TEACHING

GUIDE

TEACHING

Classic
Creatures

3rd Grade Reading Level

TEACHING

CLASSIC

CREATURES

Standards
Science

Understands biological evolution and the diversity of life.

Understands the structure and function of cells and organisms.

Language Arts
Writing

Uses the general skills and strategies of the writing process.

Uses the stylistic and rhetorical aspects of writing.

Language Arts
Reading

Gathers and uses information for research purposes.

Uses reading skills and strategies to understand and interpret a variety of
informational texts.

Mathematics

Uses basic and advanced procedures while performing the processes of computation.

Multiple Intelligences Utilized

Linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, intrapersonal, interpersonal, and naturalistic

Copyright 2005 by Lerner Publications Company

All rights reserved. International copyright secured. Student pages may be
reproduced by the classroom teacher for classroom use only, not for commercial
resale. No other part of this teaching guide may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwisewithout the prior written
permission of Lerner Publications Company, except for the inclusion of brief
quotations in an acknowledged review.

Go to www.lernerclassroom.com
for a list of all Classic Creatures
titles.

LernerClassroom
A division of Lerner Publishing Group
241 First Avenue North
Minneapolis, MN 55401 U.S.A.
800-328-4929
Website address: www.lernerclassroom.com
Manufactured in the United States of America
1 2 3 4 5 6 DP 10 09 08 07 06 05

ISBN 0-7613-0888-1 PMS Green 355U

TEACHING

Lesson 1
Make a Glossary
Purpose: Students will create a glossary for a
nonfiction book.

Materials
Classic Creatures
books
dictionaries

books with glossaries

paper
pencils
chalk

Objectives
Recall the purpose of a glossary.
Predict words that may be found in a book.
Alphabetize words.
Characterize words found in glossaries.
Create a glossary for a nonfiction book.
Justify the selection of words for a glossary.
Activity Procedures
Prepare
(teacher)
Arrange to have a classroom set of dictionaries
(or Internet access) available during the lesson.
Pretest
(teacher, students)
Show students the cover of a Classic Creatures book.
What are some words you would expect to find in
this book? Write these words on the board.
If students will be reading multiple titles from the
Classic Creatures series, repeat this procedure for
each title.

CLASSIC

CREATURES

Read
(students)
Read a book from the Classic Creatures series.
Look for words from the list on the board and record
the page numbers on which they appear.
Model
(teacher, students)
Explain the purpose of a glossary.
Show examples of glossaries from books and point
out their features.
Discuss what kinds of words are included in glossaries.
Discuss which words from the class list were found
in the books.
Decide if those words should be included in a
glossary for the book.
Demonstrate how to use a dictionary to find the
meaning of words.
Rewrite a definition in your own words.
Explain directions for glossary project (below).
Practice
(students)
Choose ten words from the book and create a
glossary page using those words.
Discuss
(teacher, small group)
If using different titles, group students by the
book they read.
Why did you choose these words?
Was it harder to select the ten words or to write
the definitions in your own words? Why?
Evaluate
(teacher)
Evaluate student glossaries for accuracy
and understanding.

TEACHING

CLASSIC

CREATURES

Lesson 2
An Animal Adjective
Alphabet
Purpose: Students will use alliteration to create noun
and adjective pairs.

Materials
Classic Creatures
books
thesaurus

dictionary
paper
pencils

Objectives
Define adjective and noun.
Explain alliteration.
Compile alphabetical lists of adjectives and animals.
Characterize animals by using adjectives.
Compose word pairs using alliteration.
Defend the use of alliteration.

Read
(students)
Read a Classic Creatures book.
Model
(teacher)
Define alliteration as the repetition of beginning
sounds in two or more neighboring words. Use the
titles from the Classic Creatures series as examples.
Explain the directions for the alliteration project
(below).
Practice
(students)
For each letter of the alphabet, choose an animal
whose name begins with that letter.
Using alliteration, choose an adjective that describes
each animal.
Write these word pairs in an alphabetical list.

