Guiding Comprehension

If you are teaching the selection in two days, discuss the story so far,
including main ideas, and review the vocabulary.

Draw Conclusions • Inferential

On p. 162, we read that the father penguin calls across
the ice to the mother penguin.
Why do you think he does this?

Possible responses: To find out
how far away she is; to urge her to hurry home to the chick because it is hungry.

Facts and Details • Literal

How do the parents feed the penguin chick if there is no
food source nearby?

They bring food back up from their own stomachs and feed it to the chick.

Vocabulary

• Context Clues

Reread p. 163. What is the
synonym for the word brush?

Preen

then… use the vocabulary strategy instruction
on p. 163.

If… students have difficulty finding a synonym,

Context Clues

Whole Group Discuss the Question of the Day.

Group Time
Differentiated Instruction

Penguin Chick. See
pp. 150f–150g for the small
group lesson plan.

Reading

Language Arts
Use pp. 173e–173h and
173k–173m.

Whole Group Discuss the
Reader Response questions on
p. 168. Then use p. 173a.

Grouping Options

VOCABULARY STRATEGY

Context Clues

TEACH

Remind students that when we
come across words we don't
know, we often can use the
words around it to figure out
what it means.
Explain that sometimes authors
use a synonym to explain a
difficult word. A synonym is a
word that means the same
thing, or almost the same thing,
as the unfamiliar word.
One way we can find out
whether a word is a synonym is
to use it in place of the new
word in the sentence. If it makes sense, the two words are synonyms.

MODEL While reading,
I came across the word
preen. I've never seen or
heard this word before; I don't know what it means. But then I see
that the author has explained
what it means later in the sentence.
She says or and has used a synonym
between commas. It says preen
means "brush." Let me see if that
makes sense. Each day the parents
brush the chick's downy coat with
their beaks. That makes sense, so
to preen means "to brush."

PRACTICE AND ASSESS

Have students find a synonym for cuddles on p. 162 (snuggles, p. 163) and use both words in a sentence of their own.

Facts and Details

Explain to students the importance
of identifying facts and details as
we read because they help
us understand the text better.
Sometimes, we need simply to
remember facts and details to help
us see what we are reading. Facts
and details also point to how a text
is organized. If we understand how
a text is organized, we can follow it
better. Have students reread the
selection so far and identify facts
and details that help them visualize
the text and see how it is
organized.

"Penguin Chick"
by Betty Tatham

Student Edition
Unit 2, pp. 154–167

Expository nonfiction gives information about the real world. Read for facts about emperor penguins that you might not know.

On a cold winter day in the frozen Antarctica, a female emperor penguin lays an egg. Now the father penguin takes over. The father rolls the egg onto his feet and into a brood patch. Here the egg will stay warm in a fold of skin covered by feathers. The father will care for the egg until the baby penguin hatches. Then he will care for the newly hatched chick. While caring for the egg and chick, the father does not eat. He lives off his body fat. He spends his time with other fathers. They stand close together to help keep each other warm.
As the father cares for the egg, the mother joins other female penguins that leave the rookery where they laid their eggs. They are hungry and must travel far to reach the sea. Once there each mother dives into the sea, using her flippers to swim in search of food. She feeds on sea creatures including krill, very small sea organisms that look like tiny shrimp.
While the mother is gone, the chick grows inside the egg. When it is time for it to hatch, the chick pecks at the inside of the egg. Soon the egg cracks and breaks apart, and the chick emerges wet and tired. The chick cannot survive in the cold, so it snuggles in the father's brood patch to stay warm.
After feeding, the mother makes the journey back to the rookery. On her return, she cuddles with her chick and begins to preen its down feathers. The soft down helps protect the chick from the cold. She also feeds the chick by bringing up food she had in her stomach and giving it to the chick.
Now she will stay with the chick and the father will go for food. He will feed himself and come back with food in his stomach for the chick.
The parents continue to take turns caring for the chick and going for food. All the time, the chick is growing. Soon it is big enough to leave the brood patch. It cuddles with other young penguins to stay warm, but it returns to its parents for food.
Over time, the chick grows waterproof feathers. Then the chick can go to the sea and hunt for food. In a few years, it will be old enough to find a mate and have its own egg.



	Close
	Life Cycles The life cycle of all species of penguins is quite similar to that of the emperor penguin. Some lay two to three eggs, whereas the emperor penguin lays only one. In all species of penguin, except for the emperor penguins, both the mother and father sit on the egg; this is probably because the emperor penguins lay their eggs quite far from the coast, and the female has a longer distance to travel to the open ocean. Both parents take care of the chick until it is able to take care of itself; this can be anywhere from two months to a year, depending on the species of penguin.

"Penguin Chick"by Betty Tatham

"Penguin Chick"
by Betty Tatham