Kindergarten - ELA
1: Letters
Unit 1: A - A Is for Musk Ox
Lesson 1
Day 1
The Skills list explicitly states that students, with prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text. The Reading and Questions section directs the child to answer specific comprehension questions after a shared reading (e.g., identifying animals that talk, explaining why we have the alphabet). The Activities prompt oral discussion (counting letter cards, ordering alphabet cards, and discussing alphabetical order) that involves spoken responses during shared interactions.
Lesson 2
Day 2
Students are asked to discuss information about musk oxen after reading and watching online resources, including comparing information from different sources and discussing where musk oxen live, what they eat, how people use them, and threats they face. Students are introduced to the vocabulary word "herd" and asked to explain that musk oxen live in herds. Students are invited to act like a musk ox and have the adult guess what they are doing, which creates opportunities for shared verbal interaction.
Lesson 4
Day 4
Students are asked to speak aloud when they say or sing the letters of the alphabet and practice counting to 20, giving opportunities for oral language production. The guide prompts the caregiver to ask the child what a "herd" is and to discuss what the tundra environment is like, which invites the child to describe and talk about a topic. The plan includes review of the sight word "you," which could be used in simple phrases or responses during shared activities.
Lesson 5
Day 5
Students are asked comprehension and opinion questions about the book (e.g., whether they liked it and why or why not, and whether they would recommend it), prompting spoken responses in a shared context. During the writing workshop, students are asked to tell a story that an adult records (dictation) and then the adult rereads what was dictated, creating a shared language activity where students produce sentences. The journal activity invites students to narrate ideas and "pretend" to write while the adult records, offering additional opportunities for spoken sentence production.
Unit 2: H - Hondo and Fabian
Lesson 1
Day 1
Students are prompted to answer specific comprehension questions (Questions #1–#4) that require spoken responses about characters, differences, and preferences, including a justification question ("Would you rather be a cat or a dog? Why?"). Students are asked to discuss the author/illustrator roles, which invites them to produce explanatory language. Activity 1 asks students to identify and act out events as Hondo or Fabian in a shared activity, providing opportunities for verbal description and response.
Lesson 3
Day 3
Students are asked to retell the story in their own words and are prompted with sequential questions ("What happened at the beginning? What happened next? How did the story end?") that elicit spoken production. Questions about feelings ("How do you think the characters feel..." and "How do you feel...") require students to respond in shared conversation. Activity 4 asks students to use words or phrases to describe characters and records their ideas, which elicits spoken description in a shared context.
Lesson 4
Day 4
Activity 2 asks the child to paint a picture of an activity with a friend and then to dictate a sentence about her painting, which the adult writes down and attaches. Activity 2 also includes oral prompts (e.g., "What does she like to do with the friend?") that ask the child to describe actions and may elicit spoken sentences. Activity 1 prompts the child to think and act out different ways things move and includes questions about whether characters moved other ways, inviting verbal responses.
Lesson 5
Day 5
Students are asked to dictate two statements about themselves to an adult while the adult models writing those sentences, giving them practice producing sentences in a shared activity. More experienced students are encouraged to write some statements about themselves independently, which requires composing simple sentences. Activity 2 prompts students to speak about character names and to answer questions about naming a pet, providing additional opportunities for spoken sentence production.
Unit 3: I - The Little Island
Lesson 1
Day 1
Students are asked open-ended questions after the read-aloud (e.g., "Would you like to visit the little island? Why or why not?" and questions about changes on the island) that require verbal responses. The guide prompts discussion tasks (look at the cover, find author/illustrator, discuss definition of island, compare island vs. continent) that involve shared talk between adult and child. The web activity asks students to note similarities/differences among islands and explain which they would like to visit and why, inviting extended responses.
Lesson 2
Day 2
Activity 1 asks the child direct questions (e.g., "what season it is," "what is changing on the island," "what accessories he will need now") and prompts pretend dialogue during a picnic, which requires the child to respond verbally. The review section practices the pronouns/sight words "you" and "he," providing language elements that students can use in responses during shared activities. The pretend-play picnic and discussion about seasonal changes create opportunities for students to speak in response to prompts.
Lesson 3
Day 3
Students are asked to "tell you the story of the island in her own words," using illustrations to guide retelling and receiving guiding questions as needed, which requires producing connected spoken language. The teacher reads the title, omits the word "little," and asks the child to supply it, which engages the child in a shared oral completion activity. During the classifying creatures activity, students are prompted to identify where animals move and act out those motions, providing opportunities for oral responses in a shared context.
Lesson 4
Day 4
Students are asked to discuss how waves form and to "decide what he thinks causes the waves," which prompts spoken explanations during a shared activity. The teacher reads the story lines aloud and asks the child to pretend to be the winds and the kitten, guiding the child to act out motions using words like "around," "over," "on," "under," "off," "beside," "near," "far," "above," "in front of," and "behind." The lesson also prompts conversation about picture cards and sight words (e.g., asking the child to tell the definition of an island and to practice sight word cards).
Lesson 5
Day 5
Activity 3 asks the child to dictate ideas while an adult records them and then to "read" her ideas aloud, and the adult is instructed to write those ideas down in complete sentences on the right page. Activity 3 also provides question prompts (e.g., "What season was it?", "What animals did you see?") to help the child generate longer responses. Activity 2 asks the child to give opinions and reasons about the book (e.g., did she like it, why or why not; what would she have done differently), which requires spoken sentence-length responses.
Unit 4: T - What Do You Do With a Tail Like This?
Lesson 1
Day 1
Students are prompted during the read-aloud to predict the book and to answer questions (e.g., recall parts of animal structures, how animals use ears/eyes/noses). The lesson asks students to answer explicit questions (Question #1–#3) that require describing parts and differences. In Activity 2, students draw two animal cards and are asked to "tell one similarity and one difference" between the animals, which requires spoken description in a shared activity.
Lesson 2
Day 2
Students are asked to explain each vocabulary term (herd, character, island), which prompts spoken responses. Students are asked questions about "structure" (What does it mean? How are animals' structures similar and different?) and about tail purposes (What jobs do their tails do? Why are they shaped the way they are?), requiring them to talk about concepts. Students discuss each animal while matching and gluing tails and are asked to explain the tail they created in Activity 3, prompting verbal explanation of their work.
Lesson 3
Day 3
Students are asked to read and respond during shared reading: the teacher reads the book with the child and asks questions such as "Was this book make-believe or true?" and "What kind of information did you learn from this book?" The plan directs the adult to omit the last word of the title and ask the child what he thinks the word is, prompting oral production. The materials instruct the adult to "help your child organize his thoughts if necessary," which implies scaffolding of verbal responses during the shared activity.
Lesson 4
Day 4
Students are asked to name an animal whose tail has a special job and to describe that job, requiring them to produce spoken descriptions. Students work together with an adult to locate information and discuss the animal's body parts, how they are used, where the animal lives, and what it eats, prompting multi-detail responses. Students play a turn-taking game calling out body parts and acting/guessing animals, which elicits spoken responses and descriptions in a shared activity.
Lesson 5
Day 5
Activity 3 asks the child to draw an animal body part and to "write" 1–3 facts, then to dictate those facts while an adult writes them in complete sentences under the drawing. Activity 1 asks the child to compare tails and put them in order, prompting the child to answer which is longer/shorter and to sequence items aloud. Activity 2 asks the child to identify the sequence of sections in a book and to answer questions about first/next/last, creating spoken opportunities to produce sentences in a shared context.
Unit 5: L - We're Going on a Leaf Hunt
Lesson 1
Day 1
The lesson includes shared read-aloud questions that prompt the child to respond (e.g., "What does she notice? What season does she think is depicted?" and "Do you think the children enjoyed their leaf hunt? Why or why not?"). The Skills list explicitly states students will, "With prompting and support, retell familiar stories, including key details," and to "use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to narrate a single event or several loosely linked events." The activities invite the child to talk about a shared experience (the leaf hunt) and answer reflective questions about feelings and challenges.
Lesson 2
Day 2
The guide prompts the child to say the phrase "a tall mountain" when identifying the adjective 'tall.' During leaf sorting, the child is asked questions such as "What features do some of the leaves have in common? What are some differences among the leaves?" which invites spoken responses. In Activity 3 the child is asked to substitute more specific verbs (skip, march, stroll, hop) for "go" and to act out those actions, engaging in shared language and action-based responses.
Lesson 3
Day 3
Students are asked to read aloud the line "Come on, let's go!" with the adult pointing to the words, producing a complete sentence in a shared reading activity. The adult models a complete sentence—"Yes, it is a dark forest."—while prompting the child to identify the adjective and repeat the phrase "dark forest." Students also participate in guided question-and-answer talk about story details (e.g., describing the forest, waterfall, lake, and skunk).
Lesson 5
Day 5
In Writing Workshop Option 1, students dictate their imagined story to an adult while the adult records it in the journal, providing a shared language activity where students produce spoken language that is transcribed. In Writing Workshop Option 2, students identify objects and think of describing words, and may write or dictate short phrases such as "soft dog" or "big book," engaging in joint word production with an adult. In Reading Workshop, students are asked to respond to comprehension prompts (Did you enjoy this book? Why or why not? Would you recommend it?), prompting spoken responses in a shared interaction.
Unit 6: F - Fireflies
Lesson 1
Day 1
The reading-and-questions section prompts students to look at the book cover, describe what they see, and tell what they know about fireflies, requiring spoken responses. Question prompts ask students to explain what "flicker" means and to think of other things that flicker, and to explain how the boy feels and why he was crying and smiling, which elicit descriptive and explanatory sentences. Activity 2 asks students to give and follow directional clues (e.g., "above the sofa," "under the table") and to direct a partner to the hidden firefly, requiring them to form and use complete spoken sentences in a shared activity.
Lesson 2
Day 2
Students are asked to explain what clues they used to decide whether each pictured creature is an insect and to describe how they made each decision, prompting oral explanation. Students are prompted to talk about whether collected bugs are insects and how to know for sure during the Insect Collector activity. Students are asked comprehension questions about word meaning (e.g., synonym for "blinking" and what "soaring" means) that require spoken responses and explanation using surrounding context.
Lesson 3
Day 3
Students are prompted to read the sentence "'Don't let your dinner get cold,' said Momma." aloud and are encouraged to "read" the sentence to the adult, which has them produce a full spoken sentence in a shared activity. The lesson repeatedly tells students to read the book with an adult and to read the word "said" when it appears, prompting sentence-level oral reading within a shared reading context. The opposites activity asks students to answer questions (for example, "What is the opposite of hot?") and to act out pairs of words with an adult, engaging them in oral response within guided interaction.
Lesson 5
Day 5
Students tell stories about catching fireflies and count them aloud in Activity 1, producing sequenced verbal descriptions. Students retell the book in their own words using illustrations and answer comprehension questions in Activity 2, engaging in shared oral language. Students draw and are encouraged to write words, ideas, or sentences, dictate responses, or copy a sentence from a parent in Activity 3, providing opportunities to produce written or spoken sentences.
Unit 7: E - But No Elephants
Lesson 1
Day 1
Students are asked to answer open-ended comprehension questions (e.g., "What was Grandma Tildy's life like...?" and "Do you think Grandma Tildy was happy... Why?") that require producing spoken sentences. Students are prompted to name predicaments and explain how Grandma Tildy solved them, encouraging sentence-level responses. Students are asked to state the visiting order using ordinal numbers and to use the sentence frame "First the ______ came to visit...," providing explicit opportunities to produce complete sentences in shared activities.
Lesson 2
Day 2
The review prompts students to explain vocabulary words and give examples, which requires them to produce spoken sentences (e.g., describing an adjective as "big"). Activity 1 directs students to describe the positions of animals using words like "in," "on," "under," and to use those words along with two animals in a sentence; sample student responses are full sentences (e.g., "The elephant's legs are under the floor."). The prompt to recall a predicament Grandma Tildy faced asks students to answer a comprehension question in a sentence.
Lesson 3
Day 3
Students are asked to explain what happened in the story after reading, which requires them to produce spoken sentences. The teacher models a full sentence when role-playing (e.g., 'I am here to help Grandma Tildy by keeping her grass mowed for her'), and then asks the child to act as an animal and say how that animal would help Grandma Tildy. Students are also prompted to think of another way to sort animals and to count categories, which can elicit descriptive responses in complete sentences.
Lesson 4
Day 4
The lesson asks the child to name a predicament and to tell what is a circle, rectangle, and triangle, which prompts oral responses. During Activity 1 the child sorts items into "wants" and "needs," explains why he placed each item in a category, and counts the objects, requiring spoken explanations. In Activity 2 the child is asked to listen to a dramatic retelling and then "tell the rest of the story or make up a new ending using the stick puppets," prompting narrative production in a shared language activity.
Lesson 5
Day 5
Students are asked to write words, lists, or some sentences describing life with a house full of animals and to dictate a sentence for an adult to write for them (Writing Workshop). Students are prompted to copy a sentence if they are able, providing practice producing written sentences. Students answer comprehension and opinion questions after reading (e.g., "Did you enjoy it? Why or why not?" and propose a different ending), which requires them to produce oral sentences in a shared activity.
Unit 8: C - Millions of Cats
Lesson 1
Day 1
The lesson directs an adult to ask the child what he sees and what he thinks about the cover and to read the book together and discuss specific comprehension questions, prompting the child to speak. Activity 1 asks the child to describe what cats have in common and what differences exist and to sort and count groups, which involves oral explanation. Activity 2 has the child and adult construct a Venn diagram together and list characteristics for each side and the overlap, a shared language activity that elicits description and comparison.
Lesson 3
Day 3
Students are asked to repeat the multiword phrase "hundreds of cats, thousands of cats, millions and billions and trillions of cats" each time it appears, requiring oral production of a complete phrase. Students are asked to read the sight word "pretty" aloud when it is pointed to, engaging in shared reading language activities. After reading, students are asked an open-ended question about the story's lesson and prompted to state what lesson the story teaches, which requires them to produce an oral response.
Lesson 5
Day 5
Activity 2 presents two complete sentences on sentence strips and has the child follow and hear the sentences while pointing to each word, giving students exposure to sentence structure and word order. Activity 3 invites the child to "write" or dictate a story about a cat, which gives students an opportunity to produce language that could take the form of sentences in a shared writing context.
Unit 9: G - The Real Mother Goose
Lesson 1
Day 1
Students listen to and discuss nursery rhymes and are asked questions (e.g., what parts are silly, which poems they like and why), which requires them to produce spoken responses. Students identify and describe shapes, locate circles in the room, and respond to prompts about how to move in a circle, prompting verbal description in shared activities. Students read and act out "The Little Bird," practice the sight word "saw," and are asked to supply missing end-words in lines, eliciting oral language production during shared reading.
