5
Day 5
Students are asked to "practice reading the book aloud, using pictures and the colors of the type as a guide," which has them attend to and use illustrations to support reading. Students are directed to read the book they wrote about colors to family, implying they will reference their own pictures while reading. In Writing Workshop, students write sentences using color words and "illustrate her sentences or phrases using the colors that correspond with her writing," which requires creating images that match the text.
Unit 16: N - Night in the Country
Lesson 1
Day 1
Students are asked to look at the cover of Night in the Country and to describe what they notice; the teacher prompts them to point out the sky and to describe it as a sunset and identify the time of day. Students read the book and are asked questions linking pictures and words to meaning, including "What does the author seem to think about nighttime? How can you tell?" with a model answer noting that the pictures and words are gentle and descriptive. The activities ask students to discuss why the country is dark, prompting them to connect the illustration (lack of city lights) with the text's idea of nighttime in the country.
Lesson 3
Day 3
The lesson asks the child to "tell you the story in his own words, using the pictures as a guide to the retelling," which requires students to use illustrations to reconstruct and explain the text. Activity 3 explicitly directs the child to look through Night in the Country and identify landforms seen in the pictures (river, fields, road, hills) and to "talk about the names of these features" while creating models, which has students name what the illustrations depict.
Lesson 5
Day 5
Students are asked to spend time independently with a book, to "read" it, look at the pictures, and identify a question or two they'd like to know more about after reading. The teacher example invites questions about where the book is located or "more about the owl or the frogs," directing attention to characters, animals, and setting shown in illustrations. Students are asked to share their questions and to talk about them, with suggested follow-up research if appropriate.
Unit 17: M - Marshmallow
Lesson 1
Day 1
The reading prompts ask the child to look at the book cover, name what she sees (a white bunny), and connect that illustration to the book title and expected topic. The instructions also direct the child to a specific page illustration (Marshmallow kissing Oliver) and ask questions linking the picture to the text word 'hesitated' and to Oliver's actions and feelings.
Lesson 2
Day 2
Students are asked to look at the front cover of Marshmallow and find the uppercase letter M, linking the cover image to the letter. The Student Activity Page displays a monkey illustration with the word monkey written beneath it, and students use that picture-word pairing to associate the letter M with a real-world thing. Students are prompted to look at a scene where Oliver is about to pounce on Marshmallow and to talk about his actions, which directs attention to a specific picture in the book.
Lesson 3
Day 3
Students are asked after reading to tell the story in their own words and are encouraged to use the pictures to prompt their retelling. Students are shown the second page and asked to read the word "out" as it occurs in the story, linking printed words to the page. Students view the Marshmallow Bunny diagram and discuss the book Marshmallow, which includes a comparison of the bunny and a full-grown cat, providing visual elements tied to the text.
Lesson 4
Day 4
Students are asked to "look at the pictures" and "observe the colors" and are told that the illustrator used bold outlines and smudged charcoal to create pictures of Oliver, which directs attention to how an illustration depicts a character. The Student Activity Pages require students to identify pictured objects (mitten, sailboat, buffalo, ear, ant, turtle; alligator, mushroom, house, leaf, drum) and match them to letters, which has students name what each illustration shows.
Unit 18: U - Umbrella
Lesson 1
Day 1
The lesson asks the child to look at the front cover and tell what he sees and what he thinks the book will be about, prompting use of illustrations to infer content. The extension suggests taking a walk and comparing that walk to the one in the story, which encourages comparing pictured events or scenes with real experience. After reading, the child is asked to recall events from the book, which could be paired with page-by-page review of pictures.
Lesson 2
Day 2
Students are asked to look at the front cover and help find the uppercase letter U, directing attention to a visual element on the page. Students see an image of an umbrella on the Student Activity Page with the printed word "umbrella" beneath it, enabling a picture-to-word connection. Students are prompted to locate Japanese characters in the book and view photos of people, homes, and habitats in Japan, exposing them to images that relate to the book's cultural content.
Lesson 3
Day 3
The lesson asks the child to retell the story and explicitly encourages using the pictures to prompt the retelling, which directs the child to consult illustrations while recounting text. The lowercase u handwriting page includes a labeled illustration (a unicorn) that links a picture to a written word. The kanji activity directs the child to look at characters in the book and on the activity page with English translations, supporting symbol-to-meaning connections between images/characters and words.
Lesson 4
Day 4
Students circle the correct beginning letter for each picture and practice writing the letter on the "Beginning Sounds: U" page, and they cut out letters and paste them under the correct picture-word pair. On the "Beginning Letter Sounds" page, students match animals (unicorn, monkey, panda, rabbit, goat) to the squares with the corresponding initial letter. The origami fan student page shows step-by-step numbered boxes with illustrations that students follow to fold paper into a fan.
Unit 19: J - Jump Frog Jump
Lesson 1
Day 1
Students are asked to look at the cover and identify the animals they see and to explain which animal will be the main character and why, linking picture placement and title to character. Students are prompted to predict the setting from the cover illustration. Students consult the book and cut-and-order story sequence pictures, matching illustrations to sentences and placing scenes in story order; multiple student activity pages pair illustrations with captions for students to read and use when sequencing events.
Lesson 2
Day 2
Students are asked to use die-cut pictures of animals to think about what group of animals they represent and to sort them by characteristics, which requires identifying what the illustrations depict. The Student Activity Page shows a picture of a jar labeled "jar," giving students a concrete picture-word pairing to connect an illustration with its written label. The instruction to have the child look at the front cover and find the uppercase letter J links a visual element on the cover to the written letter and word (e.g., the J in "jump").
Lesson 3
Day 3
Students are asked to line up story sequence cards from Day 1 and tell the story using those cards as prompts, which requires identifying what each picture depicts in the story. Activity 3 has students read phrases from the book and place die-cut figures in the physical relationship that matches the phrase, connecting pictured positions of animals to the text. The Student Activity Page includes an illustration labeled "jellyfish," which students can use to link the picture to the word and concept.
Lesson 4
Day 4
In Activity 1, students construct a four-part diagram of the frog life cycle by gluing representations for eggs, tadpole, froglet, and frog and labeling each quadrant with the corresponding word. The image description explicitly shows a circular diagram with labeled silhouettes for "eggs," "tadpole," "froglet," and "frog," which students refer to when assembling and labeling their own diagram. The Student Activity Pages require students to identify pictured items (pig, duck, octopus, goose, jet; jump rope, unicycle, etc.) and match them to letters or letter combinations, linking each illustration to the written label or letter choice.
Unit 20: K - Kindness
Lesson 1
Day 1
The lesson's Skills list explicitly includes: "With prompting and support, describe the relationship between illustrations and the story in which they appear (e.g., what moment in a story an illustration depicts)." The Reading section asks the child to look at the cover, say what he notices, and predict what the book will be about, prompting use of the cover illustration to make meaning. Activity 1 and the Student Activity Page require students to identify and count each animal character pictured and to number cut-out animal illustrations according to the order they are introduced in the text, linking pictured characters to their mentions in the story.
Lesson 3
Day 3
The lesson asks students to locate specific pages by illustration (e.g., "Turn to the page in the book that has the frog sitting on top of the log" and to "find the page in Harry the Happy Mouse where the frog thanks Harry"). Activity instructions have students point to items on those pages (e.g., pointing to examples of the letter k on the pictured page). Activity 3 has students reread illustrated pages and record actions of animals versus human-like actions using a chart, which engages students with both the pictured animals and the text describing their actions.
Lesson 4
Day 4
In Activity 1 students are asked to add illustrations to a posted list of citizen behaviors by drawing, cutting out pictures from magazines, or printing pictures from the Internet—this requires students to select or create images that represent text items. The Student Activity Page for letter sounds directs students to look at pictures, recognize the objects, and spell the words using provided letters, and another page asks students to draw lines from each letter to the picture that starts with that sound, which connects pictures with words/sounds.
Lesson 5
Day 5
Activity 2 directs the child to spend time looking carefully at the pictures and to practice retelling the story through them. The child is then asked to retell the story, giving a general description of each act of kindness using the illustrations as a guide. Activity 3 asks the child to draw a picture of a favorite scene and to write or dictate a brief description of the book, linking text content with a chosen illustration.
Unit 21: V - Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin
Lesson 1
Day 1
Students are asked to look at the cover and name the instrument the musician is playing, prompting them to identify what the illustration depicts. They are encouraged to pay attention to the instruments and the activities of the dog, cats, and mouse on each page, directing students to connect pictures with story events. Activity 1 has students go through the book and match instrument pictures with the number playing and the ensemble name, requiring them to use illustrations to identify people/things and link that information to text labels. Question #3 asks students to describe what the animals did throughout the book, which draws on illustrated actions as well as text.
Lesson 3
Day 3
Students are asked to read Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin and then use the book to place instrument pictures in the order in which they appear, requiring them to match illustrations to their appearance in the text. During Activity 2, students look at pictures of instruments and identify which instruments correspond to cylinder or cone shapes, linking visual details to the objects depicted. The activities prompt students to attend to illustrations and connect them to instrument names and features.
Lesson 4
Day 4
Students identify pictured objects on the letter-sound pages (e.g., violin, fork, van, pumpkin) and select or circle the correct beginning letter, then cut and paste letters under the correct picture, which requires naming what each illustration depicts and linking it to written letters. On the Beginning Letter Sounds page, students match images from a cut-out strip to labeled letter boxes, practicing mapping an illustration to its corresponding written symbol. On the Senses Web, students draw the instrument in the center and write, dictate, or draw sensory observations around it, connecting their illustration to descriptive text or labels.
Unit 22: Y - Little Blue and Little Yellow
Lesson 1
Day 1
Students are asked to look at the front cover of Little Blue and Little Yellow and make observations and predictions about what the book will be about, which prompts them to relate the illustration to the text. Students are asked to name the shape of Little Blue and Little Yellow (noting they look like circles with rough edges), connecting what the picture shows to ideas in the story. The activity includes a labeled "Paint Diagram" image that students can observe while doing the hands-on painting task, encouraging them to attend to illustrations that accompany instructions or text.
Lesson 2
Day 2
The lesson instructs the adult to ask the child to "look back at the pictures in the story" and to answer questions such as what ways Little Blue and Little Yellow were good friends and good citizens, which asks the child to use pictures to support understanding of characters' actions. The lesson also prompts the child to note whether Little Blue ignored rules and why that mattered, linking pictured events to the text's meaning. These prompts require the child, with support, to describe what the illustrations show about people and actions in the story.
Lesson 3
Day 3
The lesson instructs the child to "use the pictures in the book and the balls of dough to retell and act out the story in his own words," which asks the child to connect illustrations to story events and characters. The lesson shows specific pages of Little Blue and Little Yellow while having the child read the word "they" in those sentences, tying text to the pictured scene. The Color Book example and the lowercase y activity both present images (color mixing smudges labeled with color names; a picture of yarn next to the word "yarn") that require the child to match or label what an illustration depicts.
