LEVEL A

Lesson Plan My Face

About the Book
Text Type: Nonfiction/Concept Page Count: 10 Word Count: 32

Book Summary
My Face takes a close-up look at the
features of a little girl’s face. The
photographs encourage picture-to-
text connections, as well as opportunities
to discuss the ways in which people are
alike and different.

About the Lesson

Targeted Reading Strategy
• Connect life experience to prior knowledge

Objectives
• Use the reading strategy of connecting life experience to prior knowledge to understand text
• Compare and contrast
• Identify rhyme
• Identify words with f
• Recognize nouns as naming words
• Categorize

Materials
Green text indicates resources available on the website
• Book—My Face (copy for each student)
• Chalkboard or dry erase board
• Compare and contrast, phonics, categorization worksheets
• Discussion cards

Indicates an opportunity for students to mark in the book. (All activities

may be demonstrated by projecting the book on interactive whiteboard
or completed with paper and pencil if books are reused.)

Vocabulary
• High-frequency words: is, my, this
• Content words:
Story critical: cheek (n.), chin (n.), eye (n.), eyebrow (n.), mouth (n.), nose (n.)

Before Reading
Build Background
• Have students close their eyes and use their hands to feel the parts of their face. Tell them to start
at their foreheads and work their way down. Ask students to tell what they felt on their faces.
• Expand the discussion by having students look at one another. Ask them why they think they
don’t all look alike. Discuss the concept of uniqueness.

Book Walk
Introduce the Book
• Show students the front and back covers of the book and read the title with them. Ask what they
think they might read about in a book called My Face. (Accept all answers that students can justify.)

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 LEVEL A
Lesson Plan (continued) My Face
• Show students the title page. Discuss the information on the page (title of book, author’s name).
Introduce the Reading Strategy: Connect life experience to prior knowledge
• Model how to use prior knowledge.
Think-aloud: When I read a new book, I try to think about what I already know about the topic in
the book. When I look at the picture of the girl on the front cover, I remember what I looked like
when I was a little girl. I had dark eyes like this girl, but I had blond hair. I know that lots of people
have some things that are alike and some things that are different. When I look at the picture of
the girl on the back cover, I think of the funny faces I used to make. By looking at the title and
the covers, I can predict that I may find out other things about the girl’s face in the book.
• Show students the title page and ask them what they see in the picture. Ask them if they have
ever smiled like the girl in the picture. Turn the pages so students can see the pictures. If necessary,
model once more for students how you draw on your personal knowledge to make predictions
about the book.
• As students read, encourage them to use other reading strategies in addition to the targeted
strategy presented in this section.
Introduce the Vocabulary
• Go through each page of the book with students. Ask them to talk about what they see in the
illustrations and use the vocabulary they will encounter in the text. Ask them to name what they
see in the pictures and have them draw on prior knowledge and experience with their own faces.
For example, point to the eye on page 3 and ask: What is this? What do you use it for?
• Point out the words on the page. Explain that the words tell them the story, and that the words
are read left to right.
• Ask a student to come up and point on the book you are holding to the place where he or she
should start reading, and which direction he or she should go while reading.
• Reinforce new vocabulary and word-attack strategies by modeling how students can read
unfamiliar words. Ask a volunteer to point to the word eyebrow. Ask students how they know
this word says eyebrow. Model how they can use the familiar word eye in the word to help
them. Point out that they can check whether the word makes sense by reading the sentence and
looking at the picture. Read aloud the sentence with the word eyebrow and ask if they think
the sentence makes sense. Repeat with other vocabulary words if you feel students need more
modeling. Remind students to look at what the word starts with and to check the picture to
see what makes sense.
Set the Purpose
• Have students think about what they already know about their own face as they read about
the parts of the face in the book.

During Reading
Student Reading
• Guide the reading: Give students their book and have them put a sticky note on page 5. Direct
them to read to the end of this page. Tell students to reread the pages if they finish before
everyone else.
• When they have finished, ask students to tell the parts of the face they have read about. Have
students point out the parts on their own faces and tell how this helped them understand the book.
• Model making connections to prior knowledge.
Think-aloud: I have the same face parts I’ve read about. I have two eyes, two eyebrows, and two
ears. It helps me understand what I am reading if I can think about what I already know about
those parts of my face.
• Tell students to read the remainder of the book.

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 LEVEL A
Lesson Plan (continued) My Face

Have students make a small question mark in their book beside any word they do not
understand or cannot pronounce. These can be addressed in the discussion that follows.

After Reading
• Ask students what words, if any, they marked in their book. Use this opportunity to model
how they could read these words using decoding strategies and context clues. For example,
point out the word my and ask students how they know this word doesn’t say by. Focus on
the sound of /m/ at the beginning of the word.

Reflect on the Reading Strategy

• Reinforce how using what they already knew about the parts of their face helped them
understand what they read. (Connecting life experiences and using prior knowledge of
a topic helps students personally relate to, as well as remember, what they have read.)