Lesson 2
Day 2
Students are asked to practice the poem "The Little Bird" together and to supply some words after reading it, which creates a shared speaking activity. Students are prompted to sing and recite the months of the year together, practicing oral language in order. Students are asked to "talk about what happens in January" and answer "What is the weather like?", prompting verbal responses about months and events.
Lesson 3
Day 3
Students participate in shared writing in Activity 3 where the parent models changing poem lines on the computer and students help substitute rhyming words to create new lines. Students are asked during review and reading activities to identify a circular object, supply rhyming words, and state their favorite poem and explain why, which require spoken responses. In Activity 2 students are asked to sort round objects and tell how they decided to group them, prompting verbal explanation of their thinking.
Lesson 5
Day 5
Activity 1 prompts the child to explain where the ball is compared to another object and models complete locational sentences (for example, "the sphere is on top of the shelf" or "the sphere is next to the dog"). Activity 3 has the child dictate a poem or nursery rhyme while the adult writes it down, which engages the child in shared language production and transcription of her spoken language into written form.
Unit 10: O - Owl Babies
Lesson 1
Day 1
The lesson instructs an adult to have the child describe the book cover and to answer questions aloud (e.g., "describe what he sees," "what he already knows about owls," and "have him predict"). The plan directs shared reading and discussion of explicit comprehension questions (Question #1 and #2) that ask the child to state whether the book is fiction and to explain how they know, which requires producing explanatory language. Question #3 asks the child to name true facts from the book, prompting the child to produce factual sentences during a shared language activity.
Lesson 2
Day 2
Students are asked to explain vocabulary words in their own words during the Review, which requires them to produce spoken explanations. During Owl Research students are asked to predict whether the book is fiction or non-fiction and to say why, prompting them to form explanatory sentences. Students are asked to dictate or write facts they learned about owls on the activity page, which encourages them to produce informational sentences or phrases. The poem activity has students recite lines and perform motions, practicing full spoken sentences in a shared performance.
Lesson 3
Day 3
Students are asked to read Bill's line "I want my mommy!" aloud while pointing to the words, producing a complete sentence in a shared reading activity. Students are prompted to tell the story in their own words after reading, which requires them to produce sentences to retell events. Students are also asked to describe how the music sounds (scary, cheerful) and whether that matches the story, prompting them to produce spoken sentences about feelings and events.
Lesson 4
Day 4
Students practice and perform a Reader's Theatre script with two family members, taking turns reading lines for the characters (e.g., "Where's Mommy?", "I want my Mommy!") which has them produce spoken sentences in a shared activity. Students recite the poem "The Wide-Eyed Owl" together, practicing producing full utterances aloud. Students are asked to observe owl pictures and answer questions about similarities/differences and how Owl Babies gives owls human attributes, prompting spoken responses.
Lesson 5
Day 5
Students are asked to tell which book is fiction or non-fiction and to explain clues (Reading Workshop), which requires them to produce spoken responses. Students are asked to draw an owl and then write or dictate factual information and a brief fictional story (Writing Workshop), providing opportunities to produce sentences in a shared context. Activity 1 invites students to create stories to act out on the mat and answer word problems verbally, offering additional chances for spoken sentence production.
Unit 11: S - Seasons of Arnold's Apple Tree
Lesson 1
Day 1
Students are asked to describe the front cover and the four pictures and to answer questions such as naming the four seasons and describing favorite activities in each season, which require spoken responses. The lesson prompts students to "create the stories" about apples falling and to "practice reading the equation" and includes skills that ask students, with prompting and support, to identify characters, settings, and major events and to describe relationships between illustrations and the story. The lesson also asks students to use drawing, dictating, and writing to compose informative/explanatory texts in which they name what they are writing about and supply some information.
Lesson 4
Day 4
Students are asked open-ended questions that require explanation, such as "How does each member of the family contribute to this project?" and "Why do you think the family worked together?", prompting spoken responses. Students are asked to listen to music and then state which season is described and what in the music made them think of that season, which asks for descriptive responses. In review, students are asked to give an adjective that describes summer, prompting a descriptive word that could be used in a sentence.
Lesson 5
Day 5
The teacher asks the child where and when The Seasons of Arnold's Apple Tree took place and has the child identify the setting, which requires the child to answer questions about story details. The child is asked to look through books and then share the setting and the clues that helped identify the season, which involves speaking about story elements. In the writing workshop the child draws a picture of a season and is instructed to write or dictate some things she knows about that season, giving opportunities for spoken or written language production.
Unit 12: D - Dinosaurs Big and Small
Lesson 1
Day 1
Students are prompted to speak about the book (e.g., "Ask him what he sees. What will the book be about?") and to answer comprehension questions (fiction vs. non-fiction, author/illustrator roles). Students are asked to describe characteristics of dinosaurs and to compare lengths aloud (e.g., "Ask your child who is longer, your child or the Caudipteryx?"). The Skills list explicitly includes "With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text," which supports shared spoken interactions.
Lesson 3
Day 3
Students are asked to name their favorite dinosaur and one characteristic, which prompts them to produce a spoken description. Question prompts (e.g., asking what "sprawl" means and what new information the child learned) require the child to explain ideas in their own words. Activity 3 asks students to join in reciting a poem, identify describing words (adjectives), and generate adjectives to describe dinosaurs from pictures, encouraging spoken production of descriptive language.
Lesson 4
Day 4
In the Review, students are asked to name their favorite dinosaur and identify one characteristic, and to think of an adjective to describe that characteristic, which prompts them to produce short verbal responses. In Activity 1, students choose a dinosaur, research it, and dictate five facts while an adult records them beneath their drawing, creating an opportunity for oral sentence production and shared recording. The lesson also prompts students to share their new information with friends and family, encouraging spoken language use in a social context.
Lesson 5
Day 5
Activity 3 instructs the child to dictate (or attempt to write) factual sentences about dinosaurs, which requires the child to produce complete sentences in a shared adult-child writing context. Activity 2 asks the child to identify and share adjectives found in texts or pictures, which could be used to add descriptive detail to spoken or written language. The dictation format in Activity 3 explicitly involves shared language activity between child and adult.
Unit 13: P - Harold and the Purple Crayon
Lesson 1
Day 1
Students are asked comprehension questions after the read-aloud (e.g., "What do you think about Harold's adventure?" "How do you think Harold feels?") that require oral responses. In Activity 1 students are prompted to offer solutions to imagined predicaments (e.g., "What can he draw?"), which elicits spoken language in a shared activity. In Activity 2 students are asked to identify and describe shapes (e.g., "What makes a rectangle?" "What is the difference between a square and a rectangle?"), prompting descriptive answers in group interaction.
Lesson 3
Day 3
Students are asked open-ended questions (e.g., "What do you think was the most interesting thing that happened to Harold?" and "How did he figure out how to get home?") that require spoken responses. The lesson asks the child to explain word meanings and to identify and describe shapes, prompting verbal explanations (e.g., explaining the difference between a square and a rectangle and what "trim" means in context). The reading activity asks the child to read sight words aloud and answer comprehension questions during a shared reading.
Lesson 4
Day 4
The lesson includes multiple spoken-question prompts where students are asked to describe and explain (e.g., name shapes, imagine being on a boat and say where they are going, define "imagination," and answer whether their neighborhood is like Harold's and why). In Activity 1 students plan and describe a neighborhood map, choose places for their home, assign stores, and may narrate travel routes using a toy car. These discussion tasks place students in shared language activities that require verbal responses about people, places, and actions.
Lesson 5
Day 5
Students trace sentences from left to right and identify periods at the ends of sentences during the Reading Workshop, and they tap periods when they encounter them. In the Writing Workshop, students draw a picture and then write or dictate a description or story about the picture, providing opportunities to produce sentences in a shared (dictation) activity. The teacher circles periods in the dictated writing, reinforcing sentence boundaries and final punctuation.
Unit 14: B - Blueberries for Sal
Lesson 1
Day 1
The lesson includes shared reading and discussion prompts (e.g., asking the child what they notice on the cover, what the book will be about, and following up discussion questions after reading). It lists specific comprehension questions (Who was looking for blueberries? Why did they each want blueberries? What happened on the mountain?), which require the child to produce oral or written responses. The skills list includes: "With guidance and support from adults, respond to questions and suggestions from peers and add details to strengthen writing as needed," which implies practicing responding to prompts.
Lesson 2
Day 2
Students are asked to name one similarity and one difference between Little Sal and Little Bear, which requires them to produce descriptive responses. Students are asked whether the story takes place in current times or the past and to find picture clues, prompting them to explain evidence in their own words. Students are asked to describe what 'hustle' must mean from a picture and to act out movements while paging through the book, encouraging them to use movement verbs and short phrases aloud.
Lesson 3
Day 3
The lesson asks the child to retell the story in his own words and allows use of pictures to prompt him, which requires the child to produce spoken sentences. The lesson also includes question prompts such as asking what it means to 'hustle' and asking the child to name number pairs that equal 10, which elicit spoken responses in a shared adult-child interaction.
Lesson 4
Day 4
Students sing the full lines of the song "The Bear Went Over the Mountain," producing complete spoken sentences and are asked to substitute different verbs (for example, "The bear hustled over the mountain," "The bear backed over the mountain") during the shared singing activity. During the Getting Started review, students are asked to read the number 13 and explain what it means ("10 plus 3 more"), which requires them to produce an explanatory sentence. In Activity 1, students orally name elements of fiction and non-fiction about bears while creating a two-column list, which involves spoken statements about the text.
Lesson 5
Day 5
In Reading Workshop, students are asked to look through books and then "share his findings" about the story setting, answering questions about clothes and technology, which requires them to speak in sentences during a shared activity. In Writing Workshop, students write or dictate sentences and are invited to add more detail or add a period; adults are instructed to offer one specific suggestion for improvement (for example, adding more details or a period). The dictation option asks the adult to write down exactly what the child says, supporting practice in producing complete utterances that can be revised or expanded.
Unit 15: R - Rain
Lesson 1
Day 1
The lesson's Skills list explicitly includes "Produce and expand complete sentences in shared language activities." During reading, adults are instructed to ask the child open-ended questions (e.g., "Ask her what she knows about rain," "stop and ask her what she thinks the rain will fall on next") and to "Discuss the following questions with her," which requires spoken responses. The Recreating the Story activity asks the child to place die-cuts to show story progression, an activity that can prompt retelling and spoken description in a shared context.
Lesson 2
Day 2
Students are prompted to write a sentence beginning with the frame "I see..." on the Rainbow Book pages and to produce examples such as "I see a red apple," providing guided and independent practice in composing complete sentences. For nonwriters, students are asked to dictate sentence endings or copy words the adult writes, which requires them to produce oral or written complete sentences. In the Rain and Ice activity, students are prompted to use their five senses and describing words to answer questions about water and ice, encouraging them to generate descriptive utterances in shared conversation.
Lesson 5
Day 5
In Activity 3, students are asked to name 3–5 favorite things and write or dictate a sentence or phrase about each using a color word, e.g., "red car" or the expanded example "The red car zoomed across the room." The directions include dictation to an adult, which creates a shared language activity where the child produces language with adult support. Students are also asked to illustrate their sentences, linking written expansion to meaning and communication.
Unit 16: N - Night in the Country
Lesson 1
Day 1
Students are prompted to speak during shared read-aloud activities (e.g., describing the cover, saying what they notice about the sky, and answering questions such as "How do you feel about nighttime? Why?"). Students are asked to define and discuss the meaning of the word "country" and to compare city, suburbs, and country in conversation. Students take a Listening Walk and are asked to describe what they hear and how they feel, which requires verbal responses in a shared activity with an adult.
Lesson 2
Day 2
Students are prompted to name a night sound and to describe two different meanings for the word "country," which requires them to produce spoken responses. In the paper-doll puppet activity, students take turns asking and answering specific questions (e.g., "Where do you get your fruit?"), producing full-sentence answers based on the character (sample multi-clause answers are provided). The role-play format is a shared language activity in which students speak aloud and respond to partner prompts.
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 the child to produce spoken sentences during a shared reading activity. The review questions (e.g., asking what "5 minus 1" equals and one difference between country and city) prompt the child to respond verbally. The teacher/parent is prompted to "talk about the names of these features as you work" during the landforms activity, which invites the child to use language in a shared context.
Lesson 5
Day 5
In Activity 3 students create a two-page journal entry and write about what they do in the day and at night, with encouragement to write marks, letters, or words and to add dictation of their ideas. Students read their work and their dictated text aloud to an adult and are asked if they can think of one more thing to add about what they do at night or in the day. The teacher-student dictation and the prompt to add an idea create a shared language opportunity for students to produce and extend their expressed ideas.
Unit 17: M - Marshmallow
Lesson 1
Day 1
Students are asked to answer multiple comprehension and vocabulary questions after a read-aloud (e.g., "How did Marshmallow act...", "Why did Oliver hesitate..."). Students are prompted to discuss the book cover, predict content, and distinguish fiction vs. non-fiction, which requires spoken responses. In Activity 2 students are given role-play scenarios and told to "respond to the situation" and say what they would do to be a good friend, a shared language activity that elicits spoken replies.
Lesson 2
Day 2
The lesson asks the child to explain vocabulary and concepts (e.g., asking the child what it means to hesitate) and to name the household rules, which requires producing spoken responses. It prompts the child to explain why rules are important and how they help the family, requiring the child to give explanatory responses in shared discussion. The poetry activity asks the child to supply omitted words during repeated readings, engaging the child in completing oral lines of the poem in a shared language activity.
Lesson 3
Day 3
After reading, the caregiver asks the child to "tell you the story in her own words" and encourages use of pictures to prompt her, which asks the child to produce spoken narrative. The activities ask the child questions (e.g., "Ask her how she can compare the size of the animals" and "Ask your child to determine which animal is longer"), prompting the child to state observations and comparisons aloud in a shared interaction.
Lesson 4
Day 4
The lesson asks the child to "explain the number 14 in his own words" and specifically to "explain 14 in terms of ten and four," which prompts the child to produce and expand an explanation. The lesson also directs parents to "Ask him if he would hesitate before jumping into a cold swimming pool," and to "Talk with your child about how Owen and Mzee's friendship was similar to and different from Owen and Marshmallow's," all of which require the child to speak and elaborate ideas in shared conversation. The memory poem practice also provides an opportunity for students to produce spoken sentences in a shared activity.