Lesson 4
Day 4
In Activity 2 students are asked to look back through Little Blue and Little Yellow and answer how Mr. Lionni shows the parents and houses (bigger shapes of the same color and torn brown boxes). They are also asked how illustrations show Little Blue's feelings (page color changes from black to red) and how settings are depicted (park with green, mountain with torn black paper). Students then tear construction paper to make characters, choose a scene to glue, and write or dictate what is happening, using their torn-paper illustrations to represent story elements.
Lesson 5
Day 5
Activity 3 asks the child to draw a picture and write about something he saw or found on a nature walk, allowing the child to produce an illustration and accompanying text about the same subject. The directions note the child may use words, phrases, complete sentences, or dictate, which supports students in linking their picture to written ideas.
Unit 23: W - George Washington's Birthday
Lesson 1
Day 1
Students are asked to look at the front of the dollar bill, identify whose picture appears, and connect that image to information about George Washington in the text. Students compare the picture of George Washington on the book cover to the picture on the dollar bill and note similarities and differences (e.g., hair, style of dress, apparent age). Students examine a page showing Washington doing arithmetic and identify what he is using to write (a quill pen), linking the illustration to the text and to a hands-on activity making a quill pen.
Lesson 2
Day 2
Students view a Student Activity Page with three photographs (Statue of Liberty, United States Flag, Bald Eagle) each paired with a label and are instructed to cut out the pictures and glue each image onto construction paper with the correct name underneath. Students are asked to read word boxes and decide which box should be the title (Symbols of the United States), connecting labels to the images. Students are prompted to look closely at the flag, count the stars and stripes, and explain why there are 50 stars (one for each state), linking visual features to the idea they represent.
Lesson 4
Day 4
Activity 2 asks the child to "consult the book so your child can see the illustration" while deducing the meaning of italicized words and then to act out the sentence, which requires referring to illustrations alongside text. The two Student Activity Pages present pictures that students must identify and match to beginning letters (Letter Sounds: W and Beginning Letter Sounds), requiring students to recognize what each illustration depicts.
Lesson 5
Day 5
Activity 2 directs the child to look at illustrations where George is writing down things (e.g., his rules for life) and to find information in those pictures. The child is prompted to compare regular text and boxed text, to notice labels like "FACT" and "MYTH," and to think about the purpose of different text placements. The child is asked to spend time independently looking for all the different places text appears on the pages and to share her observations.
Unit 24: Q - The Quilt Story
Lesson 1
Day 1
The skills list explicitly asks students, with prompting and support, to describe the relationship between illustrations and the story. The reading directions tell students to look at the book cover and make observations about the quilt, and to identify how they knew the story took place long ago using illustration clues (style of dress, sewing by candlelight, traveling by horse and wagon). The guidance also prompts discussion of the meaning of specific words shown in the text and images (e.g., shavings depicted as wood pieces from the rocking horse).
Lesson 2
Day 2
Activity 1 asks students to go through the beginning pages of the book and identify the ways the family used natural resources to meet their needs (wood for furniture/houses/wheels/toys; tea for drinking; beeswax/animal fats for candles), which requires linking illustrations or depicted objects to the text. Activity 1 also asks students to identify the landforms mentioned/shown in the story (hills, prairie, river), which asks them to match places in the text with what illustrations depict. The front cover task directs students to look at the book cover and the word "Quilt," linking the cover image to the written word and letter practice.
Lesson 4
Day 4
Students read short informational descriptions about Famous Americans and then cut out and glue the matching portrait onto the correct square, directly linking each illustration to the person described. Students read descriptions of holidays on the "Other American Holidays" page and color the picture that represents each holiday, linking images (fireworks, turkey, flag) to the holiday text. On letter-sound and beginning-sound pages students identify and select pictures that match words or sounds, reinforcing identification of what each illustration depicts.
Lesson 5
Day 5
Activity 2 asks the child to consider the role of illustrations and specifically to look at the picture of Abigail on the cover of The Quilt Story, name her facial expression, and explain how that helps him understand the book. The child is encouraged to spend independent time looking at the words and pictures, examine the girls' faces (Abigail and the modern girl), and then point out an expression and explain what he learns about the story from it. The prompts guide the child to connect what an illustration depicts (a character's expression) with meaning in the text.
Unit 25: X - An Extraordinary Egg
Lesson 1
Day 1
Students are asked to look at the cover of An Extraordinary Egg and tell what they see, which engages them in describing an illustration. Students are prompted to page back through the book to find examples where frogs act like real frogs and where they are fictionalized, and to record those ideas on index cards. Students organize those examples into "Facts About Frogs" and "Fictional Frogs," an activity that requires them to refer back to book content (and implicitly its pages/illustrations) as they categorize instances.
Lesson 2
Day 2
Students are shown the front cover of the book and asked to find the lowercase letter x in the word "extraordinary." The Student Activity Page includes a visual aid: an icon of an x-ray shown next to the word "x-ray," and tracing/writing practice for the letter X. These items present words alongside pictures, giving students an opportunity to see an illustration paired with corresponding text.
Lesson 3
Day 3
Students are asked after reading An Extraordinary Egg to retell the story in their own words, using the pictures to help them remember the events. The 'WORDS WITH X' activity page pairs illustrations with words (e.g., fox, ax, mailbox, ox, tyrannosaurus rex), and students hear each word read and see the corresponding picture while finding the letter x.
Lesson 4
Day 4
Students are asked to look at the frog life cycle they made and recall the stages, and then create an alligator life-cycle craft with labeled sections "egg," "baby alligator," and "adult alligator," placing stickers/die-cuts in the matching sections. On the Beginning Sounds pages, students circle the correct beginning letter for each pictured item and cut/paste letters under the correct letter, which requires identifying what each illustration depicts. Directions prompt students to match pictures (skeleton, coin, path, etc.; toy car, umbrella, refrigerator, drum, pirate) to printed letters or labels.
Unit 26: Z - Greedy Zebra
Lesson 1
Day 1
Students are prompted to take a look at the cover and are asked what they observe, which requires them to describe the illustration. Students are guided to find where zebras live on the world map using the "Where Zebras Are Found" illustration, directly linking the picture to the place named in the text. Students are asked to compare photographs on the linked website with the book's hand-drawn illustrations, prompting them to notice differences between illustration types.
Lesson 2
Day 2
The handwriting practice sheet shows an image of a zebra next to the printed word "zebra," which students trace and write while reviewing the letter Z and its sound. The teacher directions ask the child to look at the front cover of Greedy Zebra and connect the letter Z to the word "zebra," directing attention to the cover image and text. The Zebra Research activity asks students to write about or draw the zebra's appearance and to use pictures from an online article, prompting students to produce or use illustrations alongside written facts.
Lesson 3
Day 3
The lesson instructs the adult to read Greedy Zebra and to "ask your child to use the illustrations to retell the story to you," directly prompting the child to refer to pictures when recounting events. It also asks the child to look at animal cards, "make some observations," and sort animals by visible features, which has the child identify what the pictures show. The lesson encourages predicting alternate outcomes after using illustrations to retell, linking picture information to story comprehension.
Lesson 4
Day 4
Students read and discuss descriptive text about five savannah animals and are asked to color each animal cut-out the appropriate color based on what they learn about the animal's characteristics. Students create a butcher-paper savannah background and glue each colored animal cut-out into the scene, using textual details and reference images to guide placement and appearance. The instructions explicitly pair reading/discussion of text with modification of the corresponding illustrations (coloring and placement).
Lesson 5
Day 5
Activity 2 has students look through a stack of books, spreads the covers so they can all be seen, and asks the child to identify books that had animal characters and to identify the setting of chosen books. Activity 3 has students draw a picture of a scene from their favorite book and write words or phrases about the characters, setting, and events. Activity 1 uses animal cards for identification and comparison, which has students use pictorial cards to name and compare animals.
2: Holidays
Unit 27: Halloween
Lesson 1
Day 1
The lesson asks the child to "turn back to the first page" and look at the picture to decide whether the lagoon depicted is a body of salt water or a shallow area of dirty water, requiring the child to connect the illustration with the text. The lesson prompts the child to "observe what is similar and what is different about the two covers," having students compare visual features (style, colors, characters) to the texts Goodnight Moon and Goodnight Goon. The lesson also directs the child to listen for the word "lagoon" in the story and see which definition is used, linking spoken/textual words to the illustration's meaning.
Lesson 2
Day 2
Students are shown an activity page titled "The Skeleton" and asked to color specific body parts (feet, legs, hands, arms, spine, ribs, skull) using color cues tied to the listed terms, requiring them to identify those parts on the illustration. The student activity page descriptions explicitly state there is an illustration of a human skeleton (full and partial) for students to interact with. In Activity 2 students watch the "Dem Bones" video and are asked to point to the correct bones as the dancer moves, linking spoken or written bone names to the visual depiction.
Lesson 3
Day 3
Students are asked to listen to Goodnight Goon and then choose a page they think is funniest or most clever and explain why they like that page, which invites discussion of page elements. In Activity 2 students glue a ghost on a card and write/trace the word "Boo!" on the front, physically pairing the word with the ghost image. The lesson's image panels explicitly show a ghost with the word "BOO!" beneath it and the phrase "Happy Halloween!", providing clear instances where text and illustration appear together.
Lesson 5
Day 5
Activity 1 directs students to notice the night sky 'outside the window in the story' and count the stars, asking them to identify how many stars are shown. Activity 3 has students draw objects that match rhyming words they choose to say good night to, creating illustrations that correspond to text they produce. The teacher also asks the child to look through Goodnight Goon (and optionally Goodnight Moon), which gives students time to look at pages and words together.
Unit 28: Thanksgiving
Lesson 1
Day 1
Students are prompted to look at the cover of Thanksgiving Is... and asked what they see and like, which asks them to identify what an illustration depicts. Students flip through the book while using a world map and identify the specific locations (Egypt, China, Greece, Italy, Israel, England) shown in the pictures, matching illustrations to places named in the text. The skills list explicitly includes with prompting and support, describe the relationship between illustrations and the text, and student activity pages include a labeled turkey drawing and a handprint turkey image that students can name or describe.
Lesson 2
Day 2
Activity 2 directs the child to "look at the picture of the Mayflower in the book" and then cut and glue sails to recreate the ship, using the illustration as a visual model. The lesson also includes an image description of a simple boat with three triangular sails, which students can view while making and testing their replica.
Lesson 4
Day 4
Students are asked to make an Abe Lincoln mask (Activity 2) and follow the "Lincoln Craft Instructions," which include drawing facial features, assembling a stovepipe hat, and adding a beard so the mask resembles Abraham Lincoln. The Student Activity Page notes that the craft steps are illustrated with simple drawings that guide students in matching eye placement and facial features. Activity 3 directs students to create a handprint turkey image for a Thanksgiving card, producing an illustration that represents the turkey described in the text.
