Ants

By Jonathan Zea

Grade: 1 (early in the year)

Date: 7/20/04

Materials: popsicle sticks, ant cutouts, word cards, paper, pencils, Harcourt reading text Theme 1 ”Guess Who,” chart paper, markers, sentence strips

Objectives: The student will be able to read a simple, predictable text. The student will be able to color and construct an ant puppet. The student will be able to answer simple questions about what is being read. The student will be able to write a and i onto word cards to make new words. The student will be able to form a sentence using a sight word. The student will be able to put words into the correct order to form sentences.

Standards of Learning:

1.1 The student will continue to demonstrate growth in the use of oral language.

c) Participate in a variety of oral language activities, including choral speaking and reciting

short poems, rhymes, songs, and stories with repeated patterns.

d) Express ideas orally in complete sentences.

1.2 The student will continue to expand and use listening and speaking vocabularies.

a) Increase oral descriptive vocabulary.

1.4 The student will orally identify and manipulate phonemes (small units of sound) in syllables and multi-syllabic words.

b) Add or delete phonemes (sounds) orally to change syllables or words.

Introduction:

1. Write “Ants live in colonies and have different jobs within their colonies.”

2. Ask students, “What do you think a colony might be?” An appropriate response might be a group of ants. Tell students that a colony for an ant is like what a community is for people. “What are some jobs that an ant would have in his colony?” Make a list. (digger, hunter, gatherer, queen, soldier, etc.)

3. Display this poem on chart paper.

Once I saw an ant hill (Make fist.)

With no ants about.

So I asked, “Dear little ants,

(Talk to “ants” in fist)

Won’t you please come out?”

Then, as if my little ants

Had heard my call.

One, two, three, four, five

Came out! (Hold up fingers.)

Marching very tall. (March hand.)

4. Activating prior knowledge: Now flip the chart paper and make a chart divided into two sides. On one side write “What Ants Look Like” and write on the other side “What Ants Do.” Brainstorm. Appropriate responses may be ants are small, have antennas, have shiny, hard bodies, can be red, black, or orange, crawl, live in hills and holes, build tunnels, and pick up and carry things in their mouths.

5. Tell your students that the story they are going to read is non-fiction, meaning that it is not true. Tell students to look at Word Power on page 48. The vocabulary words for this story are making, they, and walk. Direct students to track and choral read the short paragraph that reads, “Can ants walk? What can they make? You will see!”

6. Have the students use phonetic spelling to write down as many things they can think of that walk. You may want to get a student to demonstrate the difference between walk, jog, run, skip, and gallop. They show the students different groups that would constitute the use of they.

Lesson:

1. Have students look at the title page. Tell the children the title, author, and illustrator. Take a picture walk. Ask what the children see in each picture. For example, you may ask what the ants are doing in each picture.

2. The teacher will read aloud Ants by Jonathan Zoa, as students follow along in their reader. You may ask guided comprehension questions such as “Who lives in this hill?” “Why are the ants digging?,” and “Are the things the ants lifting bigger or smaller than they are?”

3. Now put students into paired groups. Let each student read the story to each other. Give each group three sentence strips. The students should copy three of their favorite sentences onto their strips. Once the sentences are written they will cut the strips apart into words. Then, scramble the words and have the students to put the words into order in a sentence.

4. Develop concepts (detail and elaboration): Direct students attention to page 60 where the ants are carrying the big leaves. Have on chart paper the following passage, “Ants are strong. Some ants can lift something that is twenty times heavier than the ant.” Now, read the first sentence. The teacher will say, “I am surprised that ants are strong, but I need more details. How strong are ants? Maybe I’ll find out if I read more.” Read the rest of the passage. Model “Oh, that is strong! The detail tells me how much an ant can lift.” You may want to follow-up by having students write a paragraph with detail.

Wrap-up activities:

Tic-Tac-Toe Grid Game

Students will take a card form a pile of sight word cards. The student will read the word and use it in a sentence. If the word is used correctly, they can place a marker on the tic-tac-toe board.

Phonics Write a Vowel Game

Make two set of cards for each student. Cards will have one letter at the beginning, one letter at the end, and a space in the middle. Here are some examples: p_t, s_t, d_d, h_d, w_g, b_g, f_n, p_n, h_m, h_s, l_p, and t_p. The student will write “i” to make a short “i” word on one card. Then they will print an “a” to make a short “a” word. Students may want to record their word on a list.

Puppet show

Students can make (vocabulary word) their own ant puppets. Outlines are included with the Harcourt reading series. Use popsicle sticks as a handle. Have students act out the story or make up their own plays.