Week 1: When Lightning Comes In A Jar, Patricia Polacco
Vocabulary
- chimed: made a remark
- croquet: a game played with a ball and mallet
- summon: call to be present
- newfangled: different from the familiar
- scrumptious: very delicious
- I summon my dog with a loud whistle.
- Feast your eyes on that scrumptious cheesecake.
- “Hurry up,” my sister chimed in.
- Grandpa didn’t like the newfangled cars.
- Our local sporting goods store sells croquet sets.
Vocabulary Usage in the Book
- “Bet there’ll be as many meatloafs, too,” my brother chimedin.
- “And baseball and croquet like there always is?”
- I watched Granmma to see if she would summon the lightning from the sky.
- “Have I ever told you children about the time I took a ride in the first newfangled motorcar in this here country?”
- We’ll eat scrumptious Jello-O and meatloaf, play baseball and croquet, spit watermelon seeds, and scrawl new measurements on my milkhouse doorjamb.
Comprehension Questions
- We told secrets that we had kept for a year.
- Gramma flitted around like a butterfly.
- Richie was embarrassing his sister.
- There was something magical about gramma.
- Our uncles kept interrupting with quarrels.
- Aunt Bertha fetched all the portrait albums.
- Eldie’s contraption made a terrible sound.
- Aunt Adah laughed so hard, she almost dropped her lemonade.
- It was the first-ever flying machine in the state of Michigan.
- It flew, then landed deep in the grass.
- “Fireflies!” we all called out.
- Never on a summer night had I seen so many.
- We’ll eat scrumptious Jell-O and meatloaf, play baseball and croquet.
- I will show the children the magic that my gramma showed me.
Week 2: Sadie’s Lag Ba’Omer Mystery, Jamie Korngold
Vocabulary
- mystery: difficult to understand
- bonfire: large open air fire
- clever: quick to learn, smart
- carob: a natural substitute for chocolate
- sparks: fiery particles
- Bright hot sparks blew in the wind.
- Gayle was trying to solve the mystery of her missing backpack.
- Theo, the black lab, was clever in how he hid his bones.
- We had friends over for a backyard bonfire last night.
- I am allergic to chocolate, but I can eat carob instead.
Vocabulary Usage in the Book
- “It’s a mystery,” they said together.
- “Isn’t that the holiday with bonfires?…”
- But soon they missed their teacher and his clever stories.
- He drank water from its spring, and ate the fruit of the carob tree that grew at its entrance.
- “We solved the mystery of Lag Ba’Omer!” Sadie told Ori, as sparks from the campfire lit the sky.
Comprehension Questions
- Sadie and Ori were startled by the moon’s brightness.
- Grandpa said there is no holiday on the full moon this month.
- Jewish history has many mysteries.
- Sadie looked on her calendar and saw Lag Ba’Omer.
- Sadie said that we need to ask an expert about the holiday.
- The family sings songs around the campfire.
- There was a wise teacher named Rabbi Shimon.
- Rabbi Shimon missed teaching children.
- The children found a secret cave.
- Rabbi Shimon ate the fruit of the carob tree.
- Some children disguised themselves as hunters and carried bows and arrows.
- Lag Ba’Omer has become a day to remember Rabbi Shimon.
- Sadie’s family gathered in their backyard.
- After dinner, they lit a bonfire.
Week 3: Jabari Jumps, Gaia Cornwall
Vocabulary
- jump: push oneself off a surface into the air
- dive: plunge headfirst into water
- scary: frightening, causing fear
- ladder: a climbing structure of steps between upright supports
- splash: sound made by striking or falling into water
- During my dance class the teacher asked me to jump three times as high as possible before twirling.
- Tuesday during swim lessons Julia will learn how to dive off the board into the deep end of the pool.
- Sometimes, at night, it is scary in the dark and quiet house.
- My big sister climbed the ladder with dad to check the chimney.
- On rainy days it is super fun to jump and splash in puddles.
Vocabulary Usage in the Book
- “I’m jumping off the diving board today,” Jambari told his dad.