Lesson 5
Day 5
Activity 2 instructs an adult to remind the child that illustrations go along with the words and sometimes help explain what the author is communicating. It asks the child to spend time independently studying the illustrations to see how they help the author teach about Thanksgiving. The adult is directed to ask the child to point out observations about the illustrations after she is finished.
Unit 29: Christmas
Lesson 1
Day 1
Students are asked to explore The Christmas Wish and to tell what they notice about the book and to predict what it will be about. They are prompted to consider the illustrations explicitly ("are they pictures?") and are told that the photographs were taken of the author's daughter to illustrate the story and to watch for edited photos as they read. In the nonfiction activity, students read about conifers and then draw a picture of a real Christmas tree, linking text information to a drawn image.
Lesson 2
Day 2
Students are asked to look again at the story The Christmas Wish and to tell what their favorite part of the story is, which requires revisiting text and accompanying images. The materials note that the photographer is a native of Norway and direct students to photos and videos of Norway and its animals, giving visual context that relates to the story setting. Students are instructed to create a snowy shoebox scene and model animals they read about, which has them produce visual representations of people/places/things from the text.
Lesson 3
Day 3
Activity 1 asks an adult and child to look at the page in The Christmas Wish that shows pictures of the northern lights and to view a video of northern lights, supporting a link between the picture and the idea of the aurora. Activity 3 directs students to page through the book and note all the animals the girl encounters and explicitly asks students what they observe about the reindeer and whether a reindeer can really fly, prompting students to describe what the illustrations depict. Option 2 (Northern Lights Art) engages students in making an illustration of the aurora and adding landscape features to show scale, reinforcing identification of the place/idea shown in the text.
Lesson 4
Day 4
In Activity 2, students decorate a Santa die-cut and place it on a world map while talking about where Santa flies, which has students use an illustration to represent a person from the text and identify places he visits. In Activity 3, students use a black-and-white diagram of Santa's face as a guide to recreate the character, which has students attend to the picture's features (hat, beard, nose, eyes) that depict the person. The activity prompts (Ask your child if she can find an island for Santa to land on; Ask your child if she knows at which continent Santa has arrived) direct students to relate the pictured Santa to locations and events described in the activity text.
Lesson 5
Day 5
Activity 3 (Option 1) asks the child to draw a picture of his favorite part of celebrating Christmas and then write or dictate a description, which has the child create an image paired with text. Activity 3 (Option 2) asks the child to compose a letter and "draw a picture that complements his writing," prompting the child to produce an illustration that relates to specific text. Activity 1 directs the child to look at the first pages of The Christmas Wish and notice the kind deeds Anja did, which has the child attend to events on the page.
Unit 30: February Celebrations
Lesson 2
Day 2
In Activity 2, students closely inspect coins, notice that each coin has a person's picture, and are asked to turn coins to the heads side and identify the person (e.g., "Does she recognize this President? It is Abraham Lincoln!"). Students are asked to recall facts about the person pictured (for Lincoln, the Emancipation Proclamation) and to name which president appears on each coin (Jefferson, Roosevelt, Washington). Activity 3 directs students to watch a video that includes images of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln and then discuss facts and impressions about those presidents.
Lesson 5
Day 5
The lesson includes an "Eye Love You Valentine Example" image that is described as a large eye at the top, a heart in the middle, and the word "You!" at the bottom, and explicitly states that this arrangement "combines to form a visual expression of 'I love you.'" The activity instructs students to make a card using a googly eye, a red heart, and the message "I love you," linking specific illustration elements (eye, heart) to the intended text message.
1: Environment
Unit 1: Habitats and Homes
Lesson 1
My Environment
Students label and write the names of rooms on the 'Exploring My Home' picture and copy words after an adult, directly linking written words to the room illustrations. Students are asked to circle items in the picture that relate to basic needs (water, food, shelter), which requires them to identify what an illustration depicts and connect it to the idea in the text. The handwriting page pairs words (bed, bath) with pictures, and Activity 3 asks students to draw and read a paragraph about their chosen room, supporting explanation of what the illustrations show.
Lesson 2
What Is a Map?
Students are read Me On the Map and shown maps in books and online while being asked to locate landforms, streets, and bodies of water, which has them attend to what map illustrations represent. Students label items on a "Map of a House" worksheet (filling in scrambled words or writing labels), find specific items on the map (refrigerator, bathtub, bed, television), and answer questions about spatial relationships on the map (e.g., what is beside the refrigerator?). Students create their own room maps by selecting or drawing pictures of objects and placing or labeling them on a floor plan, linking images to names and locations.
Lesson 3
Guide to Animal Habitats
Students are asked while the book is read aloud to stop and point out the animals and plants living in each illustrated habitat (Activity 1). The introduction asks students to look at the cover illustration and identify who the person (Crinkleroot) might be and what he will do. Activity 2 (both options) has students chart or order the habitat illustrations to match the sequence in the text, and Activity 5 directs students to examine the pages that illustrate a chosen habitat and answer questions such as "What do you see in the habitat?" and which animals they would expect to see.
Lesson 4
Animals Live and Grow
Students are asked to use pictures in the read-aloud (Day 2, Question #1 asks "What season is it on the first page… How do you know?"), requiring them to use illustration details to support an answer. In Activity 1 students identify plants and animals they recognize in Crinkleroot's Guide and either draw and label them or write their names, linking images in the book to vocabulary. In Activity 3 students locate examples of shelter in the book and match animal cutouts to pictured shelters, and in Activity 2 students analyze the organisms they recorded from the habitat pages to find consumer/energy-source relationships, using illustrations to identify organisms.
Lesson 5
Discovering Animal Habitats
Students are shown pictures of six habitats alongside words and are asked to add letters, read/sound out the habitat names, and discuss what they see (Activity 1, Option 1). Students read a word box and label the habitat illustrations (Activity 1, Option 2) and are asked to describe the animals in the pictures and other animals that could be found there. Students draw and label habitats around animals (Activity 5, Option 2) and place animal crackers into graph columns labeled by habitat (Activity 6), linking images to habitat labels.
Lesson 6
Exploring Animal Habitats
Students draw the habitat on the "An Animal Habitat" page and are instructed to label the objects in their drawings (plants, animals, insects, water, rocks), linking images to words. Students compare their illustration or collage to the predictions they made before the observation, explicitly connecting the picture to prior text/ideas. In the "A Day in the ___: A ___'s Life" activity, students place a picture of an animal in a box and create a short written narrative about that animal, then read the story with prompting, pairing the illustration with text.
Lesson 9
Animal Designs
Students are asked to name the animal and the habitat in each picture and to read the caption in each box (Activity 1, Option 1), directly linking the pictured animal to the written caption such as "A fish swims in the ocean." In Activity 1 (Option 2) students name and write the habitat shown, read the movement word, and match or draw an animal that moves that way, tying text labels to illustrations. In Activity 2 students analyze pictured habitats and decide which animals do not belong, explaining why each animal would not live in the depicted habitat, which requires relating the image content to the written habitat context.
Lesson 10
Amazing Animals
Students are asked in Activity 1 to view the "Amazing Changes" page, analyze each animal picture, and read the accompanying text about how the animal changes to live and grow in its habitat. The Student Activity Page explicitly pairs numbered illustrations (starfish, snake, lizard, shark) with descriptive text that explains the adaptation shown in each picture. In Activity 3 students use animal illustrations to solve math problems and are encouraged to draw in missing body parts, linking the image to the written question.
Lesson 11
Amazing Me
Students are asked to "review the words beneath each face, encouraging your child to read the words aloud" and then "look at each picture on the sheet and then circle the face that shows how she would feel," which requires linking the picture to the written labels. Activity 3 asks students to have their ideas recorded, "read the ideas aloud," and then "illustrate her ideas," which has students create images tied to specific text they produced. The Skills list explicitly includes "Illustrate a story" and "Read or attempt to read own story," indicating students will both read text and produce corresponding illustrations.
Final Project
Animal Research / My Environment
The instructions repeatedly tell students to make illustrations that "match the description at the top of each activity page" (e.g., "Page 1, 'The ____': Draw a picture of the animal and write its name," "Page 4, '_____'s Habitat': Draw a picture of the animal's habitat"). The lesson asks caregivers to "help your child label his pictures" and to "allow your child to explain each page of his book," prompting students to connect their drawings to the page text. Activity pages have explicit titles (e.g., "WHAT I EAT AND DRINK," "Where In The World?", "Habitat") that require students to draw specific people/places/things referenced by the text.
Unit 2: Weather
Lesson 1
Reading the Skies
Students are asked to look at the cover of the book Whatever the Weather and say what they think the story is about, connecting the cover illustration to the text. In Activity 2 students match weather vocabulary words to corresponding pictures or write the correct word under each picture, identifying what each illustration represents. In Activities 3 and 4 students draw pictures to represent weather in a story or on a calendar and describe those pictures when dictating or recording sentences.
Lesson 2
Types of Precipitation
Students are asked to examine pictures in Oh Say Can You Say What's the Weather Today? and Whatever the Weather and to answer questions such as "What habitats did you see in the pictures? Can you find each picture of a habitat and describe its weather?" (Activity 1). In Activity 2 students read precipitation words, look closely at three pictures, and decide which type of precipitation each picture shows, labeling panels or writing the correct word on the activity page. The student activity pages depict hail, snow, and rain and require students to identify which illustration matches each precipitation term.
Lesson 3
Measuring and Charting Weather
Students view and use pictured thermometers on the "Measuring Temperature" activity page to record and color the degrees for ice, tap, and warm water. Students follow step-by-step drawings placed beside the cactus collage and sock cactus directions that show materials and actions (cutting, gluing, painting, inserting toothpicks). The cactus template image gives a visual outline that students trace or cut to make the craft.
Lesson 5
Fall
Students are asked to look at the "It's Fall!" illustration and answer questions such as what the people are wearing, what the plants and trees look like, what the people are doing, and what the sky looks like. Students circle three favorite things in the picture, write the names of those items, circle the beginning letter of each word, and use each word in a sentence on the provided lines. Students are asked to compare how their outside environment in the fall is similar to and different from the scene in the picture.
Lesson 6
Winter
Activity 1 asks students to find pages that look like winter in the book Whatever the Weather and to describe what they see in the pictures and how those pictures are similar to or different from their own winter environment. Activity 1 also asks students to dictate or write a short winter story and then illustrate that story in the provided box, linking their text to a corresponding picture. Snowflake Math tasks require students to count features of snowflake illustrations and match each picture to the correct numeral and number word (or write the numeral and number word), directly connecting illustrations to written labels.
