Good Night aa
Focus Question:
How does the girl get ready to go to sleep?
Book Summary
Text Type: Fiction/Concept
Most children have a routine for getting ready for bed in the evening. Students will relate to
how the girl in Good Night prepares for a good night of sleep with her father’s help. Beautiful,
comforting illustrations and use of the high-frequency word the support early emergent
readers. The book can also be used to teach students about connecting to prior knowledge
and how to identify an author’s purpose for writing.
Lesson Essentials
Instructional Focus
Connect to prior knowledge to better
understand a text
Identify author’s purpose
Describe details provided by illustrations
in the text
Blend onset and rime
Identify initial consonant Bb
Capitalize sentence beginnings
Identify and use the high-frequency
word the
Materials
Book: Good Night (copy for each student)
Author’s purpose, capitalize sentence
beginnings, high frequency word the
worksheets
Retelling rubric
Vocabulary
Boldface vocabulary words also appear
in a pre-made lesson for this title on
VocabularyA–Z.com. (*) word appears
in the lesson but not the book.
• High-frequency word: the
• Words to Know
Story critical: blanket (n.), dream (n.),
kiss (n.), Moon (n.), pillow (n.), story (n.)
• Academic vocabulary: author (n.)*,
purpose (n.)*
© Learning A–Z All rights reserved.
Guiding the Reading
Before Reading
Build Background
• Place photographs on the board of the following
items: a bed, a teddy bear, a pillow, a book, and a
blanket. Ask students to turn to a partner and share
what all of these items have in common. Invite
volunteers to share their answers with the class.
• Explain to students that the items on the board can
all be seen in a bedroom or are items associated
with bedtime or going to sleep. Ask students what
other things they have in their bedroom or what
things they do when getting ready for sleep.
Introduce the Book
• Give students their copy of Good Night. Guide
them to the front and back covers and read the
title. Have students discuss what they see on the
covers. Encourage them to offer ideas as to what
type of book it is (genre, text type, and so on)
and what it might be about.
• Show students the title page. Discuss the
information on the page (title of book, author’s
name, illustrator’s name).
Introduce the Reading Strategy:
Connect to prior knowledge
• Explain to students that effective readers make
connections between what they are reading and
what they already know. Explain that this is called
connecting to prior knowledge. Remind students
that thinking about what they already know
about a topic will help them understand what
they are reading.
• Have students study the illustration on the front
cover. Ask them to look carefully at the details
in the picture, and ask volunteers to share their
descriptions. Ask volunteers to share what the
illustration makes them think of.
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Guiding the Reading (cont.)
Introduce the Comprehension Skill:
Identify author’s purpose
• Explain to students that an author usually has a
reason, or a purpose, for writing a book. Explain
to students that when reading a story, effective
readers ask themselves, “Why did the author
write this?”
• Show students a familiar book from the classroom.
Based on the story, explain why you think the author
wrote it (for example, it made you feel good or
made you laugh). Give each student a different piece
of writing (for example, a section of newspaper, an
advertisement, a familiar story book, a nonfiction
book, and so on). Ask students to predict why the
author may have written their piece.
Vocabulary
Have students turn to the “Words to Know” box
on the copyright page. Point out that these words
can be found in the story and that understanding
the meaning of each word will help them better
understand what they read. Read the words aloud to
students, and as a group, discuss the meaning of each
word. On the basis of the definitions discussed, have
students work in groups to illustrate each vocabulary
word on a poster. Have students share their posters
with the class.
Set the Purpose
• Have students read to find out more about the
girl’s bedtime routine. Write the Focus Question on
the board. Invite students to look for evidence in
the book to support their answer to the question.
• 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 a
future discussion.
During Reading
Text-Dependent Questions
As students read the book, monitor their understanding
with the following questions. Encourage students to
support their answers by citing evidence from the book.
• What do the girl and her father do before
she gets into bed? (level 1) page 3
• What is the last thing the girl’s father does
before he leaves the room? (level 1) page 8
• Who are the characters in this story? (level 2)
multiple pages
• Do you think the girl and her father do the same
thing every night at bedtime? Why or why not?
(level 3) multiple pages
© Learning A–Z All rights reserved.
Good Night aa
Text Features: Illustrations
Explain that illustrations are helpful when reading
because they help the reader know exactly what
something looks like. Remind students that the
pictures in a book can also “tell” more of the story
and help the reader identify unknown words in the
text. Have students turn to page 5 and cover the text.
