Level

Smelly Clyde

Lesson Plan
About the Book
Text Type: Fictional/Humorous

Page Count: 18

Word Count: 430

Book Summary

Smelly Clyde is about a dog named Clyde who loves the smell
of manure. One day he runs to Farmer Browns place and rolls
in the manure of different animals. When Clyde goes home he
sniffs another odor, one he doesnt like. Its soap!

About the Lesson

Targeted Reading Strategy
Retell

Objectives

Retell to understand and remember story events

Identify and explain cause-and-effect relationships
Identify initial consonant cl-blends
Recognize and form sentences with compound predicates
Identify and use synonyms

Materials
Green text indicates resources available on the website

BookSmelly Clyde (copy for each student)

Sticky notes
Chalkboard or dry erase board
Cause and effect, initial consonant cl-blends, compound predicates, synonyms worksheets
Discussion cards
Indicates an opportunity for students to mark in the book. (All activities may be
demonstrated by projecting book on interactive whiteboard or completed with paper
and pencil if books are reused.)

Vocabulary
*Bold vocabulary words also appear in a pre-made lesson for this title on VocabularyAZ.com.
Content words:
Story critical: awful (adj.), content (adj.), habit (n.), manure (n.), odor (n.), refreshed (adj.)

Before Reading
Build Background
Introduce the content word manure to students and ask whether anyone knows what it is.
Explain to students that manure is waste matter of animals. When manure is put in the ground,
it fertilizes the soil and helps plants to grow.
Ask students whether they have ever smelled manure when someone was fertilizing their yard,
when they went to a county fair, or when they visited a farm. Ask what they thought of the smell.

Preview the Book

Introduce the Book
Give students their copy of the book. 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 kind
of book this is and what it might be about. (Accept any answers students can justify.)
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Smelly Clyde

Lesson Plan (continued)

Show students the title page. Discuss the information on the page (title of book, authors name,
illustrators name).

Introduce the Reading Strategy: Retell

Explain to students that one way to understand and remember what they are reading is to stop
now and then during reading to retell in their mind what is happening in the story.
Explain to students that when someone retells something, he or she explains the details of
what happened in order. Point out that people retell stories as part of their daily lives, such as
explaining what happened in school to a student who was absent. Ask students to share other
examples of when people might give a retelling.
Model retelling a familiar story in detail, such as The Three Little Pigs.
Think-aloud: In The Three Little Pigs, three pigs each decide to build a house. The first pig decides
to make his house out of straw. He gathers all of the materials and builds his house. The second
pig decides to build his house out of sticks. He gathers all of the materials and builds his house.
The third pig gathers the materials to build his house out of bricks. One day a big bad wolf comes
to the house of the first little pig. He wants the little pig to let him inside and he says: Ill huff
and Ill puff, and Ill blow your house down.
Continue retelling in detail to the end of the story. Invite students to suggest information for the
retelling of this story.
Have students place sticky notes on pages 7, 12, and 18. Explain that as they read, they should
stop on these pages to think about what has happened in the story. Encourage students to retell
in their mind what happens in the story as they read.
As students read, encourage them to use other reading strategies in addition to the targeted
strategy presented in this section.

Introduce the Vocabulary:

Review with students decoding the difficult content words to ensure a successful reading
experience.
Remind students of the strategies they can use to work out words they dont know. For example,
they can use what they know about letter and sound correspondence to figure out the word.
They can look for base words, prefixes, and suffixes. They can use the context to work out
meanings of unfamiliar words.
Model how to apply word-attack strategies. Have students find the word habit on page 5.
Tell students they can look at the letter the word begins with and then use what they know
about syllables and vowels (one vowel sound per syllable) to sound out the rest of the word.
Practice sounding out the word habit aloud. Reread the sentence and ask students whether habit
makes sense in the sentence. Remind them that good readers always reread to make sure the
new word makes sense in the sentence.

Set the Purpose

Have students read the book to find out how Clyde gets so smelly. Remind them to stop reading
at the end of each page with a sticky note to quickly retell in their mind the details of the events
so far in the story. Have students think about the events that happened first, next, and last.

During Reading
Student Reading
Guide the reading: Have students read to the end of page 7. Encourage those who finish early
to go back and reread.
Cut out the pages from an extra copy of the book. Place pages 3 through 7 in a pocket chart
or along the chalkboard ledge.

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Level

Smelly Clyde

Lesson Plan (continued)

Model retelling the events of the story using the illustrations as a guide.
Think-aloud: I stopped after a few pages to retell in my mind what I had read so far. First I read
about Clyde and his owner, Mr. Mora. Clyde is smart and loyal, and he knows lots of tricks. Then
I learned about Clydes bad habit. He loves the smell of manure. Clyde goes to Farmer Browns
chicken yard at the farm and rolls in the dirt and manure.
Remind students that a retelling includes detail and description about the events of a story.
Check for understanding: Have students read to the end of page 9. Place pages 8 and 9 next to the
pages from the beginning of the story. Ask students to use the illustrations as a guide to retell
the details to a partner about the events after Clyde rolls around in the chicken yard. Listen to
students retellings for correct order and description of the story events. Discuss the retelling of
these pages as a class.
Have students make a question mark in their book beside any word they do not understand
or cannot pronounce. Encourage them to use the strategies they have learned to read each word
and figure out its meaning.

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.

Reflect on the Reading Strategy

Retell in detail with students the events of the story from page 10 through the end of the book,
using the illustrations as a guide.
Think-aloud: After Clyde rolled around in the cow manure, he smelled another favorite odor
horse manure. Clyde went to the stable and rolled in the manure. Then he ran to the pigpens and
rolled around in pig manure. He was very happy. Finally, Clyde went home. When Mr. Mora smells
Clyde, he gets out the soap to wash Clyde. Clyde looks for a place to hide because the smell of
soap is something he dreads.
Have students retell the story to a partner, starting at the beginning. Listen for whether students
include the following: main characters, setting, and correct events in order.
Ask students how retelling the events of the story in their mind as they read helped them
understand the story.

Teach the Comprehension Skill Cause and effect

Discussion: Discuss cause-and-effect relationships. Explain to students that a cause is an action
that makes something happen and the effect is what happens because of, or as the result of, the
action. For example, if you are walking down the sidewalk and you trip on a skateboard and fall,
you can say that the skateboard caused you to fall and the fall was the effect (or the result) of
the skateboard being left on the sidewalk.
Introduce and model: To illustrate a cause-and-effect-relationship from the text, have students turn
to page 3. Point out the big smile on Mr. Moras face. Ask them to identify the cause of his smile
(Clyde bringing Mr. Mora his slippers). Ask students to identify the effect of Clydes trick
(Mr. Moras smile).
Have students turn to page 6. Ask them to identify the cause of Clydes happiness (he smells
manure in the air). Ask students to identify what the effect of smelling the manure is for Clyde
(it makes him happy, he smiles, he wags his tail).
Check for understanding: Have students review the text to find the causes of Clyde feeling so
content at the end of the day (he found pig manure and rolled in it, he jumped and rolled in
mud, he rolled in horse manure, he thought he smelled great, and so on). Allow time for students
to share their findings. Ask them to identify what the effect of all of these actions (Clyde felt
content, or satisfied, at the end of the day).

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Smelly Clyde

Lesson Plan (continued)

Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the cause-and-effect
worksheet. If time allows, discuss their answers.
Extend the discussion: Ask students what they thought of the book. Ask whether anyone has a pet
that likes to roll around and get messy and, if so, to share a story about their pet.

Build Skills
Phonics: Initial consonant cl-blends
Write the word clever on the board and say it aloud with students.
Have students say the /cl/ sound aloud. Then run your finger under the letters in the word as
students say the whole word aloud. Ask students to identify which letters represent the /cl/ sound
in the word clever.
Circle the cl letter combination. Explain to students that the letters c and l together represent
the /cl/ sound at the beginning of the word clever. Have students practice writing the cl letter
combination on a separate piece of paper as they say the sound the letters represent.
Check for understanding: Write the following words on the board that begin with the /cl/ sound,
leaving off the initial blend: clap, clash, class. Have students complete and write each word on
a separate piece of paper. Then have them read each word aloud to a partner.
Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the initial consonant
cl-blends worksheet. If time allows, discuss their responses.

