Summary

"Come on, Rain!" Tess pleads to the sky as listless vines and parched plants droop in the endless heat. Then the clouds roll in and the rain pours. And Tess, her friends, and their mothers join in together in a rain dance to celebrate the shower that renews both body and spirit.

Scholastic Press    

Reading Strategies - Strategies That Work by Stephanie Harvey

Come On Rain provides opportunities to practice and apply many of the reading comprehension strategies.  The author uses lots of rich vocabulary that teachers should point out and ensure that students understand to help develop meaning.  The story also provides many opportunities for students to make connections and ask questions before, during and after the reading.  Lastly the author uses great word choice to create phrases that make the reader think and infer deeper meaning. 

This month is a great month to create a whole group or small group poster that embeds review and application of the strategies that have been modeled and taught all year.  Listed below are the categories that could be blocked off on a big piece of butcher paper and  the teacher can record responses as she/he reads the book to students.

• Title

• Author

• Predictions

• Vocabulary

• Connections-t/s, t/t, t/w, t/o

• Questions –before, during and after

• Inferences- T chart:  Phrase from the book/Meaning

Writing Strategies - 6+1 Traits of Writing by Ruth Culham

You can almost feel the still, sticky heat of the steamy summer day that Karen Hesse describes in Come On, Rain!  Poor Tessie is miserable in the heat until she discovers a few gray clouds, rolling in from the distance.  With the promise of a rainstorm, Tessie and her friends decide to make the most of this summer treat!

When you read the story, you can just imagine yourself in the sweltering heat of a summer day, wiping sweat from your forehead and wishing for relief.  And so you can’t help but root for Tessie, who innocently pours her mother a glass of sweet tea as she’s preparing to ask if she can put on her swimsuit to go out and enjoy the rain.   And you thrill at the idea of the girls and their “wild-haired mammas” twirling and dancing in the summer shower.  This is a fun and refreshing book that everyone will enjoy.

Before you begin reading Come On, Rain!, make sure to preview these words and their meanings with your students…

• listless – “Mamma lifts a listless vine and sighs.

• parched – “…sagging over her parched plants.”

• alleyway – “…heat wavers off tar patches in the broiling alleyway.”

• lupines – “…tending beds of drooping lupines.”

• phonograph – “Miz Glick’s needle sticks on her phonograph, playing the same notes…

• descends – “Then a deeper gray descends and the air cools…”

• racket – “We make such a racket…”

* Teaching Sentence Fluency and Word Choice *

Several of our Book of the Month selections this year have been examples of the Sentence Fluency trait.  Come On, Rain! is yet another beautiful example of the way that good writing keeps the story moving, and makes certain that you enjoy the ride.  Ruth Culham explains, “Hesse uses sentence structure to keep the action moving, rather than stopping the reader – much the way rain clouds constantly move across the sky.”

When you read this story, you read short sentences and long ones, complete sentences and fragments, descriptions and quotations.  Ms. Hesse includes a variety of sentence patterns to help convey the mix of emotions and feelings that the characters are experiencing.  The hot, lazy moments are expressed in longer sentences, while Hesse also uses shorter sentences to express the bursts of excitement and hope that Tessie feels.

Come On Rain! also teaches the trait of Word Choice, as the author infuses the summer heat into every sentence.  She uses “Striking Language” to help paint the picture of this sweltering summer day.  In almost every sentence, we see how the rising temperatures take their toll on everything in the story.  Mamma’s plants are “listless” and “parched”, while Mamma herself is “sagging” and “frowning.”  The path to Tessie’s friend’s house is “crackling-dry”, and her neighbor’s apartment is “dim” and “stuffy.”   Tessie is “peeling” out of her clothes when her mother finally gives her permission to put on her swimsuit.   Every thing and every person is weary from the heat, making the coming rainstorm a celebrated relief!

Lesson Idea for Word Choice:  “How Hot Is It?”

With this lesson, encourage your students to tell you just how hot (or cold, or nice, or silly) something is by adding descriptions of how everything in the story is affected.

1. Tell your students that they are going to write a story describing a particular day.  They should then select an adjective to describe their day – is it a sad day, a happy day, an exciting day, a scary day, a hot day, a rainy day, etc.  Their objective then, is to describe that day so that every detail enhances their theme.

2. Continue by modeling the beginning of a story of your own.  Let’s say you select “rainy” to describe your day.  Begin your story with “It was a rainy day.”   Write that sentence on the overhead or on chart paper, and then have your students chorus “How rainy was it?”  as you finish reading your sentence aloud.

3. Answer them with a good describing sentence, like “When we stepped off the school bus, our shoes immediately filled with water.”

4. Continue adding a few more details, and perhaps allow your students to help you come up with some good additions.  Make sure to keep the action going, so add characters and events as you continue your description.  You might add, “By the time we reached the school door, we were soaked to the bone!”

5. Now allow your students to brainstorm lists of ideas connected to their adjectives.  If they’re writing about a hot day, have them make a list of “hot” words, things that happen in the heat, and how the heat can affect living and non-living things. 

6. When they’re ready, have them construct their own stories.

(See the Word Choice & Sentence Fluency chapters of 6+1 Traits for more teaching ideas!)
 

• Connect Come On, Rain! with a study of the five senses!  Make a wall chart listing the senses and as you read the story again, have the students identify words or pictures that describes one of the senses.  Add the words or pictures descriptions to the wall chart.

• Use the Kidspiration template "Explore With the Senses" under the Science section to have students brainstorm how they can use their five senses to explore a location.  You can change the photograph in the center to expand the activity!

• Learn more about the water cycle by visiting the website "Round and Round It Goes."  Students can access an interactive water cycle diagram, take a water quiz, complete a water word search, and read a water poem!

• Check out the Water Cycle Science Model from the media center along with the video The Water Cycle.  You can find both in the Professional Resource room in the 550 section!

• Share the book The Incredible Water Show by Debra Frasier (E FRA) to further illustrate the water cycle.  In the book elementary school students present the water cycle as acts in a play where water is the real star.  Another great whole class read-aloud chapter book is Regarding the Fountain by Kate Klise.  When the principal asks a fifth grader to write a letter regarding the purchase of a new drinking fountain for their school, he finds that all sorts of chaos results.

• In the story Tessie predicts that it will rain soon by observing the "gray clouds, bunched and bulging under a purple sky".  What other clues to the approaching rain storm can the students locate in the book that helped Tessie forecast the weather?

• The signs of a drought are apparent during the opening pages of Come On, Rain!  Show the Reading Rainbow video, Bringing the rain to Kapiti Plain.  The feature book uses a cumulative rhyme to tell how Ki-pat brought rain to the drought-stricken Kapiti Plain. LeVar explores rainy-day activities, takes part in an aerial chase for thunderstorms and looks at weather prediction. 

• Intermediate students can become weather forecasters by using the tools and information at the website "Web Weather for Kids."

• Primary students can use the Kidspiration template "This Week's Weather" under the Science section to chart the weather for one week.  The template could also be used to predict the weather for one week after reviewing resources on the web or newspaper.

• Use Cloud Matching Game and the Cloud Concentration Game to introduce or reinforce the identification of clouds.

• For additional ideas for using the book, check out the following websites:  Lesson Plan with open-ended questions and activities; Literature Circle Lesson; and Study Guide with ideas to connect the book with science, art, and social studies.