Guiding Comprehension

Facts and Details • Literal

How many years is it before a penguin is ready to have a
chick of its own?

Five years.

Author's Purpose • Inferential

Question the Author Authors
have many reasons for writing. What is one reason you think
the author wrote Penguin
Chick?

To teach us something about the life cycle of emperor penguins.

Generalize • Critical

Text to Self Think about your relationship with the people
who take care of you. What
do they do for you? What do
you need from them? What
can you do by yourself?
Make a graphic organizer,
such as a Venn diagram
(Graphic Organizer 17), to
show ways in which you and
your relationship with your caregivers is similar to the penguin chick and its relationship with its parents. Then make some generalizations about children and parents based on your observations.

Responses will vary; check that generalizations can be backed up
by facts from the selection and the student's experiences.

Summarize When students finish reading the selection, provide this prompt: Imagine that a friend has asked what Penguin Chick is about. In four or five sentences, explain its important points.

STRATEGY SELF-CHECK

Use Graphic Organizers

Tell students that graphic
organizers help us organize and understand what we read.
Have students fill in any
missing information on the
KWL chart they started on
p. 152a. Then have them think
about what they learned.
Have students write a brief
summary of Penguin Chick
using their KWL chart.

SELF-CHECK

Students can ask these questions to assess their abilities to use the skill
and strategy.

Does my KWL chart help me
organize the information from
the selection?
Do I know the most important
idea?
Do the details listed support the
main idea?
To assess, use Practice Book
3.1, p. 57.

then… revisit the skill and strategy instruction on pp. 150–151.

If… students have difficulty finding the main idea and details,

Main Idea and Details

Practice Book 3.1 p. 57

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
	PRACTICE LESSON VOCABULARY Have students respond orally true or false to each question. **Snuggles is a synonym for cuddles.** (True) *Mother cats preen* their kittens with their tongues.** (False; mother cats lick or clean their kittens with their tongues.) *All baby animals hatch* from eggs.** (False; only baby birds, reptiles, and fish hatch from eggs.) BUILD CONCEPT VOCABULARY Review previous concept words with students. Ask if students have met any words today in their reading or elsewhere that they would like to add to the Concept Web.

"Penguin Chick"by Betty Tatham

"Penguin Chick"
by Betty Tatham