Destinations

Week 1: Miss Rumphius, Barbara Cooney

Vocabulary
  • beautiful: pleasing to look at
  • faraway: a long distance
  • porridge: hot cereal like oatmeal
  • tropical: a hot and humid place
  • wharf: a place for ships to load and unload
  1. Grandma lived so faraway we had to travel there by train.
  2. It took all day to unload the ship’s cargo onto the wharf.
  3. The summer was so hot it felt like being on a tropical island.
  4. The family sat down to eat their delicious breakfast of porridge just like the three bears.
  5. She received a vase full of beautiful flowers for Mother’s Day.
Vocabulary Usage in the Book
  1. “You must do something to make the world more beautiful,” said her grandfather.
  2. Some of the books told her about faraway places.
  3. In the meantime Alice got up and washed her face and ate porridge for breakfast.
  4. “This is almost like a tropical isle,”said Miss Rumphius.
  5. From the front stoop she could see the wharves and the bristling masts of tall ships.
Comprehension
  1. Alice could see the wharves and masts of tall ships from her front stoop.
  2. Her grandfather came to America on a sailing ship.
  3. Alice’s grandfather was an artist.
  4. Alice told her grandfather that she wanted to go to faraway places and live by the sea.
  5. Her grandfather told her that she must also do something to make the world a more beautiful place.
  6. Miss Rumphius worked in a library.
  7. Miss Rumphius thought the conservatory in the park was almost like a tropical isle/.
  8. Before Miss Rumphius left the tropical islands, Baba Raja gave her a beautiful mother-of-pearl shell.
  9. Miss Rumphius climbed tall mountains where the snow never melted.
  10. Feeling much better, Miss Rumphius discovered on her walk a large patch of blue and purple and rose-colored lupines.
  11. The flowers gave Miss Rumphius the idea to hurry home and send off for five bushels of lupine seed.
  12. Miss Rumphius, the Lupine Lady, had done the third most difficult thing of all.

Week 2: Abuela, Arthur Dorros

Vocabulary
  • beautiful: something that is very pretty
  • dock: to park a boat
  • soar: fly or rise in the air
  • surround: to be all around
  • swoop: go down very far
  1. The bouquet of flowers was very beautiful.
  2. The birds swoop down from the tree.
  3. The children run to surround the candy from the pinata.
  4. The boat was tied securely to the dock.
  5. The gentle breeze made my kite soar/ above the waves.
Vocabulary Usage in the Book
  1. I think the park is beautiful too.
  2. We’d fly to where the ships are docked and watch people unload fruits from the land where Abuela grew up.
  3. And I’d look as we soared over parks and streets, dogs and people.
  4. “Tantos pajaros,” Abuela says as a flock of birds surrounds us.
  5. “Swooping like a bird”, I’d call to her.
Comprehension
  1. People mostly speak Spanish where she is from.
  2. Abuela means grandmother in Spanish.
  3. A bus will take you all around the city.
  4. I wish I could fly like a bird.
  5. The birds eat the bread crumbs we bring.
  6. The first thing we did at the park was play on the swings.
  7. When we flew, we would see parks, streets, dogs, and people.
  8. Abuela’s skirt would be like a sail.
  9. Pablo is my uncle and Elisa is my aunt.
  10. The clouds look like a cat, a bear, and a chair.
  11. We would fly by the buildings where my father works.
  12. Abuela wants to go on a boat ride.

Week 3: The Wonderful Towers of Watts, Patricia Zelver

Vocabulary
  • bungalow: a small, one-story house
  • creation: something that is made
  • gramophone: an old-fashioned music player
  • marvel: to be amazed
  • tile: a small square of glass or clay
  1. My family moved into the bungalow.
  2. The counter is made out of beautiful tile.
  3. He was proud of his creation made out of clay.
  4. My grandfather listened to music on a gramophone.
  5. They marvel at the amazing animals.
Vocabulary Usage in the Book
  1. He bought a little bungalow in Watts, a poor neighborhood that was half town, half country, outside the city limits of Los Angeles.
  2. Everyone stared in wonder at old Sam’s creation.
  3. While he worked he listened to opera music on an old gramophone.
  4. Every year people come from all over the world to marvel at Old Sam’s crazy dream.
  5. Every evening he got off the streetcar carrying a large burlap of broken colored tiles.
Comprehension
  1. Many people though that Old Sam was crazy.
  2. Old Sam came from Italy.
  3. Old Sam rode the street car to work and home.
  4. Many people thought that Old Sam was collecting junk.
  5. People wondered what Old Sam was up to.
  6. One day a sparkling tower of cement and tiles rose over the fence.
  7. Old Sam climbed his towers with only a window washer’s belt to keep him from falling.
  8. Even though Old Sam was getting older, he kept on working just as before.
  9. Children found a magical city with little streets, squares, and fountains in Old Sam’s backyard.
  10. Many newspaper reporters came to see the towers and talk to Old Sam
  11. When Old Sam turned eighty, he moved away and went to live near his relatives in another city.
  12. City officials wanted to knock the towers down, but the people volunteered to make a wind load test to prove the towers were safe, they were!