Lesson 7
Spring
Students are asked after each poem to say what the poem was about and to draw a line from the poem to the picture that best tells the story, requiring them to connect text meaning to a specific illustration. In Option 2, students are asked how they would illustrate each poem and encouraged to add their own drawings, with the reminder that the picture should help tell the story. The activity pages include poems paired with existing illustrations or blank boxes for student-created illustrations, giving concrete opportunities to connect text and image.
Lesson 8
Summer
In Activity 2 (Option 1) students are given picture-word prompts (beach ball labeled "pool," sun labeled "hot," suitcase labeled "trip," wave labeled "beach," swimmer labeled "swim") and must choose which pictured word fits each blank in the story. Activity 2 (Option 2) asks students to draw an illustration for the completed story, linking their picture to the text. Activity 1 prompts students to describe a provided picture (environment, what is happening, how people feel) and to explain whether the pictured activities could happen in another season.
Final Project
Weather Games
In Activity 2 (Weather Memory) students match a season's written name or a weather word with the corresponding picture (e.g., "winter" with a snowflake, "rain" with a raining cloud). In Activity 1 students label pictures by writing the name of the season above each picture and place (glue) appropriate clothing on the picture, linking the text label of a season to the illustration. The Student Activity Page descriptions show a 4x4 grid containing paired words and illustrations explicitly designed for matching words to pictures.
Unit 3: Community
Lesson 1
On the Town
Students are asked to look at the book cover and predict what the book might be about, prompting them to connect the illustration to the text (Activity 1). In Activity 2 (Option 1) students read sentences and select the picture that best completes each sentence, directly matching illustrations to textual meaning. In Activity 3 students draw a new page for the book and then write or dictate a sentence about Charlie visiting that place, creating and linking their own illustration to corresponding text.
Lesson 2
My Community Environment
Activity 3 asks students to look through books and describe the communities found in the illustrations, select three books, copy each title, and draw a simple illustration of the community found in each story. Activity 1 directs students to turn to the map page in Me on the Map, point out streets, buildings, and the river, and discuss the purpose of each place and the people who work there. Activity 2 has students take or print pictures of community places, label them, and write or dictate brief descriptions of how each place serves the community, linking images to text labels and descriptions.
Lesson 3
Jobs in the Community
In Activity 1 students look at illustrated pictures of community workers that are labeled (teacher, doctor, firefighter, police officer, letter carrier, bus driver, librarian) and are asked to read or help read the names and to draw a line from the worker illustration to the place in the community where he/she would work. Option 2 has students draw a symbol above the name to represent each worker, reinforcing the connection between the picture and the written word. The Student Activity Pages include labeled illustrations next to words and ask students to name what the worker does, which prompts them to link the image to the text.
Lesson 4
Goods and Services in the Community
Students are asked to read the names of buildings, goods, and services on the activity sheet and to circle beginning letters, which requires them to connect words with pictures. Students cut out illustrated cards and match each building illustration to the goods or services that people in that building provide, then glue the pairs on paper. The Student Activity Page presents labeled illustrations (library, grocery store, hospital, books, fruits and vegetables, etc.) that students read and associate with corresponding text.
Lesson 5
Resources
Students sort and name pictured items on the "Natural or Manmade Resources" page (grapes, honey, firewood, clothes, crayons, teddy bear) by placing illustrations into "Natural" or "Manmade" columns. Students count pictured resources on the "Counting on Resources" page, write the number for each illustration, and mark each picture with an "N" or "M." Students gather real or pictured resources and are asked to explain how each resource is used, where it is found, or to write a sentence about the resources.
Lesson 6
A Good Community Citizen
Students sort illustrated scenarios into two labeled homes in Activity 2 (Option 1), deciding whether each picture belongs in the "Good Home Environment" or "Not a Good Home Environment" and explaining their choices. In Activity 2 (Option 2) students draw three things that happen in each home and label each picture as they explain what is happening, directly describing what their illustrations depict. In Activity 3 students draw or paste photos of family members and write or dictate descriptions beneath each picture of how that person shows good citizenship, linking the image to descriptive text.
Lesson 7
A Citizen with Character
Students examine pictures in the "Kindness Award" activity and must assign scores and then explain why they chose each score, which requires them to talk about what the images show. In Activity 5 (The Boy Who Cried Wolf) Option 1, students draw illustrations for the beginning, middle, and end of the story and write or dictate a sentence to accompany each drawing, connecting images with story events. The Boy Who Cried Wolf student page also includes an illustration of a wolf alongside the text, giving an opportunity to relate the picture to the narrative.
Lesson 8
Rules and Laws
Students use a visual organizer in Activity 2 (the "Rule or Law" page) where two ovals labeled Laws and Rules and connecting lines are displayed and students read each written item and paste it onto the appropriate web. In Activity 1 students make sentence strips of home rules, read each sentence aloud, number and order the strips, and paste them on a poster board, linking written sentences to a visual sequence on the board. The Student Activity Page description shows a diagram with labeled ovals and lines that students interact with while sorting text items.
Lesson 9
Caring for Our Communities
Students are asked to study the "When One Person Cares" activity sheet while the story is read, linking the illustration of a person tending flowers to events in the text. In Activity 2 students look at two community pictures and are instructed to mark Xs and circles on specific things that make a community good or bad, requiring them to identify what the illustrations show. In Activity 4 students look at the "Helping Others in the Community" pictures and discuss how the citizens are helping one another, describing actions shown in the illustrations.
Final Project
I Can Make A Difference
The activity includes a large blank box where students are asked to draw or illustrate their plans and a planning section with sentence starters ("I am planning to...", "The first thing I will do is...") for students to write the same plan. Day 2 asks students to take a picture of themselves carrying out the project and paste it in the box, and a reflection section asks students to write sentences about whom they helped and what they did. These elements require students to produce both an illustration/photo and accompanying text about the same event.
2: Similarities and Differences
Unit 1: Amazing Attributes
Lesson 1
Describe It
Activity 3 (Options 1 and 2) gives students pictures (milk, tree, lollipop) alongside a word box; students must select, circle, copy, paste, or write descriptive words beneath each illustration. The Student Activity Page labels the images and asks students to match and write words that describe what each illustration depicts, and Option 1 has students sound out and identify initial letters of the words that correspond to each picture.
Lesson 2
Animal Attributes
Students work with pages that pair images and labels (Living and Nonliving Option 2) where they circle living things and then write the names in columns, requiring them to match pictures to words. In Animal Parts students look at book pictures and identify body parts they see and discuss how those parts help animals move, which asks them to interpret illustrations for information. The Handwriting "Aa" page places pictures (ant, giraffe, cow, pig) alongside words for tracing, so students connect an image to its printed word.
Lesson 3
Size, Shape, and Color
The Shape activity asks students to review shape names and outlines and then "find an object with a shape similar to each one on the page, and draw it," directly linking an illustration to a named label. The Student Activity Page displays visual representations of each shape in a "Shape" column and provides a blank "Object" space where students write or draw an example corresponding to the illustrated shape. Teacher prompts (ask child to draw, discuss names/outlines, and walk around to find matching objects) guide students to connect the picture to the labeled idea.
Lesson 4
How Does It Feel?
Students view illustrations of concrete objects (pillow, bar of soap/toothpaste, juice/milk carton, brick) on the "Describing Texture" activity pages and select appropriate texture words from a provided word box to place or copy beneath each picture. Option 2 explicitly asks students to record two words from the list that describe each pictured object and then generate a new describing word. Activity 3 has students write a sentence in the form "______ feels _________," linking written text to the pictured object. The introduction and wrap-up prompt students to use texture words to picture or imagine objects, reinforcing the connection between words (text) and illustrations.
Lesson 5
How Old?
Students are asked to match age numbers to pictures of people (e.g., find the largest number and draw a line or paste it with the oldest person) and to order family pictures from oldest to youngest, which requires linking the numeric/textual age information to the illustrations. Students write names and questions for pictured individuals and are prompted to decide which question to ask each person, connecting written questions to the pictured person. Students draw and label animals with average life spans and then put the cards in order from shortest to longest, linking text labels (life span numbers/words) directly to their drawings.
Lesson 6
The Measure of Things
The lesson includes multiple activity pages with clear illustrations (toothbrush, pencil, hairbrush; balance scales with pictured items; bag of sugar, milk carton, water tap; mug and glasses; objects to measure with a ruler) that students must use to complete tasks. Students are instructed to circle the heavier object in illustrated pairs, fill in sentences using pictured items (e.g., "The ______ is longer than the ______"), and record measurements for illustrated objects. Students are also allowed to draw pictures or write words for items, which requires mapping between the images and text labels.
Lesson 9
Solids and Liquids
Students are asked to write the definitions for "Solid" and "Liquid" on the activity page and then paste pictures into the "Examples" column, directly using illustrations to represent the textual definitions. Students cut apart labeled pictures on the "Solid or Liquid?" page (ice cube, pond, rain, marbles, etc.) and place them on construction-paper sheets labeled "Solids" or "Liquids," matching images to the conceptual text. Students are prompted to discuss and explain whether pictured or real items (e.g., sugar, ice) are solids or liquids, connecting the images to the idea stated in the written definitions.
Lesson 10
Earth Materials: Rocks, Soil, and Water
Students are asked to locate and name items shown in the book illustrations (e.g., Question #2 asks about liquids pictured; Question #4 asks the child to find rocks in the illustrations). Activity 2 directs students to find each animal described in the glossary within the illustrations. Day 2 prompts students to compare the two covers and decide whether the same illustrator created them and why, and Activity 4 asks students to identify types of rocks in the books' illustrations and explain their role. The preposition activities require students to find turtles and other elements on pages and complete sentences based on those illustrations.
Final Project
Presenting Attributes
In the poster option, students are asked to draw or use pictures, stickers, or online images to explain each attribute (e.g., a picture of a rock labeled "rough"). The instructions require students to use words and sentences on the poster and to decide how each image will show an attribute and be used to describe similarities and differences. Students practice by presenting the poster and "describing each part of the poster and what it teaches," which requires them to link illustrations to the accompanying text/captions.
Unit 2: Senses
Lesson 1
My Five Senses
Students are asked to look at the book cover and answer questions such as "What do you think this story might be about?" which prompts them to use the cover illustration to make meaning. Students use the "Senses Word List" page that pairs simple illustrations (tongue, ear, nose, finger, eye) with words and are asked to find those words when they encounter them in the text. In Activity 2 students cut out pictures or words and place them on a five-sense web, identifying which pictured object corresponds to which sense.
Lesson 2
Senses and Body Parts
In Option 1, students listen to a story about Jackie and are instructed to pick up the body part cutout and glue it on Jackie's face when Jackie uses a sense, linking the picture of a body part to the text event. In Option 2, students create or retell a story about Jackie and pause to glue the appropriate sense-organ illustration on Jackie when that sense is used, again matching illustrations to moments in the text. Activity 3 and the Student Activity Pages provide multiple illustrations of eyes, ears, hands, mouth and nose for students to view and match to sensory functions.
