HomeMy WebLinkAboutRead Aloud Book Gr. 1-Lesson 3When I was in eighth grade, I played football for my school. I wasn’t a very
good player. I never scored a touchdown or caught a pass. In fact, I failed to
do anything special.
I knew I would never be a football star. But before I went off to high school,
I wanted to have at least one accomplishment that would make my friends and
family proud. I wanted to score a touchdown.
Late in our last game, our team was winning easily, by seventeen points. There
was no chance of losing the game or leaving the fi eld with our heads down.
Suddenly, Coach told me it was my turn to go in. He was being nice, letting
everyone have a chance to play.
I was excited. I thought, “Maybe I can score a touchdown today!” On the
fi rst play, I ran far down the fi eld, hoping the quarterback would throw me a
pass. But after he got the ball, he handed it off to someone else. If he had
thrown the ball to me, I could have scored! But he didn’t throw it to me, and
I didn’t score.
On the next play, the same thing happened again. I ran hard down the
fi eld, turned around, and waited for a pass that never came. The game ended
soon after that. I never caught a pass or scored. I hadn’t gotten a chance to
achieve anything great.
After the game, Coach saw that I was unhappy, and he asked me why.
I sighed. “I wanted to score a touchdown,” I said, hanging my head.
He said, “Well, we scored a lot today. How would the other team have felt if
we scored even more?”
“Bad, I guess,” I replied.
Then Coach said, “Bad is right. Nobody likes to lose by so many points. By
not scoring, you helped to not rub it in that we won the game. That’s much
more important than scoring a touchdown that we didn’t need.”
I thought about it and decided that Coach was right. He had taught me an
important lesson.
COMPREHENSION What words help you understand more about playing
in a game? Why doesn’t the coach want his team to score any more
touchdowns?
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Rick and Kate teamed up to do a school project.
“Our project can be about volcanoes,” said Rick.
Kate said, “Good idea! We can make a model of a volcano.”
The two children went to the school library. There, they found books about
volcanoes. But none of the books told how to make a model volcano.
Kate said, “Let’s ask Mr. Worthy for help. He’s the school librarian. He’ll know
where to fi nd directions to make a model volcano.”
Mr. Worthy gladly helped the children. Soon, they had the directions they
needed.
Kate said to Rick, “Tomorrow is Saturday. You can come to my house in the
morning. Then we can make our model volcano.”
So, at the beginning of the next day, Rick went to Kate’s house. They read the
directions for making a model volcano. Then they started to make one. They
tore newspaper into strips. They made a paste of fl our and water. They used the
paste and strips of newspaper to make their volcano. In the middle of the day,
they stopped to eat lunch.
After eating a sandwich, Rick said, “Next, we need to paint our model.”
“But the model is still wet,” Kate said. “The directions say to let it dry overnight.”
The next afternoon, the children painted their model. They worked for hours.
Finally, the model was fi nished. Kate and Rick were pleased with the results of
their hard work. Their model looked like a real volcano, only smaller.
“When the paint dries, let’s make our volcano erupt,” said Rick.
Kate poured baking soda into the top of the volcano. Then Rick added
vinegar. All of a sudden, foam bubbled at the top of the volcano. Then the foam
ran down the sides of the model.
“Wow! That’s a great pretend eruption!” exclaimed Rick.
What an exciting ending to a busy day.
COMPREHENSION Who at school helped Rick and Kate with their
project? What words help you understand when Rick and Kate worked on
their project?
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