Lesson 5
Day 5
In Activity 3 students participate in a shared writing task where an adult dictates a short poem and the child fills in blanks on a two-page spread, with the adult recording her answers. The same activity has a scaffolded animal story composed of full-sentence frames (e.g., "Once there was a pet ____. He got lost when ____.") that students complete. Activity 1 also prompts the child to observe and verbally describe objects (e.g., naming shapes, counting faces), which requires producing spoken responses.
Unit 18: U - Umbrella
Lesson 1
Day 1
Students are asked to look at the cover and predict what the book will be about and to recall events after reading, which requires them to produce spoken responses. Specific comprehension questions (e.g., What gift was Momo given? Why couldn't she use them at first?) prompt students to answer in phrases or sentences. In Activity 1 students are encouraged to create their own math story problems, tell the story, show it with props, and then write the matching equation, which involves producing and narrating sentences in a shared context.
Lesson 3
Day 3
The teacher asks the child to tell the story in his own words and to use the pictures to prompt his retelling, which requires the child to produce spoken sentences during a shared reading activity. The review section includes asking the child an open-ended question about an unfortunate birthday event, prompting the child to formulate a response. The instructions also prompt the child to read and repeat the word "not," supporting short spoken responses.
Lesson 4
Day 4
Students are prompted to speak in shared activities: they are asked to describe what the sky looks like before it rains, to explain what clouds are, and to describe how clouds they have seen are alike and different. During review, students are asked whether they know the prefix "un-" and to name a pair of numbers that adds to 10, which elicits spoken responses. The origami activity asks students in what kind of weather they would appreciate a fan, encouraging verbal explanation.
Lesson 5
Day 5
Students are asked to draw a picture of a special birthday gift and to write or dictate their thoughts about the gift, then read or listen to those thoughts aloud. Students are prompted to write their name several times and reminded to start with a capital letter, and to point out any capital letters they used and explain why. Students engage in one-on-one reading and discussion (adult reads with child, asks about the book, and asks questions about the child's writing).
Unit 19: J - Jump Frog Jump
Lesson 1
Day 1
The lesson has multiple shared language prompts where a child is asked to answer questions aloud (e.g., identify main character and setting; Q1–Q4 including "Do you think that was a kind action? Would you have done the same thing? Why or why not?"). Activity 1 has the child order story sequence pictures and consult the book to choose the first picture and continue sequencing, promoting oral retelling. The Student Activity Pages provide short complete-sentence captions (e.g., "The frog was under the fly.") that students can read or say during shared activities.
Lesson 2
Day 2
Students are asked to define vocabulary words in their own words and to answer questions such as "What does it mean to escape?," which requires verbal responses. Students are prompted to talk about pond animals, describing what they know, what animals have in common, and differences, and to sort them into groups while explaining their reasoning. The finger-play song and counting activities require students to produce verbal lines and count aloud in a shared activity.
Lesson 3
Day 3
The lesson asks the child to tell the story using story sequence cards, prompting the child to produce sentences during a shared retelling activity. Activity 3 directs the child to use direction/preposition words to create original situations between two animals, with an adult modeling an example sentence (e.g., "The snake slithered to the frog"). During reading, the child is asked to read aloud phrases and sight words in context, which engages the child in producing spoken sentence-level language.
Lesson 5
Day 5
Students are prompted to produce spoken sentences when asked to pose questions (Activity 2) and to answer teacher questions, using question forms. Students practice reading and repeating the sentence "How will frog get away?" and are encouraged to "read" the book to an adult (Activity 2). Students write a self-generated question about frogs and record it on the page, using a question mark (Activity 3).
Unit 20: K - Kindness
Lesson 1
Day 1
The lesson includes multiple spoken prompts that require the child to answer questions about the story (e.g., asking what he notices on the cover, what the book will be about, whether he has performed an act of kindness and how it made him feel). The plan explicitly asks the child to "describe kindness in his own words" after watching a video. The Skills list asks students to "use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose opinion pieces" that state a topic and an opinion, which requires producing sentences.
Lesson 2
Day 2
Students use the Kindness Mouse puppet to go around the house and "say at least one kind thing to each family member," which requires spoken language production in a shared context. Students act out scenes with a partner in Activity 3, "adding other dialogue to fill in the scene," which involves creating and extending spoken lines. The review question asking the child how she felt after doing acts of kindness prompts the student to produce a spoken response about personal experience.
Lesson 3
Day 3
During shared reading, students are asked questions that require spoken responses, such as which act of kindness they found especially kind and how one small act resulted in a series of kind acts. The teacher prompts students to read sentences aloud (e.g., identifying and reading the sentence where the frog thanks Harry) and to locate and read the word "so" in context. Activity 3 asks students to name actions for animals and record those ideas in a three-column chart, requiring them to generate descriptive phrases or statements about animal and human actions.
Lesson 4
Day 4
In Activity 1, students are asked to think of rules they follow and dictate items for a class list headed "I Am a Good Citizen!," with the teacher writing the child's responses and encouraging 4–6 ideas. The activity invites students to produce sentence-like statements (e.g., "I take care of my pet," "I pick up my toys") as they generate content for the list. Activity 2 asks students to listen to and sing a kindness song, which gives opportunities to speak or perform lines in a shared setting.
Lesson 5
Day 5
In Activity 2, students are asked to spend time with the book and practice retelling the story through the illustrations, then retell the story to an adult, which requires producing oral sentences. In Activity 3, students write or dictate a brief description of a chosen book and state reasons they like it, then read back their writing or dictation. The teacher/parent prompt asks the student to think of one more detail or one more reason to add, which requires students to expand their initial sentences or ideas.
Unit 21: V - Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin
Lesson 1
Day 1
The Skills list includes "Communicate observations orally," and the Reading and Questions section prompts students to look at the book cover, name instruments, and answer five comprehension questions aloud. Activity 1 directs adults to ask the child questions (e.g., "Has your child ever sung a solo...?" and "What does it mean to do something 'solo'?") and to have the child find and name ensemble labels. Activity 2 asks the child to name and demonstrate a created instrument, which requires spoken description.
Lesson 3
Day 3
Students participate in shared reading of Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin and are asked comprehension and labeling questions (e.g., look for the word now; place instrument pictures in order). The teacher prompts students to name shapes, compare objects (e.g., "What is the same and what is different between the can and the roll?" with example answer provided), and brainstorm jobs for sorting into Goods and Services. Several prompts require verbal responses and there are parenthetical model answers that show complete-sentence responses (e.g., "The shape is the same, but the size is different.").
Lesson 4
Day 4
Students are asked oral questions in the Review (e.g., how many instruments are playing, name a job and whether it provides goods or a service, give an example of a cylinder and a cone), which requires spoken responses. In Activity 1, students draw, write, or dictate observations on a Senses Web about an instrument, which can involve producing language in a shared activity with an adult. These tasks create opportunities for students to respond verbally and to generate descriptive language with adult interaction.
Lesson 5
Day 5
The Writing Workshop asks the child to write or dictate her thoughts and then read them back aloud, with the adult pointing out sentence-level features such as capitalization and end punctuation and suggesting one improvement. Activity 1 requires the child to tell how many are here and how many are missing (spoken responses) before writing matching equations. Activity 2 has the child supply missing rhyming words during shared reading, producing oral language in a joint activity.
Unit 22: Y - Little Blue and Little Yellow
Lesson 1
Day 1
The lesson asks the child to make a sentence using the word "row" twice, which requires the child to produce a sentence in a shared activity. The reading section prompts the child to answer detailed comprehension questions after a read-aloud (e.g., Where does Little Yellow live compared to Little Blue?) and includes the skill statement "With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text," which directs student question-and-answer practice. The lesson also prompts the child to name a favorite color and explain why, encouraging spoken responses.
Lesson 2
Day 2
The lesson asks the child to define vocabulary terms in her own words and to describe two meanings of the word "row," which requires verbal responses. Activity 1 prompts the child to answer comprehension questions about friendship and citizenship (e.g., "What were some ways Little Blue and Little Yellow were good friends?" "Why was it important for Little Blue to obey his mother?") and to think of someone special and draw a picture to give them. Activity 3 asks the child to answer questions about the dough (e.g., "What shape have you made?" and "How to make the dough green?"), eliciting spoken explanations during shared tasks.
Lesson 3
Day 3
Students read sentences that contain the sight word "they" and say that word as it occurs in the story. Students retell and act out Little Blue and Little Yellow in their own words using pictures and Play-doh, which requires them to produce spoken sentences. Students respond to oral prompts (e.g., name one quality of a good friend, continue a color or pattern sequence), which elicits spoken sentence-level responses.
Lesson 4
Day 4
Activity 2 (Paper Story) asks the child to tell a story about two torn-paper characters, to describe what happened to them, and to choose one scene to glue and then write or dictate what is happening in that scene. The Getting Started review also asks the child to "explain the number 19" (10 plus 9) and to answer oral prompts like naming primary colors and continuing a color pattern, which require verbal explanations.
Lesson 5
Day 5
Activity 3 asks the child to draw a picture and write about something from a nature walk and explicitly allows the child to use complete sentences or to dictate to an adult what to write. The dictation option constitutes a shared language activity in which the child can produce sentences orally while an adult records them.
Unit 23: W - George Washington's Birthday
Lesson 1
Day 1
Students are prompted to share what they already know about George Washington and to compare the picture on the book cover to the dollar bill, which requires spoken responses. Students are asked to explain whether the book is fiction or nonfiction, to define and judge the term "tyrant," and to give opinions about the story's ending and lessons, all of which involve answering questions in shared discussion. The activities ask students to try writing letters with a quill pen and to complete the student activity page, providing opportunities for oral and written language use.
Lesson 4
Day 4
Students are asked to talk with an adult about George Washington and Benjamin Franklin and to answer prompts such as why certain qualities are important and why symbols were chosen, which require oral responses. The Getting Started review explicitly asks the child to "name two symbols of the United States" and "challenge him to explain why they were chosen as symbols." The Acting Out Words activity has students deduce meanings from context and "act out the sentence," prompting them to produce and perform full sentences from the text in a shared activity.
Lesson 5
Day 5
In the Writing Workshop, students draw a picture and then "write or dictate some words, phrases, or sentences" about how they celebrate their birthday, and they read their work aloud. The teacher asks students to identify a favorite part of their piece and whether "there is one word she could add or replace with a more descriptive word," prompting revision. In the Reading Workshop, students are asked to "share her observations" and answer questions such as why the author included boxed text and whether she would recommend the book, which elicits spoken responses in a shared setting.
Unit 24: Q - The Quilt Story
Lesson 1
Day 1
Students are prompted to answer oral comprehension questions after read-alouds (e.g., "How could you tell that the second part of the story took place in more modern times?" and "How did the quilt help both girls?"), which requires them to produce spoken responses. Students are asked to make observations about a real quilt and to name and count shapes (e.g., "Ask him to name and count the number of sides on each shape"), which elicits short spoken sentences in a shared activity. The activities include guided question-and-answer interactions and shape-naming tasks that involve verbal expression.
Lesson 2
Day 2
The lesson includes multiple spoken prompts where students respond (e.g., asking the child what wood shavings are, identifying shapes, and challenging the child to draw a hexagon). It asks students to talk about Daniel Boone and to discuss what character qualities he must have had and whether they would enjoy that kind of exploration. It directs students to identify ways the pioneer family used natural resources and to name landforms from the story, which require oral responses in shared conversation.
Lesson 3
Day 3
Students are asked to "tell the story back in his own words," which requires them to produce spoken narrative sentences. During the review, students are asked to identify shapes and "tell you something about each one," prompting them to speak descriptive sentences. Students compare and contrast the beginning and end of the story using a Venn diagram and "record his ideas," which asks them to generate and put language into writing or oral responses in a shared activity.
Lesson 5
Day 5
The Writing Workshop asks the child to "compose and write or dictate a few sentences" about a personal item or a holiday, providing explicit practice in producing complete sentences. The parent is instructed to prompt with questions (e.g., "Where did you get your item?", "What does it look like?", "How do you feel when you have your item with you?"), which supports shared-language interaction. After writing, the child is asked to read back the writing (or have it read to him) and to consider "one thing he could add to make his writing more detailed," which directs the child to expand his sentences.
Unit 25: X - An Extraordinary Egg
Lesson 1
Day 1
The lesson prompts an adult to ask the child questions after reading (e.g., asking what the child sees on the cover, asking whether examples are extraordinary and to explain reasoning, and specific comprehension questions like what the frogs thought was inside the egg and what was really inside). Activity 2 has the child dictate her ideas about factual and fictional frog behaviors onto index cards, a shared language task that records the child's spoken responses. The lesson also asks the child to talk about similarities and differences between characters, which requires spoken responses and explanations.
Lesson 2
Day 2
Students are asked to talk about the animal that hatched and answer questions such as "What did the frogs think it was?" and "Were they right?", which prompt spoken responses. Students are prompted to describe the egg in as many ways as possible using guided questions about color, size, shape, weight, texture, flexibility, magnet attraction, and whether it floats or sinks. Students are also asked to start thinking about the story behind their extraordinary egg, which prompts them to generate ideas verbally in preparation for later writing.
Lesson 3
Day 3
The teacher reads the book aloud and has the child read the sight word look as the adult reads the sentence, which gives the child practice producing language in a shared reading activity. After reading, the child is asked to retell the story in her own words using the pictures to help remember events, which requires the child to produce spoken sentences. The retelling prompt is a direct shared-language opportunity for the child to generate connected utterances about story events.
Lesson 5
Day 5
Activity 3 asks students to draw the egg and "write or dictate a creative story" about it, which requires students to produce sentences in a shared writing/dictation activity with an adult. After the story is read back, students are asked to offer one idea for a change and are prompted that they might "add another detail or include a describing word," which explicitly asks students to expand their sentences with additional information or adjectives.
Unit 26: Z - Greedy Zebra
Lesson 1
Day 1
The lesson prompts the child to talk about the word "greedy," give examples, predict what will happen, and explain how the zebra was greedy and what happened as a result, which requires the child to speak in complete sentences. The lesson asks the child to create and solve several story problems with the animal cards and to answer comparison and counting questions aloud, providing multiple shared language opportunities. The reading-and-question prompts (predict, explain, justify whether the zebra deserved the result) repeatedly ask the child to express ideas and reasons orally.
Lesson 2
Day 2
Students are asked to define vocabulary words in their own words and to give an example of being greedy, which requires producing spoken descriptions. Students are instructed to create and solve a story problem using animal cards, which involves composing and explaining a problem. The optional extension asks students to dictate a report about zebras and to complete a research organizer (appearance, predators, diet, habitat), prompting them to produce connected language about a topic.