Lesson 4
Hearing and Seeing
Students are asked to match and glue labels (retina, pupil, cornea, iris, lens, optic nerve) onto an eye diagram (Activity 2) and to cut/paste terms onto an ear illustration (Activity 6), directly identifying what the pictures depict. The teacher directs students to look at the cover and pages of The Magic School Bus Explores the Senses and answer questions about what the pictured scenes show (e.g., the bus in the policeman's eye, a dog's nose, Ms. Frizzle's mouth). Activity 3 has students use the eye diagram while discussing text pages and draw the path of light from cornea to retina to optic nerve and the brain, linking the diagram to the written explanation.
Lesson 5
Touch
Students match pictures to descriptive words on the "Touch It" pages (e.g., coffee pot, bowl of noodles, ice, fish, pillow) by choosing adjectives such as "warm," "hard," or "wet." Students place checks for attributes beside illustrated items on the "Touch Chart" and are asked to draw and label two of their own objects, linking their drawings to text labels and tactile descriptors. Students trace and write words like "taste" and "touch" next to small illustrations on the handwriting page, reinforcing association between images and words.
Lesson 7
Using All of Our Senses
Students are asked to read pages from My Five Senses and then identify which senses the boy in the story used, and the introduction explicitly mentions that the child should "look at the pictures and words with her eyes." The "How Many Senses?" activity presents illustrations for scenarios (playing in the sand, eating dinner, playing an instrument) and requires students to identify and circle the senses depicted in each picture. Activity 3 directs students to look through books (e.g., Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See) and identify ways characters in the stories are using their senses, which requires attending to pictures and text together.
Lesson 8
Writing About Our Senses
In the Sensing Logic activity, students read or hear textual clues and select which pictured item matches those clues, crossing out non-matches and coloring the correct illustration. In A Sensible Report, students complete sensory fill-in-the-blank sentences about popcorn and draw ‘My popcorn before popping' and ‘My popcorn after popping,' linking their drawings to the written observations. In Sensing My Day, students create an illustration of a remembered event and then write sensory words or phrases (see, touch, taste, smell, hear) that correspond to that illustration.
Unit 3: We're the Same, We're Different
Lesson 1
You're Special
The 'You Are Special' student page places icons next to each question (e.g., face icon beside "What is your name?", house icon beside "Where do you live?", crayon icon beside "What is your favorite color?") so students see illustrations paired directly with text prompts. The 'Your Numbers' page includes illustrations of shapes with numbers inside them (pentagon with "5", star with "2", rectangle with "4", triangle with "3"), pairing pictures and numeric labels. The handwriting sheet displays the letter Uu and the word "unique" in large print for tracing, showing a visual form of a letter and word alongside writing practice.
Lesson 2
Physical Characteristics
The Different Friends activity asks students to listen to a short story, retell it, answer comprehension questions about beginning/middle/end, and then cut apart and put illustrated event boxes in story order, which requires matching pictures to story events. The Student Activity Page for Different Friends contains panels that depict moments from the text and students reorder them to reflect the narrative. In Friendship Story students dictate a story and then illustrate the beginning, middle, and end to ensure their pictures reflect the sentences they recorded. In Activity 1 students add or draw facial features and clothing on two figures and then answer questions comparing what the pictures show about eyes, hair, hands, and legs.
Lesson 3
Different Personalities
Students draw or paste pictures of themselves and friends on the "Different People, Different Personalities" webs and then write or paste personality words that describe each picture. Students record and illustrate main characters from movies or cartoons and then write two personality words for each character and paste a picture with words recorded around it. The handwriting page pairs the word "quiet" with an illustration of a person making the "shhhhh" gesture, reinforcing the connection between the picture and the word.
Lesson 5
Shapesville
The lesson asks students to look at the book cover and identify the shapes on the cover and to guess what the story might be about. During reading, students identify the shape of each character, count sides and angles, and describe physical characteristics (color, eye color, sides). The lesson then has students review each shape's personality and interests and complete a "What Is Your Shape?" worksheet that links a drawn/illustrated shape to name, color, physical trait, personality trait, hobby, and interest.
Lesson 6
Different Families
The lesson directs students to read specified pages of A Life Like Mine and "talk about the different people in the book and the different foods and homes shown in the book," and asks students to draw an illustration to represent each basic need after reading. Activity 2 asks students to "identify pictures of families in the book" and to describe the clothing, physical characteristics, activities, and interactions shown in those pictures. Option 1 and Option 2 require students to select a pictured family from the book and compare it to their own family by writing and drawing, linking the pictured family to textual information and map location.
Lesson 7
Different Homes
Students read pages 26–35 of A Life Like Mine and are asked to identify and describe the different homes shown in the book, including the materials used to build them. Students match illustrations to vocabulary in the "Big, Bigger, Biggest" activity by coloring and labeling pictures, linking images to words that describe size and object. Students look through the book or online for homes like the puzzle images, record country names above the homes, and add picture-based details (grass, people, trees) based on the images they find.
Lesson 8
Different Holidays and Traditions
Students match pictures or symbols to holiday names on the "American Holidays and Traditions" activity page, directly identifying what each illustration represents. In Activity 2 students look at pictures of holidays around the world and answer guided questions such as "What are the people celebrating?" and "What types of activities are they engaged in?", which asks them to relate image content to the occasion. Activity 4 has students paste holiday graphics onto calendar dates, requiring them to recognize what each illustration depicts and associate it with the correct holiday. Activity 5 asks students to add drawings or pictures for each holiday page and write a sentence about the holiday, linking their illustration to descriptive text.
Lesson 9
Different Modes of Transportation
Students are asked to look through pages of A Life Like Mine and find examples of transportation in the pictures, linking pictured vehicles to the book pages. In Activity 1 students match pictures of vehicles to word labels and fill in missing letters, directly tying each illustration to a corresponding text label. In Activity 2 students view illustrated scenarios and select or write the mode of transportation that fits each pictured scene, using the illustration to choose appropriate text answers. Activity 3 has students draw themselves using a mode of transportation and tell a story, connecting their picture with a verbal/written description.
Lesson 10
Wants and Needs
Students are asked to identify pictures paired with words (e.g., car, computer, home, water, meal) and mark each as a want or a need (Activity 1, Options 1 and 2). Activity 5 has students draw and label pictures to show what a boy needs (water, food, shelter, clothing, education, love/care, health). The introduction instructs reading specific pages and discussing why children need education, play, and love, which links text topics to discussion that could reference accompanying images.
Lesson 11
Being Part of a Group
Students cut out the 3x3 illustrations of children and sort them into groups, deciding which pictures belong in each circle and assigning numeric labels (2, 6, 14). Students are asked to answer questions about the sorted pictures (Which group has the most people? Which group has the shortest people? Which group has the tallest people?), requiring them to interpret what each illustration depicts. Students also draw a picture of a group and complete a short paragraph about that group, then read the paragraph aloud, linking their drawing (an illustration) with the text they produced.
Final Project
Differences Make the World Go 'Round
Students are asked to "illustrate each page by drawing or pasting a picture that represents the sentence," which requires them to choose or create images that match written sentences. The Student Activity Pages provide large blank boxes beside text prompts (e.g., Location, Food, Hobbies, Homes, Clothing, Transportation, Holidays, Similarities) and include small icons (plate, bicycle, house, clothing, etc.) that cue students to draw or paste matching illustrations. The final task asks students to share the finished book with family, providing an occasion to link images and text aloud.
3: Patterns
Unit 1: Identifying and Creating Visual Patterns
Lesson 1
What Is a Pattern?
Students are asked to look at the cover of Busy Bugs, identify the title and author, read the title, and guess what the story is about, which prompts them to use the illustration to infer text content. Students follow along as the story is read and then are asked, on pages 6–11, to say what types of patterns they see in the pictures and on pages 12–25 to explain the patterns found on those pages. Several activities have students point to and describe visual sequences (e.g., Do You See a Pattern?, Bug Patterns) which asks them to talk about what the pictures show.
Lesson 4
Extending a Pattern
Students complete activity pages that show illustrations of forks, spoons, crayons, markers, pennies, and paper clips alongside pattern text (e.g., "fork, spoon, fork, spoon"). The student prompts ask them to name the first, second, and third objects in each pictured pattern, requiring them to match the picture to the word in the pattern. Option 2 asks students to read the words for each pattern, gather the objects, create the pattern, and then complete a sentence about the given pattern, which further connects the written text to the pictured/real object.
Lesson 6
Shapes and Patterns
In Activity 2 (Option 1 and Option 2), students read words that describe patterns (e.g., "small triangle", "large circle"), circle beginning letters, sound out each word, and then create the corresponding pattern with attribute blocks. In Activity 1 students recreate each set of shapes from the "Shapes and Patterns" sheets and describe the order of the shapes aloud (e.g., "The first shape is a small circle..."). Several activities ask students to describe the pattern type (ABAB, AABB, ABC) after matching or creating shapes described by words.
Lesson 8
Creating and Writing About Patterns
Students are asked to "illustrate the words to form patterns with pictures" and to "illustrate the pattern" on multiple activity pages (AABB, ABAB, ABC sections). Activity pages prompt students to write letters or words for objects in the pattern and then complete sentences such as "This pattern is made up of __________, __________, and __________" and ordinal lines (First–Eighth) that require naming the items their illustrations represent. Activities direct students to describe each pattern after drawing, linking the pictures they drew to the corresponding words or letters.
Final Project
Patterns Poster or Patterns Presentation
Students label sections of a poster with the type of pattern and glue materials to create visual examples (Color Pattern, Shape Pattern, Object Pattern, etc.). Students write and practice a script in which they describe each pattern and demonstrate an example for an audience. The activity sheet prompts students to name each pattern (e.g., "The third pattern I will show is a ________.") and provides space for written descriptions.
Unit 2: Patterns in Sounds, Words, and Actions
Lesson 1
Word Patterns
Students are asked to label pictures on the Word Patterns pages (Option 2) and to "label the pictures on the lines provided," which requires naming what each illustration depicts. Several activity pages pair words with illustrations (e.g., hat, bat, cat; hog, love, kiss, dog, etc.) and ask students to match words that follow the same pattern, prompting students to connect written words with corresponding images. Some tasks invite students to illustrate a word or to act out/illustrate a favorite nursery rhyme, giving students practice creating and linking images with text.
Lesson 2
Making Word Patterns
In Activity 1 students fold the "It's Time to Rhyme" sheet so they cannot see the illustrations, complete each sentence, then unfold to check answers and read each sentence with its picture; they also cut sentences and illustrations apart and glue a sentence with its illustration to make a book. The Student Activity Page explicitly pairs each incomplete sentence with a corresponding image (e.g., a frog on a log beside "The frog stood on the ___"), requiring students to use the picture to identify the pictured object and confirm their word choice. Activity 3 gives students picture books and asks them to identify words from the text that rhyme, which places text and illustration side-by-side for comparison.
