5 It's a Small World

Unit 5 VOCABULARY 1 We share our planet with millions of small creatures: cool spiders, beautiful striped butterflies, ugly bugs, cute hamsters, and fascinating fish. Can you think of more little creatures that live on Earth? Eyelash mites are 0.3 millimeters long. You can only see them through a microscope. They look horrible, but they're very common. Habitat: our eyelashes Characteristics: These organisms eat dead skin cells. They crawl around our skin at night. This seahorse is an orange fish that’s just 16 millimeters long. It's smaller than a human's tooth and has a long thin tail. Habitat: warm water, near coral Characteristics: It uses camouflage. It grabs food that floats by. Male seahorses have babies. The male bee hummingbird is the smallest bird in the world. It's about 51/2 centimeters long. The female is bigger. Its eggs are smaller than coffee beans. Habitat: near flowers Characteristic: It can move its strong wings eighty times a second. 2 Listen and repeat. a millimeter Wow, it’s only one millimeter long. a microscope I can’t see anything. We need a microscope. horrible Spiders are horrible. I don’t like them at all. common Ants are very common at a picnic. habitat What kind of habitats do lions live in? an organism An organism is a living thing. It can be a plant or an animal. a cell Humans have trillions of cells in their bodies. a human Monkeys have some characteristics similar to humans. thin Giraffes have long, thin necks. grab Elephants grab things with their trunks. male My dad, my uncle, and my brother are male. a centimeter Some birds are very small. They’re only 5 centimeters long! female My mom, my aunt, and my sister are female.

SONG 1 Listen, read, and sing. Look into a Microscope Look into a microscope. Tell me what you see. There’s a tiny world in front of us, full of tiny things to see. Let’s take a look. My teacher said that creatures smaller than a human hair live in our world. She said we’d find them everywhere! Wow! Some look like strange monsters, with jaws, and claws, and horrible eyes. But don’t forget how small they are. Don’t forget their size. Look into a microscope. Tell me what you see. There’s a tiny world in front of us, full of tiny things to see. Look a little closer! There are tiny habitats where predator and prey have tiny little battles every minute of the day. Wow! Mites live on our eyelashes! That’s just the way it goes. What do they eat for breakfast? Do you really want to know? Look into a microscope. Tell me what you see. There’s a tiny world in front of us, full of tiny things to see. There’s a tiny world in front of us, full of tiny things to see.

GRAMMAR 1 Reported speech: Statements “The red beetle is really cool.” My dad said that the red beetle wasreally cool. “I don’t like things that crawlon my head.” My mom said she didn’t like things that crawled on her head. “I can see the eyelash mite through the microscope.” My teacher said that she could see the eyelash mite through the microscope. “You are wrong.” Ben said that I was wrong.

VOCABULARY 2 1 Listen and repeat. adult Did you know that adult elephants grow? tiny We need a microscope to see this creature. It’s tiny! pointed Some seahorses have a long pointed tail. furry I love rabbits. They’re soft and furry. strange What’s that animal? It’s beautiful, but it’s so strange! spotted This bug has a spotted back. It’s beautiful. GRAMMAR 2 Order of adjectives cute young striped furry creatures tiny pointed gray ears strange black Australian hairy spiders common adult spotted bugs 2 Play a game. Cut out the game board and pictures in the back of the book. Choose eight of them for your game board. Listen and play bingo. 1. Look at the cute small hairy animal she is holding in her hand. 2. You can only see these tiny gray organisms under a microscope. 3. These lovely tall creatures have long thin pink legs. 4. This is a common red bug with a spotted back. 5. This cute little Colombian frog is smaller than a coin! 6. Look at this wonderful creature’s soft furry ears. 7. These amazing green insects look like they’re dancing. 8. This bird moves its wings very fast. 9. Ugh! This big brown hairy spider is horrible. 10. This ant has six long thin legs. 11. Can you see that strange colorful creature in the sea? 12. Look at the amazing red pointed tail on this creature.

READING 1 Listen and read. There are about 1.5 million species of animals on Earth, but how many do you see every day? You often see the big colorful animals, like birds, mammals, and fish. But look more closely. Can you see the tiny creatures, too? Eighty percent of the world’s species are insects. Look on the ground. Imagine you could look under the ground. Many tiny creatures live there, too. Every cubic foot on Earth has life in it. David Liittschwager is a photographer. He wanted to find out how many creatures are in one cubic foot. So he made an empty 12-inch cube with a green metal frame and put it in five different places around the world. He chose a tropical rain forest (Costa Rica), a coral reef (Pacific Ocean), the Table Mountain (South Africa), a freshwater river (USA), and a city park (New York). He put the cube in each place for three weeks. He observed, counted, and took photos of everything—down to 1 millimeter in size—that crawled or flew into the cube. The results were amazing. Liittschwager found both common and rare creatures. He also discovered many new species, like a strange transparent octopus that is the size of a fingernail! In total, more than a thousand different organisms were photographed and studied. Liittschwager said the One Cubic Foot experience was like “finding treasure.” Although the coral reef had the most biodiversity, all the other places were also full of life. Even the city park!