Activity Procedures

Discuss
(teacher, students)
Each student will share a favorite word pair.
Which word pair was the hardest to make? Why?
Why did the author of this series use alliteration in
the titles?

Prepare
(teacher)
Gather an adequate number of reference materials
(printed or electronic).

Evaluate
(teacher)
Evaluate students alphabetical word pairs for
accuracy and understanding of alliteration.

Pretest
(teacher, students)
List titles from the Classic Creatures series.
What do all these titles have in common?
Define adjective and noun.

Extension
Create illustrated alphabet books for younger
students using the word pairs.
Select your favorite word pair and write a letter to
the author to suggest your idea for a new title.
Combine this idea with the extension activity for
Lesson 8 on p. 10.

TEACHING

Lesson 3
Wheel of Knowledge
Purpose: Students will learn about animals
by locating and recording animal facts using a
graphic organizer.

Materials

Classic Creatures
books
Wheel of Knowledge
pp. 1314

pencils
scissors
brass fasteners

Objectives
Read nonfiction sources.
Summarize information from a text.
Locate specific information.
Choose which information to record.
Construct a wheel of knowledge.
Compare information gathered from texts.
Activity Procedures

CLASSIC

CREATURES

Read
(students)
Read a Classic Creatures book.
Model
(teacher)
Show students your sample Wheel of Knowledge
pp. 1314.
Review what information is needed to complete
Wheel of Knowledge pp. 1314.
Remind students to use the question and answer
section at the end of the Classic Creatures book to
find more facts.
Demonstrate how to assemble Wheel of Knowledge
pp. 13-14 using a brass fastener.
Practice
(students)
Find the information to complete your Wheel of
Knowledge pp. 1314 in a Classic Creatures book.
Record the information on Wheel of Knowledge
p. 14.
Draw a picture of the creature in its habitat on
wheel cover p. 13.
Assemble the wheel with a brass fastener.

Prepare
(teacher)
Copy Wheel of Knowledge pp. 1314 for each
student. Construction paper may work best for
this project.
Prepare a sample Wheel of Knowledge pp. 1314.

Discuss
(small groups)
Arrange groups of students according to the animal
they studied.
Share wheels with group members.
Evaluate each others work for accuracy.
Share one new fact you learned about the animal
you researched.

Pretest
(teacher, students)
Preview the Classic Creatures books.
What do you know about these animals?

Evaluate
(teacher)
Evaluate Wheels of Knowledge for accuracy
and completeness.

TEACHING

CLASSIC

CREATURES

Lesson 4
Creature
Comparisons
Purpose: Students will create a chart to compare
animal facts.

Materials
Classic Creatures
books
Wheel of Knowledge
pp. 1314 from
Lesson 3

Creature
Comparisons p. 15
pencils

Objectives
Recall information.
Articulate facts about an animal.
Classify facts by topic.
Compare facts about various animals.
Compile information about various animals on a
chart.
Recommend other graphic organizers.
Activity Procedures
Prepare
(teacher)
Copy Creature Comparisons p. 15 for each student
or small group.
Arrange students into groups of four.
Assign a different animal to each student.
Pretest
(teacher, students)
How could we show information about four different
animals at the same time?

Read
(students)
Each group member should read a different title from
the Classic Creatures series. If class time is short, use
the research from Lesson 3 and Wheel of Knowledge
pp. 1314.
Model
(teacher)
Explain the purpose of a chart to students.
Demonstrate how to fill out Creature Comparisons
p. 15.
Practice
(small groups)
Find required information about each animal in
Classic Creatures books.
Record the information for each animal on Creature
Comparisons p. 15.
Discuss
(teacher, students)
What do these animals have in common?
Why are charts used to organize information?
How else could we organize this information?
Evaluate
(teacher)
Evaluate Creature Comparisons p. 15 for accuracy
and completeness.

TEACHING

Lesson 5
Fiction and Nonfiction
Book
Purpose: Students will write a story about an animal
based on factual information.

