April McConnell Grade – Kindergarten
P.S. 130 Literature

Hey, Little Ant
By Phillip and Hannah Hoose
Illustrated by Debbie Tilley

Synopsis of Story

This story is about the dialogue between an ant and a boy. The boy is about to squish the ant, because the ant is useless and steals picnic food. The ant tries to convince the boy not to squish him because he needs the food to feed his family and there are many things that they have in common. At the end, it is left up to the reader to make the decision if the boy should squish the ant.

SEL Understandings

• Learning how others might be feeling in order to encourage sensitivity
• Understanding other’s perspectives, points of view, and feelings
• Intuition is an important SEL skill.
• Recognizing the effects of decisions on self and others
• Recognizing the cause-effect relationship in the decision-making process
• Understanding that people-have strengths and weaknesses
• Controlling impulses, aggression and self-destructive behavior
• Identifying ways in which people are alike and different

Objectives

SEL: Students will decide if the ant should get squished and be able to justify their decision using both reasoned and intuitive judgement.

Literacy: Students will apply knowledge of character to resolve the story's dilemma.

Pre-Reading

Have you ever seen a bug and killed it? Did you ever stop to think how the bug felt?
Have you ever thought about doing something and then changed your mind?

Discussion Questions

Were you ever in the same situation as the boy? What happened?
How did the bug feel when he saw the shoe?
Do you agree that “ants can feel”?
How is the boy similar to the ant?
Why is the ant important in the world?

Activity

Have students stand up, pair up with a partner and face their partners in two long lines. Tell them that they will recreate the ant – boy situation. The partners on the left side will be the Ant and the ones on the right side will be the Boy. Give the Ant one minute to share its POV which is followed by 30 seconds for the Boy to paraphrase (i.e. repeat back in his own words). Next, have both partners switch roles and go through the process one more time but from the perspective of the new role.

Bring everyone together in the large group. Process the activity with the class focusing on how their thoughts and feelings changed based on the role they played. Discuss how people sometimes use their intuition to make a decision. People will say "it feels right" when they intuit the right action to take and what they usually mean is that they are using lots of information from their emotions. Help students to decide on what Ant and Boy can do to solve their problem. After the decision ask the group to do a Check in of their feelings to see how the decision feels. Process their discoveries.

Class Extension

• Have students role-play being objects who describe how "they" see the world from their perspectives. For a good worksheet to use with this activity see the one entitled –“Old Shoes, New Shoes” from Breaking the Language Barriers by Joe Wayman published by Good Apple.
• Read The Ant and the Bully
• Integrated Learning - Lead a POV nature field study. Give children paper and pencils in a natural area. The paper should be folded into thirds. On each third the children will draw one thing in nature (e.g. a flower) from three perspectives (theirs, an ant and a bird flying overhead). Encourage them to move their bodies so they can take those perspectives. A fun thing to do at the end is to show the drawings and have class guess the identity of the subject.

Home and Family Connection
Contact the parents or caregivers and ask:
For a short period of time, can you and your child switch roles. You are child and your child is the parent. Have fun with it but really try to switch roles. Discuss the perspectives when done? Is it easy? Hard? Did you and your child learn anything about each other?

Teacher Reflection

Am I comfortable sharing my perspective with others? Do I verbalize shifts in my thinking and reverse decisions after reflection? Do I validate their feeling when they share their point of view?