L E S S O N 6 T E A C H E R ’ S G U I D E
by Claire Tan
Selection Summary
There are three kinds of bees—queens, workers, and drones—each with its own kind of work to do. The queen lays eggs; workers gather food; drones are the fathers of the queen’s eggs. Bees live in beehives made of wax cells called combs. They sting only if they or their hives are attacked.
Number of Words: 456
Genre • Informational Text
Text Structure • Three sections with titles, each two to fi ve pages
Content • Characteristics of bees
• Specifi c jobs that each type of bee does
• Life within the beehive
Themes and Ideas • Bees have to work at their jobs.
Language and
Literary Features
• When a group of animals live together, they are dependent on each other.
• Conversational language
• Writer talks directly to the reader.
Sentence Complexity • Mostly simple sentences
• Some sentences with introductory clauses: If you leave them alone, they will not sting you.
Vocabulary • Content-related words, some of which may not be familiar to English language learners: hive, queen bees, worker bees, drones, nectar, pollen, wax, cells, stinger
• Target vocabulary words highlighted in text
Words • Compound words: inside, outside, sometimes, something, someday
• Mostly one- and two-syllable words
• Some three-syllable words: family, important, animals, beautiful
Illustrations • Photographs closely linked to text; one half-page photo per page
• One diagram labeled with parts of a bee
Book and Print Features • Nine pages of text; easy-to-read section headings
• Labels on photos that clarify text
© 2006. Fountas, I.C. & Pinnell, G.S. Teaching for Comprehending and Fluency , Heinemann, Portsmouth, N.H.
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by Claire Tan
Help children use their knowledge of bees. Build interest by asking questions such as the following: What do you know about bees?
Have you ever been stung by a bee?
Read the title and author’s name and talk about the cover photograph. Tell children that this book is informational text, so the words and photos will give factual information.
Some everyday words may be unfamiliar to English learners. Before reading, check understanding of the following words: male, biggest, sugary, fl owers, powder, attack, sting.
Guide students through the text, noting important ideas, and helping with unfamiliar language and vocabulary so they can read the text successfully. Call their attention to any important labels. Here are some suggestions:
Page 2: Explain that this book gives information about bees. Read the labels on page 2. Suggested language: Turn to page 2. Read the section heading: “Bees and
Their Jobs.” What information will you fi nd in this section? The labels tell you that these are bees on their hive. Look at the hundreds of bees! They are on the outside of their hive, which is where they live. Have you ever seen a hive of bees?
Page 3: Point out the label “queen” and tell children that the large bee in the middle of the photo is a queen bee. Do you think that the queen bee is important in the hive? How can you tell?
Page 5: Have children look at the photo, and explain that bees eat nectar, a sweet water that comes from fl owers. Read the label. This worker bee is collecting nectar from a fl ower. Then she brings it back to the hive for other bees to eat.
Page 7: Direct children to the photo and read the label. Explain that inside the beehive are hundreds of wax cells that are formed, or shaped the same.
It must take a long time to form all the cells in the hive. The queen bee lays her eggs in the deepest part of the hive. Why do you think the queen lays her eggs deep inside the hive?
Now turn back to the beginning of the book and read to fi nd out how different bees do their different jobs.
beaks – hard, pointed parts of birds’ mouths, p. 9 branches – n. tree parts that grow from a tree’s trunk, p. 8 break – to make something come apart into two or more pieces, p. 9 deepest – the farthest depth from the surface p. 7 hang – attached to something at the top that does not touch the ground, p. 8 pond – a body of water that is smaller than a lake, p. 10 shaped – formed something in a particular way, p. 7 winding – moving one way and then another, p. 10
Grade 2
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2
Lesson 6: Bees at Work

Have children read Bees at Work silently while you listen to individual children read.
Support their problem solving and fl uency as needed.
Remind children to use the Question Strategy as they read.
and to think of questions
Invite children to share their personal responses to the book.
Suggested language: What did you learn about bees that you didn’t know before?
As you discuss the text, help children understand these points:
Thinking Within the Text
• There are three kinds of bees: queens, workers, and drones.
• The queen lays eggs; drones are the fathers of the queen’s eggs; workers gather food and build the hive in which the bees live.
• Bees can sting, but they do that only if they or their hives are attacked.
Thinking Beyond the Text
• Different kinds of bees have different jobs, but all the jobs are necessary to keep all the bees alive.
• There are different kinds of work to do in a group of animals living together.
Thinking About the Text
• The photographs show different kinds of bees and their home.
• A diagram shows the parts of a bee’s body.
• The author includes lots of details about different kinds of bees and what they do.
• The section titles give a good idea of what information will be covered.
© 2006. Fountas, I.C. & Pinnell, G.S. Teaching for Comprehending and Fluency , Heinemann, Portsmouth, N.H.
• Fluency Invite children to choose a page from the text and demonstrate phrased fl uent reading. Remind them to use rising and falling tones to show the meaning of the text.
• Comprehension Based on your observations of the children’s reading and discussion, revisit parts of the text to clarify or extend comprehension. Remind children to go back to the text to support their ideas.
• Phonics/Word Work Provide practice as needed with words and word parts, using examples from the text. Make and change words to create comparatives. Remind children that -er is added to an adjective to compare two things and -est to compare more than two things (deep/deeper/deepest).
3
Grade 2
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Lesson 6: Bees at Work
11/4/09 7:42:47 PM

