Amazing Animals! - by Stanton L Barnes (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

This resource gives classroom teachers and reading specialists 80 stimulating illustrated two-page animal stories and 80 illustrated two-page activity sheets for building students' vocabulary, reading comprehension and critical thinking skills. The stories and activities are organized into four equal sections focusing on reading levels 3, 4, 5 and 6 and accompanied by "New Vocabulary" to introduce the pronunciation and meaning of new words and "Questions to Ask" to spark students' curiosity and recall prior knowledge. Each section concludes with ten reproducible enrichment activities to further challenge students' thinking skills followed by complete answer keys to all activities in that section.

From the Back Cover

For all classroom reading teachers and reading specialists, here is an exciting collection of stories that capture and hold students' natural interest in animals while steadily improving their vocabulary, reading comprehension and critical thinking skills through carefully designed activity sheets.

You'll find 80 ready-to-use, fully illustrated stories and activity sheets organized into four sections focusing on reading levels 3 to 6 (each level contains 20 two-page stories and 20 accompanying two-page activity sheets). The stories are preceded by "New Vocabulary" to introduce the pronunciation and meaning of new words and "Questions to Ask" to arouse students' curiosity and recall prior knowledge.

Students of all ability levels learn new vocabulary by hearing words used in context, often with clues to the meaning built into the story. Vocabulary is repeated in successive stories to reinforce its learning and to make it part of the student's growing language of words. Reading comprehension skills--like using facts to answer specific questions, recognizing main ideas, understanding cause and effects, and predictions--are stressed in all activity sheets.

For your convenience, all of this ready-to-use material is printed in a big 8-1/4" x 11" lay-flat binding that folds flat for easy photocopying of each story selection and its accompanying activity sheets. Following a sampling of stories from each of the reading levels:

READING LEVEL 3: "A Friendly Spring Bird" (robins) ... "The Shy American Bear" (Black bears) ... "What Big Teeth You Have!" (walruses) ... "American Marsupials" (Opossums) ... "The Biggest Land Mammals" (elephants) ... "Reptiles with Shells" (green turtles) ... "The Most Famous Deer of All" (reindeer) ... "A Big, Beautiful Black Bird" (ravens) ... "Our Worst Friend" (house mice)

READING LEVEL 4: "I Wouldn't Eat That Cucumber" (sea cucumber) ... "Our Most Popular State Bird" (cardinals) ... "A Cute Australian" (koalas) ... "The World's Tallest Animal" (giraffes) .. "Whose Stomping Ground Is It?" (skunks) .. "A Prickly Mammal" (porcupines) ... "The Horse Tigers" (zebras) ... "Warts Can Be Beautiful" ... (warthogs) ... "A Great Fish Story" (carp)

READING LEVEL 5: "The Largest Rodent in North America" (beavers) ... "A Real Shocking Story" (electric eels) ... "A Night in Armor" (armadillos) ... "The River Horses" (hippopotamuses) ... "Our Most Dangerous Spider" (black widow spiders) ... "The Most Intelligent Invertebrate" (octopuses) "Man of the Woods" (orangutans) ... "The Biggest Snake in the World" (anacondas)

READING LEVEL 6: "The Miniature Dinosaurs" (praying mantises) ... "Where the Wild Geese Fly" (Canadian geese) ... "Magnificent Mammal Migration" (fur seals) ... "Felines with Many Names" (mountain lions) ... "Some Scary Arachnids" (tarantulas) ... "King of the Northwest" (grizzly bears) ... "Second Most Intelligent Mammal" (chimpanzees) ... "Are Dragons Only a Myth?" (Komodo dragons) ... "The Queen and Her Court" (honeybees)

Moreover, each section ends with ten reproducible enrichment activities to further challenge students' thinking skills. Answer keys to all activities are also included at the end of each section.

In short, this unique resource gives you scores of stimulating animal stories and activity sheets that promote reading growth, curiosity, and original thinking and invite all students to participate and to be successful.

About the Author

Stanton L. Barnes received his B.S. in Education from Otterbein College in Ohio and his M.Ed. from Western Washington University. He has been teaching elementary students in the state of Washington for the past 30 years. He has specialized in teaching reading skills at all elementary levels, and is well known for emphasizing scientific thinking and reasoning skills with students.