Build Background

• Discuss what students know about building sand castles. Ask if they've seen images in magazines or on television of the large sand sculptures artists make of animals, people, and other things.
• Have students tell what they know about ants. Discuss ant farms. Ask students to tell if they've ever had ants in their home. Ask how they got rid of the ants.
• Give students the ask and answer questions worksheet. Have them fill in the top portion with information they know about sand castles and/or ants.

Preview the Book

Introduce the Book

• Give students a copy of the book and have them preview the front and back covers and read the title. Have students discuss what they see on the covers and offer ideas as to what kind of book this is and what it might be about.
• Show students the title page. Talk about the information on the page (title of book, author's name, illustrator's name).
• Show students the table of contents and explain that the chapter titles provide clues about the contents of the book. For example, ask students what they expect to read about in the chapter titled “Sand Castles.”
• Have students look at the other chapter titles. Have them write any questions they have about the book based on the covers and table of contents in the Questions I Have box on their worksheet.

Introduce the Strategy: Ask and answer questions

• Model asking questions while looking at the table of contents.
• Think-aloud: When I read the title of this book, I wondered why ants would get into a bed. As I look at the table of contents, I wonder if I'll learn more about how to make sand castles. I also wonder what I'll learn about sea glass. I'm going to write these three questions in the Questions I Have box on the board. I'll have to read the book to find out if the answers are in the book.
• Have students preview the rest of the book.
• As students read, they should use other reading strategies in addition to the targeted strategy presented in this section. For tips on additional reading strategies, click here.

Introduce the Vocabulary

• Remind students about the strategies they can use to work out words they don't know. For example, they can use what they know about letter and sound correspondence to figure out a word. They can look for base words within words, prefixes, and suffixes. They can use the context to work out meanings of unfamiliar words.
• Model how to apply word-attack strategies. For example, write the words cedar shakes on the board and direct students to the bold words on page 4. Review or explain that they can often use context clues in the sentence containing the unfamiliar word(s), or in preceding sentences, to figure out the word(s). Tell students that in this paragraph, there are no context clues that explain the meaning of these words. Ask students if they know what the word cedar refers to (a kind of tree). Ask them what they think shakes might mean as it's used in the book. Ask students to turn to page 19 and read the glossary definition of cedar shakes. Tell students they can also check the meaning of a word or words by looking the word(s) up in a dictionary.
• Remind students to check whether a word makes sense by rereading the unfamiliar word(s) in the sentence.
• Have students continue previewing the glossary, reading the glossary words and their definitions aloud.
• For additional tips on teaching word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Have students read the book, remembering to ask questions as they read and add them to the Questions I Have section of their worksheet.

Student Reading

• Guide the reading: Review or explain that this story is written in the first-person narrative style. The author is retelling events as if they actually happened. Have students read pages 4 through 9. If they finish before everyone else, they can go back and reread.
• Have students tell some of the questions they were able to answer on their worksheet by reading the first half of the book.
• Model answering questions.
• Think-aloud: After reading through page 9, I can answer two of my questions. I learned how to make sand castles and about sea glass. (Record answers in the Answers I Found box on the board.) I didn't find out why ants would get into a bed. I will have to keep reading to find the answer to this question.
• As students read the remainder of the book, remind them to continue to ask themselves questions about the story and to add the questions to their worksheet. Tell students to write answers to their questions in the Answers I Found box on their worksheet.

    Tell 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 can read these words using decoding strategies and context clues.
• Reinforce that asking questions while reading keeps students actively involved in the reading process and helps them understand and remember what they have read.
• Ask students if they were able to answer all of the questions on their worksheet. Review or explain that the book doesn't always answer every question. Sometimes it is necessary to check other sources.

Teach the Comprehension Skill: Problem and solution

• Discussion: Ask students if they've ever been to the ocean or a large lake. Ask if they noticed the tides. Tell students that tide tables tell where and when high and low tides are expected at specific places.
• Introduce and model the skill: Write Problem and Solution on the board. Tell students to turn to page 9 and reread the last paragraph. Ask students what the child's problem was (high tide washing the sand castle away). Write the problem on the board under Problem. Have a student read the second paragraph aloud. Ask students what the solution was to the child's problem (reading tide tables to know when it would be high tide). Write the solution on the board under Solution.
• Check for understanding: Tell students to turn to page 11. Ask a student to read the first sentence aloud. Then ask another student to read the next sentence, which tells what the problem was (I had ants in my bed) and write it under Problem.
• Think-aloud: When I read these sentences, I wondered why the ants were in the child's bed. I have had ants in my house, and getting rid of them is not always easy. I wonder if the author had this problem at one time and if she used the same solution provided in the story.
• Independent practice: Have students find the solution to the ant problem (page 17). Have students write the solutions under Solution on the board (vacuumed crumbs, changed the bed sheets, no longer ate cookies in the bedroom).

Grammar and Mechanics: Adverbs that compare

• Review or explain that adverbs of comparison show how two things compare to one another. Tell students that -er is usually added to a short adverb to compare two actions. Write on the board: The rabbit raced slower than the turtle. Ask a volunteer to tell the adverb (slower) and what two actions are being compared (the racing of the rabbit and the racing of the turtle). Explain that when comparing two things, students should use the word than to show what is being compared.
• Explain that there are exceptions to the -er rule. For example, well becomes better, badly becomes worse, and little becomes less. (well/better: The teacher played well. The student played better than the teacher; badly/worse: Sara sang badly. Tom sang worse than Sara; little/less: The girl ate a little. The boy ate less than the girl.)
• Additionally, explain that the word more is used in front of longer adverbs and with adverbs ending with -ly. Write the following sentences on the board: I was walking more quietly across the stones than she was. He was talking more noisily in the classroom than the others. Discuss what actions are being compared in each sentence.
• Check for understanding: Have students turn to the last sentence on page 6 in the book to find and tell the adverb that compares (earlier). Ask what actions are being compared (collected earlier and collected now)
• Independent practice: Have students complete the adverbs that compare worksheet. Discuss their answers.

Word Work: Synonyms and antonyms

• Write the word large on the board. Ask students to suggest a word that means almost the same thing (big, huge). Review or explain that a word that means the same or almost the same thing as another word is called a synonym.
• Ask students to suggest a word that means the opposite of large (tiny, small). Review or explain that a word that means the opposite of another word is called an antonym.
• Check for understanding: Have students turn to page 8 to find the word in the second sentence that describes the edges of broken glass (sharp). Ask students to suggest a synonym (pointed, jagged). Ask students to suggest an antonym (smooth, rounded).
• Independent practice: Have students complete the synonyms and antonyms worksheet.

Independent Reading

• Allow students to read their books independently or with a partner. Encourage repeated timed readings of a specific section of the book. Additionally, partners can take turns reading parts of the book.

Home Connection

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

Writing and Art Connection

• Ask pairs of students to come up with a problem they both have. Have one of the students write and illustrate the problem. Have the other student write and illustrate the solution. Have pairs share their problems and solutions with the class.

Math Connection

• Discuss Gram's Peanut Butter Cookie recipe in the appendix. The recipe yields approximately three dozen cookies. Have students rewrite the recipe twice--once to indicate how much of each ingredient would be needed to make one dozen cookies, and once to tell how much would be needed to make six dozen cookies. Have students share their recipes with the class.

Monitor students to determine if they can:

• use the strategy of asking and answering questions to remember important information in text
• understand and identify problems and solutions in a class discussion
• identify and use adverbs that compare to complete a worksheet
• understand and list synonyms and antonyms to complete a worksheet