The Smart Little Crab

Smart Little Crab The

Written by Kerrie Shanahan Illustrated by Susy Boyer

The Smart Little Crab Text type: Narrative Level: K (20) Word count: 725 Content vocabulary crab octopus sea snail sea star sea seawater seaweed shore tide tide pool Curriculum link • Science: Living things – habitats, interdependency of living things Key concepts • Tide pools contain animals and plants that depend on each other and a healthy tide pool for their survival.

• People’s actions can impact on the health of tide pools.

Smart Little Crab The

Reading strategy • Recognizing cause and effect in a story Paired book Looking After Tide Pools

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Developed by Eleanor Curtain Publishing Designed by Derek Schneider Printed and bound in China through Colorcraft Ltd, Hong Kong Distributed in the USA by Okapi Educational Publishing Inc. Phone: 866-652-7436 Fax: 800-481-5499 Email: info@myokapi.com www.myokapi.com www.flying-start-to-literacy.com ISBN: 978-1-74234-609-0 8 9 10 11 12 15 16 17 18 19

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Written by Kerrie Shanahan Illustrated by Susy Boyer

Contents Chapter 1 Home by the sea

4

Chapter 2 Sea star’s bright idea

6

Chapter 3 Trash or treasure?

10

Chapter 4 An exciting new tide pool

16

Chapter 5 Trouble in the tide pool

20

Chapter 6 The little crab speaks up

22

Chapter 1

Home by the sea On the rocky shore next to the sea, there was a tide pool. In the tide

It was a good place to live because the tide pool was clean and healthy.

All the animals lived happily with each other in their tide pool.

That was, until the sea star got bored.

pool lived many plants and animals.

4

5

Chapter 2

Sea star's bright idea

The animals looked around and started nodding.

“I have an idea,” said the sea star.

“I’m bored with our tide pool,”

“Let’s fix up our tide pool. Let’s

said the sea star. “It’s always

make it look sparkling and new.”

the same. The tide comes in.

The tide goes out. Day after day.

“Yes!” said all the animals.

Our tide pool is boring and I’m

“Let’s fix up this boring old place.”

bored, too!”

6

7

But no one was listening. All the animals had gone to find new things to put in their tide pool.

“But wait,” said the little crab.

“Our tide pool is not boring. This is how a tide pool is meant to be.

We have everything we need.

We can hide in the seaweed.

We have fresh seawater coming in.

The seawater brings lots of little animals to eat. Don’t change it!”

8

9

Chapter 3

Trash or treasure?

When the animals came back, they had new things for their tide pool.

“Look, I have a shiny new tin can,” said the sea star as he put the can on top of some seaweed. “Now we have somewhere to sit.”

“But the tin can is squashing the seaweed,” said the little crab.

“We need the seaweed for food and for a place to hide. Where will we hide and what will we eat when the seaweed is dead?”

But no one was listening.

10

11

The sea snail family arrived with

The little crab just watched and

an empty plastic bag.

shook his head.

“Wow,” said all the animals.

“That plastic bag is dangerous,”

“We can make a roof out of that.”

he said. “Our baby animals could

So the animals put the plastic bag over the tide pool.

12

choke on it.”

But no one was listening.

13

“The fresh water brings us lots of little animals to eat,” said the little crab. “What will we eat instead?”

But no one was listening.

Then the octopus pulled a big box into the tide pool.

“Look,” she said. “This will be great fun to play in.”

The little crab was shocked.

“That will stop fresh seawater from coming into our tide pool,” he said.

14

15

Chapter 4

An exciting new tide pool

16

They worked hard to make sure that their tide pool was not boring anymore.

“Look at our tide pool now,” said the

The animals gathered more and more

sea star. “We have so many new and

bits and pieces to add to their tide pool.

interesting things to play with.”

They dragged and lifted and pushed

“Yes,” said the other animals.

and pulled all the new things.

“It looks wonderful.”

17

But the little crab did not think

“Our tide pool is very different

their new home was great.

from how it used to be,” said the

He looked around the tide pool.

He wondered how this could have happened to his beautiful,

little crab. “I’m worried that it will not keep us healthy anymore.”

But no one was listening.

healthy home.

18

19

Chapter 5

Trouble in the tide pool For some time, the other animals were happy in their new home, but then the tide pool started to change.

The water got dirty and the seaweed stopped growing because no fresh water came into the tide pool.

Finally, the other animals could see what was happening.

“Our tide pool is dying,” they all cried. “What will we do? How can we save our home?”

20

21

Chapter 6

The little crab speaks up “LISTEN TO ME!” said the little crab in his biggest, loudest voice.

“I know what to do. We must clean up our tide pool. We have to get rid of the things that do not

At last, the animals listened

belong here.”

to the little crab.

They began to clean up their tide pool. It was hard work, but the animals were determined to have a beautiful, healthy tide pool again.

They dragged and lifted and pushed and pulled until all the trash was gone.

22

23

It took time, but eventually the tide pool was clean again.

And from then on, whenever the animals had a new idea, they always checked with the little crab first.

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Level A Level B Level C Level D Level E Level F Level G Level H Level I Level J Level K Level L Level M Level N Level O Level P (1) (2) (3-4) (6) (8) (10) (12) (14) (16) (18) (20) (24) (28) (30) (34) (38)

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