Exploring The Honey Makers

Overview

Students explore Gail Gibbons' The Honey Makers as an expository informational text, connecting its science content to the IB PYP transdisciplinary theme "How the World Works" while developing key reading comprehension and inquiry skills.

Learning Intentions

• Students will understand that The Honey Makers is an expository informational text that presents facts about bees and honey production using text features.
• Students will identify and use text features (labeled diagrams, headings, captions) to locate information.
• Students will ask and answer questions about key details in the text.
• Students will connect the life cycle and role of bees to the concept of interdependence in the natural world.

Success Criteria

• I can identify The Honey Makers as an expository informational book and explain what that means.
• I can point to at least two text features in the book and explain how they help me as a reader.
• I can answer a question about bees using details from the book.
• I can share one fact I found interesting and explain why it matters.

Curriculum Links

• Georgia ELA Standard: Ask and answer questions about key details in an informational text (Reading Informational Text, Key Ideas and Details, Grade 2).
• Georgia ELA Standard: Know and use various text features to locate key facts or information (Reading Informational Text, Craft and Structure, Grade 2).
• Georgia ELA Standard: Identify the main topic and retell key details of a multi-paragraph informational text (Reading Informational Text, Grade 2).
• IB PYP transdisciplinary theme: How the World Works — students explore the natural world and how living things depend on one another.
• IB PYP key concept: Connection — understanding how bees connect to plants, people, and ecosystems.

Lesson Structure (20 minutes)

0–2 min | Hook: "What Do You Know About Bees?" Show the cover of The Honey Makers. Ask students to do a quick "turn and talk" with a partner: What do you already know about bees? Take two or three rapid responses to activate prior knowledge and spark curiosity.

2–5 min | Introduce Expository Informational Text Hold up the book and explain: "This is an expository informational book — that means it teaches us real facts about one topic using words and pictures together." Point out one labeled diagram and one caption. Ask students, "How is this different from a story book?" Briefly discuss (one or two student responses). This builds IB PYP conceptual understanding of how authors communicate information.

5–10 min | Interactive Read-Aloud with "Bee Detectives" Read a targeted section aloud (the worker bee roles and the honey-making process — approximately 4–5 pages). As you read, pause twice and use the sentence frame: "I notice… / I wonder…" to model inquiry thinking. Ask students to raise a hand silently when they hear one surprising fact. This keeps all 20 students engaged and accountable during read-aloud.

10–14 min | Text Feature Scavenger Hunt (Partner Activity) Pair students. Give each pair a sticky note. Students look at their copy of a pre-printed page from the book (or a projected image of a spread) and find one text feature — a diagram label, caption, or bold word. They write or draw what they found and share what it tells them. Circulate quickly to check understanding. This activity directly supports Georgia's informational text feature standard and IB inquiry-based learning.

14–18 min | "My Bee Fact" Quick-Write Each student independently completes one sentence on a half-sheet: "One fact I learned about bees is ___ and it is important because ___." Students who need support may draw and label instead. This brief written response mirrors IB PYP reflection and builds evidence-based writing habits at a developmentally appropriate level.

18–20 min | Share Out and Closing Connection Call on three or four students to share their bee facts. Close with the IB connection question: "How do bees connect to us and to nature?" Accept two student responses. Preview that the class will keep exploring this idea in future lessons.

Resources

• The Honey Makers by Gail Gibbons (one teacher copy for read-aloud)
• Projected or printed copies of one book spread showing a labeled diagram (one per pair)
• Sticky notes (one per pair)
• Half-sheet quick-write template with sentence frame (one per student)
• Pencils and crayons
• Document camera or projector to display pages during read-aloud
• Anchor chart labeled "Expository Informational Text" with two or three defining features listed

Assessment

• Observe student participation during the "Bee Detectives" read-aloud — note who uses "I notice / I wonder" language spontaneously.
• Collect quick-write half-sheets to check whether students stated a text-based fact and attempted a "because" connection (evidence of comprehension and IB reflective thinking).
• Use partner scavenger-hunt sticky notes as an informal formative check on text feature identification aligned to the Georgia informational text standard.

Differentiation

• Support: Pre-highlight one text feature on the printed page for students who need guided direction; allow drawing plus labeling on the quick-write instead of a full sentence.
• Extension: Challenge early finishers to find a second text feature and write two sentences explaining how both features help the reader.
• EAL/ELL: Provide a visual vocabulary card with pictures of key words (hive, nectar, pollen, colony) before the lesson begins; allow partner talk in home language during "turn and talk."
• SEN: Seat students who need additional support near the front for the read-aloud; offer a sentence-starter strip ("One fact I learned is…") already printed on their quick-write sheet.