- “I’m jumping off the diving board today,” Jambari told his dad.
- The diving board was high and maybe a little scary, but Jambari had finished his swimming lessons…
- Jambari watched the other kids climb the long ladder.
- Splash!
Comprehension Questions
- The high diving board was a little scary.
- Jabari watched as children climbed the long ladder.
- Jabari climbed down the ladder because he was a little tired.
- At the bottom of the ladder Jabari remembered that stretching is very important.
- Jabari and his dad decided that tomorrow might be a better day for jumping.
- Jabari’s dad told him that when he feels a little scared, he takes a deep breath and tells himself he is ready.
- Jabari’s dad told Jabari that sometimes taking a deep breath makes feeling scared feel a little like a surprise.
- When he walked out to the edge of the diving board, Jabari curled his toes around the rough edge.
- Before jumping, Jabari took a deep breath, them sprang up.
- Jabari decided that next would be his surprise double backflip.
Week 4: The Relatives Came, Cynthia Rylant
Vocabulary
- bologna: a seasoned sausage made of ground meat
- wrinkled: a ridged or furrowed surface
- relatives: people connected to others by blood
- breathing: taking air into and out of the lungs
- tend: to care for
- Hannah’s shirt was all wrinkled when she took it out of her suitcase.
- John was breathing hard as he climbed the hill.
- Erin helps her grandmother tend the garden on Sunday’s.
- Miss Kim always served bologna sandwiches.
- Many relatives came for Christmas this year.
Vocabulary Usage in the Book
- …and in it they put an ice chest full of soda pop and some boxes of crackers and some bologna sandwiches and up they came – from Virginia.
- Those relatives just passed us all around their car, pulling us against their wrinkled Virginia clothes, crying sometimes.
- It was in the summer of the year the relatives came.
- It was different, going to sleep with all that new breathing in the house.
- They helped us tend the garden and they fixed broken things they could find.
Comprehension Questions
- The relatives left when their grapes were not ripe.
- The ice chest was full of pop.
- They looked at the strange houses.
- The relatives ate up all their crackers.
- In the house there were many shining faces.
- Finally, after a big supper there was quiet talk.
- The relative weren’t particular about beds.
- It was different going to sleep with that new breathing in the house.
- The relatives fixed any broken things they could find.
- They promised we could eat up all their grapes and peaches when we came to Virginia.
- We stood in our pajamas and waved them off in the dark.
- Our beds felt too big and too quiet.
- Home in Virginia, they dreamed about the next summer.
Week 4: Friends, Helme Heine
Vocabulary
- roughest: uneven surface
- pirates: people who attack ships
- tiller: bar used to steer ships
- stomachaches: a pain in a person’s belly
- pigsty: a pigpen
- There were six cute piglets running in the pigsty.
- The captain spied pirates approaching his ship.
- Donkeys traverse the roughest trails in the mountains.
- Ben grabbed the tiller and turned the ship fast.
- Kids sometimes have stomachaches from too many sweets.
Vocabulary Usage in the Book
- They could ride down the roughest paths and up the steepest cliffs.
- He showed his friends and they decided to play pirates.
- Johnny Mouse took the tiller , Charlie Rooster opened his wings to make the sail, and Fat Percy plugged up the hole in the side of the boat by sitting on it.
- They ate so many cherries that they all got stomachaches and had to sit down for a while before they started back.
- …; but Johnny Mouse didn’t want to sleep in a pigsty.
Comprehension Questions
- Charlie Rooster strutted into the barn.
- No curve was too sharp.
- They played a game of hide and seek.
- The friends decided to play pirates.
- Sailing on the water they felt very brave.
- But hunger sent them to shore.
- First they tried to catch a fish.
- The three friends went looking for cherries.
- As evening fell the shadows grew longer.
- Behind the henhouse the swore to be friends forever.
- Charlie Rooster got stuck in the doorway.
- Johnny Mouse didn’t want to sleep in a pigsty.
- At night they dreamed about each other.