How Many Eyes? (Grades K–2)
InfoActive series
by David Drew illustrated by Marilyn Pride
Do all animals have two eyes? Which animals have feelers, claws, stings, or wings? Children discover that the answers look very different, depending on whether the information is arranged as a diagram or a graph.
Grade level K–2
Visual literacy
Picture glossaries (diagrams with labels): to name and locate the eyes and other parts of snails, bees, scorpions, and crabs
Bar graphs (pictographs): to count and compare how many eyes, legs, feelers, wings, claws, or stings each animal has
Subject areas
English/Language Arts
- Read and interpret diagrams and graphs
- Compare the different kinds of information that graphs and diagrams provide
- Use graphs and diagrams as reference material to discuss, talk about, or write about insects and other small creatures
Science/Technology
- Simple classification: Grouping animals according to features in common
- Varieties of animal forms
- Animal senses
Mathematics
- Counting parts in a diagram and matching them with information in a graph
Learning strategies
Access information in different forms (in sentences, in a diagram, in a graph)
A diagram of a bee tells us very different information from a graph about the same bee:
Picture glossary (diagram with labels)
This diagram (or picture glossary) shows the parts of a bee, their relative sizes, and where they are located in relation to each other.
On the other hand, this bar graph shows quantities: how many legs (but not their relative sizes), how many wings (but not where they are located, or how they are grouped in pairs).
A pictograph is any graph in which small picture-symbols are used, like the wings and legs in this bar graph.
Ideas to get you started
- Share the book up to page 5, comparing the diagram and the graph on each double page.
- On page 4 point out the eyes in the diagram, and match them with the eyes in the graph. Count each other item in the diagram before showing the same information in the graph.
- Explain how graphs work by showing how each item lines up with a number at the foot of the graph.
- Now turn to page 6, but cover page 7 with a sheet of cardboard. Explain that "Instead of reading the graph, we're going to make one ourselves."
- On the cardboard draw up a graph for the scorpion on page 6. Make rows for its eyes, palps, legs and stings. Children write in these words from the diagram.
- Children draw symbols for eyes, legs, and so on, in the spaces on the graph. Ask as many children to participate as possible.
- Now remove the graph you have made together, and compare it with the graph in the book.
- Turn to page 8. This time the children work in small groups to produce a graph based on this diagram of a crab.
Contents of How Many Eyes?
- Snails
- Bees
- Scorpions
- Crabs
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in USA click here (Pearson Learning)
in Canada click here (Scholastic Canada)
To purchase this book
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InfoActive is a visual literacy series for K–3
Titles in this series: The ball, the stick, the plane, and the feather December Do people eat flowers? Do you ever feel like this? The Earth and the Moon Find the piece that fits From egg to butterfly Great grandma's phonograph Houses How could I clean them? How would you mend it? I like this park Ice, water, steam Insects Inside you It's a farm Last month Make a paper bird Make it go My garden Our plant diary Pet survey Pineapple pizza Real or imaginary? Reptiles Rex and me Sometimes it will float Spring turns to summer Traffic What goes together? What if? What is missing? What will happen? What's your favorite? When I was one Where water comes from Which animals can fly? Why does a cat have whiskers? Will Wright |
