TEACHERNET Education Webspace - RPS

By Marilyn Baillie (2006)

Summary

Small Wonders is a collection of short articles about wild animals in Canada. Romi Caron illustrates each animal, the adult and the baby, in a two-page spread. Each animal's characteristics are described on one page. On the other page information is written from the viewpoint of the animal.

Strategies for non-fiction are similar to those used for fiction. A key strategy in non-fiction is determining importance. Readers can use devices like headings, different print, captions, text boxes and diagrams to read non-fiction effectively.

Modeled Lesson for Determining Importance

Let's look at the cover of the book, Small Wonders. Can we get some clues about the book from the cover?

I notice that the title has two parts. One tells us that it is called Small Wonders. The second part says that it's about baby animals in the wild. I think we might get to look at animal families.

Let's look inside. We can read the pictures to find out what animals are in the wild. What do we mean by in the wild?

Can we tell where these animals live by looking at the pictures?

The pictures show us that these are not animals that live in our houses or on farms. They live in mountains, forests, lakes and oceans.

What animals might be there?

Let's check and find out. The pictures show us many of the animals that live in Canada.

We can find out things about animals by looking for information in books.

I'd like to find out about an animal that I've seen really close to home, a beaver.
I'd like to know what a baby beaver is called. Can you see that it tells me that right in the words? Kit is what the baby beaver is called. (in text)

I'd like to know where a beaver lives. It tells me that it makes its home with trees and we can see it in the water. I can tell that it wouldn't make its home in the middle of a field. (background knowledge, inference)

I wonder what a beaver's home would look like. It tells me that it has a feeding den, a resting den and a strong safe roof. (in text) There are two escape tunnels. I wonder what they are for. (inference) Maybe it needs to escape from other animals that might want to eat it.

What animal would you like to find out about?

Strategies used in the Activities from the Willow Awards Site

Small Wonders - 2007 Shining Willow Award Nominee
From http://www.willowawards.ca/nomdescribe/small.htm

• Research animals in Canada. Write a brief report. Then write a paragraph in first person as if you were the animal. Using text structures, Summarizing, Synthesizing, Inference
• Design an animal stamp. Connections, Synthesizing
• In the classroom, set up a habitat in a box. Make animals out of clay or plasticine or bring from home. Synthesizing, Inference