Materials
Classic Creatures
books
paper

pencils
colored pencils
stapler

Objectives
Read information about an animal.
Visualize an animal as a fictional character.
Select important facts about an animal.
Correlate facts to fictional events.
Create a fictional text based on fact.
Evaluate personal writing and the writing of others.
Activity Procedures
Prepare
(teacher)
Create an example of the book project.
Pretest
(teacher, students)
What is the difference between a fiction and a
nonfiction book?
Explain that students will write an animal story that is
both fiction and nonfiction.

CLASSIC

CREATURES

Read
(students)
Read a book from the Classic Creatures series.
Model
(teacher)
Describe the book project:
The book should have at least six pages, with
one or two sentences per page.
Each page needs to be supported by a fact
about your animal. For example: On the way
to the ground, Susan Spider paused to swing
from a branch. Fact: A spider leaves a dragline
thread of web.
Each page needs an illustration to match the
text.
On the last page, list each page number and
the fact that supports the text.
Demonstrate how to bind the pages together.
Practice
(students)
Write a simple story about a chosen animal.
Find facts in a Classic Creatures book to support the
animal characters actions. Students may want to
find facts first.
If necessary, edit the story to fit with the facts
learned about the animal.
Create a fact page that lists each page number and
the fact that supports the text.
Discuss
(small groups)
Present stories to a small group.
Compliment and critique each story.
Which came first for youfinding facts or making up
the story? Why did you choose that order?
Evaluate
(teacher)
Evaluate student books for completeness and
writing skills.

TEACHING

CLASSIC

CREATURES

Lesson 6
Animal Riddles
Purpose: Students will compose riddles using
animal facts.

Materials
Classic Creatures
books
paper

pencils
crayons
chalk

Objectives
Read information about animals.
Summarize the information read.
Determine essential facts about an animal.
Compare facts to select the most specific ones.
Create a riddle using specific facts.
Recommend ways to make a riddle harder to solve.
Activity Procedures
Prepare
(teacher)
Create an example animal riddle.
Pretest
(teacher, students)
What is a riddle?
Read your riddle to the class, and have students guess
what animal it describes.
Read
(students)
Read a Classic Creatures book.

Model
(teacher)
Explain how to select four distinguishing facts about an
animal. You want people to solve the riddle easily.
Demonstrate how to fold a piece of paper in half
width-wise.
Write this form on the board:
Fact 1:
Fact 2:
Fact 3:
Fact 4:
What am I?
Instruct students to write their facts in complete
sentences and to follow this form.
Tell students to write the riddle on the front of the
folded paper and draw a picture of their animal
on the inside.
Challenge students to make the last word of each
line rhyme.
Practice
(students)
Create an animal riddle.
Discuss
(teacher, students)
Share riddles with the class.
What did you do to make your riddle easy to solve?
What can you do to make your riddle more difficult
to solve?
Evaluate
(teacher)
Evaluate each riddle for completeness and creativity.
Extension
Students select a different animal and write a riddle
which is difficult to solve.

TEACHING

Lesson 7
Creature Calculations
Purpose: Students will write and solve multiplication
problems.

Materials
Classic Creatures
books

Creature
Calculations p. 16
pencils

Objectives
Read mathematical word problems.
Visualize mathematical word problems.
Acquire information missing from mathematical
word problems.
Identify information necessary to solving
mathematical word problems.
Formulate mathematical word problems.
Compare the difficulty between solving and creating
mathematical word problems.

CLASSIC

CREATURES

Read
(students)
Read Classic Creatures books.
Model
(teacher)
Explain the directions for Creature Calculations
p. 16.
Complete the first problem together.
Practice
(students)
Find numerical facts in the Classic Creatures books.
Solve the problems as directed by the teacher.
Write two word problems using other animal facts.
Discuss
(teacher, students)
Which was hardersolving word problems or creating
word problems? Explain your opinion.
Evaluate
(teacher)
Evaluate Creature Calculations p. 16 for accuracy
and completeness.

Activity Procedures
Prepare
(teacher)
Copy Creature Calculations p. 16 for each student.
Pretest
(teacher, students)
Answer this problem: If there are eight butterflies,
how many total antennae are there?
Can this problem be solved?
What information do you need to know to solve it?
If we drew a picture of this problem, what would
it look like?
Where can we find the missing information?