Lesson 3
Day 3
Students are prompted to retell the story using the illustrations and to predict what would have happened if zebra had not been greedy, which requires producing oral sentences. The lesson asks the child to read and use the sight word "new" in a sentence from the book, supporting spoken sentence use in a shared reading activity. Activity 2 requires students to explain sorting criteria and count group members, asking them to tell the criterion they used, and Activity 3 directs students to talk about what they might see in a cave, how it would make them feel, and whether they would be brave enough to enter.
Lesson 5
Day 5
In Activity 1, students are asked to compare two animals aloud and produce sentences such as "The elephant is bigger than the onyx" or "The rhino has more legs than the hornbill." In Activity 2, students are prompted to identify similarities and differences between books and explain favorites, which requires producing spoken complete sentences. In Activity 3, students draw a scene and are asked to write some words, phrases, or sentences or dictate ideas for an adult to record, then read their writing aloud and receive one suggestion for improvement.
2: Holidays
Unit 27: Halloween
Lesson 1
Day 1
Students are asked open-ended questions after shared reading (e.g., asked why they think Goodnight Moon was written and how it would make a young child feel), which invites spoken responses. Students are prompted to observe and compare covers of Goodnight Moon and Goodnight Goon and to describe similarities and differences. Students are asked to decide and answer a comprehension question about the meaning of "lagoon" and to make and record a prediction for how many wraps it will take to make a mummy, activities that require verbal or written responses in a shared context.
Lesson 3
Day 3
Students are invited to join in at the ends of lines during the shared reading of Goodnight Goon and are asked to choose a page and explain why they like it, prompting oral responses. In Activity 1 students create and solve story problems with ghost manipulatives (e.g., "2 ghosts came out to play. 2 more joined them.") which elicits production of language in context. In Activity 2 students trace and write greetings ("Boo!", "Happy Halloween!" and a message to a friend or family member), providing a written shared-language opportunity.
Lesson 4
Day 4
The mask activity instructs an adult to let the child pretend to be a bat and to ask her questions such as what kind of bat she is, what she eats, and anything else she knows about bats, which prompts spoken responses. The Getting Started review asks the child to name two pairs of numbers whose sum is 10 and to think of a synonym for "lagoon," which elicits verbal answers. The video-watching activity creates an opportunity for shared discussion about bats after viewing.
Lesson 5
Day 5
In Activity 3, students are asked to produce a rhyming sentence such as "Good night, clock, and good night, sock," and either draw the objects or have the teacher write the sentence for them. The teacher may write a sentence frame "Good night _____________ and good night, _________________," and students fill in the blanks by copying words from scrap paper, which involves shared writing and sentence completion. Students are also encouraged to say their rhyming pairs aloud when sharing, providing oral practice of complete sentences.
Unit 28: Thanksgiving
Lesson 1
Day 1
The Skills list includes "With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text," which asks students to produce oral responses during shared reading. The Reading and Questions prompts instruct an adult to "Ask her what she sees," "Ask her what she likes about Thanksgiving," and "Ask your child to summarize why a type of Thanksgiving has been celebrated," requiring students to form sentences in conversation. The Turkey Research activity asks the child to "dictate each fact to you," which has students produce spoken or dictated sentences to record facts.
Lesson 2
Day 2
During Review the child is asked to name one thing he knows about turkeys and one thing for which he is grateful, prompting spoken responses. Activity 1 asks the child to recall specific story details with direct questions (e.g., Why did the Pilgrims leave England? What was the name of their ship?), requiring verbal answers. Activity 2 asks the child to predict whether the boat will sink or float, eliciting an oral prediction. Activity 3 has the child act out lines from the text as pages are read aloud (for example, "The Pilgrims began to build homes."), involving shared reading and speaking.
Lesson 3
Day 3
Students are asked to offer something they learned about the very first American Thanksgiving, prompting spoken recall. Students are prompted to talk about their family's favorite Thanksgiving foods and to discuss how Pocahontas's help differed from the Plymouth Native Americans, giving opportunities for oral responses in shared conversation. Students are asked to write or draw things for which they are thankful on die-cut food pieces, producing written language that could take the form of words or short phrases.
Lesson 4
Day 4
Students are prompted to answer review questions orally (e.g., "Ask your child what it means to be grateful. What was one thing the Pilgrims were grateful for that first Thanksgiving?"). Students are asked to describe Abraham Lincoln and explain why we still celebrate him ("Ask your child what words might describe Abraham Lincoln and why we still celebrate him today."). Students are asked to write or dictate a Thanksgiving note describing why they are thankful and to write their name if possible.
Lesson 5
Day 5
The Writing Workshop asks the child to draw things she is grateful for and then "write words or sentences, or dictate them, about her pictures," which requires the child to produce written or spoken sentences. The Reading Workshop instructs an adult to ask the child to "point out some of her observations about the illustrations," which prompts the child to produce spoken descriptions. Activity 1 has the child read the number on the turkey and count out feathers, providing brief opportunities for oral number phrases.
Unit 29: Christmas
Lesson 1
Day 1
The lesson includes multiple teacher prompts during shared read-aloud and discussions (ask him what he notices, predict what the book will be about, ask him to consider the illustrations) that require the child to respond verbally. Activities ask the child to identify and describe shapes (name the shape, talk about number of sides and what makes it unique) and to state three things he learned about real Christmas trees after reading a linked article. The skills list includes using drawing, dictating, and writing to compose opinion pieces, which involves producing language in shared or guided contexts.
Lesson 2
Day 2
Activity 1 asks the child to tell about her favorite part of The Christmas Wish and to talk about what life is like in Norway, prompting spoken responses in a shared conversation. Activity 2 asks the child to explain what snow is made of, predict what happens when snow melts, identify solids and liquids, and predict what will happen when powdered hot chocolate is mixed with hot water, all of which require the child to state ideas and make predictions verbally. Activity 3 has the child create a snowy scene and could lead to describing the scene and the animals she made, providing opportunities for shared talk about her creation.
Lesson 3
Day 3
Students are asked to chant the finger play "Five Little Bells" with the adult and then chant along and use finger motions, which engages them in a shared language activity. Students are prompted to sing along with the "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" video, providing additional shared speaking/singing practice. Students are asked to page through the book, note animals they encounter, and answer questions such as "What does it look like? Can a reindeer really fly?", which requires spoken responses about observations.
Lesson 4
Day 4
Students are prompted to talk about Santa Claus and answer guided questions (e.g., Why did Anja want to be an elf? Was her experience real?), which requires spoken responses in shared conversation. Students are asked to locate and name their country and continent and to describe Santa's path, oceans crossed, and islands, encouraging them to produce verbal descriptions. These activities repeatedly invite the child to speak about people, places, and events in response to adult prompts.
Lesson 5
Day 5
Activity 3 asks the child to "write or dictate his description" of how he likes to celebrate Christmas, which requires the child to produce spoken or written language. Option 2 asks the child to "compose a letter to Santa Claus," an activity in which the child generates sentences for a communicative purpose. Activity 2 has the child speak character dialogue aloud and repeat lines shown by quotation marks, which has the child produce spoken sentences in a shared reading context.
Unit 30: February Celebrations
Lesson 1
Day 1
Students are asked to answer six comprehension questions aloud after a shared read-aloud of The Biggest Valentine Ever, requiring them to recall events and explain feelings (Questions #1–#6). Students are prompted to brainstorm responses to having different opinions with a friend, producing ideas verbally in a shared discussion. Students are encouraged to talk about how they celebrate holidays and to describe a way they might show love to someone, practicing spoken expression of thoughts and feelings.
Lesson 2
Day 2
Students are asked to answer oral questions and participate in discussions (e.g., "Ask your child if she would like to be president for a day!" and "Ask her what she notices" about coins). Students are prompted to recall and describe facts (e.g., "Ask her what she remembers about Lincoln") and to discuss opinions (e.g., "discuss with your child what she thinks would be the best and worst parts of being president" and "Would she like to be the President... Why or why not?").
Lesson 3
Day 3
Students are prompted to say the phrase "I love you" in several languages and to choose one language to practice saying the phrase aloud (Activity 1). Students are asked to write a message on the body of the mouse when creating the valentine (Activity 2). Students are asked to read each addition problem out loud before matching problems and answers (Activity 3), providing opportunities for oral language production.
Lesson 4
Day 4
In Activity 3, students are asked to dictate or write 3–5 of their dreams on cloud pages with example complete sentences given (e.g., "I have a dream that all children would have plenty of food to eat" and "I have a dream that every grown-up would have a good job"). Students are asked to write or trace a titled sentence for the book ("[Child's name] Has a Dream!"). Activities 1 and 2 prompt students to answer questions aloud about why education is important and how Martin Luther King, Jr. showed love, engaging students in shared spoken language exchanges.
Lesson 5
Day 5
In Activity 1 students discuss ideas for a letter to the President and are asked to dictate their thoughts while an adult records them, providing an opportunity to produce sentences in a shared language activity. In Activity 2 students write the message "I love you" on the front of a valentine and complete the TO: and LOVE: lines with recipient and author names, requiring them to produce written phrases and at least one complete sentence.
1: Environment
Unit 1: Habitats and Homes
Lesson 1
My Environment
Students are asked to describe their environment and answer guided questions (e.g., "Ask your child to briefly describe her environment" and discussion prompts in Activities 1 and 2), which requires producing complete spoken sentences. In Activity 3 students dictate ideas or fill prompted sentence frames such as "The most important room in my house is the ___." and "We use this room for ___, ___, and ___," and then read the resulting paragraph aloud. Activities also include shared language routines (guided discussion, singing the Environment Song, read-aloud of the paragraph) that require students to produce language in a group/interactive setting.
Lesson 2
What Is a Map?
The lesson prompts oral responses when it asks the child if he has seen a map and why we use maps, and it asks the child specific questions (name of country, state, town, address) that require verbal answers. The Wrapping Up section asks the child to describe the environment in which he lives, inviting spoken descriptions. The Handwriting activity offers an option where the child can write or copy a sentence using target words (map, mom, home, house), providing an opportunity for written sentence production.
Lesson 3
Guide to Animal Habitats
The lesson asks the child to describe her own environment and answers targeted questions (e.g., "Can you point to the title… What do you think this book is about?") during shared read-aloud interaction. During reading the adult is instructed to stop and ask the child to identify animals and plants, and Activity 5 explicitly asks the child to "tell a story" about visiting a chosen habitat. Activity 5 provides multiple follow-up prompts (What do you see? What would it feel like? What would you do? Which animals would you be most interested in seeing? Would you want to live in the habitat?) that invite students to add details to their responses.
Lesson 4
Animals Live and Grow
The lesson repeatedly directs an adult to ask the child questions and have discussions (e.g., "Ask your child what he learned..." and the Day 2 Reading and Questions prompts). Activity 5 gives explicit sentence stems for the child to complete: "Plants can... Plants are... Plants have...". Several activities ask the child to name or explain ideas aloud or in writing (Activity 2: name things animals need; Activity 3: explain why shelter is important), and the reading questions include model full-sentence answers for the child to respond to or emulate.
Lesson 5
Discovering Animal Habitats
The lesson includes explicit prompts for students to produce sentences in Activity 4, where students can "use the 'j' words in her own sentences or copy sentences that contain the 'j' words." Multiple teacher prompts in Activity 2 ask students questions about habitats (e.g., "Do you know what we call the habitat where deer, bears, and foxes live?"), requiring verbal responses and descriptions. Activity 3 asks students to discuss animals' needs and to label animals and their food/water sources, which encourages sentence-level description and labeling.
Lesson 6
Exploring Animal Habitats
Students are asked to produce oral responses during the habitat observation by answering guided questions (Where are the plants? What animals do you see? What are they doing?) and by making and recording predictions. In Activity 2 students dictate a narrative ("A Day in the ___: A ___'s Life"), complete fill-in-the-blank sentence starters ("I am a ___. I live in the ___. One day I ___."), and have their story recorded — a shared language activity. The handwriting and copying tasks ask students to write or copy sentences (zebra/zoo practice), reinforcing production of sentence-level language.
Lesson 7
Tools in My Environment
Students are prompted to speak in shared interactions: adults are instructed to ask the child questions (e.g., "Tell me what she needs to live and grow," "What is a tool?", and scavenger-hunt questions) that require spoken responses. Activity 4 asks the child to write or copy sentences that contain the words it and inch, and the wrap-up asks the child to tell what tools were used and what a tool is. Several activities ask the child to describe tools and explain how they work, encouraging multiword responses.
Lesson 8
Animal Care
Students are asked to respond verbally to multiple teacher questions (e.g., in Activity 1: "What do pets need?" and "What would happen if we didn't provide a healthy environment for our pets?"). During read-aloud of The Salamander Room students are prompted to answer comprehension and opinion questions (e.g., "What kind of animal did the boy find?", "Do you think the boy should have kept the salamander in his room? Why or why not?"). The activities ask students to discuss and explain their designs and choices (e.g., describing what the salamander would need when creating a shoebox habitat).
Lesson 9
Animal Designs
Students are prompted to produce full sentences in the Stuffed Animal Sort where they are encouraged to say "A __________ can't live in the ____________. A __________ lives in the ________________." Activity 4 asks students to tell and then revise a creative story about an animal in the wrong habitat, which requires producing and expanding sentences. Multiple activities (Activity 2 and Option 1/2) ask students to explain why animals do not belong in a habitat and to describe body parts used for movement, prompting spoken sentence responses in shared parent-child interactions.
Lesson 10
Amazing Animals
Activity 2 asks the child to pretend to be an animal and answer questions such as "How would you feel if you were the starfish?" and "What would you do if you were the lizard?", prompting spoken responses. The introduction and Activity 1 encourage the child to read along and explain how an animal changes, and the Wrapping Up directs the child to tell what animals they learned about. Activity 3 asks that word problems be read aloud, which creates shared language moments where the child can speak about animals and their changes.
Lesson 11
Amazing Me
Students are asked orally how they would change in given scenarios (Activity 1), prompting spoken responses. Students are encouraged to read words and their ideas aloud (Activity 2 and Activity 3) and to have an adult record their example and read it back. The Skills list includes "Express ideas," and student pages require writing or filling in responses about feelings.
Final Project
Animal Research / My Environment
Students are prompted to answer guided questions aloud (e.g., "Can you describe the environment in which you live?", "What are some of the different animal habitats?") which elicits spoken sentence production in a shared activity. Several activity pages include sentence prompts or starters (e.g., "The ______", "The ______ is found in ______") that require students to fill in words to form simple sentences. Students are asked to "explain each page of his book" and to "help your child label his pictures," which encourages students to produce descriptive sentences about their drawings.
Unit 2: Weather
Lesson 1
Reading the Skies
Students are asked to dictate a sentence using each vocabulary word (Activity 2) and record one of their dictated sentences on the activity page. Students are prompted to tell or dictate a story about their favorite kind of weather and the recording of that story is read together (Activity 3). Students are asked to describe the weather verbally (Introduction, Wrapping Up) and to respond to questions after shared reading of Whatever the Weather.