Have children complete the Critical Thinking questions on BLM 6.10.
Have children complete the activities at the back of the book. Use the instruction below as needed to reinforce or extend understanding of the comprehension skill.
Text and Graphic Features Remind children that they can think about how words work with photos. Model the skill, using a “Think Aloud” like the one below:
Think Aloud
How does the photo on page 8 help me understand more about the text on that page? The photo shows me what a swarm of bees hanging on a tree branch looks like. I can see that there are hundreds of bees covering the branches. This helps me understand the last sentence on the page:
The other bees hang on tree branches and wait.
Have children choose two photographs and write two sentences about how each photo helped them better understand the words on that page.
Have children write a response to the prompt on page 6. Remind them that when they think beyond the text, they use what they know and their own experience to think about what happens in the story.
• What is the selection mainly about?
• What is the author’s purpose for writing the section titled Why Bees Sting ?
Grade 2
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company
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4
Lesson 6: Bees at Work
11/4/09 7:42:58 PM

Check regularly on children’s oral reading to determine accuracy, fl uency, and comprehension. Or have children use the audio or online recordings.
Explain that a person who is busy all the time is sometimes described as being as busy as a bee. Discuss with children the meaning of this idiom in connection to the book they have just read.
Check children’s comprehension, using a dialogue that best matches their English profi ciency level. Speaker 1 is the teacher, Speaker 2 is the child.
Beginning/Early Intermediate Intermediate Early Advanced/ Advanced
Speaker 1: Where do bees live?
Speaker 2: in a beehive
Speaker 1: Which bee is the most important in the hive?
Speaker 2: the queen
Speaker 1: Why is the queen bee so important?
Speaker 2: She lays the eggs.
Speaker 1: What happens when there are too many bees in a hive?
Speaker 2: The queen leads some bees out to start a new hive.
Speaker 1: What are the jobs of the worker bees?
Speaker 2: Workers fi nd food, feed the other bees, take care of the queen’s eggs, and build the hive in which the bees live.
Grade 2
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Name
Think About It
Date
Read and answer the questions.
1.
Which bees fi nd food for the hive?
Worker bees fi nd food for the hive.
Lesson 6
B L A C K L I N E M A S T E R 6 . 1 0
Bees at Work
Think About It
2.
How is a hive of bees like a family?
Possible response: The bees take care of each other and have different jobs.
3.
Why do you think the queen bee lives in the safest part of the hive? Explain your answer.
Possible response: The queen is the most important bee because she lays eggs.
5
Making Connections Think about the termite mounds you read about in Animals Building Homes . How is a termite mound like a beehive? How is it different?
Write your answer in your Reader’s Notebook.
Read directions to children.
Think About It
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12
Grade 2, Unit 2: Nature Watch
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Lesson 6: Bees at Work
First Pass
1/11/10 10:03:18 PM

Name
Date
Thinking Beyond the Text
Think about the questions below. Then write your answer in one paragraph.
On page 2, the author says that every bee in a hive has a job. How does the job of the queen bee help all the other bees in a hive? How do the jobs of the workers help all the bees in a hive?
Grade 2
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company
6
Lesson 6: Bees at Work

Name
1.
Date
2.
Lesson 6
B L A C K L I N E M A S T E R 6 . 1 0
Bees at Work
Think About It
3.
Grade 2
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company
7
Lesson 6: Bees at Work
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Student
Date
Lesson 6
B L A C K L I N E M A S T E R 6 . 1 4
Bees at Work
Running Record Form
Errors Self-Corrections
2
3
4 page Selection Text
Did you know that bees live together in a home called a hive? A hive of bees is like a family. Every bee has a special job to do.
There are queen bees, worker bees, and drones, the male bees.
The queen is the biggest bee in the hive.
She has the most important job, too. She lays eggs. A queen can lay 2,000 eggs in one day!
New workers, drones, and queens will come from the eggs.
There are two kinds of worker bees. Some work inside the hive. These workers feed the other bees. They also take care of the eggs.
Comments: Accuracy Rate
(# words read correctly/103 × 100)
%
Total Self-
Corrections
Behavior
Read word correctly ✓ cat
Code
Repeated word, sentence, or phrase
Omission
0
Error
0
1
Grade 2
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8
Behavior
Substitution
Self-corrects
Insertion
Word told

Code
1
1
1
Error
0
Lesson 6: Bees at Work
12/8/09 4:34:47 PM