Lesson 3
Poetry Patterns
Students are asked to write another verse to the song and then "illustrate the new verse in the box provided," giving them practice producing pictures that correspond to text (Activity 2). The Student Activity Pages include black-and-white illustrations (a box of books, a cartoon square, a fox in a box, a log and bucket with a fish tail) that students view while reading or completing the poems. The lesson's skills list explicitly includes "Discuss, illustrate, or dramatize a story or poem," which suggests students will draw or talk about images related to poems.
Lesson 4
Sentence Patterns
Option 1 and the student activity pages include illustrated nouns and verbs (images of a girl, boy, mom, dad, dog, cat, plant; and action pictures for runs, walks, cooks, etc.), and students are asked to cut out or copy these pictures and use them to complete sentence patterns. Activity 4 directs students to read simple picture books and identify sentences, point to beginning letters and periods, and identify the noun and verb in sentences. Activity 2 and other activities ask students to act out or record sentences that correspond to pictured or acted scenarios.
Lesson 5
Story Patterns
Activities ask students to work with pictures that accompany a short story: in Option 1 students cut apart the provided pictures, glue them in order, and dictate a sentence describing each event. In Option 2 students read a printed story and then illustrate and describe what happened in the beginning, middle, and end in labeled boxes. The student activity page shows comic-style illustrations that correspond to the story text, which students are asked to use when identifying and describing events.
Lesson 6
Sound Patterns
The Student Activity Page includes illustrations of hands clapping and a foot stepping with the text "Slap, Clap, Tap" next to the illustrations. The page asks students to record the sound pattern and to copy the words at the top or use the first letters of each rhythm word. Activities ask students to imitate and record sound patterns using body actions that correspond to the pictured actions.
Lesson 7
Making Sound and Action Patterns
The Option 1 activity includes a Student Activity Page where each cell contains an image paired with the corresponding sound word (e.g., image of a smack with the word "smack"). Students are instructed to cut out the sound words (and pictures) and put them together on a separate sheet to form patterns, and then perform or listen to the sound patterns they created. The activity thus requires students to use illustrations together with the printed words when assembling and performing patterns.
Unit 3: Patterns in Your World
Lesson 1
Patterns in Nature
Students listen to pp. 1-11 of Pattern and are asked to identify and describe the pattern in each picture, linking the images to the concept of pattern presented in the text. In Activity 2 (Option 1) students cut out pattern samples and paste them on the animal where the pattern would be found, directly matching illustrations to named pattern sources. In Activity 3 students look at pictures of plant and animal patterns, draw their favorite patterns, label them, and color them to match the images, reinforcing what each illustration depicts.
Lesson 2
Patterns of Growth
Students draw the plant every few days and write a sentence under each drawing to record growth (Activity 1 and the Student Activity Page), which requires them to link their illustrations with descriptive text. Students label the diagram of plant parts using words from a word box (Activity 2), identifying what each part illustration represents. Students cut apart and sequence pictures of a person, plant, and dog and glue them in order to show life-cycle stages (Activity 4 and the Growth Patterns page), connecting images to the idea described by the text about stages.
Lesson 3
Night and Day
Students are asked to label three pictures of the Sun, Moon, and Earth on the Student Activity Page and then color them, and there are empty rectangular text boxes next to each celestial illustration designated for labeling or notes. The teacher prompts include showing pictures of the Sun, Moon, and Earth and discussing where each is located in relation to the others, which asks students to link pictorial depictions to the corresponding concepts. In Activity 3, students draw a picture of something they do during the day and at night and then record or dictate a few sentences that explain the activity, linking their drawings to written text.
Lesson 4
Daily Routines
In Activity 1 students work with six labeled illustrations (get dressed, get out of bed, eat breakfast, etc.), cut them apart, and place them in order, linking each picture to its labeled action. In Activity 2 students dictate or write a sentence for each of four steps and then illustrate each step or select an object/gesture to represent it, directly pairing text with images. In Activity 3 students record activities with words or simple symbols and pair each activity with an icon and time on a daily schedule chart.
Lesson 5
Calendar Patterns
Students are shown a calendar and asked to use it to identify months, days, and dates (Introduction, Activity 3). Students place month names and day names on a poster and fill in days on a weekly calendar (Activity 1, Activity 5). Students may draw symbols to represent activities on the calendar and record those symbols for events (Activity 4). The student pages ask students to match numbers, number words, and tally marks to time periods, linking visual representations with written labels (Activity 2).
Lesson 6
Seasonal Weather Patterns
Students are asked to "fill in the missing seasons after studying the illustrations" on the Seasons and Months page, using pictures such as snowflakes, flowers, an umbrella with rain, a sun, and leaves to identify seasons. Activity 3 instructs students to "discuss the illustrations associated with each month and what they symbolize" and to paste each month beneath the season and weather pattern connected with the month's picture. The Weather Patterns page requires students to record a weather word beneath the season it describes, linking pictured month symbols (e.g., umbrella for April, snow/Christmas tree for December) to written season and weather labels.
Lesson 7
Patterns at Home
Students read the Pattern book aloud and then identify specific visual patterns on designated pages (e.g., checkerboard on pp. 4-5; patterns in nature on pp. 6-11, 22, 25, 30) and are asked to describe each pattern they find. Students examine household textiles (pillows, quilts, clothing) and name shapes, count sides and angles, and discuss designs. Students also write or dictate a sentence that describes a pattern found on something in their closet, practicing turning visual observation into words.
Lesson 8
Symmetrical Patterns
Students are asked to look closely at a picture of a butterfly's wings and describe the pattern, then say whether the wings look the same or different and connect that observation to the definition 'a symmetrical pattern is one where you can fold something in half and the two halves line up.' In Activity 1 students fold letter squares and determine whether each letter's halves line up, drawing lines of symmetry to show how the illustration of the letter relates to the idea of symmetry. In Activity 3 students create and fold a painted butterfly to observe that the left and right sides form a mirror image, linking the visual result to the concept of symmetry.
Lesson 9
Counting Patterns
In Activity 3 (How Many Clowns?), students place clown-face illustrations into a car as the adult reads a story and fill in numeric blanks, linking the picture pieces to events in the text. The Counting by Twos activity asks students to look at pictured sets (cups, light bulbs, fruit, presents, flowers) and count each set by twos, using the illustrations as the objects to be counted. Activity 4 asks students to write a sentence about the clowns in the car, connecting written text to the clown illustrations they manipulated.
Lesson 10
Tracing Patterns
Students are asked in Activity 2 to identify the holiday associated with each tracing (heart, Christmas tree, egg), which requires linking each illustration to the idea or word for that holiday. The Student Activity Pages provide named pages (e.g., "Tracing Holiday Patterns") and labeled pattern designs (a person-like figure, a flower-like design) that students cut out, trace, and recreate, prompting them to connect images with the corresponding labels or uses. Activity 1 asks students to tell a story about objects they create, encouraging them to describe what a depicted object represents.
Lesson 11
Patterns in Graphs
Students are asked to read and circle the title and labels on graphs and to explain what each label means and the purpose of the graph, which links text (titles/labels) to the graphic. Students color-code bars and icons (open books, T-shirts) and answer explicit questions such as "What does this chart tell us? (what color of shirt each child wore)," which asks them to state what the illustration depicts. Students are asked to describe patterns shown in graphs and to predict what comes next, tying the visual display to its textual data and meaning.
Final Project
Patterns All Around Lapbook
Students create mini-books that pair text labels with pictures: in the Three-Flap Book they label stages (baby/child/adult or seed/plant/flower) and draw or paste a picture beneath each flap. In the Wheel Book students illustrate and label the four seasons in the correct order. In the Matchbook students write the title "Pattern in Nature" on the front and draw, paste, or copy a nature pattern inside. In the One-Page Book students write "Symmetrical Pattern" on the cover and draw a picture that demonstrates the labeled idea.
4: Change
Unit 1: Changes on Planet Earth
Lesson 1
What Causes Change?
Students look closely at picture cards and match before-and-after illustrations, deciding what changed between the first and second picture (Activity 1). Students label pictured sequences as "fast" or "slow" based on the images and the words provided, linking the images to the written labels (Activity 2). Students draw a before-and-after pair and then complete sentences describing the change ("Once I saw ___ change," "___ changed because ___"), connecting their illustrations to written text and attempting to read it aloud (Activity 3).
Lesson 2
What Changed?
Students are asked to read Part 1: Things Change and answer text-based questions about events described on specific pages (e.g., identifying the crushed cookie as a physical change on page 20 and the ripening banana as a chemical change on page 23). Students are asked to look at paired illustrations on the 'How Did It Change?' activity page (tree to bare tree, caterpillar to butterfly, empty to full shopping cart, doghouse to dog outside) and determine which attributes (weight, color, size, amount, location) changed. The activity directions prompt students to circle the changes that apply and to give examples and sentences describing each example, linking picture observations to descriptive labels.
Lesson 3
Changing Position
Students are asked to look at the cover of Zoom! Zip! Whoosh! and to say what is happening in the picture and what they think the book will be about, prompting them to relate an illustration to the book's topic. Activity 2 has students cut apart a 3x3 grid of illustrations and sort each picture into actions that require pushing or pulling, which requires identifying what each illustration depicts. The lesson also encourages reading the book aloud (or having the child read) while asking questions, providing opportunities to connect pictures with the text during read-aloud discussion.
Lesson 4
Changes in the Environment
Students are asked to read or be read "Part 2: Seasons Change" and to answer questions about the changes described on specific pages, linking text descriptions of freezing, evaporating, and plant changes to the reading. Students are directed to "look at the pictures of a tree in each season" and to label each season and color the tree as it would look during that season. The Student Activity Page shows a four-quadrant seasonal tree illustration that students interact with when labeling, coloring, and assembling a seasons wheel.
Lesson 5
Changes in Location
Students complete sentence prompts that describe a cat's location in each picture on the "Where Did He Go?" location wheel, filling blanks with prepositions that match the illustration. Students listen to or read sentences describing positions (e.g., "The mouse is under the coffee table") and move a cut-out mouse on the "Mouse in the House" picture to the location the text specifies, and some versions ask students to write simple sentences about the pictured mouse. In Activity 3 students go outside or look from a window and write sentences that describe the relationship of one real object to another, mirroring the picture-to-text description practice.
Lesson 6
Changes in the Sky
The lesson gives students pages titled "The Sun and the Moon" and instructs them to list adjectives and phrases inside the images of the Sun and the Moon, directly prompting them to describe what the illustrations depict. Student Activity Page descriptions show labeled images (SUN, MOON) and a Moon diagram with craters that students interact with. Activity 3 has students cut out and assemble an Earth–Moon–Sun model and then demonstrate how the bodies move, linking the physical illustration/model to the written ideas about rotation and revolution. The Wrapping Up and Life Application sections ask students to describe how objects in the sky change positions and to observe the Moon, reinforcing connections between images/models and the text ideas.
