Scott Foresman Reading Street

Science in Reading

	Examine features of a picture encyclopedia.
	Practice a test-taking strategy.
	Compare and contrast across texts.

PREVIEW/USE TEXT FEATURES

As students preview "Great and Small," have them identify what animals the selection will be about and what kind of information it will give. After they preview, ask:

What are some of the large animals the selection will discuss? (giraffes, elephants, bears, ostriches)
What kind of information are you likely to find in the captions about each animal? (how big or small they are; other interesting information relating to their size)

Link to Science

Help students use reference materials, such as encyclopedias, to find out more about other animals not described in the article. Check that students' information is accurate and that drawings reflect, as much as possible, animals described.

Whole Group Discuss the Question of the Day.

“Great and Small.” See
pp. 36f–36g for the small group lesson plan.

Reading

Group Time
Differentiated Instruction

Use pp. 59e–59h and
59k–59m.

Whole Group Use pp. 59a
and 59j.

Language Arts

Grouping Options

PICTURE ENCYCLOPEDIA

Use the sidebar on p. 56 to guide discussion.

A picture encyclopedia uses photographs and captions to provide information about different topics.
Photos and captions are equally important; they give different information about the same thing. Often we can use the pictures to clarify, or better understand, what we have read—the photos help us visualize what we have read.
Look at the photographs on
pp. 56–59. Discuss the animals shown and have students compare and contrast them based on the visual information.

AudioText

Possible response: A giraffe is much taller than a gorilla.

Access Content Have students look through the selection as a group. Discuss the photos on each page and what information they give us. Discuss what kind of information students think the captions might give about each animal.

The giraffe is by far the tallest animal. It is up to twice as tall
as the African elephant and more than three times as tall as the
average man. Its long legs and long neck allow it to browse on
treetop leaves beyond the reach of even an elephant’s long trunk.

Twice as tall as all the rest

from Factastic Book of Comparisons by Russell Ash

Choose two animals not
described in this article.
Use reference sources
to find out about them.
Draw pictures and write
captions to compare the
animals.

Link to Science

You can read captions
left to right or top to
bottom. If you prefer,
you can even skip
around.

Text Features

The photographs and
captions in this article
compare very large and
very small animals.

Genre

Picture encyclopedias
provide information
about many topics.

They include photos
with captions.

Picture
Encyclopedia

Compare and Contrast

How does a giraffe compare to a gorilla?

Worldwide, the
average man is
5 ft 9 in. tall.

With its long legs and
long neck, an ostrich
can be 9 ft tall.

Adult bull African elephents grow more
than 10 ft tall.

Worldwide, the
average height for women is 5 ft 5 in.

Although they are much
broader, heavier, and
stronger than humans, gorillas are only slightly
taller, at 6.5 ft.

Rearing on its hind
legs, the grizzly bear
of North America can
be 10 ft tall.

At up to 19 ft, a fully
grown giraffe is so tall
that it has special valves
to help pump blood up to
its head.

Animals come in every shape
imaginable. But who tops the charts
when it comes to size? Check out
these incredible animal comparisons
and see why they are in a class
of their own!