Lessons & Units :: Two Bad Ants 2nd Grade Unit

Paired Text Questions: "A Small Life" and Two Bad Ants

Lesson Plan

Two Bad Ants | 780L

Two Bad Ants
Learning Goal
Integrate information from the fiction passage “A Small Life” and the book Two Bad Ants to recognize the importance of narrative perspective in a story.
Necessary Materials
Provided:
  1. Questions
  2. Fiction reading passage “A Small Life”

Not Provided:
Two Bad Ants
 
  • Questions 1 and 2 refer to the fiction passage “A Small Life.” Questions 3 and 4 refer to the book Two Bad Ants. Questions 5 and 6 refer to both the passage and the book.
  • Student versions of the questions are in the 'Texts & Materials' tab.
 
Part 1: “A Small Life”
 
Read the passage “A Small Life” out loud to your students. Alternatively, students can read the passage independently or as a group.
 
Question 1: Who or what is telling this story?
 
Sample student answer: A hamster is telling this story.
 
Question 2: Why might people lift up the hamster’s house and carry it around?
 
Sample student answer (may vary): People might move the hamster’s house to clean the area around it.
 

Part 2: Two Bad Ants

 
Question 3: While the ants are sleeping in the crystals, a giant silver scoop appears above them. What happens next?
 
Sample student answer (may vary): The scoop comes down and picks up the ants and some of the crystals.
 
Question 4: What word do humans have for this giant silver scoop?
 
Sample student answer: Humans call it a spoon.
 

Part 3: “A Small Life” and Two Bad Ants

 
Question 5: What do the hamster and the two ants have in common?
 
Sample student answer (may vary):
  • They are small.
  • They get dizzy.
  • Strong forces outside their control have a big effect on them.
 
Question 6: "A Small Life" is told from the point of view of a hamster. Two Bad Ants is told from the point of view of ants. How would these stories be different if told from the point of view of a human? Explain why.
 
Sample student answer:
  • The descriptions in the stories would be shorter and less interesting. For example, instead of dark openings and long, narrow holes, there would just be a light socket.
  • There would be less mystery to the stories. For example, you would know why people were moving around the hamster’s cage instead of having to guess.

Texts & Materials

Standards Alignment

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