Lesson 2
Types of Precipitation
Students engage in shared reading (Oh Say Can You Say What's the Weather Today? and Whatever the Weather) and are asked guided questions that require full-sentence responses (e.g., describing habitats, how characters look when hot or cold, and what they learned). In the rain experiment students make and record predictions and are asked to describe what is happening, prompting them to produce explanatory sentences. Activity options and the handwriting activity ask students to read words, label pictures, draw scenes, and "write his own sentences or copy sentences" containing target words, which requires sentence production in both oral and written forms.
Lesson 3
Measuring and Charting Weather
Students are asked to respond orally to prompts such as "what she thinks would happen if an animal's habitat got too warm or cold" and "how she thinks she could" measure rain, which requires producing spoken responses. The lesson asks students to give examples of how weather can be measured and how weather helps plants and animals, and the RAIN acrostic asks the child to think of and record words or phrases for each letter. The activities include opportunities for the adult to record the child's ideas or for the child to write them, creating occasions for students to produce language in interaction.
Lesson 4
Simulating Weather
Students are asked to name three things the wind can move and to go outside and identify things the wind is moving, providing opportunities for verbal responses. Students are prompted to explain what happens when they squeeze or release the bottle in the cloud activity, which asks for spoken explanations. Students sing the Weather Song, point to words as they sing, and are encouraged to make up their own song, creating shared language activities where they can produce language together.
Lesson 5
Fall
Students are asked to use each of three circled words in a sentence and to write those sentences on the provided lines (Option 1 and Option 2). Students practice writing or copying sentences using the words "fun" and "fall" in the handwriting activity. Students are prompted orally to explain what happens to the weather in fall and to say whether they like fall and why, which requires producing spoken sentences in a shared interaction.
Lesson 6
Winter
Students are prompted to describe the winter environment and answer questions orally (ask your child what season follows fall; describe the outside environment). Students dictate a story about something they like to do in winter and then read it aloud, with the adult recording or supporting their writing. The activity page includes an explicit sentence prompt "In the winter I _______" for students to complete, and the handwriting page asks students to write or copy sentences that contain "wind" and "winter."
Lesson 7
Spring
Students are asked to attempt to read each poem and to answer questions about what each poem was about, which requires forming spoken responses. The Language Arts extension invites students to write or dictate their own spring poem, which involves producing connected language in a shared activity with an adult. Multiple prompts throughout (e.g., "Ask your child what the weather is like," "Ask your child what a seed needs," and questions about the feather experiment) require students to respond verbally to teacher-led questions.
Lesson 8
Summer
Students are prompted to answer oral questions about seasons and summer activities (e.g., "Ask your child what season follows spring" and "Ask him what activities he enjoys in the summer"), which requires producing spoken sentences. In the "A Summer Story" activities, students fill in blanks in a short passage, read the completed sentences aloud, and copy words into sentence contexts, so they place words inside sentence frames. Option 2 explicitly invites more advanced students to write their own summer story using the provided words, which has students produce written sentences in a shared activity.
Final Project
Weather Games
Students are asked to answer specific observational questions in Activity 3 (e.g., "What do you think the temperature is? Why?"; "Is there any precipitation?"), requiring spoken responses. In Activity 4 students prepare and deliver a multi-day oral weather forecast to the family, with a written example forecast provided as a model and prompts to practice before presenting. The skills list and wrapping-up questions ask students to make oral presentations and to explain what they learned, creating repeated shared-language opportunities to produce sentences.
Unit 3: Community
Lesson 1
On the Town
Students are asked to use vocabulary words correctly in a sentence during daily review and introductory questioning about their community. In Activity 2 (both options) students read sentences and fill in community words, completing sentences in writing. In Activity 3 students draw a place and then write or dictate a sentence or two about Charlie visiting that place, and the wrapping-up discussion asks students to verbally explain what a healthy community provides.
Lesson 2
My Community Environment
Students are prompted to label places on a poster and "write or dictate a brief description of how the place serves the community," which requires producing spoken or written sentences (Activity 2). Students prepare and ask interview questions and answer prompts such as "Why would a person come here?" and "Why is this an important place in our community?" during the field trip activity, giving opportunities for shared verbal responses (Activity 4). Students are asked to describe important places, state which is most important, and explain why during the wrap-up, engaging them in group discussion and shared language practice.
Lesson 3
Jobs in the Community
Students are asked to complete the 'When I Grow Up' fill-in-the-blank page (Activity 4) where they produce multiple sentences such as 'When I grow up I could be ___' and 'I would like being a ___ because I could ___, ___, and ___,' prompting multi-clause sentence production and paragraph writing. Activity 5 directs students to record one simple sentence about how each worker helps, say each sentence aloud, and attempt to write words they can sound out, including a dictation option where an adult records the student's spoken sentence. Shared language opportunities appear throughout: students dictate to an adult, read their paragraph aloud for family, and participate in family-supported observation and discussion (Activities 3, 4, and Wrapping Up).
Lesson 4
Goods and Services in the Community
The introduction prompts: "As she names each place, ask her how the place helps the people in the community," which asks the child to speak about places and their purposes. The Wrapping Up section directs: "Ask your child to describe some goods and services... Encourage her to explain why people have jobs and what they do with the money they make," prompting descriptive and explanatory speech. Activity 3 and other discussion prompts (bartering, money role-play) ask the child to discuss fairness, make decisions, and explain choices in a shared conversational setting.
Lesson 5
Resources
Activity 3 instructs the child to "explain how each resource is used, explain where it is found, and/or write a sentence about the resources," which requires producing at least one complete sentence. The Wrapping Up step asks the child to "explain the difference between resources found in nature and resources made by humans," prompting spoken sentence production. The Life Application asks the child to identify natural and manmade resources in the kitchen, which can elicit oral sentence responses.
Lesson 6
A Good Community Citizen
Students are asked to explain how they made decisions about each citizenship scenario in Activity 1, which requires speaking in shared conversation. In Option 2 students must label each picture "as your child explains what is happening," prompting them to describe events aloud while an adult records. In Activity 3 students can dictate observations about family members' good citizenship while an adult records them, creating a shared language opportunity.
Lesson 7
A Citizen with Character
Students are prompted to complete a sentence stem in Activity 1 with "I am respectful when I __." Activity 4 asks students to answer comprehension and prediction questions about a read-aloud (e.g., "What would you have done if you were Riley?"), which requires producing spoken sentences in a shared language activity. Activity 5 (Option 1 and Option 2) has students write, dictate, or copy a sentence for beginning/middle/end illustrations and Option 2 asks students to make up and dictate their own version of the story. Activity 7 asks students to write or copy sentences that contain the words "kid" and "kind."
Lesson 8
Rules and Laws
Students are asked aloud what a rule is and why rules exist, prompting spoken responses. Students generate 6 household rules, have their ideas recorded on sentence strips, and are asked to read each sentence by themselves or with assistance. Students listen to a story and answer follow-up questions about consequences and preferences, and they sort/read items aloud as 'rule' or 'law' in a shared activity.
Lesson 9
Caring for Our Communities
Students are prompted to answer comprehension questions about the story (e.g., beginning/middle/end, Where does Katy live?, What does Katy do to be a good citizen?), which requires producing complete sentences. In Activity 4 the child practices responding in role (example: ‘‘I am looking for a book about dogs. I need your help.''), modeling sentence production in a shared game. Activity 3 asks students to take pictures/draw/make a video of three community items and then share and explain why they chose them, requiring oral sentence production and explanation. The Handwriting activity asks students to write or copy sentences that contain target words (care, citizen), providing written practice producing complete sentences.
Final Project
I Can Make A Difference
The student activity page provides sentence starters for planning ("I am planning to __."; "The first thing I will do is __.; Next I will __.; Finally I will __.") and for reflection ("I helped __ with __. The thing I enjoyed the most was __. I felt __ when doing this project."; "I made my community a better place because __."). Directions allow the child to dictate responses while an adult records them, and children are asked to write about their experience at the bottom of the plan sheet. Students are prompted to sequence steps and produce full-sentence responses using the provided starters.
2: Similarities and Differences
Unit 1: Amazing Attributes
Lesson 1
Describe It
Students are prompted to tell as much as they can about a displayed object, producing oral descriptions in complete sentences. Students take turns describing hidden objects and guessing in the "Guess What's in the Bag" activity, speaking descriptive phrases and sentences aloud in a shared interaction. Students write or copy a sentence that describes an object (Activity 4) and add descriptive words for pictures (Option 2), practicing converting descriptions into written sentences and adding detail.
Lesson 2
Animal Attributes
Students are prompted to explain how two stuffed animals are alike and different, which asks them to produce verbal descriptions in a shared activity. Students are asked to describe how they know which objects are living and to discuss how animals use different body parts, prompting spoken explanations. The handwriting page offers an option for the child to use words (animal, ant) in a sentence, and the wrapping-up prompts ask the child to describe ways animals are alike and different.
Lesson 3
Size, Shape, and Color
Students are prompted to describe objects aloud (e.g., tell your child to describe the spoon's size, shape, and color) and to discuss terms they use. Students are asked to describe how objects are similar or different and to name and describe shapes and colors (e.g., "ask your child to name and describe the different shapes she examined" and "ask your child to describe what she learned about mixing colors"). Students are asked questions that require spoken responses (e.g., "what makes purple?" and "what do you think will happen if you mix white with red?").
Lesson 4
How Does It Feel?
Students are prompted to write or copy a complete sentence about an object's texture using the template "______ feels _________" (Activity 3). Students orally describe objects while blindfolded and in other shared conversations, producing spoken phrases and sentences during the guessing and discussion activities. The Wrapping Up section models sentence expansion by contrasting "We jumped in the lake." with "We jumped in the icy, cold lake and got wet," demonstrating adding descriptive words to make a longer sentence.
Lesson 5
How Old?
The lesson asks students to write questions for pictured people (Activity 2, Options 1 and 2) and to record those questions on paper, with explicit instruction that questions start with a capital letter and end with a question mark. It directs students to reread or attempt to read the questions aloud and to practice writing sentence-level items (Activity 4 asks students to copy/write a sentence with each "o" word). The Skills list includes "Express ideas and ask questions (LA)," indicating opportunities for students to produce sentence forms in shared parent-child activities.
Lesson 6
The Measure of Things
Students complete three- and four-part fill-in-the-blank sentences on the Length activity page (e.g., "The ___ is longer than the ___", "The longest item is the ___"). The guide repeatedly prompts students to explain and describe measurements verbally (e.g., asking how they know measurements, to describe similarities/differences, and to explain why estimates differ). Activity 6 asks students to "write/copy a sentence that uses each word," providing explicit handwriting practice with sentence writing.
Lesson 7
More Attributes
Students are prompted to explain what an attribute is and to describe ways to find similarities and differences (Intro). Students are asked to point out ways they are similar to and different from family members and to describe what makes each person unique. Activities require students to state sorting groups, explain why blocks or toys belong in particular parts of a Venn diagram, and Activity 5 explicitly asks students to use the word "Venn" in a sentence.
Lesson 8
Amazing Attributes
The lesson repeatedly asks students to describe and explain (e.g., asking the child to "describe different types of measurements," to say what a magnet is, and to explain what causes an object to sink or float). Students are prompted to predict and then report results on the "Magnetic or Not?" activity page and to compare predictions with outcomes in the sink-or-float task. The lesson instructs students to "discuss the term 'density'" and to examine similarities among objects that floated or sank, which requires shared verbal explanation.
Lesson 9
Solids and Liquids
The lesson repeatedly prompts oral explanation and discussion (e.g., asking the child to "explain the difference" between a solid and a liquid, to "explain what caused the ice cube to change," and to "discuss whether the sugar is a solid or a liquid"). Students are asked to write down definitions for "Solid" and "Liquid," and to brainstorm and describe examples, cutting and pasting pictures into categories. Multiple question prompts and hands-on observations require students to respond verbally during shared activities with a caregiver.
Lesson 10
Earth Materials: Rocks, Soil, and Water
Students complete sentence-fill activities using prepositions (e.g., "The frog jumps ______ the lily pad," "The worm is ______ the dirt"). Option 2 asks students to write prepositional phrases to complete sentences ("The worm is _____________________"), which requires producing longer sentence parts. During read-aloud and discussion, students are prompted to describe how dirt looks, feels, and smells and to explain similarities/differences between soil samples. In the Earth Materials book activity, students write properties of dirt, rocks, and water, producing written phrases or sentences about those materials.
Lesson 11
Using Earth Materials
The lesson asks the child to describe the three Earth materials she explored, prompting spoken descriptions. Activity 1 instructs the child to record or dictate times water is used while an adult records, which involves producing verbal statements in a shared activity. Multiple activities (scavenger hunt, gardening) direct adults and children to "ask", "discuss" and "explain," creating opportunities for shared talk about rocks, soil, and plants.
Final Project
Presenting Attributes
The project steps ask the child to decide what he will say about each attribute and to record those ideas (Option 1 Step 4). The poster option explicitly says he can use words and sentences on his poster and that if he needs to dictate, an adult should record his ideas (Option 2 Step 3). The child is asked to practice presenting the demonstration or poster to an adult and later present to a group (Option 1/2 practice and Presentation), and the skills list includes "Use words that describe in speech and writing."
Unit 2: Senses
Lesson 1
My Five Senses
Activity 3 (Option 2) asks students to think of a sensory experience and dictate four sentences describing the experience, while an adult records the sentences and reads them back. The activity explicitly tells students to give their ideas in complete sentences and discusses that a sentence names something and shows an action (noun/verb). Activity 4 has students write or copy a model sentence (e.g., "I smell with my nose."), and vocabulary review asks students to use words correctly in a sentence.
Lesson 2
Senses and Body Parts
The lesson asks students to make up and tell a story aloud about Jackie with a beginning, middle, and end (Option 2), prompting oral sentence production as they pause to glue sense organs. Activity 4 directs students to use the words "sense" and "see" in a sentence on the handwriting page, which requires students to produce written complete sentences. These items provide direct opportunities for students to create sentences both orally and in writing.
Lesson 3
Smelling and Tasting
Students are asked orally to describe situations where they use smelling and tasting and to answer questions about how smell helped them decide whether to taste foods, providing opportunities to produce spoken sentences. Activity 4 asks students to write a sentence on handwriting paper about the survey results ("________ people liked ________"), which asks students to produce a written complete sentence. The survey activity also asks students to answer follow-up questions (Which flavor did people like the most? Which did they like the least? If you were to give a friend a snack, what flavor would you make it? Why?), prompting verbal responses in shared questioning.
