Gills help it breathe.
An axolotl is a real animal. It is a kind of salamander. It spends its life in the water. Do you see the fluffy gills on the sides of its head? They help it breathe.
Shutterstock.com (Background, Bubbles); Jane Burton/NaturePL.com (Axolotl); © The Pokémon Company International (Pokémon); iStockPhoto/Getty Images (Top Axolotl); Dario Lopez-Mills/AP Images (Lake); Shutterstock.com (All Other Images); ©The Pokémon Company International (Wooper, Card); Marybeth Butler Rivera (Toy, Socks)
Is This a Real-Life Pokémon?
What is this smiley creature? It is an axolotl (AK-suh-lah-tl). It is cute and strange. There is even a Pokémon based on it!
Which Pokémon is based on an axolotl? Turn the page to find out more.
By Katie Mach
From the March/April 2025 Issue
Learning Objective: Students will compare and contrast axolotls and Wooper, a Pokémon character.
Amazing Axolotl
What Is It?
Special Powers
axolotl
Axolotls have an amazing skill. If they lose a leg, it can grow back! They can even grow back their tails. This helps them survive if a hungry fish attacks.
Where to Find One
Axolotls are hiding in this lake!
There are not a lot of axolotls. They are rare.
They only live in a few lakes in Mexico. You may have more luck finding a Pokémon!
Wonderful Wooper
What Is It?
It has gills and no arms.
Wooper is a Pokémon. It is a made-up cartoon animal. Wooper also has gills on its head, but it has no arms. Wooper comes out of the water to battle!
Special Powers
When Wooper leaves the water, its skin gets slimy.
The slime is poisonous. If you touch it, zap! Your hand will tingle. That is how Wooper battles enemies.
Where to Find One
Wooper is everywhere!
You can find Wooper on TV, on trading cards, and in video games. Good luck catching Wooper!
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More About the Article
English Language Arts Focus
Compare and contrast
Science Focus
Animal behavior
Step-by-Step Lesson Plan
Implementation
- Whole group
Pairings and Text Connections
- From the Storyworks 1 archive: “Paired Texts: Could Pikachu Be Real?” (September 2023); “Alike and Different: Which is More Amazing: Spider-Man or Spiders?” (October/November 2022)
- Suggested books: Axolotl (Young Zoologist): A First Field Guide to the Amphibian That Never Grows Up by Dr. Jessica LaMae Whited; Pokémon Book of Evolutions by Katherine Andreou
Before-Reading Resources
- Vocabulary slideshow (5 minutes) salamander, rare, gills, poisonous
- Video: Skill Power: Compare and Contrast (5 minutes) A fun how-to video on how and why we compare and contrast
Suggested Reading Focus
Compare and contrast (20 minutes)
- Tell students they will be reading texts about a real-life animal called an axolotl and a Pokémon named Wooper. Tell children that as they read, they should think about how the two are alike and different.
- Read “Amazing Axolotl,” stopping at the end of each section to check comprehension. Then read “Wonderful Wooper,” again stopping at the end of each section to check comprehension.
- Next, read the texts under the same headings back-to-back so children can focus on comparing and contrasting. Discuss what students learned about axolotls and Wooper from the section.
- Compare the photos. What do children learn from them?
- To finish, ask students to turn and talk to a partner to recall ways the axolotl and Wooper are alike and different. Have volunteers share their answers.
After-Reading Skills Practice
- Skills: Contractions; key details (15 minutes)
Text-to-Speech