Reptiles by David Drew

Teaching ideas

Do all reptiles have a tail? Do they all have eyes, legs, scales, and a skeleton? This book helps young readers to build up an understanding of what an animal must have to be called a reptile.

This is also a book about how we do research. When we read information, we often make notes - we write while we read. Even very young children can do real research by looking closely at pictures and putting the information in the pictures into words.

Reading the book

The book gradually builds up a list of features that all reptiles have in common. Children can figure out these features by looking carefully at the pictures, to form generalizations: "All reptiles have . . ."

On each left-hand page there is some information about one kind of reptile. Each right-hand page resembles a notebook in which we are collecting facts about reptiles. In this way the book models for very young readers how to make notes while we read.

Lizards (pages 2-3)

As well as reading the words, point out the enlargement detail that shows us what the scales of a lizard look like when magnified. Some of the scales have sharp points.

Making notes. Draw attention to the way page 3 is set out. This is a list arranged as bullet points (sometimes called dot points). Some of the lines are still blank. They will be filled in as we read through the book. This list mirrors the sort of writing we do when reading information. We often collect facts as we read; we make notes.

Ask the children to make predictions. "The lizard has claws. Will all the reptiles in this book have claws?"

Alligators (pages 4-5)

Read the words and point out that a new item has been added to the "notebook" on the right-hand page. All reptiles have scales and jaws.

Ask the children to "Find the enlargement" in the picture. This time it is a little different: as well as enlarging the head, we see inside it.

Point out that the alligator has claws like the lizard. It has legs like the lizard as well. "Will all reptiles have legs?"

Crocodiles (pages 6-7)

Let the children find the jaws and scales in the picture and ask them what new feature has been added. It is a skeleton. Children can match parts of the skeleton to parts of the whole animal above it.

Now read the words and point out on the right-hand page that our list of features is building up.

Notice that the crocodile, like the alligator and the lizard, has legs, claws, and scales. Some of the scales on its back are pointed, like those on the other reptiles. These give the animals extra protection. You might ask, "Will all reptiles have pointed scales?"

Snakes (pages 8-9)

Turn to the final picture. Cover page 9 while we look closely at page 8.

Children need to locate in the picture the new feature that all reptiles have. This feature is a pair of lungs. In order to see the lungs we need a cutaway diagram. Explain that, "In a cutaway diagram part of the surface looks like it has been cut away." The snake's skeleton is shown in cutaway view as well.

Now reveal the top of page 9, but keep the bottom half of page 9 hidden. At last we see the four features that all reptiles have. Later we can use this information to write a short report about reptiles. An information report is a text that makes generalizations. A generalization often starts with one of the words All, Most, Some or None.

Now ask the children whether all reptiles have legs, claws and pointed scales. The snake has none of these features. So we can say that some or most reptiles have these features, but not all.

Reveal the last half of page 9. Again, the children can review the pictures in the book to answer these questions. We already have the answer to whether they all have legs. What about eyes? Yes, they all have eyes. (Someone in the class might know that there are "blind snakes" whose eyes no longer work properly.) All reptiles seem to have tails, while no reptile has fur.

Finally point out that we have only looked at one book to answer our questions. But we might find reptiles in other books that have other features. For example, some reptiles have a shell - they are the tortoises and turtles. It's a good rule to remember that no single book has all the answers.

The children are certain to ask you other questions that this book does not cover. For example, "What is the difference between a crocodile and an alligator?" There are many pages on the web that give an answer to this question, together with photographs and diagrams. One such web page is on the San Diego Zoo site. This might be an opportunity for the students to start making notes themselves.

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