Build Background

• Ask students to think of places where they have seen ants. Draw a web on the board with the word "ants" in the center circle. As students tell places they have seen ants, add circles to the web.
• Have students tell the shapes, sizes, and colors of ants they have seen. Ask them what kinds of things they have seen ants carry.

Book Walk

Introduce the Strategy: Connect life experience and use prior knowledge

• Explain to students that when they can connect what they already know about the topic with the text that they are going to read, it helps them understand and remember the information.
• Show students the front and back covers of the book and read the title. Ask students what they think this book will be about based on the cover information. Model how to use prior knowledge.
• Think aloud: When I read a new book, I try to think about what I already know about the topic. When I look at the title of this book, I can think of lots of times I've seen ants. One time I had an anthill that looked like a little volcano under my grapefruit tree. There must have been a lot of ants living under it. I predict that I'll read about ants living in anthills, and maybe in other places, too.
• Show students the title page and ask them what they see in the picture. Turn the pages in the book so students can see the pictures. If necessary, model once more for the students how you draw on your personal knowledge to make predictions about the book.

Introduce the Vocabulary

• Go through the book with the students. Ask them to talk about what they see in the illustrations. Reinforce new vocabulary by incorporating it into the discussion of the pictures. For example, on page 5 you might say: How many body parts does this insect have? Let's count them; here's the head, that's one; here's the thorax, that's two, and here's the abdomen, that's three. So, how many body parts does this insect have?
• Model the strategies that students can use to work out words they don't know. Have students find the word nests on page 9. Ask students how they could read this word if they didn't know it. Suggest that they might look at how it starts and say /n/. They might recognize the sound that the letter e in the middle of the word stands for. They might know the sound that the letters st at the end of the word stand for. Read the sentence to them and ask if the word nests makes sense.
• For additional teaching tips on word-attack and comprehension strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Have students think about what they already know about ants as they read the book.

Student Reading

• Guide the reading: Give students their books and have them put a sticky note on page 8. Direct them to read to the end of this page. Tell students to reread the pages if they finish before everyone else.
• Have students use the text and illustrations to point out ants they have seen, or places they have seen ants that are like those in the book. Have them tell how this helped them understand what they read. Model making connections to prior knowledge.
• Think aloud: I had just planted some flowers when some ants came and ate the leaves. They left a trail of leaf bits to their anthill. That's how I know they did it. Making that connection helps me understand what I am reading.
• Tell students to read the remainder of the story.

    Tell the students to make a small question mark in their books beside any word they do not understand or cannot pronounce. These can be addressed in the discussion that follows.

Reflect on the Reading Strategies

• Ask students what words they marked in their books. Use this opportunity to model how they could read these words using decoding strategies and context clues.
• Ask how making connections helped them be active readers and remember what they read.

Comprehension: Categorize information

• Introduce and model: Review or explain that organizing the information they learned will help them understand the book and remember what they read.
• Ask students to tell what the book is about (ants). Return to your web on the board with the word "ants" in the center circle. Reinforce that the main idea is the "big" idea in the book and is what most of the sentences are about.
• Have students turn to page 4. Remind them that they have said that "ants" is the main idea of the book. Tell them that organizing the details, or other information, they read about ants will help them remember what they read.
• Point to the second sentence. Tell students that this tells that ants can be found in the grass and in dirt in your yard. Attach two smaller circles labeled "grass" and "dirt" to the circle labeled "where ants live."
• Check for understanding: Have students look at the third sentence on the page and find two more places ants can be found. Draw, label, and attach two more circles.
• Independent practice: Tell students to complete the Categorization worksheet. Discuss their responses.
• Extend the discussion:

    Instruct students to use the last page of their book to draw a picture of some place where they have seen ants. Have students share their pictures with the group.

Phonemic Awareness: N-family final blends

• Show students the tent picture card. Ask students to tell what it is. Ask students to tell the sound they hear at the end of the word (/nt/). Tell students that when the /n/ sound comes next to the /t/ sound, the two sounds are blended into /nt/. Segment the /n/ and /t/ sounds, then blend the /nt/ sounds again and ask students to repeat. Have students look at the cover of the book. Cover the s in Ants. Say the word and ask the students to repeat.
• Show students the wand and sink picture cards. Ask the students to tell what each is. Repeat the above procedure for each, segmenting and blending the final sounds.
• Show students the following picture cards: paint, trunk, skunk, hand. Ask them to say the word and tell which picture card, tent, wand, or sink, has the same ending sound.

Phonics: N-family final blends

• Write the words tent, sink, and wand on the board. Underline the n ending blend in each word. Explain that these letters stand for the /nt/, /nk/, and /nd/ sounds. Segment and blend the sounds. Ask students to repeat the sounds and the words.
• Give each student a set of ending blend cards and write the following blends on the board: nd, nt, nk. Below the blends, write the following portions of words: ba__, a__, du__. Provide the following clues and ask the students to hold up the ending blend for the word: A group of people who play musical instruments (band); an insect you might find at a picnic (ant); when a basketball player slams a ball through the basket (dunk). If desired, provide the following additional examples: part of the earth not covered by water (land); money people pay to live in a house that isn't theirs (rent); when you are thirsty, you want a (drink).
• Give students the N-Family Blends worksheet, go over the example provided, and instruct students to complete the worksheet. When completed, discuss their answers.Extend the activity:

    Tell students to circle each word in the book that has an n-family final blend (ants, different, find, ground).

Grammar, Mechanics, and Usage: Describing words

• Have the students turn to page 5 to find how many body parts an ant has. When students have identified the word three, explain that this is a word that tells how many. Have them read the next sentence to find out how many and what kind of legs ants have (six, strong).
• Explain that these are describing words and that good writers use them to help readers imagine what is happening in the story. The describing words provide details.
• Have students turn to page 6 to find what colors ants can be. Discuss their responses. Have them circle the word that tells how many antennae ants use to touch and smell.
• Have students turn to page 7. Have them circle the words that tell about the size of ants (tiny, large, biggest).
• Continue through the remainder of the book, asking students to identify the adjectives that describe the ants' strength, their jaws, the kinds of ants that lay eggs, the kinds of ants that guard the nest, and what kind of animal ants are.

Vocabulary: Content vocabulary

• Tell students that many of the words they read in the book are used to tell about ants, places ants live, and what ants look like. Provide opportunities for the students to talk about difficult words such as jaws or antennae. Provide opportunities for the students to say the new vocabulary words, talk about their meanings, and use the words in sentences.
• Click here for a Content Vocabulary worksheet.

Independent Reading

• Allow the students to read their books independently or with a partner. Partners can take turns reading parts of the book.

Home Connection

• Give the students their books to take home to read with parents, caregivers, siblings, or friends.

Writing

• Have students write, complete, and illustrate the following sentences: I saw an ant ______. It was_______. In the first sentence, have students tell where the ant was. In the second sentence, have them tell what the ant (or ants) was doing. Display their responses on a bulletin board titled "Ants, Ants, and More Ants."

Science Connection

• Provide an ant farm for students to observe ants at work. Have small groups observe the ants at different times of the day, as well as on different days. Have the groups share what they learn about the ants' behavior with the rest of the class.

Monitor students to determine if they can:

• categorize information.
• recognize the sounds of n-family final blends /nd/, /nk/, and /nt/.
• associate nd, nk, and nt with the phonetic elements /nd/, /nk/, and /nt/.
• recognize adjectives as words that describe.
• use content vocabulary.