Brand-New Ball

Craft and structure

Phonics

The essential question of this issue is What can sports teach us? The articles below connect to this theme.

• Picture This!: “Flip Out!,” p. 2
• Background Builder: “Sports for All,” p. 8
• Big Read-Aloud: “Ready, Set, Race!,” p. 10
• Fiction: “The Terrible Turtles,” p. 24
• Mini History: “The Story of Sneakers,” p. 30
• Poetry: “Brand-New Ball,” p. 32

Through the above genres, students will discuss:

• What sports do people play? What equipment do they use?
• Why do we play sports?
• What is it like to be on a team?
  
• How can we try our best?
  

Shared Reading

• After you introduce and explore the meaning of the poem, use it as a daily shared reading experience to build fluency and phonological awareness through rhyme.

Show a Video (10 minutes)

• Tell children that they are going to watch a video about sports. (This video also goes with other stories in the issue.)

Preview Text Type and Illustration (5-10 minutes)

• Open your magazines to “Brand-New Ball.” Do students notice the way the poem is shaped within the illustration? (It is a square!) Let them know that this is a shape poem, which is a poem written in the shape of what it is about.

• Read the poem to model fluency. You can also click the Read Aloud button at the top of the digital issue to hear it read by a voice actor!
• Discuss the meaning of the poem. Why is the poem a square shape? Why doesn’t the ball work well? What else do children see in the illustration?

ELA Focus: Craft and Structure (10 minutes)

• The Write a Shape Poem skills page allows children to write their own shape poem.

ELA Focus: Parts of Speech (20 minutes)

• Explore sports vocabulary and practice separating nouns and verbs with the Sort and Score activity. (This page also goes with other stories in the issue.)

ELA Focus: Craft and Structure (10 minutes)

• This version of Write a Shape Poem page allows children to write a shape poem at a lower level.