Guiding Comprehension

Draw Conclusions • Critical

Why won't Lily find any night letters in the winter?

Most animals are hibernating, or sleeping through the winter, so she won't find evidence of them again until spring.

Personification • Inferential

In what way are the animals and objects in Night Letters like people?

They can write; they have feelings; they are smart.

Author's Purpose

• Critical

Question the Author The author wrote letters to Lily from the point of view of insects and objects in nature, such as rocks and trees. Why do you suppose she did that?

People don't usually think about the world from an insect's point of view or a rock's point of view; when nature writes a letter to a person, the author may have hoped to make us think about how what we do affects the world around us and the animals and objects in it.

then…
use the skill and strategy instruction on
p. 347.

If… students are unable to conclude that the author wanted to make us think about the world around us and our relationship to it,

Author's Purpose

SKILLS

STRATEGIES IN CONTEXT

Author's Purpose

TEACH

Remind students that when we are looking for the author's purpose, we are looking for the reason(s) an author has for writing.
Sometimes asking the author questions while reading can help determine the author's intent.
Look back through the selection together. Model finding the author's purpose for writing letters from nature's point of view.

MODEL Lily finds a series of "letters" written by her friends in nature, interprets them, and writes down their meaning on a notepad. I wonder why the author has her do that. She must want me to think about how our actions affect nature.

PRACTICE AND ASSESS

Have students go back through the selection and determine the author's purpose for choosing the specific animals and objects. Ask students to consider what they learned about each animal or object and its role in our environment.
To assess, use Practice
Book 3.1, p. 126.

Practice Book 3.1 p. 126

with | without Answers

"Night Letters"
by Palmyra LoMonaco

Student Edition
Unit 3, pp. 334–349

Realistic fiction has settings that can seem real, but the stories are made up. What details in this Snapshot make the setting realistic?

When evening comes, before the light fails and darkness falls, Lily runs outdoors. This is her time to look at nature before all the creatures settle in for the night. Lily takes her notepad so she can record everything she sees and hears. She imagines that all the creatures and things in nature write her letters, telling her about their day.
First there are the ants. A line of them marches back to their hill. What would their letter say? It would thank Lily for the bread crumbs that fell from her lunch today. She writes this onto her notepad.
Lily watches a hawkmoth flutter from flower to flower, drinking in each one's nectar. The moth would tell her that it visits only the fully opened blossoms, not the small budding ones. Lily writes this on her notepad.
She looks at the large, cracked rock in the tomato patch. She writes that today the rock touched drops of dew and a spider web. Tonight it will look for stars.
Soon Lily sees a blinking light, first on a blade of grass and then in the bushes. Then more and more lights blink on and off. The fireflies are inviting Lily to catch them. She writes their message on her notepad. "Catch us if you can!"
Lily sits under her favorite tree in the backyard. The big old sycamore has many stories to tell. It has told her about buds that burst into green leaves in the spring. It has told her about birds that sing as they build comfortable nests in its branches, and about how silent the tree is when the birds fly south. The old sycamore has told Lily of the winter, when evenings are too cold and dark for a nature walk. But this summer evening, as the sky fades, Lily writes what she hears the tree say to her now. "Dear Lily, Please climb me tomorrow."
She gets up from her seat against the tree's huge trunk. She stands and looks back at the sycamore. She is ready to go indoors now and think about the day and what she will write back to her backyard friends.
Lily is ready to write one more night letter about this day.

"Night Letters" by Palmyra LoMonaco

"Night Letters"
by Palmyra LoMonaco