Lesson 7
Living Things Change
Students are asked to review text pages (Changes Happen All Around You, pp. 30–31, 34–37) and then look closely at the examples on the "Living Things Change" page, color the pictures, and explain how and why the lizard and rabbit changed (linking the illustrations to the idea of camouflage and seasonal change). On the "Changes in Living Things" page, students observe paired illustrations and are prompted to circle text labels (number, size, shape, place) that describe each illustrated change and to classify each change as fast or slow. In Activity 3, students create four-box drawings or collages showing a living thing before and after a change, directly producing illustrations that match the described change.
Lesson 8
Plants and Change
Students are asked to label plant diagrams (Option 1 and Option 2) by matching the words 'root,' 'stem,' 'leaf,' and 'flower' to parts of an illustrated plant, which links text labels to pictures. Students cut out and glue the series of illustrations in order to show how the plant changes over its life cycle (Activity 4), connecting the sequential pictures to the life-cycle idea described in the text. The Student Activity Pages include illustrated stages and a labeled diagram that students manipulate and annotate, requiring them to identify what each illustration depicts.
Lesson 9
Heat Causes Change
In Activity 1 students draw the states of matter in three pictured bowls and label each drawing with the words "ice," "water," and "steam," and the Student Activity Page provides a word box with those labels. The Ice/Water/Steam page includes an arrow labeled "cold" to "hot," asking students to organize the illustrated bowls by temperature. The A Burning Candle activity sheet includes an illustration of a candle next to a table where students record measurements and observations tied to that picture.
Lesson 10
Chemical Changes
The Student Activity Page presents six paired items with accompanying pictures (e.g., New Bicycle/Rusty Bicycle; Apple/Chopped Apple) that students must categorize as chemical or physical changes. The instructions ask students to identify each change on the page and then explain how they made each decision, which requires students to refer to the pictured scenarios when responding. The activities (eggs, baking soda & vinegar) also ask students to observe and describe changes, reinforcing use of visual evidence.
Lesson 11
People Change the Environment
Activity 3 asks the child to "describe what is happening in each illustration, explain how it is changing the environment, and decide if the change is positive, negative, or neutral and why," which requires students to identify what each picture depicts and connect it to environmental ideas. The recycle sorting activity has students place pictured items into a recycling bin or trash can, requiring identification of objects in illustrations and linking them to the concept of recyclability. The Student Activity Page descriptions list clear pictures (bicycle, bulldozer, electric car, factory smoke, children planting a tree, etc.) that students are prompted to describe and evaluate.
Final Project
Mobile of Change
Students draw or paste pictures in labeled "before" and "after" boxes on the "Changes" pages to show examples of animal, plant, physical, and chemical changes. The activity pages provide grids with category headings (e.g., "Change in the Environment," "Changes in Position") so students place illustrations under the matching text labels. In Wrapping Up, students explain their mobile to family members and are prompted to explain how each mobile part is an example of change on Earth.
Unit 2: Characters Change
Lesson 1
What's in a Name
The lesson tells students to "pay close attention to the illustrations as the narrator reads," directing them to connect pictures with the text. In Activity 3 (Feeling Phrases) students read specific phrases from the story, identify what those phrases communicate about Chrysanthemum, and then draw the face Chrysanthemum might have at that moment, linking text-driven emotion to an image. The Characters Change page includes paired top/bottom illustrations (mouse in a dress; mouse holding flowers) alongside prompts asking students to describe Chrysanthemum at the beginning and end of the story.
Lesson 2
Why Worry?
The Characters Change activity page shows two illustrations of Wemberly (a worried-looking child at the beginning and a more relaxed child at the end) alongside prompts asking students to describe how Wemberly changed. The Using 'And' activity page includes illustrations (a swing set, a clock, sun/clouds) placed among sentences about what Wednesday worried about, with lines for students to write combined sentences. The Characters Change page also includes prompts such as 'Before Wemberly was ____, but now she is ____,' which ask students to produce descriptions adjacent to the images.
Lesson 3
Is It a Problem?
Students are asked explicitly, "How does the author illustrate the problem at the beginning of the story?" with the answer "As a cloud or a storm." Students are directed to "look through the pages of the book and talk about how the author starts by representing the problem as a cloud" and to "watch how the problem grows and changes in the illustrations." On the activity page titled THE PROBLEM, students must find the pages that match each text prompt and illustrate the problem at different points in the story. The Beginning/Middle/End activity and its answer key also require students to match and interpret story events with corresponding images.
Lesson 4
Comparing Characters
Activity 1 explicitly tells students they can think about "their personalities, their situations, their families, the illustrations in the books, etc." when completing a Venn diagram to compare characters. The Two Stories activity includes labeled boxes for students to "Illustrate Wemberly" and "Illustrate the boy," and other pages ask students to "Draw a picture of your favorite part" and to draw themselves before/after a problem. Cause-and-effect and summary activities ask students to use story details alongside these illustration tasks.
Lesson 5
The Raft
Students are asked to discuss the pictures painted on the raft and to identify that each picture represented a specific animal and possibly a story associated with that animal (Activity 4). Students complete a Story Elements activity in which they glue character and setting images to story titles and match characters to titles, requiring them to identify which person or place an illustration depicts (Activity 7 and matching pages). Vocabulary and sentence pages include images paired with sentences, and students use those picture clues to match definitions to text sentences.
Lesson 6
Positive and Negative Change
In Activity 3, students are asked to "illustrate the situation — the cause and the effect of the change that occurred," and then to "write or dictate a sentence or two to describe the change."
The activity requires students to produce an image and then produce text that describes the same event (positive or negative change and choices made).
Activity 2 has students listen to a character description and dictate a new ending, which gives students textual situations they could represent visually.
Final Project
My Own Story
The lesson asks students to illustrate each character and write three traits for each one (Part 2), which requires creating pictures that correspond to characters in the text. The lesson asks students to illustrate the story setting on paper (Part 3), linking a drawn place to the story's text. The lesson directs students to "discuss what parts of the story will go on which pages" and to help the child find and arrange images in the online storybook (Part 6), which involves selecting illustrations to match specific text pages.
Unit 3: A First Look at History - Change Over Time
Lesson 1
People and Families Change
Students gather and sequence photos of themselves and family members and answer questions about differences across pictures (Activities 1 and 4). In Activity 5 students dictate or write ideas about how the family has changed and then "illustrate his family's changes in the boxes provided" on the Writing About Change page. The Student Activity Page provides paired spaces for Past and Present where students can write or draw responses to prompts linking text (e.g., "My family used to..." / "Now my family is...").
Lesson 2
Understanding Time
Activity 1 asks the child to complete a sentence about Yesterday/Today/Tomorrow and to illustrate each response, and the Student Activity Page for that task provides large blank spaces for writing or drawing in each of the three sections. The activity therefore has students produce an illustration that corresponds to a short piece of text they write (or to a prompted sentence). The calendar/date task asks students to record dates and consider yesterday/today/tomorrow, which ties the written date text to the child-created drawings.
Lesson 3
Communities Change
Students are prompted to look at the cover pictures and describe what they see and predict the story, linking illustrations to the text. In Activity 2 students match pictures with event labels and place illustrated events in chronological order, directly connecting images to story events. Activity 3 asks students to look closely at pictures of different communities, point out differences in transportation, clothing, homes, and activities, and place pictures in order; Activity 4 has students circle animals shown in the story and order nature scenes. Activity 6 has students identify artifacts shown in the illustrations (arrowhead, china cup, ax, pot, beads, pan, plate) and draw artifacts they find in the pictures.
Lesson 4
Past and Present
Students are asked to cut out labeled pictures from The Usborne Time Traveler and paste each illustration (Ancient Egypt, Ancient Rome, Medieval Europe) into the correct place on a timeline, requiring them to identify what each image represents. Activity 3 explicitly asks students to "point out differences in the setting, the people's clothing, and any other differences she sees in the illustrations," linking picture details to the text descriptions of daily life. Activity 5 directs students to take images of homes, transportation, clothing, and school and order them using clues from the book, prompting them to use illustrations as evidence for text-based time-period information.
Lesson 5
Exploring the Past
Students are directed to "look through each section to learn more about a specific element and then will draw and write or dictate descriptions of some of the information found in the book," which asks them to use images and text together. Student Activity Pages present labeled illustrations (pyramids, Colosseum, castle) for Ancient Egypt, Ancient Rome, and Medieval Europe that students cut out, glue onto charts, and place on a timeline. Activity 4 asks students to "write one sentence about each element of culture" and "draw an illustration to accompany the sentence," requiring students to produce images that relate to written content.
Lesson 7
People of the Past
Activity 2 uses a Student Activity Page with sketches and short descriptions of five historical figures and asks the child to cut the squares apart, place them, and then "reread the descriptions to her and ask her to point to the individual described." Students are then instructed to glue each description beneath the person's picture. The activity page explicitly pairs illustrations (sketches) with text labels and years for Thomas Edison, Martin Luther King, Madame Curie, George Washington, and Galileo.
Final Project
My Past, Present and Future
Students are asked to add pictures or draw illustrations paired with written prompts on multiple activity pages (e.g., boxes aligned with "I was different because," "Now I am," and "In the future I will be," and the Elements of Culture pages where students "illustrate each side"). The instructions explicitly tell students they can use photographs or draw pictures for the Past/Present/Future book and tell them to illustrate each side of the comparisons in Option 2. The wrapping-up step has students read through their book or comparison pages, which involves the pictures and text they created.
6: Reading
Unit 1: Semester 1
Lesson 1
Letter Sounds Review I
Students are asked to identify pictures (cat, map, mat, cap) and then say and write the corresponding words (Activity 5.2, Writing Words). During the Tap and Pat reader (Activity 5.3) students are asked what they see on the cover and are encouraged to use the pictures to figure out words and to perform the actions shown on each page. The instructions prompt students to point to words as they read and to use illustrations as a cue when they cannot decode a word.
Lesson 2
Letter Sounds Review II
Students are asked to look at The Pig Can reader cover, describe what is on the cover, and predict what the book is about (Activity 5.3). Students identify pictured items and supply beginning letters on the "Beginning Letters" page and identify pictures to write the corresponding words on the "Writing Words" pages (Activity 2.2 and Activity 5.1). Student activity pages repeatedly require children to name illustrations (e.g., pig, box, net, ring, igloo) and write or select the matching letters or words.
Lesson 3
Letter Sounds Review III
Students identify each picture and write the matching word on the Writing Words pages (Activity 5.1), directly mapping illustrations to written words. In "What's Missing?" (Activity 5.3) students use the picture next to each sentence to figure out and write the missing word, explicitly using illustrations to determine text meaning. In Reader #3 (Activity 5.2) students are asked to read the title and describe the cover, prompting them to state what the illustration depicts.
