A guide for using our resources

Children will explain why seashells make great homes for hermit crabs.

Vocabulary: aquarium, fiction, protects

Science Focus: animal adaptations

Simple, spectacular ideas to boost your lessons.

• In this classic, a hermit crab travels through the sea, meeting ocean animals and asking them to help furnish his seashell home.
• Read the book and then read the issue. After reading both, use our Fiction and Nonfiction skill sheet to compare the texts.

• Print out one Look for Words! skill sheet for each child. Explain that they will go on a hunt for words that start with each letter in “CRAB.” Point out the examples on the lines.
• Have children hunt around the room for more words. They can look at environmental print, in books, and so on.

• Use pages 2-3 of the issue to do this scavenger hunt as a group.

1. In the red box, find the word that means “keeps safe.” Circle it.
   
2. Find the crab that is scared. Put a ✓on on it.
3. Find the heading. Underline it.
4. Find the photo that has two labels. Circle each one.

Skill: art, writing

Materials: construction paper, paper plates, pipe cleaners or small craft sticks, watercolors or markers, glue, googly eyes (optional)

• Have each child decorate a paper plate with either markers or watercolors. This will be the crab’s shell.
• Next, have children trace their hand on a sheet of construction paper and cut it out. With the fingers of the handprint pointing down, have kids glue the paper plate to the thumb at the left side of the handprint.
• Have students attach pipe cleaners or small craft sticks to the heel of their handprint for eye stalks. For fun, they can glue googly eyes to the ends.
• To include writing, have children write a fact they learned about hermit crabs on the back of the shell!