Cat’s Colors    

By Jane Cabrera 

Shared Reading Lesson using Cat’s Colors 

Before reading

Comprehension Skill: Students will see illustrations to make predictions about the text.

Teacher says, “Today we are going to take a picture walk of this book. The pictures will help us read the words in this story.” 

Procedure:

First show the cover and discuss what we see. Students should say, “I notice… or I see… or I observe…”Teacher may want to have the students answer questions, “Who seems to be the main character in the story? What do you think the story will be about? What do you think the cat’s favorite color will be?” 

Proceed to go through the pages of the book asking them questions like what color do you suppose the kitty is talking about on this page. What is the kitty doing? What is that called? How do bats move? The questions I asked were generated by the text. I wanted to get them to verbally tell me the words that were on the page. We continued on throughout the book except I didn't turn the last page to allow for the "surprise" ending. 

During reading

Read the book to the children completely through without any interruptions. 

Then, I read the book out loud modeling how I would use the pictures to help me read the text. I would pause when I came to a "hard" word. For example on the green page the text reads: Green is the grass where I like to walk. I stopped at grass and said out loud, "This word starts with /gr/, it must be grass." I did the same thing with walk.  

Read until you reach the text, “Is it orange? Yes! because… 

Have the students predict why orange is Cat’s favorite color.  

I continue talking about how to figure out words for the remainder of the book including the last page, which tells why orange is his favorite color. (It's the color of his mom!) 

After reading

Remind the students that recall means remembering something you have read. Name the ten colors in the book. Name the things Cat describes using these colors.  

Remind the students that retell means putting something you have read into their own words. Ask the children to retell the part of the story where Cat tells about that color.  

Questions teacher might ask to generate discussion

Read page 3

• What animal is this book about?
• What does Cat want us to find out?

Read page 8

• What color is Cat telling about?
• What comes out at night?
• What do bats do?

Read pages 22-25

• What is Cat’s favorite color? Why?

 
Writing Connected to Reading

Make a predictable chart using this prompt: 

Our Colors

I have a _____ ______. (name of student) 
 

I have a white puppy. John

I have a green blanket. Jim

I have a brown dog. Deb 
 

This predictable book would be best with each child bringing in the item, so the teacher can photograph the child with the item.  

These are the predictable chart steps: