Use this strategy to help student relate to the text and understand the message that is being conveyed in the story: practice makes perfect; try, try again; never give up.

In this story, the click beetle tries to click and flip from his back on to his legs. He continues to meet different characters, each of whom continue to tell him to “keep practicing.”

Before reading this story, ask students:

• Have you ever tried to do something that you thought you should be able to do pretty easily, but when you tried, it was actually harder than you thought?” Have students give some examples of their experiences.
• “How did this make you feel?” Answers should vary between, “discouraged, mad, sad etc.” Talk about the word discouraged and its meaning.
• “Did it make you want to quit?” Have students share. Explain to students,“This story is about a beetle who is supposed to be able to do something that is a little tricky for him. See if you can relate to how he may feel.” “Think about a time that you tried to do something that was a little tricky.”

Use this strategy throughout the story to help students to be engaged and excited to see the outcome of the story.

There are many places to stop and predict in this story.

• When the click beetle meets with the “wise old click beetle” to learn how to click and flip. We can ask students, “Do you think he will learn?”
• With each new character he meets, “What do you think this character will say to the click beetle?”
• Lastly, at the end, the click beetle meets a boy and is about to get stepped on.
• Ask students, “What do you think will happen next?” and then confirming answers with the text.

Sometimes, a word doesn’t sound right when you read it. If that happens, try a different sound for a letter or chunk to see if it makes sense.

Let’s try it with these words:

• Wise (p.6) – You might first try saying it like wiss, but then you can try the long "i" sound: wise. That makes sense! 
• Head (p.10) – You might try saying heed, but then try the short "e" sound: head. That sounds right! 
• Scared (p.18) – Maybe you try scar-ed at first, but then try the "air" sound: scared. Now it makes sense!

Point out to students that the word CLICK is always capitalized. Ask students why they think this is? Is this a sound? Is it someone speaking? Remind students of ways to be literary detectives and to look for things such as quotation marks to help figure out why the author writes the way he does.

P. 5 — the click beetle gets stuck on his back and cries, “HELP!” Point this out to students and ask, “How do you think this is supposed to be read?” “Why do you think the author put this in all capital letters?”

Some others to try include:

• P. 6 — In the meantime, you may as well go to sleep. Good night!
• P. 18 — Just then...Oh! What was this?
• P. 20 — “QUICK, CLICK and FLIP!” cried the wise old click beetle who was watching.
• P. 24 — “Look at you!” shouted the wise old click beetle. “You have done it!”

• This strategy truly piggybacks onto using punctuation. Usually before I read any story to children, I always ask them to pay attention to my voice and how I will give different characters a different sound. 
• In this story there are various animals that we would imagine to have different rates of speech based on what kind of animal they are. For example this story includes: A wise old click beetle, a worm, a turtle, a snail, and a mouse.

Although age-appropriate in most of the vocabulary in this book, Eric Carle, does use some words in which students will need clarifying and asked, “What does _________ mean?” “Why do you think the author used ___________ instead of more common word?”

Some examples of these words include:

• P. 3 rummaged
• P. 12 ambled
• P. 16 scurried
• P. 20 graceful
• P. 20 somersaults

Modeling this strategy is so important, as adults we often come to words that we do not know the meaning and we stop and look them up then re-read the text with new understanding and meaning.

On P. 12, Just then, a turtle ambled by. 

• Stop and ask students what they think “ambled” means. What other word would fit there and make sense? Show students how to write the word “ambled” on a sticky note and place it on that page and continue reading. At the end of the book, ask students, “Does anyone remember why we put this sticky note here?” When students guess, ask them, “What should we do when we get to a word we don’t know the meaning?” Review your classroom options with students. Together, look up the word “ambled”- read the definition to the students, then go back and read the sentence again. Ask students if this makes sense?