This document summarizes a children's book called "How Do I Know It's an Ant? A Book About Animals" by Eleanor Stodart. The book introduces 24 common animal types found in Australia through one paragraph descriptions and illustrations on each page. It draws children's attention to key identifying features of animals like segments, legs and feelers. The book also introduces basic classification of animals into groups based on whether they have an internal skeleton, exoskeleton, or no skeleton. Classroom activities are suggested that involve reading the book, sorting animals into categories, and discussing how physical features help animals survive.

1. Ring-o By Allison Neale

2. Inside the Earth (Magic School Bus)By Joanna Cole From School Library Journal Grade 2-5 Cole and Degen have struck at the core once again to produce an exciting, attractive, and informative science book for young readers. Children who entered Ms. Frizzle's classroom in The Magic School Bus at the Waterworks (Scholastic, 1986), are in for another exuberant, intriguing field trip. This time, it's to the center of the earth. Surprises abound through each strata down to the very inner core where it is hot, hot, hot. The class collects rock samples before the bus is expelled from the earth's core in a volcanic eruption. Illustrations are in watercolor cartoon format and attendant ``balloons'' contain pertinent information or students' humorous asides. There are also pages from students' reports on rocks. A tongue-in-cheek section at the end discusses the real and fantasy aspects of the book. Containing uncluttered text and illustrations, it is an anticipatory page-turner full of exciting adventure from school yard to volcano and back. Mary Lou Budd, Milford South Elementary School, OhioCopyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

3. Inside the Earth (Magic School Bus)By Joanna Cole Activity Discuss the different layers of the earth. Read the book aloud to students. Have students draw and label a picture that illustrates the different layers of the earth. Standard Indicators Science 2.2.5: Draw pictures and write brief descriptions that correctly portray key features of an object. (Draw and label the different layers of the earth.) Language Arts 2.2.5: Restate facts and details or summarize the main idea in the text to clarify and organize ideas. (Students use facts and details from the story to draw and label the different layers of the earth.) Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences

4. Inside the Earth (Magic School Bus)By Joanna Cole Activity Set up stations that each contain different types of rocks. Have students rotate through the stations, recording the physical features of each type of rock in their notebooks. As a class, create a chart on big chart paper, classifying all the different types of rocks. Discuss the similarities and differences between the rocks. Standard Indicators Science 2.3.3: Investigate by observing and then describing chunks of rocks and their many sizes and shapes, from boulders to grains of sand and even smaller. (Students observe and describe the physical features of different types of rocks.) Language Arts 2.7.9: Report on a topic with supportive facts and details. (Students use facts and details to describe the rocks that they investigated.) Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences

5. The Magic School Bus at the WaterworksBy Joanna Cole From School Library Journal Grade 2-4 A remarkable meshing of text and illustration make this an outstanding, lively treatment of a subject for which there is very little written for this age group. Ms. Frizzle has assigned her class a month-long investigation of how their city gets its water supply, to be followed by a field trip to the water works. With ``The Friz'' as driver, the children encounter surprise after surprise, as they are magically clad in scuba gear while in a tunnel, then slowly ascend to a cloud, where each child disembarks; falls as a drop of water into a mountain stream; flows into a reservoir; and bounces through the purification system, pipes, and water mains under the city streets. The trip ends with all arriving, drop by drop, in the girls' bathroom in their school as a seventh grader turns on the water faucet. A subsequent classroom mural is drawn of their field trip with the interesting facts of water posted above. Not such a bad trip after all! Liveliness and humor combine to provide valuable information in a simple, explicit text, totally complemented by cheery cartoon-like illustrations. A finishing flourish are the two pages of humorous and lighthearted notes (for SERIOUS students only) at the text's end. This book will rarely sit on the shelf. Mary Lou Budd, Mil ford South Elementary School, OhioCopyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

6. The Magic School Bus at the WaterworksBy Joanna Cole Activity Define a cycle. As a class, create a list on the board of different kinds of cycles that exist in the world. Read the book aloud to students. Discuss the causes and effects of each stage of the water cycle. Teach students “Water Cycle Song” by Foster Brown. Have students sing the song a couple times while following along with the lyrics provided on the overhead projector. Standard Indicators Science 2.3.1: Investigate by observing and then describe that some events in nature have a repeating pattern, such as seasons, day and night, and migration. (discussion of cycles; discussion of the water cycle) Language Arts 2.2.6: Recognize cause-and-effect in a text. (discussion of causes and effects that occur in the water cycle) Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences

7. The Magic School Bus at the WaterworksBy Joanna Cole Activity Set up four different stations: one with a picture of sun shining down on a snowman, one with a picture of boiling water, one with a picture of a foggy window, and one with a picture of rain falling from a cloud. Divide students into groups, and have them rotate through the stations, matching the terms melting, evaporation, condensation, and precipitation with the correct pictures while also determining what physical changes are occurring in each picture. They will record their answers in a notebook. Discuss answers as a class. Have each group create a diagram that demonstrates how these processes work together to make up the water cycle. Have each group present their diagram. Standard Indicators Science 2.3.5: Investigate that things can be done to materials, such as freezing, mixing, cutting, heating, wetting, etc., to change some of their properties and observe that not all materials respond the same way. (Investigate how water changes states.) Language Arts 2.7.6: Speak clearly and at an appropriate pace for the type of communication (such as an informal discussion or a report to class). (communicating in groups; class discussion; presenting diagrams) Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences

8. The MonthsBy Sara Coleridge January brings the snow,makes our feet and fingers glow.February brings the rain,Thaws the frozen lake again.March brings breezes loud and shrill,stirs the dancing daffodil.April brings the primrose sweet,Scatters daisies at our feet.May brings flocks of pretty lambs,Skipping by their fleecy dams.June brings tulips, lilies, roses,Fills the children's hand with posies. Hot July brings cooling showers,Apricots and gillyflowers.August brings the sheaves of corn,Then the harvest home is borne.Warm September brings the fruit,Sportsmen then begin to shoot.Fresh October brings the pheasant,Then to gather nuts is pleasant.Dull November brings the blast,Then the leaves are whirling fast.Chill December brings the sleet,Blazing fire, and Christmas treat.

9. The MonthsBy Sara Coleridge Activity Have students read the poem out loud together as a class. Discuss how months fall into a pattern that is repeated each year. Have students write a poem about one month without using the name of the month in the poem. Have students take turns reading their poems out loud while the rest of the class uses clues within the poems to guess the months. Standard Indicators Science 2.3.1: Investigate by observing and then describe that some events in nature have a repeating pattern, such as seasons, day and night, and migrations. (Discuss pattern of months.) Language Arts 2.7.13: Recite poems, rhymes, songs, and stories. (Read poems out loud.) Language Arts 2.5.4: Write rhymes and simple poems. (Write a poem describing a month.) Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences

10. The MonthsBy Sara Coleridge Activity Discuss how a year is divided into seasons. Discuss what happens in each season. Discuss how seasons continue in the same cycle each year. Have students write in their journals about their favorite season and why they like it better than the other ones. Standard Indicators Science 2.3.1: Investigate by observing and then describe that some events in nature have a repeating pattern, such as seasons, day and night, and migrations. (Discuss cycle of seasons.) Language Arts 2.5.5: Use descriptive words when writing. (Students will use descriptive words to describe a season and explain why it is their favorite.) Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences

11. How Do I Know It’s an Ant?: A Book About AnimalsBy Eleanor Stodart With watercolour illustrations, one paragraph of text and informative captions and labels per page, this book introduces 24 animal types, drawing attention to the features that help us tell one from another. A further 17 are covered briefly on one page. Most examples can be seen in Australia. The introduction draws attention to major features to look for, such as segments, legs and feelers, in terms a young child can understand. The rudiments of classification are introduced through colour-coded headings which indicate whether the animal has an internal skeleton, exoskeleton or no skeleton. Sizes are indicated.(ANIMALS. AUSTRALIAN) Taken from http://www.science.org.au/pi/goodbooks/animals.htm

12. How Do I Know It’s an Ant?: A Book About AnimalsBy Eleanor Stodart Activity Read the book aloud to students. As a class, using a big piece of chart paper, divide animals from the book into categories such as reptiles, mammals, insects, etc. Make a separate list on the board of the characteristics that distinguish one animal from another, such as sounds they make, what they look like, the environment in which they live, their survival patterns, etc. Discuss how an animal’s physical features can help it survive in different environments. Play Animal Charades. Standard Indicators Science 2.4.1: Observe and identify different external features of plants and animals and describe how these features help them live in different environments. (Discuss how an animal’s physical features can help it survive in different environments.) Language Arts 2.2.5: Restate facts and details or summarize the main idea in the text to clarify and organize ideas. (Organize facts and details about animals from the book into a chart.) Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences

13. How Do I Know It’s an Ant?: A Book About AnimalsBy Eleanor Stodart Activity Take a virtual tour of a zoo on the computer. As students complete the tour, they will fill out a worksheet, matching the animals to their habitats and/or the food that they eat. Discuss the worksheet. Standard Indicators Science 2.4.2: Observe that and describe how animals may use plants, or even other animals, for shelter and nesting. (Discover these facts about animals during the virtual tour.) Language Arts 2.7.9: Report on a topic with supportive facts and details. (Discuss findings from virtual tour.) Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences

14. Angelina and the PrincessBy Katharine Holabird Activity Read the book aloud to students. Divide students into small groups. Give each group a strip of paper with an event from the story on it and have them line up from left to right according to the order in which the events occurred. Ask students what problems occurred in the story. Discuss the steps that were taken to solve the problems. Discuss why certain decisions were made and determine whether they were right or wrong. Discuss what happened as a result of the decisions made. Standard Indicators Math 2.6.3: Explain the reasoning used and justify the procedures selected in solving a problem. (Discuss the steps that were taken in solving the problems that occurred in the story.) Language Arts 2.2.11: Identify text that uses sequence or other logical order (alphabetic order or time). (Students determine the sequence of the story.) Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences

15. Angelina and the PrincessBy Katharine Holabird Activity Discuss how different decisions would have resulted in different outcomes in the story. Discuss how the problems in the story were related (how one lead to another). Have students write a different ending to the story. Have students share their endings. Standard Indicators Math 2.6.5: Understand and use connections between two problems. (Discuss how the problems in the story were related.) Language Arts 2.3.2: Create different endings to stories and identify the problem and the impact of the different ending. (Discuss how different decisions lead to different outcomes. Students write their own endings to the story.) Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences