Unit 5 — Now You See It, Now You Don't
Description
Students investigate light, darkness, and celestial cycles through literature and informational texts. They retell stories with key details, describe characters and settings, and use text features to locate information. Writing focuses on narrative imaginative stories. Phonics instruction covers initial blends with l (fl, cl, sl) and initial blends with r (br, dr, gr, tr). Students learn about suffixes and use verbs to convey past, present, and future tense. Academic vocabulary includes orbit, period, and solar. The unit emphasizes understanding natural cycles and expressing ideas through storytelling.
Essential Questions
- Why do light and dark come and go?
Learning Objectives
- Retell stories including key details and central messages or lessons.
- Describe characters, settings, and major events in stories using key details.
- Use illustrations and details to describe characters, settings, and events.
- Know and use text features to locate facts or information.
- Identify reasons an author gives to support points in text.
- Decode regularly spelled one-syllable words.
- Decode two-syllable words following basic patterns.
- Write narratives recounting two or more sequenced events with details.
- Use singular and plural nouns with matching verbs.
- Use verbs to convey past, present, and future tense.
Suggested Texts
- On Earth — informational text (week 1)
- Super Shadows! — informational text (week 1)
- The Black Rabbit — fantasy (week 1)
- How Do You Know It's Winter? — informational text (week 2)
- Day and Night — informational text (week 2)
- The Best Season — opinion writing (week 2)
- Oscar and the Moth — narrative nonfiction (week 3)
- What Are You Waiting For? — fantasy (week 3)
- I'm So Hot — song (week 3)
Supplemental Resources
- Printed word lists for initial blends with l and r
- Graphic organizers for narrative writing with beginning, middle, end sections
- Sentence strips for building sentences with past and future tense verbs
- Printed images or photographs of day and night, seasons, and weather
- Chart paper for recording observations about light and darkness
Language
Reading: Informational Text
Reading: Literature
Writing
Students explore Earth and space sciences throughout Unit 5 by studying light and dark patterns, the water cycle, and seasonal changes. Students engage with informational texts about weather, habitats, and natural cycles to support their understanding of scientific phenomena.
Formative Assessments
- Text feature identification with diagrams and illustrations
- Make inferences about causes and effects of light and darkness
- Story structure activities and character descriptions
- Response to text: write descriptions of settings and events
- Writing conferences during narrative drafting
Summative Assessment
End of Unit Assessment; Narrative writing response
Benchmark Assessment
— not configured —
Alternative Assessment
Students may retell stories using a combination of verbal explanation and picture sequencing cards instead of written or oral responses alone. Visual supports such as character and setting cards, along with sentence frames (e.g., 'The character is _____' or 'This happened because _____'), may be provided to support story comprehension and retelling.
IEP (Individualized Education Program)
During retelling and story description activities, allow students to respond orally or through drawing rather than written output, and provide sentence frames to support structuring key details about characters, settings, and events. For phonics work with initial blends, offer manipulatives or picture-supported word sorts to reinforce decoding in a hands-on way. When working toward narrative writing, students may dictate their imaginative stories to a teacher or aide, and longer tasks should be broken into short, sequential steps with frequent check-ins. Visual supports such as story maps and verb tense anchor charts connected to light and celestial concepts will help students access and organize content.
Section 504
Provide preferential seating during read-alouds and phonics instruction to minimize distraction and support focus on oral language and decoding tasks. Allow extended time on narrative writing drafts and formative response activities, and offer a print copy of any directions or text features discussed during whole-group instruction. A visual timer can help students manage transitions between reading, phonics, and writing segments within this unit.
ELL / MLL
Build background for the unit's core vocabulary — including words like orbit, solar, and period — through visual supports such as diagrams, photographs, and illustrated word cards that connect language to the concepts of light, darkness, and celestial cycles. Provide simplified directions for retelling and text feature tasks, and encourage students to use their home language to preview or discuss ideas before expressing them in English. Narrative writing may be scaffolded with picture-sequencing tools or labeled illustrations so students can communicate story events even while written English is still developing.
At Risk (RTI)
Connect the unit's exploration of light and darkness to students' everyday observations and prior experiences to build confidence and engagement before introducing new vocabulary or text. Offer entry points into retelling and character description through picture walks and guided questions that reduce the complexity of the task while still targeting key comprehension skills. For phonics work with l- and r-blends, provide additional practice with high-frequency blend patterns in short, supported sessions, and celebrate incremental progress in both decoding and narrative writing to reinforce persistence.
Gifted & Talented
Encourage students to go beyond basic retelling by analyzing how an author's craft choices — such as the use of light and darkness as symbols or the structure of a nature cycle — shape the story's message or mood. In narrative writing, students may be challenged to incorporate multiple story elements with deliberate descriptive language, experiment with point of view, or craft a story that weaves scientific ideas about celestial cycles into an imaginative narrative. Extension into informational writing or author's purpose analysis can deepen engagement with the nonfiction texts in this unit.