LESSON 21 TEACHER’S GUIDE
World of Ants
by Chana Stiefel
Fountas-Pinnell Level M
Nonfiction
Selection Summary
Ants live almost everywhere. They live and work together
underground in colonies. Every colony has three kinds of ants: the
queen, the drones, and the workers. Every ant does a job to help
the whole colony. Ants have many enemies, but some ants can fight
back.
Number of Words: 581
Characteristics of the Text
Genre
Text Structure
Content
Themes and Ideas
Language and
Literary Features
Sentence Complexity
Vocabulary
Words
Illustrations
Book and Print Features
• Nonfiction
• Five sections with titles, each one to two pages; one page of introduction
• Information is presented by description and contrast.
• Specific jobs that each type of ant does
• Life cycle of ants
• Life within the ant colony
• Ant colonies are divided into specialized groups.
• Each group does work that makes other groups dependent on it.
• Some animals, like ants, live and work together in communities.
• Conversational language
• Comparison made between ants and people
• Many compound sentences
• Several complex sentences, some with an introductory clause
• Terms specific to ant life: antennae, colonies, anthill, tunnels, chambers, larvae, pupae,
aphids, honeydew, anteater
• Compound words: anthill, anteater, honeydew, underground
• Some words with three or more syllables
• Multi-syllable words that are challenging to take apart or decode: antennae, colonies
• Photographs closely linked to text on many pages
• Two labeled diagrams
• Eight pages of text; five section headings
• Information in captions and diagram labels
© 2006. Fountas, I.C. & Pinnell, G.S. Teaching for Comprehending and Fluency, Heinemann, Portsmouth, N.H.
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World of Ants
by Chana Stiefel
Build Background
Help students use their knowledge of ants. Build interest by asking questions such as
the following: What do you know about ants? Where have you seen ants? Read the title
and author’s name and talk about the cover photograph. Tell students that this book is
informational text, so the words and photos will give factual information about the topic.
Introduce the Text
Guide students through the text, noting important ideas and nonfiction features. Help with
unfamiliar language so they can read the text successfully. Give special attention to target
vocabulary. Here are some suggestions:
Page 2: Explain that this is a book of information about ants.
Suggested language: Turn to page 2. Point out the highlighted word scout. What
would ants look for or scout out at a picnic? Look at the photo and its caption.
What does this caption tell you about ants? Have you ever seen ants this close?
Page 4: Have students look at the section head: “Ant Family.” What would you
expect to learn about in this section?
Page 5: Have students study the pictures and the title at the top. Help students
with the terms larvae, pupae, and pupa. Explain that pupae is the plural form of
pupa.
Pages 6–7: Have students look at the section head and the illustration of an ant
colony. Have them read the caption. What does this caption tell you? What are
the ants busy doing in their underground colony? Point to some tunnels under
the ground that are narrow, not wide. Did you know that ants dig their colonies in
soggy, or soaked, earth? Why do you think wet, soggy earth would be better?
Page 8: Have students look at the section head, photo, and caption on this page.
Help them with the word aphids. Explain that liquid means flowing easily. What do
you think liquid sugar would be like?
Now turn back to the beginning of the book and read to learn all about ants.
Target Vocabulary
liquid adj.– flowing easily, p. 8
puzzling – confusing or hard to
figure out, p. 3
narrow – not very wide, p. 6
scout v.– look for, p. 2
glassy – similar to glass, p. 8
soggy – soaked, p. 6
surrounded – circled on all sides
by something, p. 8
Grade 3
2
unaware – not aware of, p. 9
underground – beneath the earth,
p. 6
violently – showing great force,
p. 9
Lesson 21: World of Ants
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Read
Have students read World of Ants silently while you listen to individual students read.
Support their problem solving and fluency as needed.
Remind students to use the Monitor/Clarify Strategy
to clear up what doesn’t make sense as they read.
and to find a way
Discuss and Revisit the Text
Personal Response
Invite students to share their personal responses to the book.
Suggested language: What did you learn about ants that you didn’t know before?
Ways of Thinking
As you discuss the text, help students understand these points:
Thinking Within the Text
Thinking Beyond the Text
Thinking About the Text
• Ants live together in
underground nests called
colonies.
• Some animals live and work
together in a community.
• The photos and art show
different kinds of ants at work.
• Ants are born knowing the job
they have to do. They can’t
change their job or their group.
• A diagram shows the life cycle
of ants.
• Three different kinds of
ants—the queen, drones, and
workers—each have their own
kind of work to do.
• Ants like sweet food.
• The survival of an ant colony
depends on the interdependency
of all the groups.
• Ants have many enemies, but
some ants can fight back.
• The author includes lots of
details about the lives of ants.
• The section titles give the reader
an idea of information in that
section.
© 2006. Fountas, I.C. & Pinnell, G.S. Teaching for Comprehending and Fluency, Heinemann, Portsmouth, N.H.
Choices for Further Support
• Fluency Invite students to choose a page from the text and show fluent reading.
Remind them to pay attention to punctuation.
• Comprehension Based on your observations of the students’ reading and discussion,
revisit parts of the text to clarify or extend comprehension. Remind students to go
back to the text to support their ideas.
• Phonics/Word Work Provide practice as needed with words and word parts, using
examples from the text. Have students take apart compound words and discuss how
the parts are related to meaning (anthill, anteater, honeydew, underground).
Grade 3
3
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Writing about Reading
Vocabulary Practice
Have students complete the Vocabulary questions on BLM 21.1.
