Two Bad Ants by Chris Van Allsburg
Published 1988
Genre: childrens, picture, animals
What does the text say?
Published 1988
Genre: childrens, picture, animals
What does the text say?
- Two ants go on an adventure to a new, unknown place
- They experience many obstacles and hardships along the way, but they always miraculously survive
- Never explicitly states where they are or what they are doing
- They are happy to go back to their community and home in the ant hill at the end
How does the text work?
- Tons of very descriptive pictures that show where they are (a kitchen) from the ants' POV
- Short sentences, words are more involved and include lots of descriptive language
- Lots of onomatopoeia
What does the text mean?
- The text requires the kids to make many inferences
- The reader needs to be very observant of the pictures
- Themes of family and community are suggested
- an overall mysterious tone is given because the author never explicitly states where the ants are
How can it be used to teach literacy?
- Comprehension: making inferences. The students will need to infer on each page where the ants are, what they are doing, and why it looks that way from their point of view.
- Emergent literacy: The large pictures and small amount of words make this ideal for a read aloud for emerging readers. They could point to the words that match the pictures, point to which words go with which picture, etc.
- Vocabulary: Thinking of new ways to describe ordinary objects using descriptive language
Background knowledge needed:
- Kids need to know what ant colonies are/what an ant queen is
- To provide this, there is a great Magic School bus video on ants!
- Kids also need to be familiar with everyday kitchen objects- this should be fine for majority of students
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