Scott Foresman Reading Street

Volcanoes
Below-Level Reader

Do Animals Have
a Sixth Sense?

Unit 3 Week 5

COMPARE AND CONTRAST

MONITOR AND FIX UP

LESSON VOCABULARY beneath, buried, chimney, earthquakes, fireworks, force, surface, tremble, volcano

SUMMARY This selection gives students thought-provoking information about
whether or not animals can predict natural disasters.

INTRODUCE THE BOOK

BUILD BACKGROUND Discuss with students what they know about animal
behavior.

PREVIEW/USE TEXT FEATURES Invite students to look at the illustrations and
captions and ask how these elements help prepare them for what might come
next in the reading selection.

TEACH/REVIEW VOCABULARY Review the vocabulary words with students.
Then play a game of Hangman on the board with the class, using the
definitions as clues to the words.

Go over the vocabulary words with students. To give them a
personal connection with the words, ask: If your dog buried a bone, where
would the bone be? Do this with all vocabulary words.

TARGET SKILL AND STRATEGY

COMPARE AND CONTRAST Remind students that comparing and
contrasting are ways of determining how things are alike and how they are
different. Using a graphic organizer, have students compare and contrast
third grade and second grade. Suggest that as students read, they use a
graphic organizer to compare and contrast the ways animals react prior to
natural disasters.

MONITOR AND FIX UP Remind students that monitoring is being aware of
their understanding of the reading. When things stop making sense, students
can use strategies, such as summarizing, to fix up their understanding.

READ THE BOOK

Use the following questions to support comprehension.

PAGE 6 Compare and contrast the way animals act before natural disasters.
(Dogs howl, birds can’t perch, cats hide, and bees leave their hives.)

PAGE 8 Why is it difficult to know what animals sense? (They can’t talk or tell us.)

PAGE 9 Read the caption above the photograph. Answer the question in the text. (The dog might be digging for a bone, or the dog might be acting strangely
because the dog senses an earthquake is coming.)

TALK ABOUT THE BOOK

READER RESPONSE

Both can be dangerous and destroy people and animals. Earthquakes happen when there is a sudden movement of the Earth’s crust. Volcanoes happen when magma builds and mixes with gas.
Possible response: Did the Alaska earthquake happen before I was born? Yes. I found it on page 8. It happened in 1983.
Possible responses: shake, eruption, lava, magma
Mongolia and India are shown. north; southwest

RESPONSE OPTIONS

WRITING Suggest students imagine they are animals sensing something before an earthquake. Ask students to write stories about how they would try to let humans know what they know.

CONTENT CONNECTIONS

SCIENCE To gain insight into animals, suggest students
read a story told from the viewpoint of an animal.



	Close
	Compare and Contrast Vocabulary