Responding
Have students complete the vocabulary activities on page 11. Remind them to answer the
Word Teaser on p. 12. (Answer: glass)
Reading Nonfiction
Nonfiction Features: Section Headings and Captions Remind students that nonfiction
has many features to help readers find and understand important information. Section
headings and captions are two of these features.
Explain that captions can be short phrases or longer sentences, as in this book. Captions
tell what a photo or a diagram is about. Reading the captions in a nonfiction book is
a good way to preview the book before reading the main text. Have students read the
caption for the photo on page 9. Ask them what they can learn from this caption.
Explain that section headings divide the information in a book into smaller parts. Have
students look at the section headings on pages 8 and 9. Ask what they think they will learn
about ants in each section.
Writing Prompt: Thinking Beyond the Text
Have students write a response to the prompt on page 6.
Assessment Prompts
• On page 9, find the word that means almost the same as fiercely.
• Find the sentence on page 4 that helps the reader understand the meaning of the
word colony.
• Which words on page 6 help the reader know the meaning of soggy?
Grade 3
4
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English Language Development
Reading Support Give English learners a “preview” of the text by holding a brief
small-group discussion with them before reading the text with the entire group.
Cognates Point out the following cognates between English and Spanish: liquid/liquido,
violently/violentamente.
Oral Language Development
Check student comprehension, using a dialogue that best matches your students’
English proficiency level. Speaker 1 is the teacher, Speaker 2 is the student.
Beginning/Early Intermediate
Intermediate
Early Advanced/ Advanced
Speaker 1: Where do most ants live?
Speaker 1: What are some jobs done by
worker ants?
Speaker 1: What two things does
an ant do when it finds food?
Speaker 2: They dig and clean the nest.
They watch over the eggs. They find
food and protect the colony.
Speaker 2: The ant goes back to
the nest to tell other ants, and it
leaves a smelly trail so other ants
can find the food.
Speaker 2: Most ants live in colonies.
Speaker 1: What are three kinds of
ants?
Speaker 2: the queen, drones, and
workers
Speaker 1: What kind of ant is the
mother of all the ants?
Speaker 2: the queen
Speaker 1: How do aphids help ants
with food?
Speaker 2: Aphids make a liquid
sugar called honeydew. Ants collect
honeydew from aphids.
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Lesson 21
Name
BLACKLINE MASTER 21.1
Date
Target Vocabulary
World of Ants
Target Vocabulary
Write a Target Vocabulary word to complete each sentence.
Vocabulary
narrow
1. A dime can fit through a
scout
narrow
surrounded
underground
puzzling
glassy
violently
liquid
soggy
unaware
coin slot.
scout
2. A
would always be out
ahead looking for food.
surrounded
3. An island is
liquid
4. A
by water.
can be sucked through
a straw.
5. A tornado blows
violently
through
a town.
soggy
6. A
sponge sits in a sink
of water.
7. A basement is found
8. A
puzzling
underground
.
problem is hard to solve.
glassy
9. A lake can be covered with a
sheet of ice.
10. A person who is
unaware
can get caught
without an umbrella in the rain.
Read directions to students.
Target Vocabulary
3
Grade 3, Unit 5: Going Places
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Grade 3
5
Lesson 21: World of Ants
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Name
Date
World of Ants
Thinking Beyond the Text
Think about the question below. Then write your answer in one or two
paragraphs.
The introduction to this book says that ants are like people because they
take care of each other. Compare how a community of people and a colony
of ants take care of each other.
Grade 3
6
Lesson 21: World of Ants
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Lesson 21
Name
BLACKLINE MASTER 21.1
Date
Target Vocabulary
World of Ants
Target Vocabulary
Write a Target Vocabulary word to complete each sentence.
Vocabulary
1. A dime can fit through a
coin slot.
2. A
would always be out
ahead looking for food.
3. An island is
4. A
by water.
can be sucked through
a straw.
5. A tornado blows
scout
narrow
surrounded
underground
puzzling
glassy
violently
liquid
soggy
unaware
through
a town.
6. A
sponge sits in a sink
of water.
7. A basement is found
8. A
.
problem is hard to solve.
9. A lake can be covered with a
sheet of ice.
10. A person who is
can get caught
without an umbrella in the rain.
Grade 3
7
Lesson 21: World of Ants
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Student
Lesson 21
Date
BLACKLINE MASTER 21.23
World of Ants • LEVEL M
page
World of Ants
Running Record Form
Selection Text
2
Errors
Self-Corrections
Accuracy Rate
Total SelfCorrections
Have you ever seen ants at a picnic? They crawl all over.
They scout out food. Then they carry it back to their nest.
Ants are tiny but amazing insects. In fact, they are a lot like
us. They live and work in groups. They gather and store food.
Ants also take care of each other. To find out more about these
busy bugs, dig in!
3
Ants have lived on Earth for more than 100 million years!
Today, more than 12,000 kinds of ants live all over the world.
The puzzling thing is that they don’t live in Antarctica. Just
kidding!
Comments:
(# words read
correctly/101 ×
100)
%
Read word correctly
Code
✓
cat
Repeated word,
sentence, or phrase
®
Omission
—
cat
cat
Grade 3
Behavior
Error
0
0
Substitution
Code
cut
cat
1
Self-corrects
cut sc
cat
0
Insertion
the
1
cat
Error
1414194
Behavior
ˆ
Word told
1
8
T
cat
1
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