Week 1: The Raft

Vocabulary

Bank: the land alongside a river
Chuckle: to laugh quietly
Cottage: a small, simple house
Drift: a feeling of distress
Flock: someone who writes poetry

Mark felt anxious about reading in front of the classroom.
The wild blowers bloomed colorfully in the meadow.
Farmer Jack stored his harvested wheat in a granary.
My sister Jill is very chatty.
The poet reads her work aloud every Saturday afternoon at the library.

Vocabulary Usage in the Book

When they reached the shore, the doe leaped easily up the steep bank, then turned to wait for her baby.
He chuckled.
I ran up to the cottage.
I pushed the raft into the reeds along the river’s edge, then tied it to the dock so it wouldn’t drift away.
A flock of birds was moving towards me along the river, hovering over something floating on the water.

Comprehension

Frederick did not help his family work.
Because the farmers moved away, the barn was abandoned and the granary stood empty.
Frederick and his family lived in an old stone wall.
The mice family was gathering supplies for the winter.
Frederick gathered sunrays, colors and words.
Frederick gathered color because winter is gray.
Frederick gathered words so they would not run out of things to say.
After the first snow, the mice hid their hideout in the stones.
When the food was plentiful, the mice family told stories of foolish foxes and silly cats.
After the food supply was gone, the mice did not feel like chatting.
When the mice had eaten all of their food they asked Frederick to share his supplies of colors and words.
In the end, Frederick’s family applauded him and said, “you are a poet.”

Week 2: Roxaboxen

Vocabulary

Belong: owned by someone
Fierce: strong, intense
Outline: a line going around the shape of an object
Pebble: a small, smooth stone
Treasure: jewels, gems and other valuable things

I could see the outline of people’s shadows on the wall.
The stuffed bunny must belong to Mary, because she bought it with her own money.
The children wanted to see who could skip a pebble the farthest across the river.
The pirate found a chest of treasure buried underneath the sand.
The fierce bear scared away hunters in order to protect her cubs.

Vocabulary Usage in the Book

Roxaboxen had always been there and must have belonged to others, long before.
Oh, the raids were fierce, loud with whooping and the stamping of horses!
Francis moved to one of them and built herself a new house outlined in desert glass…
When Marian dug up a tin box filled with round black pebbles everyone knew what is was: a buried treasure.
When Marian dug up a tin box filled with round black pebbles everyone knew what it was: a buried treasure.

Comprehension Questions

Marian called it Roxaboxen because she always knew the name of everything.
There was a street between the houses and Roxaboxen that curved like a river, so the children pretended it was a river.
The tin box that Marian dug up was filled with treasure.
The children played with wooden boxes, pieces of pottery, and stones in Roxaboxen.
Marian was mayor of Roxaboxen.
Because Francis outlined her house with bits of colored glass, it looked like a house of jewels.
Everyone in Roxaboxen had plenty of money so there were plenty of shops.
All you needed to have a car in Roxaboxen was something round for a steering wheel.
Even though speeding in a car was not allowed, if you had a horse you could go as fast as the wind.
Charles and Marian were generals when there was a great war.
The children would decorate the lizard’s grave with cactus flowers.
When Francis returned to Roxaboxen more than 50 years later, it was still there.

Week 3: Weslandia

Vocabulary

Blaze: a very large fire
Civilization: a nation, or place where people live
Flee: run away
Opportunity: a chance to do something
Outcast: someone who is rejected, kicked out, or avoided

Little Timmy had to flee from the bully who was twice his size.
Tammy felt like an outcast when no-one spoke to her at the lunch table.
The Millers returned to civilization after camping in the wilderness for a week.
The boy scouts sat in a circle and roasted marshmallows over the blaze.
Because Mellissa was a very good speller, she had an opportunity to take part in her school’s spelling bee.

Vocabulary Usage in the Book

His eyes blazed.
He was an outcast from the civilization around him.
Fleeing them was the only sport he was good at.
Unlike jeans, that he found scratchy and heavy, the robe was comfortable, reflected the sun and offered myriad opportunities for pockets.
He was an outcast from the civilization around him.

