LESSON 28 TEACHER’S GUIDE The Sand Castle by Sela Greenblatt Fountas-Pinnell Level K Fantasy Selection Summary To counter his feelings about being very small, Marcelo the mouse starts to build a big sand castle. After his first attempt is flattened by a wave, his friends pitch in and together they build the world’s biggest sand castle. Number of Words: 388 Characteristics of the Text Genre Text Structure Content Themes and Ideas Language and Literary Features Sentence Complexity Vocabulary Words Illustrations Book and Print Features Fantasy Third-person narrative Problem/solution structure Animals Friendship Beach setting and building sand castles Friends help each other. Accomplishing goals through teamwork Setting is important to plot (beach, sand, waves). Figurative language (onomatopoeia): SPLASH Expressions: That does it!, Don’t worry, Great work! Some compound sentences: Marcelo sat on the beach and looked at the big world around him. Complex sentence with series of verbs: He scooped some sand, added water, then dumped it out. Character names: Marcelo, Marta, Bird, Crab Verbs: popped, scooped, dumped, rose, flooded, peck Mostly one- and two-syllable words with a few three syllable words: another, together, everyone Colorful, cartoon-like illustrations that support the meaning of the text Nine pages of text, illustrations on every page Ellipsis and dash used to show pauses in thought and action Use of capitals to indicate emphasis: HUGE, SPLASH © 2006. Fountas, I.C. & Pinnell, G.S. Teaching for Comprehending and Fluency, Heinemann, Portsmouth, N.H. Copyright © by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner unless such copying is expressly pe