Ask students to study the illustration on the page.
Then have students uncover the text and read the
sentence. Ask students: How does this illustration
help you more easily read the sentence? How would
reading this sentence have been more difficult
without the illustration? Have students review other
illustrations in the book and tell how the illustrations
helped them understand the words on the page.
Skill Review
• Model for students how to connect to prior
knowledge and direct them to stop at several
points during reading to turn to a partner and make
connections to their own experiences. Discuss with
students how making connections to a topic helps
them understand, remember, and enjoy a story.
• Model and how to identify the author’s purpose
for writing Good Night.
Think-aloud: As I read the story and looked at the
illustrations, I noticed that the author was showing
me all the things the girl and her father did to get
ready for bed. It was interesting to read and see the
routine they had for bedtime. This made me feel
happy because it reminded me of the things I used
to do with my own children when they were little.
I think the author wrote this story to make readers
feel happy that they do things just like the girl in
the story.
• Introduce and explain the author’s purpose
worksheet. Have students write or dictate why
they think the author wrote the story and then
draw a picture to support their answer.
After Reading
Ask students what words, if any, they marked in
their book. Use this opportunity to model how they
can read these words using decoding strategies and
context clues.
Skill Review
Graphic Organizer: Author’s purpose
Review the author’s purpose worksheet that
students completed. Have students share their work
with a partner. Ask volunteers to share their ideas
with the class.
Response to Focus Question
Have students cite specific evidence from the book
to answer the Focus Question. Answers will vary,
but should include specific examples of how the
girl gets ready for bed.
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Guiding the Reading (cont.)
Comprehension Check
• Retelling rubric
Book Extension Activities
Build Skills
Phonological Awareness: Blend onset and rime
• Explain to students that you are going to say a
word broken in two pieces—its beginning sound
and the rest of the word. Say /g/, /irl/. Then say
the whole word, girl.
• Say several more words, broken into onset and
rime, and ask students to tell you the whole
word: /b/, /ook/; /b/, /ed/; /b/, ear/; and so on.
Make sure each student has an opportunity
to blend a segmented word.
• Check for understanding: Ask each student to say
a word segmented into onset and rime, and have
other students guess the whole word. Assist
individuals as needed.
Phonics: Initial consonant Bb
• Write the word bear on the board and read it aloud
with students.
• Have students say the /b/ sound aloud. Then, run your
finger under the letters in the word as students say
the whole word aloud. Ask students to identify which
letter represents the /b/ sound in the word bear.
• Have students take turns writing the letter Bb on
the board while saying the /b/ sound.
• Check for understanding: Write the following words
that begin with the /b/ sound on the board, leaving
off the initial consonant: bag, book, bat. Say each
word one at a time, and have volunteers come
to the board and add the initial Bb to each word.
Point to the new words and have students read
them aloud.
Grammar and Mechanics:
Capitalize sentence beginnings
• Write the following sentence on the board: The
girl has a blanket. Read the sentence aloud with
students. Invite a volunteer to come to the board
and circle the first letter in the sentence. Ask
students to discuss with a partner what is
different about this letter.
• Explain that all sentences begin with a capital,
or uppercase, letter. Remind students that an
uppercase letter is a signal that lets readers
know that a new sentence is beginning.
© Learning A–Z All rights reserved.
Good Night aa
• Ask volunteers to make statements about going
to bed. Write each sentence on the board, making
sure the first letter is lowercase. Invite volunteers
to come to the board and correct the first letter
with an uppercase one.
• Check for understanding: Have students circle the
capital letter at the beginning of each sentence
in their book.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and
have students complete the capitalize-sentence-
beginnings worksheet. If time allows, discuss
their answers aloud after students finish.
Word Work: High-frequency word the
• Write the word the on the board and read it aloud
with students. Explain to students that they will
often see this word in books they read and they
should memorize it so they can decode it right away.
• Spell the word aloud while students write each
letter in the air.
• Write the following sentence on the board: The
girl goes to bed. Read it aloud with students and
discuss the purpose of the word the.
• Have students practice writing the in many ways,
such as shaving cream spread on their desks,
magnetic letters and cookie sheets, or with stamps
and ink pads.
• Check for understanding: Have students reread the
story and circle every occurrence of the word the
in the story.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have
students complete the high-frequency-word-the
worksheet. If time allows, discuss their answers
aloud after students finish.
Connections
• See the back of the book for cross-curricular
extension ideas.
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