APeek at Planes
Teachers and parents
Before tackling these Green Level Readers, a student will need to be able to:
l Recognize the basic 42 letter sounds and the alternative spellings in the leaves below;
l Read (blend) regular words containing these letter sounds;
l Recognize the tricky words shown in the flowers below;
l Use the pronunciation guides for help when reading technical terms and place names. The schwa symbol ‹ə› in these pronunciation guides makes a sound like an unstressed /uh/.
Planes have been around for quite a long time. Modern planes look a bit different from early planes, but they all have wings and a cockpit.
older plane
modern plane
These are the main parts of a plane.
nose
propeller
The propeller blades spin around to drive the plane forward. The wheels are used for take off and landing.
cockpit
wheels
body
wing
The wings lift the plane.
rudder
The tail helps to keep the plane steady as it flies.
tail
The cockpit is where the pilot (/pâlìt/) sits.
Cargo planes are used to transport very big things across the planet.
A cargo plane has a very long, wide body so that it can carry big objects.
This is what a cargo plane looks like inside.
Teachers and parents
An important part of becoming a confident, fluent reader is a student’s ability to understand what they are reading. Below are some suggestions on how to develop a student’s reading comprehension. Make reading this book a shared experience between you and the student. Try to avoid leaving it until the whole book is read before talking about it. Occasionally stop at various intervals throughout the book.
l Ask the student if they learned anything in the book that they did not know before.
l Ask the student which part of the book they thought was the most interesting. Ask them to explain why this part interested them most.
l Ask the student to describe what is happening in the pictures.
l Relate what is happening in the book to any real-life experiences the student may have.
l Pick out any vocabulary that may be new to the student and ask what they think it means. If they don’t know, explain it and relate it to what is happening in the book.
l Encourage the student to summarize, in their own words, what they have read.
What’s in the book?
l Who sits in the cockpit of a plane?
l What was different about Concorde?
l What is a sonic boom?
What do you think?
l Have you been in a plane before?
l Do you think there should be fewer plane flights? Why (not)?