Lesson 4
Hearing and Seeing
Students describe experiences and ideas orally after activities such as the blindfold walk (Activity 4) and the listening stories/walk (Activities 5 and 7). Students have their spoken descriptions recorded and are asked to read their ideas aloud and add more information to their sound descriptions. Students also practice writing sentences with the letter E and the words "eyes" and "ears" (Activity 8), linking oral descriptions to written sentence practice.
Lesson 5
Touch
Students are prompted to describe objects and discuss which senses they use (Introduction; Activity 3), which requires spoken descriptions. In Activity 4 students are blindfolded and asked to describe how each item feels and to guess the item, prompting verbal responses about texture. Activity 5 asks students to write the words taste and touch in a sentence, giving an explicit opportunity to produce written sentences.
Lesson 6
Experimenting With Our Senses
Activity 4 asks the child to write or dictate and copy a sentence about something he smelled or tasted today, which requires producing a complete sentence. Activity 3 asks the child to tell a story about a time he ate or drank his favorite flavor while an adult records it and then encourages the child to read it aloud, a shared language activity that elicits sentence production. Activity 1 prompts the child to describe tastes and answer specific questions, which requires spoken sentence responses recorded on index cards.
Lesson 7
Using All of Our Senses
Students are prompted to write or copy a sentence about something they observed on their nature walk (Activity 4: Handwriting). Students can dictate their findings or attempt to write ideas after the Nature Walk, and they are asked oral questions such as "If someone asked you what you found on your walk, what would you say?" that require spoken responses. Students are encouraged to interact during read-alouds (questions, comments, and ideas) and to identify senses in books, which creates shared language opportunities for producing sentences.
Lesson 8
Writing About Our Senses
Students are prompted to write or dictate and copy a sentence that describes the popcorn (Activity 4). In Activity 2 students fill in sensory words in sentence frames (e.g., "My popcorn felt ___ before it popped. After it popped it felt ___.") and are asked to attempt to read the completed report with assistance. Activity 3 asks students to produce a sensing word, phrase, or sentence for each of the five senses, and the introduction models expanding a simple description with additional adjectives.
Unit 3: We're the Same, We're Different
Lesson 1
You're Special
Students complete a fill-in-the-blank paragraph using answers from the "You Are Special" page and then read and share that story aloud. Students are asked, in Option 2 of "Your Numbers," to write a sentence with a number (e.g., "I am six years old"). Students practice using the word "unique" in handwriting and are prompted to use the word in a sentence.
Lesson 2
Physical Characteristics
Students are prompted to retell the "Different Friends" story in their own words and answer comprehension questions, which requires producing oral sentences during a shared reading activity. In Activity 3 students dictate a story with a beginning, middle, and end and provide one sentence for each part that the adult records, requiring students to produce written or spoken complete sentences. In Activity 4 students write a sentence describing a personal physical characteristic using the prompt "I have ________," which asks students to produce a complete written sentence.
Lesson 3
Different Personalities
The lesson asks the child to explain what each vocabulary word means and to circle words that describe his personality, prompting verbal explanations. Activity 2 requires the child to "describe how he and his friend/sibling are alike and how they are different" and to present and explain the webs to family members. Activity 4 explicitly instructs the child to practice the word "quiet" or "use the word in a sentence." The song invites shared singing with substituted personality words, creating a shared language activity.
Lesson 4
Interests and Hobbies
Students are asked to dictate, copy, or write a few sentences that describe a hobby (Activity 1). Students answer sentence prompts on the "My Interest" sheet by recording their interest and dictating answers that an adult can write (Activity 2). Students read survey questions aloud and interview three people, recording responses, and are encouraged to share or teach their interest to others (Activity 3). The handwriting activity asks students to use the words "you" and "yes" in a sentence, providing another occasion to produce sentences (Activity 4).
Lesson 5
Shapesville
Students dictate a short description of their chosen shape and are encouraged to record their ideas, then attempt to read and share that description with family. Activity 4 asks students to write or copy a sentence that describes an interest or personality trait. Multiple shared activities (reading Shapesville aloud, answering guided questions, and sharing shape designs with family) require students to produce spoken sentences in a group or family setting.
Lesson 6
Different Families
The Skills list explicitly includes "Complete sentences (LA)" and "Dictate ideas and responses (LA)." Activity 2 (Option 1) provides sentence-completion prompts such as "My family is similar to a family from _______ because we both _______." Activity 3 asks the child to "use the word in a sentence," and the Introduction prompts require the child to answer questions about family members and responsibilities.
Lesson 7
Different Homes
Students are asked to write a sentence about their home in Activity 4 (Handwriting). Multiple teacher prompts (Introduction and Wrapping Up) ask students to identify, describe, and explain homes and materials, which require oral sentence production in shared conversations. Activities ask students to describe what they enjoy about their house and why they would or would not like living in a different type of home, prompting spoken sentence responses.
Lesson 8
Different Holidays and Traditions
Students are asked in Activity 3 to write three sentences about their favorite holiday, with the option to dictate while an adult records and then copy, which supports producing sentences in a shared-language setting. Activity 5 requires each page of the Book of Holidays to include "a sentence about the holiday" and provides sentence starters ("On ___ we celebrate by ___." and "___ is important because ___."), prompting students to expand simple ideas into fuller sentences. The skills list also includes using new vocabulary in conversation and writing and representing spoken language with temporary spelling, reinforcing sentence production within guided activities.
Lesson 9
Different Modes of Transportation
Students are prompted to produce sentences when they are asked to tell a story about a trip in Activity 3 and attempt to read the recorded story aloud. Students write or copy a full sentence about a mode of transportation in Activity 4 using the frame "I have ______ in/on a _________." Students also engage in shared discussion in the Introduction and Activities (e.g., talking about modes of transportation and explaining where they went) which requires producing complete spoken sentences.
Lesson 10
Wants and Needs
The lesson repeatedly prompts the child to speak and explain (e.g., asking the child what animals and people need, asking her to explain why needs are more important than wants). Activity 6 explicitly asks the child to "use the word in a sentence" when practicing the word need. Activity 2 asks the child to write about how it felt to give away toys and allows the child to dictate while an adult records, which is a shared writing/speaking activity.
Lesson 11
Being Part of a Group
Students complete a prompted paragraph in Activity 2 by filling in blanks or dictating responses to an adult and then read the paragraph aloud. Students answer teacher/parent questions during Introduction and Wrapping Up (e.g., "Which group would you be in?", "What do you enjoy about the groups?") that require spoken responses. Activity 4 asks students to "use each word in a sentence," and the curriculum records student ideas during the community groups brainstorm, which involves shared-language interaction.
Final Project
Differences Make the World Go 'Round
The activity pages provide multiple sentence frames (e.g., "I live in ___," "My hobby is ___," "One way that we are the same is that we both like to ___") for students to complete. The instructions prompt students to "write the sentences herself" and to illustrate and assemble a book, which requires producing written complete sentences. The project includes sharing the finished book with family and meeting a person from the chosen country, creating opportunities for shared language interactions.
3: Patterns
Unit 1: Identifying and Creating Visual Patterns
Lesson 1
What Is a Pattern?
Students participate in shared reading of Busy Bugs and are prompted to explain the patterns they see, answering questions such as "What types of patterns do you see?" and naming items in sequence. Activity 4 (Option 1) gives students a spoken sentence frame—"First, there is _____. Next, there is _____…."—and asks them to point to each item as they describe it. Activity 7 has students write or copy three complete sentences using the frame "First, there is _____. Next there is _____. Then there is _____," producing written sentence sequences. Option 2 and other activities ask students to name objects in order (e.g., "butterfly, ant, butterfly…") and to explain each pattern aloud, providing additional shared language practice.
Lesson 2
Recognizing Types of Patterns
Students are asked to write or copy a sentence about the book Busy Bugs (Activity 4: Handwriting). Students are asked to explain the difference between an ABAB pattern and an AABB pattern and to describe how they can decide which pattern it is (Wrapping Up). Students participate in rereading Busy Bugs and pointing out ABAB and AABB patterns, which is a shared reading/discussion activity.
Lesson 3
What Comes Next?
Students are prompted to write or copy a sentence in Activity 4: "What do you see after the ________?" and review that question sentences end with question marks. Throughout the lesson students are asked to explain and describe patterns (e.g., "Ask your child to explain what it means for something to have a pattern," "Ask her to explain how she knows what would come next," and "Describe the center square. Are the lines that form the square thick or thin?"). The activities require oral responses to prompts about order, before/after, and pattern types, which provide shared language opportunities with the adult.
Lesson 4
Extending a Pattern
Students are asked to complete sentence prompts on the activity page (e.g., "The first object in the pattern is a _______________") which requires them to produce words to fill sentence slots. Activity 4 directs students to copy or write a sentence about a pattern they made, requiring them to produce a full written sentence. The wrapping-up prompt asks students to explain how they extend a pattern, prompting oral sentence production in a shared interaction with an adult.
Lesson 5
Making Color Patterns
Students are asked to describe the patterns they create verbally (Activity 1) and an adult models the first example so students speak in a shared activity. Students are also asked to write or copy a sentence on handwriting paper that describes something they created today (Activity 3). The introduction prompts students to think of and demonstrate ideas about using colors, which invites spoken sentence production.
Lesson 6
Shapes and Patterns
Students are prompted to describe the order of shapes using full sentences (for example: "The first shape is a small circle. The second shape is a small square..."). Students are asked to explain their patterns aloud (describe patterns as ABAB, AABB, or ABC) and to show or tell about an ABC pattern using attribute blocks. Students are asked to write or copy a sentence on handwriting paper about a pattern they found.
Lesson 8
Creating and Writing About Patterns
Students complete sentence frames such as "First comes ___," "Then comes ___," and "Next comes ___" on multiple activity pages (AABB, ABAB, ABC) to describe patterns. Students fill in "This pattern is made up of ___, ___, and ___" and complete lines like "________ comes before _______" and "________ comes after _______" on the Describe the Pattern page. Students are also asked to write or copy two or three sentences on handwriting paper that describe a pattern and to verbally describe patterns during parent/child shared activities.
Final Project
Patterns Poster or Patterns Presentation
Students are prompted to write a "Script For Presentation" where they record the words they will use to describe each of seven patterns and practice what they will say. The script pages include sentence-starter prompts such as "The third pattern I will show is a _________" and lines for additional explanation, which require students to produce complete sentences. Students are instructed to practice and then present their descriptions aloud to an audience, a shared language activity in which they will speak their prepared sentences.
Unit 2: Patterns in Sounds, Words, and Actions
Lesson 1
Word Patterns
Activity 5 directs the child to write or copy a sentence on handwriting paper using two rhyming words from Bear Hugs, which requires the student to produce a complete sentence. Several activities (Activity 2 and Activity 3) ask the child to read, record, act out, or illustrate nursery rhymes and to say rhyming words aloud, which gives students opportunities to produce spoken language in response to prompts.
Lesson 2
Making Word Patterns
Students complete and read sentences by filling in rhyming words in Activity 1 (e.g., "The frog stood on the ___") and then read each completed sentence aloud. Students create a rhyming sentence book and are prompted to invent two of their own sentences that contain rhyming words. Students also write or copy a sentence with two rhyming words (Activity 4) and are asked to explain patterns and name word families orally.
Lesson 3
Poetry Patterns
Students sing poems and songs together with an adult and are asked to guess and recite rhyming words, providing a shared oral language activity. Students are asked to write another verse to the song and record it on the "A Rhyming Song" page, and to write a line on handwriting paper using the template "We'll find a ____ put it ______ and then we'll let it go." Students fill in blanks and brainstorm animal names and rhyming words during guided activities.
Lesson 4
Sentence Patterns
Students are prompted to produce complete sentences orally and in writing across multiple shared activities (e.g., Activity 1 'Making Sentences' asks students to fill in sentence starters and read them aloud). The lesson explicitly invites students to expand sentences ("He can also extend the sentences as he shares them aloud. For example, 'The dog eats... its food from the bowl.'"). In Activity 2, students make up sentences about familiar actions, dictate sentences for an adult to write, copy sentences, and then identify nouns and verbs, all in guided adult-child interactions.
Lesson 5
Story Patterns
Students are asked to dictate or write a sentence describing each event in Activities 2 and 3 (students "dictate a sentence to describe each event" and "write or dictate and copy a sentence for each part of the story"). Activity 4 has students copy or write a sentence from the story they created on handwriting paper. Shared reading and guided questioning (Activity 1) require students to produce verbal responses about the beginning, middle, and end of a story.
Lesson 6
Sound Patterns
The handwriting activity prompts the child to write a sentence about a sound pattern with a model starter: "I heard a pattern that went...", which asks the child to produce a complete written sentence. The introduction and wrapping-up prompts ask the child questions (e.g., "Did you hear a pattern?", "What type of pattern?", "Describe how to make a sound pattern") that require the child to respond verbally in shared language interactions. Activity 4 explicitly frames a shared language writing task where the child composes a sentence about a class experience.
Lesson 7
Making Sound and Action Patterns
Students are prompted to speak when asked "how sounds can be used to make patterns" and to provide examples, and they participate in shared activities (e.g., ‘‘Do What I Do'' and musical pattern performances) that require verbal responses. Activity 4 directs students to write or copy a sentence describing a pattern they made, and the wrapping-up prompts ask students to explain what patterns are and demonstrate examples. These items require students to produce complete sentences orally and in writing during interactive tasks.
Final Project
Patterns Video
Students write or dictate a four-part "Video Script" for each pattern using sentence frames (e.g., "This is a ___ pattern," "It is made of ___, ___, and ___,"). Students practice saying their scripted sentences aloud, rehearse with an adult or partner, and record themselves presenting each pattern. The activity prompts students to add details and sequence events using full-sentence starters like "First comes..." and "Then...".
Unit 3: Patterns in Your World
Lesson 1
Patterns in Nature
Students are prompted to explain patterns they have seen during the Introduction and to identify and describe the pattern in each picture during the read-aloud (Activity 1), which requires spoken sentence responses. The lesson includes open-ended questions (e.g., "Were there any patterns that you had seen before? Which ones?" and "Can you think of any other patterns in nature that could be added to the book?") that ask students to produce descriptive answers. Activity 4 asks students to write or copy a sentence from the reading, giving practice in producing a complete written sentence.
Lesson 2
Patterns of Growth
Students are asked to "write a sentence that describes each picture and how the plant is changing" on the "A Plant's Pattern of Growth" activity page, providing direct practice producing sentences. The wrapping up prompt asks the child to "describe the growth pattern of a plant and a person," which elicits oral sentence production during shared discussion. Activity 5 asks students to organize photos from youngest to oldest and talk about stages, giving additional opportunities for students to produce spoken sentences in a shared context.
