Title: A Pack of Wolves Level: Q
Story Overview
Subject: Wolves
Main Idea: Non-Fiction text that focuses on the life of the gray wolf.
Important Facts:
Meet the Gray Wolf
El Large numbers of gray wolves live in North America
El Farmers killed 9 out of every 10 wolves
U Today wolves have disappeared from most states
El Wolves are the largest members of the dog family
El Five types of Gray Wolves live in North America
El Wolves have good senses:
O Sight
O Hearing
0 Smell
Lfe in a Pack
El Wolves live in packs of 6-15 wolves
El Each wolf pack defends its land against other wolf packs
El Their howls also warn others to “keep out”
El Wolf pack has a social order
U] Strongest of the pack is the leader
O The lead wolf leads the hunt, divides the food and settles fights
O After the kill, the lead wolf usually eats first
The Hunt
El Wolves hunt often
El They work together to catch large prey
El They may travel up to 10 miles to hunt one animal
El Each wolf may eat up to 20 ponds of meat
El In order for a pack to survive, it needs to kill one large animal a week
El When big game is scarce, they will hunt alone to catch mice, beavers and rabbits
Parenting a Group Effort
El Gray wolves pick mates for life
El In most packs only the lead pair mate and have pups
0 In the spring, the pregnant female digs deep tunnels that lead to her den
El She gives birth to a litter of four to six pups
El Wolf pups are born blind and deaf
El After about 3 weeks the pups are able to see hear, walk and make noise
El The pack helps to raise the pups
El When the pups are about 6 months, they join the pack for hunting trips

Protecting Wolves
Li Gray wolves are still a threatened species
Li 13 states actively protect wolves
0 30 wolves have been free in Yellowstone
Li To keep the peace the government pays for livestock killed by wolves

A Pack of	•	Bunnicula series by	•	short sentences with few complex	• Complex sentence
Wolves (4O ‘ ‘	• •	James Howe Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder Amazing Arachnids by Lucy Floyd (TREK- Celebration Press)	• •	or compound some new vocabulaiy terms— social order, livestock, nature in balance—explained within text need limited higher level skills: visualizing inferring, interpreting	“Each spring, when the female is pregnant, she looks for a den near fresh water. “(p.7) • illustrations support text but don’t explain it. Readers need to infer that animals can go at least a week without eating in order to understand hunting “In order for the pack to survive, it needs to kill about one large animal per week “(p.7)