Grammar and Mechanics: Compound predicates

Review or explain to students that two short sentences can be combined to form a new sentence
if the subject in each sentence is the same. Tell them that writers often combine sentences in
order to make their writing easier to read and understand.
Write the following sentence from page 3 on the board: He was smart, and he was loyal. Tell
students that this is an example of a sentence formed from two shorter sentences that have the
same subject. Have them identify the subject of the sentence (He). Ask volunteers to write each
sentence separately on the board. (He was smart. He was loyal.) Point out that each predicate
begins with its own verb (was, was). Sometimes the verb is the same in each predicate.
Check for understanding: Have students turn to page 18. Read the following sentence aloud:
Clyde put his tail between his legs and looked for a place to hide. Explain to students that this
is an example of a sentence with a compound predicate. Ask volunteers to write each sentence
separately on the board. (Clyde put his tail between his legs. Clyde looked for a place to hide.)
Have students name the subject (Clyde) and the predicates (put his tail between his legs, looked
for a place to hide). Point out that each predicate begins with a different verb (put, looked).
Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the compound predicates
worksheet. If time allows, discuss their answers.

Word Work: Synonyms

Review or explain to students that a synonym is a word that means the same or nearly the same
as another word.
Have students turn to page 5 in the book and locate the word bad. Ask them to share other
words that mean the same or nearly the same as the word bad (horrible, terrible). Ask a
volunteer to read the first sentence on page 5, replacing bad with a synonym of his or her choice.
Have students turn to page 6. Tell them to look for a word used on this page that means nearly
the same thing as the verb to smell. Point out the word sniff. Explain to students that this is
an example of a synonym for the word smell when it is used as a verb (showing action). Have
students turn to page 12 and find the word odor. Explain that this is an example of a synonym
for the word smell when it is used as a noun.
Check for understanding: Have students turn to page 9 and find the word jumped. Ask them to
name at least two other words that mean the same or almost the same as jumped (leaped,
bounded). Ask volunteers to share their synonyms aloud.
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Level

Smelly Clyde

Lesson Plan (continued)

Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the synonyms worksheet.
If time allows, discuss their answers.

Build Fluency

Independent Reading
Allow students to read their book independently. Additionally, allow partners to take turns
reading parts of the book to each other.

Home Connection
Give students their book to take home to read with parents, caregivers, siblings, or friends.

Extend the Reading

Writing Connection
Discuss the word habit, explaining that a habit is something a person has done so often without
thinking about it that it becomes difficult to stop. Brainstorm with students to come up with a list of
bad habits (twisting your hair) and good habits (always saying please). Tell them to choose a habit
from the list and write a story about it with a character like the dog in Smelly Clyde.

Art Connection
Use the illustrations in the book as a model to show students how illustrators show action in their
drawings. Have them draw a picture related to the habit from the story theyve written. Have them
use action lines to show what is happening.

Skill Review
Discussion cards covering comprehension skills and strategies not explicitly taught with the book
are provided as an extension activity. The following is a list of some ways these cards can be used
with students:
Use as discussion starters for literature circles.
Have students choose one or more cards and write a response, either as an essay or as
a journal entry.
Distribute before reading the book and have students use one of the questions as a purpose
for reading.
Conduct a class discussion as a review before the book quiz.

Assessment
Monitor students to determine if they can:
accurately and consistently demonstrate retelling the story during discussion
accurately recognize and explain cause-and-effect relationships during discussion and on
a worksheet
correctly identify initial consonant cl-blends in words during discussion and on a worksheet
accurately recognize compound predicates during discussion and on a worksheet
correctly recognize and use synonyms during discussion and on a worksheet

Comprehension Checks
Book Quiz
Retelling Rubric

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