TEACHER'S GUIDE FOR:

Wave Goodbye

By Rob Reid
Illustrations by Lorraine Williams

Focus:
* identifying rhyming word pairs * using rhyming along with picture clues to decode new words * recognizing words for parts of the body * reading a contraction * drawing conclusions

Supportive Text Features
* familiar words and concepts * simple rhymes at the end of sentences and phrases * repetitive, patterned phrases * strong picture-text match

Essential Components of Reading Instruction
Phonemic Awareness: word sense and rhyming
Phonics: long /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/ vowel sounds; silent consonants high

, kn

ees
Vocabulary: names of body parts: elbows, toes, tongue, nose, knees, lips, fingertips, ears, hair, belly, derriere, chin, eye; contractions; compound words
Fluency: alternating reading between two groups
Comprehension: use details to draw conclusions about main idea of the story

High-frequency Words: I, we, go, your, and, a, with

Getting Ready to Read
1. Introduce the concept and vocabulary by asking open-ended questions: * Why do people wave to one another? * Besides your hands, what other things or parts of your body might you wave? * Show me how you would wave to say goodbye to someone.

1. 2. Connect children’s past experiences with the book vocabulary:
   • Call children's attention to the title. Read: "Wave Goodbye."
   • Ask them to predict what they would expect might happen in the story.
   • Tell children to look at the pictures on the front and back covers of the book. Ask them why they think the boy is waving.
   • Have children suggest some words they might read in the story.
   • Give children the book and have them look at the pictures.
   • Ask them to tell what is happening as they turn each page.

1. Remind children of the strategies they know and can use with unfamiliar words:
   • Ask them, "What will you do if you come to a word you don’t know?"
   • Encourage children to look at the picture and say the beginning sound of the word.
   • Also suggest that children think about the story to help them decide what word would make sense in the phrase or sentence.

1. Be aware of the following text features:
   • The book contains several high-frequency words.
   • Words for familiar body parts are used: elbows, toes, tongue, nose, knees, lips, etc.
   • The word “derriere” will be unfamiliar to most children. In the picture, children are waving their bottoms. Most likely, children will need to be told this word and what it means.
   • The contraction “it’s” is used on page 6, and the compound word “fingertips” appears on page 15.
   • There are patterned phrases, but not all pages follow the patterns.
   • Most sentences are spread out over two facing pages. Pages 22–23 do not have any text.

Reading the Book
1. Set a purpose by telling children to observe the pictures as they read to discover how each person waved and why he or she is waving.

1. Read the first few pages together and talk about the phrases. Then have children read several pages quietly, but out loud. Each child should be reading at his or her own pace. Children should not read in chorus. Listen to children as they read by leaning close or bending down beside each child. Point out the good things children are doing as they read by themselves.

2. Look for these reading behaviors during children’s first reading:

   • Do they identify most words by sight?
   • Do they rely on the print and not just the pictures when reading?
   • Do they read with increased confidence?
   • Are they self-correcting to get the meaning from the story?
   • Have they begun to cross-check by using language patterns, letter sounds, and the pictures?
   • Do they reread to check accuracy and meaning?
   • Are they using chunks of words rather than individual letters when sounding out?
   • Do they expect to get meaning from the text?
   • Do they make connections between the story and previous experiences?
   • Are they asking questions about the story?

1. As children read, suggest reading strategies if they are struggling: “Try saying the beginning of the word. Try looking at the picture for help." Encourage children to take a guess or read past the unknown word.

2. Possible teaching points to address based on your observations:

   • Call attention to all the high-frequency words children have read.
   • Review how to find a known part in an unknown word.
   • Show children how to use analogies to move from the known to the unknown when encountering new words: part of "chin" looks like "in."
   • Review words with regular long vowel sounds: wave, time, nose, etc. Also talk about words with long vowel sounds that have different spelling patterns: toes, knees, eye.
   • Discuss the words with silent consonants: high, knees. Explore other words with silent consonants.
   • Review using punctuation marks to guide the meaning-making process. Call attention to the apostrophe in the contraction on page 6 and the exclamation point on page 24.
   • Talk about the contraction "it's" as a shortened form of "it is."
   • Point out the compound word "fingertips" and explore how it is formed from two shorter words.
   • Review how to determine the main idea of the story by putting the test and illustrations together and drawing a conclusion.
   • Model asking questions or making "I wonder . . ." statements to extend comprehension.
   • Model how to revisit the text to find specific examples or ideas in the story.

After the First Reading
1. Have children confirm their predictions about what happened in the story.

1. Discuss the many different ways there are to wave goodbye. Reflect on how some ways to wave are more common than others.

2. Although the text is about waving different parts of the body, the illustrations show the context of the story. Talk about the story that is told by the illustrations.

3. Divide the group in half. Have one group read the left side of each spread and the other group respond by reading the right side of the spread.

4. Explore with children the humor in the story.

5. Brainstorm other situations in which we might see people waving.

Second Reading
1. Have children reread the book in a whisper voice or to a partner.

1. This is a time for assessment. While they are reading, watch what children do and what they use from the teaching time. Alternatively, you might take a running record on one student as an assessment of the student’s reading behavior.

Cross-Curricular Activities
Art
Have children make signs with pictures of different body parts: hands, ears, fingers, toes, and so on. Use the signs to play a following-the-directions game. A child says, "Wave your . . ." and holds up his or her sign. The other children wave the part of the body pictured on the sign.

Music
Visit Songs for Teaching where you will find several songs in the Early Childhood Songs and General Education Songs sections that are about parts of the body and movement. Once children are familiar with some of these songs, try creating song innovations in which other objects or actions are suggested.

Science
Have children compare the way human bodies move with how robots move. If you have any toy robots in the classroom, let children examine the range of fine motor skills and larger motions of the limbs and other parts. What kinds of movements can humans do better than robots? What can robots do better than humans? Let children pretend to move like robots while performing the waving activities mentioned in Wave Goodbye.

Math
On the chalkboard or chart paper, make a list of the body parts that are waved in the book. Then have children go through the book and count how many people they see waving each body part listed. Encourage children to look through the entire book, not just at the page on which the body part is mentioned. Write the total number of people alongside each item on the chart. The results could then be recorded on a simple line or bar graph.

Social Studies
There are a few clues in the illustrations that indicate the climate/time of year and type of community where the people in the story live. Ask children to look through the book for these clues and then talk about what the community might look like. Is it a city, country, or suburb? What kinds of houses do the people live in? What time of year is it? What is the weather like? Children may also wish to draw pictures of the community they have imagined.

Writing
Read The Waving Girl by J. B. Nicholas. This is the true story of a lonely girl who lived in a lighthouse and waved to the ships passing by using her apron and other pieces of clothing. Talk about how waving helped the girl feel less lonely. Then have each child write three things people might do when they are feeling lonely to counteract their loneliness. If you wish, children may share and discuss the items on their lists.