Becca Wilson

North Ridge Elementary

2nd Grade Reading, Lee Ann Rattan

Inferences Lesson

Objective: Students will be able to make observations and form inferences from the text, The
Tale of Peter Rabbit.

TEKS: 6.F: The student is expected to ​make inferences and use evidence to support
understanding.

Setting: Whole group, 45 minutes

Materials: Peter Rabbit book, items for pre-lesson in bag, inference worksheets, Fountas and
Pinnell Prompting Guide

Pre-Lesson:

● I am going on a trip! But I’m not going to tell you where. You have to figure out where I’m
going based on the items I have packed in this bag.
● I pull out a hat, a beach towel, sunglasses, sunscreen, a water bottle, and a book.
○ Students will hopefully respond with “the beach!” as the destination of my trip
● How were you able to figure this out even though I never told you?
○ They have been to the beach so they knew the items that were used on a beach
vacation.
● This is called an ​inference​. An inference is when we figure something out that wasn’t
completely explained in a book.
○ We can sometimes use pictures to help us, but inferences can really help us
when we are reading books without pictures.
● We are going to read this book (Peter Rabbit) together and see if we can make some
inferences as we read.

Read-Aloud:

● Stop at cover picture - What is the rabbit doing in this picture?

○ Eating carrots, looking at a bird
● Stop p. 13 - What kind of can do you think this is?
○ Watering can for flowers
○ Does it say in our book?
■ No, but we know that Mr. McGregor is a gardener, and the book says the
can was filled with water.
● Stop p. 17 - What do you think Benjamin Bunny told Peter about cats?
 ○ They are quick, mean to bunnies, grumpy, etc.
○ This is another inference! The book never told us exactly what Benjamin Bunny
told Peter but we KNOW that cats are quick and can be mean, and we READ
that the cat sat still and its tail twitched.
● Stop p. 21 - “It was the second little jacket and pair of shoes that Peter had lost in a
fortnight!”
○ What do you think this means Peter has done?
■ Snuck into someone’s garden twice!
○ Fortnight: two weeks
● Remember when we talked about this front picture in the beginning? Do we know more
about what this picture means after we’ve read the book?
○ Yes, it means that Peter was in a garden that wasn’t his eating carrots!

Activity:

● Go back to your desks so we can complete this activity.

○ Use inferencing worksheets under doc camera
● Does anyone remember one of the inferences we talked about as we read the book?
○ Water pail
■ What I Read: Peter jumped in a can that had a lot of water in it.
■ What I Know: Peter was in Mr. McGregor’s garden.
■ Inference: A can of water in a garden is probably a watering can that
waters plants.
○ Second little jacket and shoes Peter lost
■ What I Read: It was the second little jacket and pair of shoes that Peter
had lost in two weeks.
■ What I Know: Peter lost his jacket trying to escape Mr. McGregor’s
garden.
■ Inference: Peter has probably snuck into two places he wasn’t supposed
to!

Extra:

● If extra time, have students write about inferences in their reading journal.
● Write: Inferences: figuring something out that wasn’t completely explained in the text.
○ Schema (what I know) + Text Evidence (what I read) = inference