Comprehension

Wesley knew he was an outcast from the civilization around him.
Wesley had no friends but plenty of tormentors.
Wesley could actually use what he’d learned that week for a summer project that would top all others.
Wesley found it thrilling to open his land to chance, to invite the new and unknown.
Ignoring the shelf of cereals in the kitchen, Wesley took to breakfasting on the fruit.
To keep off the sun, Wesley wove himself a hat from strips of the plant’s woody bark.
The oil from his plant’s seeds had a tangy scent and served him both as suntan lotion and mosquito repellent.
Wesley told time by the stalk that he used as a sundial and had divided the day into eight segments.
Wesley’s domain, home to many innovations, he named “Weslandia.”
While playing the games he invented, Wesley tried to be patient with the other players.
As a finale to his summer project, Wesley used his own ink and his own eighty letter alphabet to record the history of his civilization’s founding.
In September, Wesley returned to school and had no shortage of friends.

Week 4: Where the Wild Things Are

Vocabulary

Gnashed: to have ground one’s teeth together
Mischief: playful misbehavior or troublemaking
Rumpus: a noisy disturbance
Tame: to bring under control
Tumble: to fall suddenly or clumsily

David made mischief when he threw all his toys down the stairs.
Coming down the hill, Jack and Jill tripped and began to tumble to the bottom.
After she stubbed her toe, Elaine gnashed her teeth in pain.
The farmer began to tame the wild horse by bringing it a fresh carrot each day.
The birds caused a rumpus when they saw the cat sneak up a tree.

Vocabulary Usage in the Book

And when he came to the place where the wild things are they roared their terrible roars and gnashed their terrible teeth…
That night Max wore his wolf suit and made mischief of one kind.
“And now,” cried Max “let the wild rumpus start!”
…till Max said “BE STILL!” and tamed them with the magic trick…
…and an ocean tumbled by with a private boat for Max and he sailed off through the night and day…

Comprehension

The night Max wore his wolf suit and made mischief of one kind and another his mother called him wild thing.
After telling his mother he would eat her up, Max is sent to bed without eating anything.
That very night in Max’s room a forest grew.
Max’s ceiling hung with vines and the walls became the world around him.
An ocean tumbled by with a private boat for Max.
When Max come to the place where the wild things are they roared their terrible roars and gnashed their terrible teeth.
Max tells the wild things to, “BE STILL!”, and tames them with a magic trick.
The wild things call Max the most wild thing of all and made him king of all wild things.
Max sends the wild things off to bed without their supper.
Max, king of all wild things, is lonely and wants to be where someone loved him best of all.
All around from far away across the world Max smells good things to eat.
Max sails back over a year and in and out of weeks and through a day and into a night of his very own room.

Week 5: The Little Island

Vocabulary

Autumn: the third season of the year, when leaves fall from trees
Kingfisher: a brightly colored diving bird with a sharp beak
Ledge: a narrow surface sticking out from a wall or cliff
Prowl: to move around in search of prey
Whistle: to emit a clear, high pitched sound

I carefully peered over the ledge at the ocean below.
The twins watched the kingfisher dive into the ocean for a meal.
The lioness will prowl when hunting for dinner.
Sam heard the wind whistle through the trees on the fall morning.
On a Saturday in autumn we raked the fallen leaves into a pile.

Vocabulary Usage in the Book

Autumn came and the yellow pears dropped slowly to the ground.
And the kingfishers came from the South to build nests.
Then one day all the lobsters crawled in from the sea and hid under the ledges of the island…
The kitten prowled around the Island And saw that it was all surrounded by water.
The wind whistled.

Comprehension

There was a little Island in the ocean.
The fog hid the little Island in a soft, wet shadow.
One day, all the lobsters crawled in from the sea and hid under the rocks and ledges.
The kingfishers came from the South to build nests.
A little kitten came to the Island with some people on a picnic.
The kitten says they are a part of this big world.
The kitten asks the fish how the Island can be a part of the land.
The fish says that faith is believing what I tell you about what you don’t know.
The little Island had a little wood on it with seven big trees in it and seventeen small bushes and one big rock.
A bat flew around and around the pear tree and woke up the owl.
The storm passed and left the little Island where it found it in the summer sea.
Autumn came and the yellow pears dropped slowly to the ground.