Week 4: Fly High, Fly Low, Don Freeman

Vocabulary
  • bewildered: to be confused
  • glide: to move smoothly
  • peeped: looked quickly
  • persnickety: very fussy and picky
  • tuckered-out: to be very tired
  1. The child was a persnickety eater.
  2. The baby was tuckered-out after a long day.
  3. The puppy looked bewildered at his new home.
  4. The baby chick peeped over the edge of the nest.
  5. The pelican’s parents taught him to glide over the ocean.
Vocabulary Usage in the Book
  1. He stood there dazed and bewildered, wondering where his sign had gone. (Pg. 29)
  2. Side by side they glided over the bay, until they could look down and see The Golden Gate Bridge. (Pgs. 15-16)
  3. When he peeped out he saw that the rain had stopped and warm rays from the sun were beginning to shine down. (Pg. 47)
  4. The pigeons who roosted along the ledges of the building across the street thought he was a pretty persnickety pigeon to live where he did. (Pg. 10)
  5. Then, as the setting sun began painting the sky with a rosy glow, two tuckered-out birds would be slowly winging their way back to the park just in time for supper. (Pg. 18)
Comprehension
  1. San Francisco is famous for it s fog and flowers. (Pg. 6)
  2. The other pigeons thought that he was too choosy and persnickety. (Pg. 10)
  3. Sometimes Mr. Hi Lee brought the pigeons day-old cake crumbs from the bakery. (Pg. 13)
  4. Sid and Midge could look down at the Golden Gate Bridge because they flew so high. (Pg. 16)
  5. Sid and Midge built a nest using straw, string and old cloth. (Pg. 21)
  6. Midge was afraid because her home was being taken down. (Pg. 24)
  7. When Sid came home, he was dazed and bewildered. (Pg. 29)
  8. When the storm hit, Sid tried to hide in the traffic light and then the cable carbell. (Pg. 37)
  9. Sid was rescued from the gutter by Mr. Hi Lee. (Pg. 46)
  10. When Sid was in Mr. Hi Lee’s pocket he found several sunflower seeds. (Pg. 46)
  11. Mr. Hi Lee took Sid to a bakery. (Pg. 47)
  12. After the baby birds were born, all of the other birds were very appreciative of the birds choice of home. (Pg. 56)

Week 5: Letting Swift River Go, Jane Yolen

Vocabulary
  • harvested : to have gathered things together
  • mumblety-peg: an old game played with sticks or pocket knives
  • rippled: a water surface with very small waves
  • sacred: religiously important
  • whispered: spoken very quietly
  1. The mother whispered goodnight to her baby.
  2. The children were playing mumblety-peg in the yard.
  3. When the crops were ripe, the farmers harvested them.
  4. The Bible is considered sacred to Christians.
  5. The afternoon wind rippled the surface of the lake.
Vocabulary Usage in the Book
  1. In the deep winter/Papa harvested ice/from Greenwich Lake,/and Mama kept the stove going/in the house all day and all night.
  2. We played mumblety-peg/in the graveyard/and picnicked on Grandpa Will’s stone/the black one that stayed warm all day/by soaking up the hot summer sun.
  3. A rainbow trout leaped after a fly/and the water rings rippled through/my father’s careful mapping.
  4. No one wanted to bother with them/but I thought it right/they remain in sacred ground.
  5. The wind whispered comfortably/through the long branches/of the willow by my bedroom window.
Comprehension
  1. Mother would let me walk alone all the way to the crossroads.
  2. We would have picnics on Grandpa Will’s stone.
  3. When we slept outside in the backyard we would listen to the trains.
  4. At night, we would catch fireflies in mason jars.
  5. During the winter we would hang buckets on the maple tree to catch sap for making syrup.
  6. After the people in Boston decided to drown our city, they began to dig up graves.
  7. The governor of Boston sent his woodpeckers to clear scrub, brush and cut down the trees.
  8. Georgie and I watched them push down the Old Stone Mill.
  9. I never heard where Georgie went and I never even got to say good-bye.
  10. It took seven long years for the water to cover the Swift River towns.
  11. When I was older, Papa and I rowed out on the Quabbin Reservoir.
  12. When it got dark the stars reflected like fireflies.