Lesson 3
Night and Day
Students are asked orally to answer questions about day and night (e.g., "How would it be different if it were light all the time?" and "Ask your child to explain the pattern of night and day"), which creates shared language interactions. In Activity 3 students draw an activity and then "record or dictate a few sentences" that explain the drawing, providing an explicit prompt to produce sentences. The introduction and wrapping up sections repeatedly prompt the child to speak about observations and explanations with an adult present.
Lesson 4
Daily Routines
Activity 2 instructs the child to "dictate a sentence about each step or write on the lines," asking the student to generate one sentence per step for a routine. Activity 4 asks the child to "write or dictate and copy a sentence" that describes one of his routines. The introduction and activities prompt conversation about routines (e.g., "Talk about some of your child's routines"), providing opportunities for shared language interactions where an adult and student produce sentences together.
Lesson 7
Patterns at Home
Students are asked to describe patterns aloud during the Pattern Scavenger Hunt and in discussions about patterns in the house, prompting spoken sentence production. Activity 5 has students write or dictate and then copy a sentence that describes a pattern found in their closet, which has them produce a complete written sentence in a shared activity with an adult. Several prompts (naming shapes, describing designs, discussing what the house would be like without patterns) require students to use language to convey ideas about patterns.
Lesson 8
Symmetrical Patterns
Students are asked to write or copy a sentence on handwriting paper about a symmetrical figure ("________ has _________ lines of symmetry"), which requires producing a complete written sentence. Students are prompted in wrap-up discussion to describe what symmetry means and to give examples (e.g., whether their two sides would be symmetrical), which requires producing oral sentences in a shared activity. Students also respond to questions about shapes and letters being symmetrical or not, practicing sentence production during guided conversation.
Lesson 9
Counting Patterns
Students are asked to write or dictate and then copy a sentence about the clowns in the car (Activity 4), which requires producing a complete sentence and identifying its subject and verb. Students are also asked to tell their own story about clowns entering and exiting the car (Activity 3), an oral shared-language activity in which they produce sentences as they narrate and fill in blanks in the story.
Lesson 10
Tracing Patterns
Activity 4 asks the child to write or copy a sentence about his favorite holiday, which requires producing a complete written sentence. Multiple tasks prompt the child to tell a story about objects he creates and to explain why stencils help, which require oral sentence production in shared exchanges. The wrapping-up section asks the child to explain how to use a traced pattern and a stencil, prompting spoken sentence responses.
Lesson 11
Patterns in Graphs
Students are asked to speak about graphs and patterns when prompted to "describe any patterns" and to answer guided questions about charts (e.g., "What does this chart tell us?", "Describe the pattern in the graph"). Students are asked to write a sentence on handwriting paper describing whether an object sank or floated (Activity 4). Students read titles and labels aloud and discuss data on graphs, engaging in shared language interactions with an adult.
4: Change
Unit 1: Changes on Planet Earth
Lesson 1
What Causes Change?
Students complete sentence frames on the "Write About a Change" page (e.g., "Once I saw ______ change." "______ changed because ______.") and attempt to read their paragraph aloud. The Skills section lists "Express ideas through writing and conversation" and "Read or attempt to read own dictated story," and the Introduction and activities prompt students to explain changes and identify cause-and-effect in conversation with an adult. Activity prompts ask students to think, record, and talk about changes (fast vs. slow) which requires producing verbal or written responses.
Lesson 2
What Changed?
Students are asked to answer questions during the read-aloud (Activity 1), prompting them to produce verbal responses about physical and chemical changes. In Activity 2, students are asked to give examples for different kinds of change and "record a sentence to describe each example," which requires producing written sentences. The Wrapping Up prompt asks students to explain the different ways change can happen and give an example of each, requiring spoken sentence production in a shared activity.
Lesson 3
Changing Position
Students are prompted to answer explicit questions in full form (e.g., QUESTION #1 expects "We give them a push or a pull") and are asked to explain orally how objects move and why (e.g., gravity questions and wrapping-up prompt). Students copy full sentences from the book into the index activity, providing practice with complete sentence form in writing. Students are asked to record ideas and list examples (Activities 4 and 5), which can require composing short complete sentences or phrases.
Lesson 4
Changes in the Environment
Students are asked to answer questions during read-aloud and discussion (e.g., respond to situations in Activity 1 and answer questions about changes while reading Part 2). Students are asked to write two sentences about a time when weather caused them to change an activity. Students are asked to write or copy a sentence on handwriting paper about their favorite season.
Lesson 5
Changes in Location
Students complete and/or write sentences in multiple activities: the "Where Did He Go?" pages ask students to fill in prepositions or to write an entire prepositional phrase after the subject. In Activity 2 (Mouse in the House) students listen to or read sentences and move the mouse, with Option 2 asking students to write simple sentences describing the mouse's location. Activity 3 asks students to record three or four sentences describing relationships of objects, and the Wrapping Up asks students to follow and give location directions and describe locations aloud.
Lesson 6
Changes in the Sky
The lesson repeatedly prompts the child to describe phenomena (e.g., "Ask your child to describe how objects on Earth change" and "Ask your child to describe how objects in the sky change positions"), which requires spoken or dictated responses. It asks the child to list adjectives and phrases for the Sun and Moon and allows the child to dictate while the adult writes, creating shared language opportunities. Multiple discussion prompts (e.g., about why the Sun is important, how the Moon shines, and day/night) require the child to respond verbally during shared activities.
Lesson 7
Living Things Change
The lesson includes teacher prompts and question-and-answer exchanges (e.g., Ask your child how she changes; Ask her if she thinks this change happens quickly or slowly) that require verbal responses. Activity 4 specifically asks the child to "write or copy a sentence" that describes how something changes in size. The skills list also includes "Present dramatic interpretations of ideas presented in text (LA)," which implies opportunities for shared language interactions.
Lesson 8
Plants and Change
Students are prompted to answer specific questions aloud (e.g., "What are some things plants are used for?" and "How are plants similar to and different from animals?") during shared reading. Students are asked to describe what plants need, list the parts of a plant on handwriting paper, and discuss phases of a plant's life cycle with an adult. Students make and record predictions for the plant experiment and later compare observations, which requires verbal or written explanations during shared activities.
Lesson 9
Heat Causes Change
The lesson repeatedly prompts the child to describe and explain observations (e.g., "Ask your child what she thinks will happen," "Ask her to describe the batter," "Ask her to explain how heat caused the ice and water to change"), which requires spoken sentence production in shared interactions. Activity 4 explicitly asks the child to "write or copy a sentence about something she observed during the experiment," which has the child produce or reproduce a complete sentence in writing. The wrapping up and life application sections instruct asking the child to explain observations, providing multiple opportunities for shared language responses.
Lesson 10
Chemical Changes
The lesson asks the child to "explain how he made each decision" after completing the activity sheet and to "describe the difference between a physical and a chemical change and to give you an example of each." These prompts require the student to speak about observations and choices in a shared parent-child activity. Multiple activities invite verbal explanation (eg, explaining bubbles, eggs, and classification decisions).
Lesson 11
People Change the Environment
Students are asked to dictate ideas while an adult records them during Activity 1 (brainstorming positive and negative changes), which requires spoken responses in a shared activity. In Activity 3, students are asked to describe each illustration, explain how it is changing the environment, and decide whether the change is positive, negative, or neutral, prompting verbal explanation and description. Wrapping Up and Life Application ask students to share ways to reduce/reuse/recycle and to point out environmental changes on a walk, creating additional opportunities for spoken responses with an adult.
Final Project
Mobile of Change
The lesson asks students to discuss guiding questions (e.g., What if you stayed the same age?) and to report daily on weather changes, which requires spoken responses. Skills list includes "Express ideas through writing and conversation" and "Use new vocabulary in speech and writing," and the wrapping-up asks the child to explain the mobile to family members. The final project requires the child to describe "before" and "after" pictures for each change, prompting verbal or written descriptions.
Unit 2: Characters Change
Lesson 1
What's in a Name
Students rewrite and correct full sentences in Activity 1 (e.g., correcting "chrysanthemum loved her name." and "Mrs. twinkle's first name was delphinium.") and complete sentence prompts such as "My name is" and "I wish my name were." In Activity 3 students complete prompts that require sentence responses ("This tells the reader that Chrysanthemum..."). In Activity 5 students write several short sentences explaining how Chrysanthemum changed, including "Before, Chrysanthemum was ____ but now she is ____" and "Chrysanthemum changed because ____," all done with adult guidance during the shared read-aloud.
Lesson 2
Why Worry?
Students are asked to combine pairs of short sentences orally using the conjunction "and" (e.g., I had bacon for breakfast. I had eggs for breakfast. -> I had bacon and eggs for breakfast). The "Using 'And'" activity page requires students to take ideas from the story and connect them with 'and' in written lines. The "Characters Change" page includes a prompt "Before Wemberly was ____, but now she is ____," which requires students to produce expanded sentences using the conjunction 'but'. The wrap-up asks students to use 'and' and 'but' in a sentence aloud, providing a shared-language speaking opportunity.
Lesson 3
Is It a Problem?
Students orally combine pairs of sentences using the conjunction "or" in Activity 3 and then write the combined sentences on the "Using 'Or'" page. In Activity 5 students complete sentence frames that require them to produce expanded sentences using conjunctions (e.g., "Before the boy was ____ but now he is ____"). In the Tackling a Problem activity students describe a problem, record why it worries them, and write steps to tackle it, producing written sentence responses with adult support.
Lesson 4
Comparing Characters
Students are asked to dictate two story summaries of three or four sentences (one sentence for the beginning, one for the middle, one for the end), a shared activity where an adult records their sentences. The "I Change" page explicitly directs students to "Think Write 3 complete sentences" describing themselves before and after solving a problem. Students also respond to written questions (e.g., "How are the characters' situations similar?" "What can we learn from both characters?") and write their own cause-and-effect sentence, providing additional opportunities to produce complete sentences.
Lesson 5
The Raft
Students are prompted to speak in shared activities such as sharing memories of time with grandparents and answering the story comprehension questions aloud. Activity 6 asks students to discuss idioms and to think of another interesting way the author could show the boy's excitement, which requires them to generate alternative phrasing. Activity 8 provides sentence-frame prompts (e.g., "At the beginning of the story the boy was __ and __." "The boy changed because __.") that require students to produce written or spoken sentence completions.
Lesson 6
Positive and Negative Change
Students are asked to dictate a new ending to the rat story while an adult records it, then listen as the story with the new ending is read aloud (Activity 2). Students are asked to write or dictate a sentence or two describing a personal change and whether it was positive or negative (Activity 3). The lesson explicitly encourages students to expand their descriptions by using more interesting words and gives example expanded phrasings to model richer sentence content.
Final Project
My Own Story
Students dictate their stories while an adult records them, a shared language activity that requires generating sentences for the narrative. The "Problem and Solution" page asks questions with lines for responses (e.g., "How would you describe the character at the beginning of the story?" and "How does the character change from the beginning to the end of the story?"), prompting students to produce written or spoken answers. Students also write three traits for each character and decide which parts of the story go on which pages during the oral planning and online publishing steps.
Unit 3: A First Look at History - Change Over Time
Lesson 1
People and Families Change
Activity 3 asks students to write a sentence (or dictate one) about how they have changed. Activity 5 has students dictate ideas while an adult records them, read the ideas back, and fill in prompted sentence frames on the "Writing About Change" page (e.g., "My family used to...", "Then...changed."). Activity 6 and other prompts ask students to read their ideas aloud and share descriptions with family, creating multiple shared language opportunities to produce and extend sentences.
Lesson 2
Understanding Time
Students are prompted to complete sentence stems on the 'Yesterday I / Today I / Tomorrow I will' activity page, writing or drawing responses that produce full sentences. The Getting Started prompts ask students to name something that happened in the past, something happening now, and something they want in the future, which requires spoken sentence production. Activity 2 includes question-and-answer prompts (e.g., 'Were you born in the past, present, or future?') that require students to respond in complete sentences during shared discussion.
Lesson 3
Communities Change
Students are asked oral comprehension questions during shared reading (Activity 1) such as "Where did the story happen?" and "Which child in the story would you like to be? Why?", prompting spoken sentence responses. Activity 5 asks students to explain choices about living in different times, which requires verbal explanation in complete sentences. Activity 7 explicitly directs students to write a sentence about The House on Maple Street or dictate a sentence to be copied, requiring production of at least one complete written sentence.
Lesson 4
Past and Present
Students are asked to tell a story about an adventure in the past and have the parent record their dictated story (Activity 2). Students answer guided questions about differences and similarities after readings (Activity 3), dictate five clues about a time period to be recorded (Activity 7), and are asked to write or dictate a sentence describing how life in the past was different (Activity 8). Several activity pages prompt students to dictate responses while an adult records them (Activity 4 and reflective pages).
Lesson 5
Exploring the Past
Activity 1 asks students to "draw and write or dictate descriptions" of cultural elements, giving students opportunities to produce written or spoken sentences. Activity 4 requires students to "write one sentence about each element of culture" and then assemble the pages into a book and "give a presentation to the family," which prompts students to produce sentences in a shared speaking activity. The lesson also includes dictation options and parent-guided timeline tasks that involve students verbally ordering and describing pictures.
Lesson 6
Predicting Future Change
Students are asked to dictate a description of a personal change and then attempt to read what they dictated (Activity 3). Students are asked to record a sentence describing one positive change and its result and another sentence describing one negative change and its result (Activity 2). Students are asked to write or copy a sentence about a change on handwriting paper (Activity 4), and adults prompt students with questions in Activity 1 that invite verbal responses.
Lesson 7
People of the Past
Students are prompted to speak about historical people when answering guided questions in Activity 1 (e.g., "How would you describe this person?" and "What did this person do…?"). Students engage in shared discussion when asked to point to and describe individuals in Activity 2 and when discussing ideas for making positive change in Activity 3. Students are asked to write a sentence about a historical person on handwriting paper in Activity 4, producing written complete sentences.
Final Project
My Past, Present and Future
Students are prompted to write or dictate full-sentence responses on multiple activity pages (e.g., lines headed "I was different because," "Now I am," "In the future I will be," and the Option 2 directions: write or dictate the sentence "In the past __________" and "Today __________"). The materials instruct that a helper may assist when the child writes sentences and ask the child to read through and present her book or comparison pages to family, creating opportunities for shared adult-child language interaction.