Teach the Comprehension Skill: Compare and contrast

• Introduce and model: Ask two students with different color eyes to come to the front. Ask the
other students to look at the students’ faces and tell what they see that is alike (eyebrows, eyes,
ears, nose, cheeks, mouth, chin). Ask them to tell what is different. If students do not offer eye
color, suggest it. Point out that both students have eyes, but they do not have the same eye color.
(Comments should be tailored to fit students.)
• Discussion: Show students two pictures, such as photographs of you and a sibling, or two other
people. Have students tell the ways they are alike and different.
• Check for understanding: Have students look around the group and find a person who has eyes that
are like theirs. Have each student identify the other person and tell why he or she thinks their
eyes are alike. Repeat for differences and discuss.
• Independent practice: Tell students to complete the compare-and-contrast worksheet. Discuss
students’ responses.

Extend the discussion: Instruct students to use the last page of their book to draw a picture
of their own face. Have students share their pictures with the group.

Build Skills
Phonological Awareness: Identify rhyme
• Say the words face and race and have students repeat the words. Tell them that face and race
rhyme because they have the same ending sound. Repeat the words and have students listen
for the ending sounds.
• Tell students you are going to say a word. If the word rhymes with face, they should give you a
thumbs up. If it doesn’t rhyme with face, they should give you a thumbs down. Say the following
words one at a time: lace, loss, space, spice.
• Say the word day and have students repeat it. Tell them you are going to say some more words.
If the word rhymes with day, they should pat their heads. If the word doesn’t rhyme, they should
shake their head. Say the following words: pay, peg, ray, rat, say, sat, may, met.
Phonics: Identify initial consonant Ff
• Say the word face and ask students what sound they hear at the beginning of the word.
Have them look at the cover of the book and point out the word that says face.
• Show students a capital and lowercase Ff and point out the upper and lowercase letters.
Ask students to repeat the sound that the letter Ff stands for.
• Run your finger under the word fan as you say each sound: /ffff/ /aaa/ /nnnn/. Ask a child to come
up and run his or her finger under the word while the rest of the group sounds it out.
• Ask students to tell you some words that start with /f/. Write the words on the board.
Ask volunteers to come up and circle the letter that stands for the /f/ sound in each word.
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 LEVEL A
Lesson Plan (continued) My Face
• Give students the phonics worksheet and explain what they are to do. When completed, discuss
their answers.
Grammar and Mechanics: Nouns as naming words
• Tell students that the words they read in the book are used to tell about parts of their face.
Explain that these words are called naming words. Have students look at page 4. Ask them
to find the naming word that tells what is found above each eye.
• Ask students to find another naming word in the book. Reinforce that all of the parts
of the girl’s face have naming words.

Instruct students to work together to underline the naming words in the book.
Word Work: Categorize words
• Tell students that the words they read in the book are used to tell about parts of a face and that
these can be put into a group called face. Draw a large circle on the board with the word face in
the center. As students name the words that belong in the group (eyebrow, eye, cheek, nose, ear,
mouth, chin), draw and label a picture of each.
• Ask students to think of other parts of their bodies. Below the circle labeled face, draw a larger
circle with the word body in the center. As students name body parts (arms, hands, fingers, legs,
feet, toes, and so on), draw and label each part.
• Ask students if the face circle should be part of the body circle. Enlarge the body circle to include it.
• Give students the categorization worksheet. Tell them they can use the book as a reference.

Build Fluency
Independent Reading
• Allow students to read their book independently. Additionally, allow partners to take turns
reading parts of the book to each other.

Home Connection
• Give students their book to take home to read with parents, caregivers, siblings, or friends.

Extend the Reading

Writing Connection
Write the sentence This is ____’s face. on the board. Ask students to write their names to finish the
sentence. Have students illustrate their sentences. Display students’ faces on a bulletin board titled
Our Faces.

Science Connection
Use this book as an introduction to a science unit about the senses. Provide items for students to
touch, taste, see, hear, and smell. Help students make the connection between the face part and
the sense with which it is associated.

Skill Review
Discussion cards covering comprehension skills and strategies not explicitly taught with the book
are provided as an extension activity. The following is a list of some ways these cards can be used
with students:
• Use as discussion starters for literature circles.
• Have students choose one or more cards and write a response, either as an essay
or as a journal entry.
• Distribute before reading the book and have students use one of the questions
as a purpose for reading.
• Cut apart and use the cards as game cards with a board game.

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 LEVEL A
Lesson Plan (continued) My Face
Assessment
Monitor students to determine if they can:
• connect their life experience and prior knowledge to better understand what they read
• make comparisons in text and on a worksheet
• identify words that rhyme
• recognize that the letter f stands for the /f/ sound and suggest words that start with /f/
in text and on a worksheet
• recognize naming words
• categorize the parts of a face in text and on a worksheet

Comprehension Check
• Retelling Rubric

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