Hey, Little Ant challenges students to think critically about what matters most in the story. By identifying key details, such as the ant's argument to save its life and the boy's reasons for squishing it, students learn how to focus on the central ideas. Through this activity, students will practice distinguishing between main ideas and less important details, helping them uncover the story's core message about empathy and fairness. This strategy not only strengthens comprehension but also encourages meaningful discussions about how we treat others in our world.

Phillip and Hannah Hoose expertly weave a story that inspires readers to think about fairness and respect for all living things. Students will identify why the authors chose to tell this story as a conversation and explore how the rhyming text and illustrations add to its message. Through guided questions, students will consider the authors' purpose—was it to entertain, to teach a lesson, or both? They will also analyze how the playful yet thought-provoking tone helps deliver an important message about seeing value in every life, no matter how small.

Hey, Little Ant provides an excellent opportunity for students to practice making inferences by thinking deeply about the dialogue between the boy and the ant. The story's narration encourages readers to infer how each character feels and what motivates their actions. The illustrations provide further clues and evidence to support students' inferences, especially as they explore the perspectives of each character.

This word work lesson plan and set of teaching resources use Hey, Little Ant by Phillip and Hannah Hoose as a springboard for instruction focused on rhyming words with the long "oo" sound.

By anchoring word study to the text, students will benefit from seeing how rhyming words are used inside the text before engaging in guided and independent practice with rhymes.

This set of vocabulary development resources for Hey, Little Ant highlights the words that are most important for students to know and understand while reading the book. Through engaging in fun word games, matching words to definitions and pictures, and practicing how to categorize words, students will develop the vocabulary necessary to comprehend this story and many others.

Read Hey, Little Ant then have some fun matching cause and effect sentences from the book. By using these cause and effect cards, students will demonstrate both their comprehension of the text and their understanding of cause and effect relationships in a hands-on and interactive way.

This resource includes matching/sorting cards and a sorting mat for four cause and effect sentences in Hey, Little Ant. Each cause card is marked with a square and each effect card is marked with a circle, making it easy to support students who struggle with matching cause and effect relationships.

Understanding cause and effect is a key comprehension and language skill. The text structure of Hey, Little Ant includes several examples of cause and effect relationships, making it easy to use as a springboard for modeling or independent practice.

This simple resource includes four sentence stems. Each sentence stem presents an effect. Students will use what they know about the book to fill in the cause of the effect.

In Hey, Little Ant, the boy realizes that even the smallest creatures matter. In this activity, students will think about tiny things and why they are important. Using the chart, they will write or draw their ideas, encouraging empathy and a new perspective on the world around them.