Read-Aloud Lesson Plan
Title: A Home for Hermit Crab
Author: Eric Carle
Illustrator: Eric Carle
Suggested Grade Level: First
Strategy: Summarize
Submitted by: Debi Samples
School: Wrens Elementary School
Planning
A Home for Hermit Crab is a well-structured text with a buildon story line. It is brightly colored with interesting illustrations.
This text lends itself well to students just beginning to learn
how to summarize stories because it has a very definite
beginning, middle, and end.
Before Reading:
Who has been to the beach? When I go to the beach, I see
lots of hermit crabs crawling across the ocean floor and on the
sand. I always wondered about these little creatures. This
story may help me understand them a little better.
I’m going to read A House for Hermit Crab. While I’m reading
to you, I want you to think about the story. At the end of the
reading, I want you to summarize the story for me. By
summarizing, I mean retell the important parts of the story.
Remember who the characters are, where the story takes
place, and what the problem in the story is.
Prepare
During Reading:
Guide
“Would one of you be willing to decorate my house?”
At the beginning of the story, how did hermit crab feel about
his new home? What sees to be the problem in the story?
In the beginning, hermit crab thought his shell was plain, not
interesting or colorful. Now he’s gathering ocean creatures to
make his shell more interesting.
“It is so dark here.”
How have the pictures and feeling of the story changed? How
do the animals describe the darkness?
The animals say the seaweed forest is murky, dim, gloomy,
murky, can’t see, like nighttime.
After Reading:
Extend
Who can retell, or summarize, the story? Remember when
you retell, you must tell who the characters were, where the
story took place, and what problem was in the story.
If you were hermit crab, what would you add to make your
house more interesting?
Vocabulary Lesson
A word I found interesting in the story was snug. The hermit
crab felt safe and snug in his shell. Then his shell became too
snug. Snug means to fit closely. You want shoes to fit
snuggly, not flopping about. However, as you grow, your feet
grow, too, and suddenly your shoes are too tight. They are
too snug and not comfortable.
Try our word. I felt _____________ in my sleeping bag.
Another interesting word was rearranged. The hermit
crabbed asked the stones if he could rearrange them.
Rearrange means to put in a different order. Sometimes I
rearrange the desks in the classroom. I move the desks
around in a different way.
Try our word. I took the books off the shelf and __________
them.