Lesson 4
Letter Sounds Review IV
Students name and identify pictures on the Short Vowel Sort pages (Activity 2.2) and then cut, sort, and glue each picture into the box that matches its vowel sound, which requires them to map an illustration to the corresponding word. Students identify each picture on the Writing Words pages (Activity 5.1), say the word slowly to hear the sounds, and then write the word below the picture, directly linking the illustration to its written form. In Activity 3.1 and other activities students point to words as they read sentences, reinforcing the connection between printed words and accompanying images on activity pages.
Lesson 5
Adding s, More Word Families, Ending with ck
Students use illustrations to infer word meaning when they are asked to look at the picture on page 2 of Ducks Are Fun to figure out what the unknown word "don" means. Students answer comprehension questions that require linking pictures and text, for example "Which duck do you think is having the most fun? Why?" Students identify and write the words that match pictures on pluralization pages (e.g., two dogs, three mice) and are directed to pay attention to how many objects the illustration shows.
Lesson 6
Open Syllables and Digraph th
Students name and identify pictures before using them in activities (Activity 4.1 asks the child to name each picture to ensure correct identification, and students cut out pictures and place them in columns for t, h, and th). In the rhyming coloring activity (Activity 3.3) students name each picture before coloring pairs that rhyme, linking pictures to the words they represent. The reader activity (Activity 5.2) has students read a short book and answer questions about characters and pets, which could involve connecting pictured characters/animals to text.
Lesson 7
Consonant Digraphs ch, sh, wh, ph
Students point to picture cards that match spoken words and sounds (Activity 2.2) and cut out and sort pictures into columns labeled for each digraph, naming each picture as they work. In Activity 5.1, students are asked to know what each picture is showing so they can write the missing digraphs in the pictured words. In Activity 3.3, students read the reader They Get Wet and answer questions about the location of the ship and why the characters are wet, which requires using text and images to identify events or places.
Lesson 8
Blends with s
Students name each picture on the "s Blends" pages and cut out and sort the pictures into columns to show their beginning blends, then say the words in each column. Students identify pictures on the "Writing Words" pages (e.g., mask, nest, stop; swim, desk, stick; sled, snap, spot) and write the corresponding words beside each illustration. Students complete the "Fill in the Blanks" activity by looking at each picture, identifying what it shows, and writing the missing initial blend to finish the word.
Lesson 9
Blends with l
Students name pictures on the l Blends pages, cut them out, and place them in columns to show the beginning blends, saying each word aloud. Students complete Fill-in-the-Blanks pages by looking at images and writing the initial blend that matches each pictured word. After reading Reader #9 The Club, students are asked questions (e.g., the color of the flags above the club; what the kids do at the club) that require referring to the book's pictures and text.
Lesson 10
Blends with r
Students are asked to name each picture on the "r Blends" pages and then cut out and sort the pictures into columns by their beginning blends, saying the words in each column (Activity 1.2). In Writing Words (Activity 2.2) students identify each picture, say the word slowly to hear the sounds, and then write the corresponding word beside the picture. The Student Activity Pages repeatedly present images paired with spaces for students to write or match the printed word (e.g., Writing Sight Words and multiple activity pages that show an image with writing lines).
Lesson 11
Ending Blends
In Activity 3.2 students are asked to name each picture on the "Ending Blends nd, mp, lf, and nt" pages, cut out the pictures, sort them into columns for the correct ending blends, say the words in each column, and glue them to the page. In Activity 4.2 students read the reader At Camp, point to each word as they read, and answer questions about what the kids do at camp and what they are hunting for. Several Student Activity Page descriptions show illustrations (e.g., tent, ant, plant, wolf, stump, lamp, hand, golf) that students identify and use in sorting and word-listing activities.
Lesson 12
Double ll, ss, ff, zz (FLOSS)
Students name pictures before writing the corresponding words on the "ss and ff Words" activity pages (Activity 3.2), which asks them to identify the pictured items (e.g., grass, dress, sniff) and then write the words. Students read the reader Huff and Puff and are asked comprehension questions that refer to illustrations, including "What insects are shown in the book?" (Activity 4.3). Several student activity pages include images (e.g., Alphabet Soup bowl, picture prompts on word pages) that require students to use the picture as a cue to produce or decode words.
Lesson 13
Glued Sounds ng and nk
Activity 4.1 asks the child to "make sure that he knows what each picture is showing" and to use those pictures to complete words by writing the missing digraphs (e.g., t(ank), k(ing), sk(unk), dr(ink)). The Fill-in-the-Blanks student pages present images paired with word frames so students must identify the pictured person/place/thing and supply the corresponding text ending. These instructions explicitly require students to link an illustration (the picture) with the correct written word form.
Lesson 14
Three-Letter Beginning Blends
Students complete Fill-in-the-Blanks pages by looking at pictures and writing the missing three-letter blend to finish each word, which requires them to identify what each illustration is showing. Students use activity pages that pair images (e.g., shrimp, string, splash) with incomplete words, so they must match the illustration to the correct written word. Students read Spring Has Sprung! and answer questions about what the kids do at the track and pond, linking actions in the text to the scenes presented.
Lesson 15
More Ending Blends
Students read Reader #15 — The Raft Trip and are prompted to point to each word as they read and then answer comprehension questions such as, "What animals are on the bank of the river?" and "Which animals nap on the raft?" In Activity 5.2 students are asked to name animals and locations from the book, which requires attending to characters and places that are typically depicted in the book's pages. The lesson also asks students to read the book on their own before reading aloud, encouraging them to use the book (text and likely pictures) to support their answers.
Lesson 16
R-Controlled Vowels (ar)
Students complete fill-in-the-blank pages by identifying pictures and writing the missing blends (Activity 3.2 and the Student Activity Page descriptions), and the materials instruct the adult to "make sure that she knows what each picture is showing." A sight-words activity page includes questions paired with illustrations (Which horse runs faster? etc.), and students are asked to answer questions on each page of the reader as they read (Activity 4.2). Several activities require students to point to pictures and use them to support word reading and spelling (e.g., Fill in the Blanks, word-building tied to pictured items).
Lesson 17
Semester Review
In Activity 4.1 students are asked to point to or name characters in readers and to talk about the different things the characters do, linking pictures of characters to text descriptions. In Activity 2.2 and several student pages students identify pictures (banana, apple, dog, ant, cat, igloo, etc.) and write or choose the matching word or article, requiring them to match an illustration with the corresponding text. The "There and Their" student page pairs sentences with illustrations (houses, library, car) that students view while reading and underlining the correct word.
Unit 2: Semester 2
Lesson 1
Long Vowels a and i with Silent e
Students name and identify pictured items before writing the corresponding words (Activity 3.3 and multiple Student Activity Pages ask students to name each picture and write or read the matching word). Students sort images into columns based on vowel sounds (Activity 2.1 and Activity 3.1 require placing each picture under short vs. long vowel headings). Student pages explicitly pair illustrations with target words (e.g., cake with /ā/, kite with /ī/), and students point to or read words in the Weekly Message while referencing words visually.
Lesson 2
Long Vowels o, u, and e with Silent e
Students are asked to name each picture on multiple "Short and Long" activity pages and then cut out and place those images with the matching written words or sound columns, which requires identifying what each illustration depicts. In Activity 5.1 the child is directed to look at the illustration beside page 6 and is prompted to connect the picture to the words "dome" and "slope," with the adult tracing the shape while naming it. During reader time students read They Chose To Doze and answer questions about story events, which can involve using illustrations to support comprehension.
Lesson 4
More R-Controlled Vowels (er, ir, or, ur)
Activity 5.1 explicitly instructs students to "name the pictures before he begins working" on the Fill-in-the-Blanks sheet and to use the pictures to choose the correct vowel pairs to complete words (e.g., b(ar)n, f(er)n, b(ir)d). Multiple Student Activity Pages pair illustrations with incomplete words (barn, fern, turn, thorn, card, bird, shirt, worm, fork, scarf) so students must match what the picture depicts to the written word. The directions provide prompting and support (allowing the child to look at earlier pages for help and to receive assistance as needed).
Lesson 6
Long e Spellings ee, ey, ea
Students name pictures on the "Writing ea Words" pages before writing the corresponding ea words (bean, leash, leaf, beach, bead, meal). Students read sentences on the "Long e Spellings" page while viewing matching illustrations (e.g., a monkey drawing for "I see the monkeys at the zoo," waves for "The sea has many waves today") and are asked to read the sentences aloud. Students are asked to read the reader "What Do You Eat?" and answer questions about content (e.g., "What does the worm eat?", "How many beans are the birds eating?"), which requires using picture/text information to identify persons/places/things in the story.
Lesson 8
Long o Spellings ow, oa, oe
In Activity 3.1 (Writing oa Words) students are asked to identify each picture before writing the matching word (boat, coat, road, etc.), directly linking an illustration to the word it represents. Multiple Student Activity Pages show images with lines for students to write words or sentences corresponding to those pictures, prompting students to name what each illustration depicts. Activity 5.1 has the child read a short reader (The Slow Boat) and answer questions about details such as number of boats and the color of the winning boat, which invites use of illustrations to confirm details.
Lesson 13
Other Vowel Sounds ou, ow
In Activity 1.2 students are asked to identify each picture, say the word slowly, and write the word on the line below its picture, explicitly linking the illustration to its written form. Activity 4.2 (Fill in the Blanks) directs students to name each pictured item (clown, cloud, etc.) and then complete the corresponding written word using ou or ow. Multiple Student Activity Pages show images paired with word prompts or blanks, requiring students to use the illustration to determine and write the matching text.
Lesson 15
These Make More Than One Sound: oo and ea
In Activities 1.2 and 3.1 students are asked to name each picture on the "oo Pictures" and "ea Pictures" pages (e.g., spoon, book, bear, bread) and then cut and sort those illustrations by the vowel sound in the corresponding word. Student Activity Page descriptions list the images and instruct students to match each illustration to the target word before sorting. These tasks require students to identify what each illustration depicts and connect that picture to a written word.
Lesson 16
Silent Starts: kn, wr, gn
In Activity 1.2 students are shown an image of a garden gnome after the teacher writes the word "gnome," and they are asked to say how the word is pronounced and to notice the beginning of the word. The lesson also suggests using Where the Wild Things Are and asking the child to find the word "gnashed" in the book (or listen to the read-aloud), which has students locate specific words in a picture book.
Lesson 17
Year-End Review
In Activity 2.2 (Sentence Writing), students look at specific illustrations (e.g., ducks on a dock; children playing soccer) and write one or two sentences describing what they see, with an example like "The ducks are on the dock." In Activity 4.2 (Compound Words), students identify pictured objects (rainbow, starfish, cupcake, toothbrush, etc.) and spell or write the corresponding compound words from a provided word bank. Several Student Activity Pages explicitly present images with lines for students to write sentences or word labels that correspond to those images.