Extension
Compile the student-created math problems to
make a worksheet for the class.

10

TEACHING

CLASSIC

Lesson 8
More Classic
Creatures
Purpose: Students will investigate why particular
animals were chosen for this series.

Materials
Classic Creatures
books

paper
pencils

Objectives
Read information about an animal.
Summarize information about an animal.
Group information about various animals.
Compare information about various animals.
Formulate criteria to select animals for future books.
Predict which animals might be added to the Classic
Creatures series.
Activity Procedures
Pretest
(teacher, students)
How do you think authors choose topics for their
books?
Read
(students)
Read Classic Creatures books.
Model
(teacher, students)
List the animals presented in the Classic Creatures
series.
Discuss similarities between the animals and how the
books are organized.
Explain the writing activity (below).

CREATURES

Practice
(students)
Write a paragraph to explain the criteria the author
used when choosing animals for the Classic Creatures
series.
Recommend two additional animals for the series and
explain why they meet the criteria.
Discuss
(small groups, teacher, students)
In small groups, share each students paragraph.
Did anyone create the same criteria?
Compare the suggestions for other animals.
With the class, share the similarities discussed in each
small group. Look for common thoughts between the
groups.
Combine thoughts to create a classroom rationale for
selecting animals for the Classic Creatures series.
Evaluate
(teacher)
Evaluate student paragraphs for content and writing
skills.
Extension
Students can write letters to author Linda Glaser to
inquire why she chose the animals for this series.
Students may also suggest their ideas for additional
animals or even titles (see Lesson 2). Students may
write to Linda Glaser at:
Linda Glaser
c/o Lerner Publishing Group
241 First Avenue North
Minneapolis, MN 55401

TEACHING

Lesson 9
Animals Illustrated
Purpose: Students will critique the use of illustrations
in a nonfiction text.

Materials
Classic Creatures
books

paper
pencils

Objectives
Predict a books content by viewing its cover.
Discuss the features of nonfiction books.
Examine illustrations in a nonfiction book.
Support or criticize the use of illustrations.
Compile a list of reasons to support your opinion.
Select the best reason.
Activity Procedures
Prepare
(teacher)
Hide the titles on the covers of Magnificent
Monarchs and Beautiful Bats. (Any titles from the
series would work.)
Pretest
(teacher, students)
Show students the covers from the
Classic Creatures series.
What do you think these books are about?
Are the books fiction or nonfiction?
Ask the students to explain their answers.

CLASSIC

CREATURES

Read
(students)
Read the Classic Creatures series.
Model
(teacher, students)
Discuss whether their predictions about the books
were correct.
List reasons they may or may not have been correct.
Explain what teachers look for when choosing
nonfiction books.
Ask students what they think of the illustrations.
Practice
(students)
List five reasons the illustrations are effective.
List five reasons the illustrations are not effective.
Write a paragraph expressing your opinion on the use
of drawings in the Classic Creatures series.
Discuss
(teacher, students, small groups)
Share the students lists of reasons.
Form small groups of students with similar opinions
on the illustrations.
Select the best argument for why the groups
opinion is correct.
Present these statements to the class.
Evaluate
(teacher)
Evaluate paragraphs based on well-developed
content and writing skills.
Observe students participation during discussion.