6: Reading
Unit 1: Semester 1
Lesson 2
Letter Sounds Review II
Students read the Weekly Message and are asked to identify sentences and punctuation, and they read the reader The Pig Can aloud, with guidance to begin in the correct place and point to each word as they read. Students are prompted to describe the book cover, answer comprehension questions (e.g., "What do you think this book is about?"), and explain their thinking ("Do you think the pig and the cat can fit in the box?"), which requires them to produce spoken sentences. The lesson also models reading questions with rising intonation and asks children to read titles and sentences aloud in shared reading activities.
Lesson 3
Letter Sounds Review III
Students complete the "What's Missing?" activity by writing the missing word into each sentence and then read each completed sentence aloud (Activity 5.3). Students read the reader The Bug, point to each word as they read, and answer comprehension questions about the text (Activity 5.2). In Activity 1.1 students identify the two sentences in the weekly message, point out punctuation, and answer a question about the hint, producing a verbal response.
Lesson 4
Letter Sounds Review IV
Activity 5.3 (Making Sentences) has students read word cards and complete teacher-started sentence frames by placing cards in the blanks (e.g., "the cat ran to a _____", "a _____ was on the bed"). The activity also prompts students to create their own sentences using the cards and to continue filling one or more spaces in teacher-started sentences. Day 5 reader comprehension questions and Activity 3.1 (Reading Sight Word Sentences) require students to produce verbal responses and read sentences aloud while pointing to words.
Lesson 5
Adding s, More Word Families, Ending with ck
Students participate in shared reading of the Weekly Message (Activity 1.1) where they read aloud with an adult, identify sentence boundaries, circle punctuation, and underline initial uppercase letters. In Activity 5.3 (Sentence Dictation) students write sentences that the teacher reads aloud, are reminded to begin with uppercase letters and end with periods, and then read the sentences they produced. In Activity 4.3 students read a short reader aloud and answer a comprehension question ("Which duck do you think is having the most fun? Why?"), which requires them to produce an oral response in a shared activity.
Lesson 6
Open Syllables and Digraph th
Students reorder cut-apart words to form complete sentences in Activity 5.1, putting words in the correct order and reading the sentences aloud. In Activity 5.3, students write sentences the teacher reads (sentence dictation) and are reminded about starting with uppercase letters, spacing, and end punctuation. Students also copy and read model sentences (e.g., "We go by the hut.") in Activity 3.2 and read the reader aloud in Activity 5.2.
Lesson 7
Consonant Digraphs ch, sh, wh, ph
Students write complete sentences from dictation in Activity 5.3, practicing capitalization, spacing, and end punctuation as they copy and then read the sentences. In the Life Application section students orally compose silly sentences and take turns adding words to those sentences, which requires producing and expanding sentences. Activity 1.3 models sentence use of sight words with fill-in-the-blank prompts (e.g., "I root for the ___") that ask students to complete and speak or read full sentences.
Lesson 8
Blends with s
Students write and read whole sentences during Activity 5.2 (Sentence Dictation): the teacher reads each sentence aloud, the child writes it, and then reads the sentences when finished. Students also engage in shared reading of the Weekly Message (Activity 1.1) and Reader #8 (Activity 4.3), where they read aloud with an adult and are asked comprehension questions that invite spoken responses.
Lesson 9
Blends with l
Students use the Making Sentences card activity to read word cards, complete teacher-started sentences by filling blanks, and create their own sentences using the cards (Activity 5.1). They are prompted to expand sentences by replacing words, changing words to make new sentences, and challenged to make longer sentences and use more words. Students also write dictated sentences (Activity 5.2) and are asked to produce sentences using target sight words like "have" and "had."
Lesson 10
Blends with r
Activity 5.3 (Sentence Dictation) requires students to hear full sentences read aloud, write each sentence on handwriting paper, and then read the sentences when finished, with a reminder to think about how sentences begin and end. Activity 4.2 (Reader #10) has students read a short book and answer comprehension questions verbally, which invites students to produce spoken responses after a shared reading.
Lesson 11
Ending Blends
Activity 5.2 (Sentence Dictation) has the child write four full sentences as the teacher reads them aloud and then read the sentences back, and the child is reminded to think about how sentences begin and end. Activity 1.1 (Weekly Message) and Activity 4.2 (Reader #11) have the child read along in shared reading and answer questions about the text, which involves producing spoken responses. Multiple activities require the child to read or write whole sentences in teacher-led/shared contexts.
Lesson 12
Double ll, ss, ff, zz (FLOSS)
Students are asked to make up sentences that use the sight words 'what,' 'all,' and 'were' and write them on the laminated writing sheet (Activity 1.3). Students write the sentence "The bugs buzz." and are prompted to begin with an uppercase letter and end with a period (Activity 4.1). Students participate in sentence dictation where they write full sentences after hearing them read aloud (Activity 5.2). The Life Application asks students to create sentences made of rhyming words using collected words, and students read aloud and point to words in shared reading of the Weekly Message.
Lesson 13
Glued Sounds ng and nk
Students are asked to make sentences using Making Sentences cards (Activity 5.2), with provided sentence starters and encouragement to create their own sentences. In Activity 5.3 students write sentences the teacher dictates and then read those sentences aloud, practicing production and shared reading of complete sentences. The Weekly Message and related activities ask students to read along and identify sentence features (e.g., that sentences begin with an uppercase letter), reinforcing sentence structure during shared language activities.
Lesson 14
Three-Letter Beginning Blends
Students write three dictated sentences (Activity 5.2) and then read them aloud, practicing production of complete sentences in a shared teacher-student activity. Students are invited to make up their own silly sentences using three-letter blends in the Life Application section, which has them produce original sentences. Students also participate in shared reading of the Weekly Message and the reader (Spring Has Sprung!), reading aloud along with an adult, which provides additional shared-speech contexts for sentences.
Lesson 15
More Ending Blends
Activity 5.1 directs students to write full sentences as the teacher reads them (e.g., "An elk slept on the bed.") and then read those sentences aloud, with attention to how sentences begin and end. Activity 5.2 requires students to read a short reader and answer comprehension questions, which prompts oral sentence responses. The Weekly Message activity has the child read along with an adult, pointing to words and hearing full sentences modeled in a shared reading context.
Lesson 16
R-Controlled Vowels (ar)
Students write full sentences during Activity 5.3 (Sentence Dictation) as the teacher reads each sentence aloud and they copy them on handwriting paper. Students answer questions aloud when reading the reader (Activity 4.2) and are asked to "answer the question on each page" as they read. Students generate questions using the sight words "which," "what," and "when" (Activity 1.3) and are asked at the end to explain the Bossy R rule "in her own words."
Lesson 17
Semester Review
In Activity 3.2 (Sentence Dictation) students write three full sentences on handwriting paper as an adult reads them aloud, attend to sentence beginnings and endings, and then read the sentences back. In Activity 4.2 (My Own Reader) students plan and write pages for a small book, including a title and lines for writing, and are invited to share their reader with others. In Activity 4.1 students read readers aloud and answer questions about favorites and what characters do, producing oral sentences during shared discussion.
Unit 2: Semester 2
Lesson 1
Long Vowels a and i with Silent e
Students write complete sentences during Activity 5.2 (Sentence Dictation) by copying two teacher-read sentences and are reminded to pay attention to how sentences begin and end and to read them back. Students practice recognizing sentence features in the Skills list and are asked to point to words and read the Weekly Message aloud in Activity 1.1, engaging in shared reading. Students answer comprehension questions about the reader (Activity 5.1), which requires them to produce spoken responses in sentence form.
Lesson 2
Long Vowels o, u, and e with Silent e
On Day 5 (Activity 5.2) students write two full sentences on handwriting paper as the teacher reads them aloud and then read the sentences back: "They use the hose on the grass." and "I can stack these cubes." Earlier activities ask the child to read the weekly message aloud with the adult and to read along, and Day 5 comprehension questions prompt the child to answer what the family did on their trip. Several activities require students to produce spoken responses (naming pictures, answering questions) in shared interaction with the adult.
Lesson 3
Hard and Soft c and g
Students are asked to write sentences during Activity 5.3 (Sentence Dictation): two full sentences are read aloud and students write them, attend to how sentences begin and end, and then read them back. The lesson's skills list explicitly includes "Recognize the distinguishing features of a sentence," supporting student practice with sentence forms. Shared reading activities (reading the Weekly Message aloud with the adult) provide additional teacher-led opportunities for students to produce or read complete sentences in a shared-language context.
Lesson 4
More R-Controlled Vowels (er, ir, or, ur)
Activity 5.3 (Sentence Dictation) directs the child to write full sentences as the adult reads them aloud (e.g., "It is rude to burp." and "The herd is in the barn."), with a reminder to pay attention to how sentences begin and end. The Wrapping Up activity asks the child to use each sight word in a sentence, prompting the child to produce sentences orally. The Skills list includes "Recognize the distinguishing features of a sentence," supporting student practice with sentence form and boundaries.
Lesson 5
Long a Spellings ai, ay
Students write complete dictated sentences in Activity 5.2 (Sentence Dictation), copying and then reading sentences such as "The train is on the track." and "The trail is that way." Students complete Activity 2.3 (Fill in the Blanks) by writing words from a word bank into sentences so each sentence makes sense and then reading them aloud. Students participate in shared reading of the Weekly Message (Activity 1.1), reading along with the adult, and the Life Application asks students to create their own multi-word "silly long a" sentences and to try making sentences using rhyming long-a words.
Lesson 6
Long e Spellings ee, ey, ea
Activity 4.2 (Making Sentences) directs students to use word cards (including Set 4) to make sentences and read them aloud, and provides sentence starters to support sentence construction. Activity 5.2 (Sentence Dictation) has students write dictated sentences and then read them, with attention to sentence beginnings and endings. The spelling test instructs the student to use the sight word "see" in a sentence, prompting students to produce a sentence in a shared assessment activity.
Lesson 7
Long i Spellings y, igh, ie
Students write and read full sentences in Activity 5.3 (Sentence Dictation) where they transcribe and then read sentences such as "The kite is high." and "We could eat pie." Students complete sentences in Activity 3.3 (Fill in the Blanks) by choosing words from a Word Bank to make meaningful sentences (e.g., "Turn right to get home."). Students answer comprehension questions aloud in Activity 5.1 and explain long-i spellings to a family member in the Life Application, providing opportunities for oral sentence production.
Lesson 8
Long o Spellings ow, oa, oe
Activity 5.2 asks students to write two full sentences as the teacher dictates ("The toad would float." and "The goat eats toast."). Activity 5.1 and the Weekly Message tasks ask students to read aloud and answer questions (e.g., "If you were on a boat, would you want it to go fast or slow?"), which require students to produce spoken responses in shared reading/discussion. The lesson also has guided reading with teacher support (read-alouds and question prompts) where students read and respond together.
Lesson 9
Long u Spellings ue, ew, ou
Students write and read complete sentences in Activity 5.2 (Sentence Dictation) where they transcribe and then read sentences such as "The goat can chew." and "Who has a clue?". In Activity 2.2 (Fill in the Blanks) students fill word-bank words into sentences and then read the completed sentences aloud (e.g., "Is it true that dogs dream?"). In Activity 1.3 the teacher models sentences using sight words ("Who has been to camp?"), and students read along or respond to questions in Activity 5.1 (e.g., "If you were going to make a funny stew, what would you put in it?").
Lesson 10
Other Long Vowel Patterns
Students write complete sentences in several activities: Day 3 asks them to write "The colts bolt." and "The snakes molt." (Activity 3.1). Day 5 has a Sentence Dictation where students write "The child is kind." and "The colt is blind." (Activity 5.2). Students also complete the Fill in the Blanks page by writing each Word Bank word into sentences so the sentence makes sense, and they take turns using sight words in oral sentences (Activity 1.3 and Day 3 sight-word practice).
Lesson 11
Long Vowel Sounds Review
Students complete several "Fill in the Blanks" activities (Activity 3.1 and Activity 5.3) by writing words from a Word Bank into sentence frames and then read the completed sentences aloud (e.g., "The joke made me smile."). Students reread shared texts (Weekly Message #11 and readers across days) with an adult and point to or read aloud sentences together. The Wrapping Up prompt asks students to talk about what they know, providing opportunities for spoken sentence production in a shared activity.
Lesson 12
Other Vowel Sounds oi, oy
Students are asked to make sentences using word cards in Activity 4.1 (Making Sentences), where they use a provided set of words and given sentence starters and then read the sentences aloud. In Activity 5.2 (Sentence Dictation) students write two dictated sentences and then read them back, practicing sentence beginnings and endings. The Life Application and Day 5 reader prompt students to invent silly sentences using weekly words and rhymes, encouraging spoken sentence production.
Lesson 13
Other Vowel Sounds ou, ow
On Day 5, Activity 5.2 (Sentence Dictation) students write two complete sentences as the adult reads them: "The brown cow is in town." and "The scout found an owl." The activity instructs the child to pay attention to how sentences begin and end and then to read the sentences aloud after writing. In the Sight Words section there are suggested ideas (as part of instructor notes) to have students make sentences about pictures using one or two sight words.
Lesson 14
Other Vowel Sounds aw, au
Students write two dictated sentences in Activity 5.2 (Sentence Dictation): "The kids draw." and "They haul rocks." Students read and listen to example sentences for the sight word "made" ("They make a cake today." and "They made a cake yesterday."). Students answer comprehension questions about Reader #14 (e.g., "Where do the pups sleep?"), which prompts them to produce spoken responses.
Lesson 15
These Make More Than One Sound: oo and ea
Students write full sentences from dictation (Activity 5.2) when they copy and then read sentences such as "She took the hat off the hook." and "The bread is good." Students complete the Question Words page (Activity 4.2) by inserting question words to form whole questions (e.g., "Where is the beach?"), and students are asked to use sight words in a sentence (Activity 1.3), speaking or writing those sentences aloud. Students also read the Weekly Message together with an adult, producing and reading connected sentences in a shared reading activity.
Lesson 16
Silent Starts: kn, wr, gn
Students write and read complete sentences during Activity 5.3 (Sentence Dictation) where they copy and then read sentences such as "They wrap many gifts." and "The knife is sharp." Students answer comprehension questions about the reader in Activity 5.2 (e.g., "What do the gnats do to the kids at the playground?") which requires oral sentence responses. In Activity 1.1 and Activity 3.3 students read the Weekly Message and teacher-read example sentences aloud and point to words, practicing sentence-level reading in shared activities.
Lesson 17
Year-End Review
Students are prompted to write one or two sentences about pictures (Activity 2.2 Sentence Writing) and are reminded to think about how sentences begin and end; they then read their sentences aloud to an adult. Students also read and read-along with the Weekly Message and are asked to point to and read words, creating opportunities for shared oral sentence reading.