This Bug Stinks! Lesson Plan

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Academic Standards

 

Reading Objective:

Children will analyze why stinkbugs are a problem for people.

 

Science Focus:

insects, animal adaptations

 

ELA Skills:

key details, vocabulary, text evidence, writing

 

Page 4 Skill:

read a life cycle

 

Vocabulary:

insects, defense, infest, pests

 

CCSS:

SL.2.3, RI.2.1, RI.2.4, RI.2.2, RI.2.10, RI.2.8, L.2.1

 

Guided Reading Level:

L

 

Lexile Level: 

500L

Download TEKS Standards
Download California State Standards
Download Common Core Standards

Provide students with some background on insects.

 

Build background knowledge (10 min.)

Watch our video ““Insects, Insects, Everywhere.” After children have finished watching the video, discuss the following question:

  • What is one thing that all insects have? (Answers include: two antennas, three body parts, six legs.)

 

Preview vocabulary (3 min.)

Next, play the online vocabulary slideshow. This issue’s featured words are insects, defense, infest, and pests.

Set a purpose for reading (5 min.)

  • Pass out the issue, and discuss the cover. Ask, “Would you want to meet a stinkbug up close? What might happen?”
  • Next, read the As You Read prompt on page 2: “Think about why stinkbugs are a problem.” Encourage children to think about this prompt as they read.

Read together (20 min.)

Pass out the Read and Think printable. Use it to check comprehension as you read the issue together, pausing to ask the questions. 

Assessment: Reading Checkpoint (15 min.)

Pass out the Reading Checkpoint to review key concepts from the issue and assess students’ proficiency on key nonfiction reading skills.

  • Use the online game show to gauge comprehension and reinforce the issue’s content. Students can play by themselves or in teams. For each question they answer correctly, they get a point!

You can use our printable worksheets to focus on important science and ELA skills. Here’s how.

 

ELA Focus: Vocabulary (15 min.)

  • Use the Word Work printable to deepen students’ understanding of the words insect, defense, infest, and pest.

Editor’s Pick: Insects and Senses (15 min.)

  • Children learned how to tell if a stinkbug is nearby—by using their sense of smell. They also learned that a stinkbug’s stink helps keep people and animals away. With this skill sheet, children put the information from the sidebar into a chart by drawing each bug, writing which sense it affects, and telling how that helps the insect.

ELA Focus: Text Evidence (15 min.)

  • Once again, Norbert Know-It-All thinks he knows everything! This time he shares his knowledge of stinkbugs, but he has not read his Scholastic News very carefully! Read kids his “expertise” and let them write back to correct him! Send letters to norbert@ scholastic.com. Norbert will write back!

 Here are two past issues you can use to extend your lesson on insects:

  • Bugs in Your Hair?, April 2018. This issue teaches kids all about very common—and very unwelcome—pests: head lice!
  • Butterflies Are Back!, May/June 2020. In this issue, children learn about the migration patterns of monarch butterflies.

You can find a higher-Lexile-level and a lower-Lexile-level version of the article online here:

  • Higher Lexile level: 550L
  • Lower Lexile level: 450L