11

12

TEACHING

CLASSIC

CREATURES

Additional Resources
BOOKS
Berman, Ruth. Spinning Spiders. Minneapolis: Lerner
Publishing Group, 1998.
___. Squeaking Bats. Minneapolis: Lerner Publishing
Group, 1998.
These books are two titles from the Pull Ahead
Animals series. Each book introduces scientific
terminology while keeping the text easy for
younger readers to understand. The series
contains books on a variety of animal species.
Brimner, Larry Dane. Bees. New York: Childrens
Press, 1999.
The author thoroughly describes the physical
characteristics and behavior of bees.
Colvin, Leslie, and Emma Speare, eds. Usborne Living
World Encyclopedia. Tulsa, OK: EDC Publishing,
1999.
Readers are introduced to the amazing world of
nature and learn about the ways animals interact
in their environments.
Kalman, Bobbie. Life Cycle of an Earthworm. New
York: Crabtree Publishing, 2004.
This book explains the life cycle of an
earthworm. A glossary and index are included, as
well as a listing of websites.
Markle, Sandra. Outside and Inside Bats. New York:
Walker & Company, 2004.
Children learn all about these unique and
fascinating creatures with this book.
Nelson, Robin. From Flower to Honey. Minneapolis:
Lerner Publishing Group, 2003.
The process of making honeyfrom a bees
collection of nectar to honey production on a
beekeepers farmis covered in this book.
Squire, Ann O. 101 Questions and Answers about
Backyard Wildlife. New York: Walker, 1996.
Information about various birds, insects,
mammals, and reptiles is presented in a questionand-answer format.
Zemlicka, Shannon. From Egg to Butterfly.
Minneapolis: Lerner Publishing Group, 2003.
___. From Tadpole to Frog. Minneapolis: Lerner
Publishing Group, 2003.
These books follow the development of a
butterfly and a frog. Each stage of the life cycle
is presented in colorful photographs.

WEBSITES
Animal Diversity Web
http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/
site/index.html
General information from the University of
Michigans Museum of Zoology is available for
all genres of the animal kingdomfrom mammals
to reptiles.
Frogland
http://allaboutfrogs.org/froglnd.shtml
Discover general frog and toad information,
including species care sheets, pet care
information, and environmental issues. Also
investigate fun activities, jokes, printable pages,
pictures, and clip art.
Into the Bat Cave
http://www.torstar.com/rom/batcave/
cave/index.html
This site by the Royal Ontario Museum gives
visitors a glimpse into a bat cave. View photos
and learn facts about a variety of bats.
Monarchs and Migration
http://www.smm.org/sln/monarchs/
Kids can investigate butterflies on this site from
the Science Museum of Minnesota. It also
includes photos and stories.
Nova Online: Tales from the Hive
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/bees/
Produced in conjunction with the NOVA
television program, Tales from the Hive, visitors
can watch how the show was made, learn bee
facts, and view clips of bee dances. Test your
ability to understand bee dancing with an
interactive activity.
Spiders
http://www.entomology.cornell.edu/
Faculty_Staff/Rayor/Spiders/Welcome.html
Doctor Linda Raynor from Cornell University
designed this site to provide reference
information, activity ideas, resources, and answers
to frequently asked questions about spiders and
their biology.
Yucky Worm World
http://yucky.kids.discovery.com/noflash/
worm/index.html
This highly entertaining site informs kids about
basic worm science. Directions are provided for
crafts, experiments, and even recipes.

13

Wheel Cover

Teaching Classic Creatures

14

Wheel of Knowledge

Dan
ger
s

Fa
c

Food

Movement

ed

e
c
n
ra
a
e
p
Ap

at
bit
Ha

Im
p
o
r
t
a
n
c
e
Teaching Classic Creatures

Movement

Importance

Habitat

Food

Dangers Faced

Appearance

Classic
Creature

Teaching Classic Creatures

Directions: Use the information from the Classic Creatures series to complete this chart.

Creature Comparisons

15

16

Creature Calculations
Name ________________________
Directions: Using facts from the Classic Creatures series, write the multiplication
problem and its answer.
1. How many eggs would four monarch
butterflies lay during their lifetime?

5. Eight bats are in a cave, how many

wings will you find?

2. There are five insects and five spiders. 6. If eleven bats had babies this year,
How many legs are there all together?
how many babies were born?

3. In thirty days, how many insects will

a spider usually eat?

7. If you have nine bees for each job,

how many bees do you have altogether?

4. If a frog is seven inches long, how far

can it jump in one leap?

8. How many flowers can a bee visit in

six days?

Create two word problems from facts found in a Classic Creatures book.
9.

10.

Teaching Classic Creatures