Insects by David Drew

Teaching ideas

Reading

Start with the index (p. 9), asking "I wonder if this book has anything in it about dragonflies?"

The children may be able to find this word in the Index. Or they might recognise a dragonfly among the icons next to this word. Point out the page number, and turn to that page. You can visit the pages in any order, depending on what insect you might look for next. Ask, "Does it have a page about ants?" (Yes.) "Or about grasshoppers?" (No. Let the children know that books can't give them the answer for every question.)

You can do the same using the contents page (p. 2).

As you read the other pages in the book, point out the pattern: all insects are shown having the same four things, even though they are all very different shapes and colors.

Ask, "Do all insects have wings?" (No.) "Do they all have legs?" (Yes.) "How many legs?" (Six.) You are helping them find out facts for themselves, and you are also teaching children how to read a diagram. Flip back and forth between the pages to show what details are the same and which things are different.

Write while you read

Let the children know that when we read information books we often write as well (we make notes). We want to collect and keep the information.

There are many ways to summarize the information we read. You could make a list of "points". Or you could make a table or a Venn diagram. These two visual texts are sometimes better than a a list of facts, because they help us to notice the similarities and differences.

Summarizing with a table

You can use a flip chart to show the children how to collect information in a table of facts. A table helps us to see clearly that insects have some things in common but not others.

	Ants	Dragonflies
Wings	no	yes
Legs	yes	yes
Feelers	yes	?
Abdomen	yes	yes
Head	yes	yes

Summarizing with a Venn diagram

Even better for this purpose is to draw the loops of a Venn diagram on the flip chart and add to it as you read. Point out that where the loops overlap both insects are the same.

Help children to see what the diagram tells us by asking questions like "The bee has wings. Does the ant have wings? So where should we write 'wings?'" Or "Look at the big jaws on the ant. They're called mandibles. Does the bee have mandibles?" Ask children to point to a place on the diagram where you should write "mandibles".

They will soon notice, without being told, that the insects all have legs. Ask them how many, and whether they all have the same number or not.

You are teaching literacy, science and math in this activity.

Venn diagram of insects

What have we achieved?

Notice how much you have been doing with this one little book! You have used it

to compare similarities that help us understand how animals are classified in science
to count the items, putting math to a purpose
to discuss why diagrams leave out some details but include others, a key understanding in visual literacy
to ask children what the top picture tells us that is different from the diagram, developing the ability to generalize about insects
to use the index and contents page when you return to the book to check on a detail, a key reserach skill
to enable struggling readers to read the book for themselves once you have shared it, because of the book's simple predictable language

and finally you can ask the children, working in pairs, to "make another page to add to the book." They can use other illustrated books or Image Search on Google to collect information. This way they are learning what it is to do research, using photographs. They can use the layout of the pages in the book as a guide and checklist: did they include a heading, a "realistic" drawing, a color-coded diagram?

Companion book: How Many Eyes?

By the same illustrator, How Many Eyes? introduces a bar graph to help children to count the eyes, legs, and other parts of a bee, a scorpion, and other small animals.

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