Guiding Comprehension

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

Sequence • Inferential

Look back through the
selection so far. List the stages
in order of the penguin chick's growth from egg to junior
penguin.

Possible response: 1. Mother
lays egg and then the father
keeps the egg on his feet for
two months. 2. After two months, chick hatches and stays under father. 3. Mother returns and
feeds the chick; chick stays with mother while father goes to get
food. 4. Chick leaves parents'
brood patch and huddles with
other chicks in the crèche for
warmth; still needs to eat from
parents. 5. Chick starts to play.
6. At five months, chick is old
enough to travel to the ocean.

then… use the skill and strategy instruction
on p. 165.

If… students have difficulty identifying the sequence of events,

Sequence

Understand Graphic Sources

• Inferential

Look at the time line on
pp. 164–165. How does the time line help you understand the selection?

It shows a picture of each stage of the chick's growth in order.

SKILLS
STRATEGIES IN CONTEXT

Sequence

TEACH

Explain that the sequence of
events in this selection will help
students understand the
information better.
Remind students that clue
words such as next and later
are not always present; dates
and times can be clues to
sequence.
Model looking for the first three
stages in the penguin chick's
growth.

MODEL The very first
stage is when the mother
lays the egg. We read about
this on p. 156. Then the father
keeps the egg warm. I think that's
the second stage. That's on p. 157.
There's no information about the egg
on pp. 158–159. I'm looking only for
the stages about the penguin chick.
Next I see that the father keeps the
egg on his feet for two months.
That's on p. 160. That's stage three.

PRACTICE AND ASSESS

Have students find the remaining steps in the penguin chick's growth on their own. To assess, check that the students have recorded stages in sequence and that details come from the selection.
To assess, use Practice Book
3.1, p. 56.

Practice Book 3.1 p. 56

with | without Answers

"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
	Extend Language Over time, the English language has adopted many words from other languages. You might recognize words such as spaghetti, taken from Italian, or, kindergarten, taken from German. Point out the word crèche on p. 164, taken from French. Have students think of other examples of borrowed words in the English language and discuss their meanings. Encourage students to add such words to their vocabulary notebooks, along with an example using the word in a sentence. Ecosystems When we think of the food chain, we think of the bigger animals eating the smaller animals, with the biggest animals (humans) having no natural predators at all. But in the Antarctic, as in every ecosystem, all life actually depends on each other. The smallest link in the Antarctic food chain is the phytoplankton. Krill, small, shrimp-like organisms, eat the phytoplankton. The larger organisms, such as fish and some mammals, eat the krill; these organisms are in turn eaten by even larger predators (except for whales, whose only predators are human). If one animal is affected, all these organisms are affected, resulting in the death of some and the over-population of others.

"Penguin Chick"by Betty Tatham

"Penguin Chick"
by Betty Tatham