3-1 The Stranger in Town
In the high noon, a stranger came into town. P
He walked into a saloon and asked for a drink. P
Everyone recognized him as Terry the Terrible from the wanted posters. P
He had robbed at least seven banks. P
The sheriff was too afraid to arrest him because Terry had a gang of thugs that followed him around. P
Finally, as Terry was about to leave, one man stood up. P
It was Alistor, the gold miner. Alistor challenged Terry to a show down outside. P
Terry accepted the challenge. P
The two men stood, facing each other down. P
Their hands hovered over their guns. P
The quickest draw would win. P
Bang! Terry fell to the ground, his shoulder had been shot. P
Alistor had been quicker than Terry and had won. P
3-2 Making Eggs
Jake had a farmer friend who gave him some eggs. P
The farmer told Jake that if he kept the eggs warm, then they would hatch. P
Jake did as the farmer told him and soon there were baby chicks. P
Jake took good care of the new chicks. They were fluffy and yellow. P
The chicks like to follow Jake around because they thought he was their mother. P
Every day, Jake would give the chicks small seeds and bugs that they would eat. P
He kept their living space clean and fresh. P
The water the chicks drank had to be changed often to keep it from getting too dirty. P
The chicks lost their downy feathers and began to grow their adult feathers. P
The chicks grew and grew until they were chickens. P
Then Jake's chickens began to lay eggs themselves. P
What Jake did not use, he sold to his neighbors. P
They enjoyed eating the fresh eggs. P
3-3 Making a Garden
You can make a garden anywhere. P
First find a piece of land. It doesn't have to be big, even a small window box will do. P
Fill the pot with soil if you need to and then you are ready to plant. P
Make sure you don't bury your seeds too deeply or they will not be able to come out. P
Water your seeds until they germinate. P
Germination is when the plant puts out its first leaves and leaves its seedpod. P
If you water your plants carefully, you should have a beautiful flower or delicious vegetables. P
With flowers, you can leave them where they are, or you can cut them and put them in a vase. P
You should make sure to cut the dead flower away so that the plant will send up new buds. P
It is also important to fertilize your plants every once in a while so that they get nutrition to grow. P
3-4 Photosynthesis
How does a plant turn sunlight into food? P
When you eat food, it is broken down by your stomach and then digested. P
Your body absorbs the food and then turns it into energy. P
Your cells use this energy to keep you alive. P
Plants have special cells that turn sunlight into energy. P
This is called photosynthesis. Plants also get nutrition through their roots. P
Their roots absorb water which helps keep the plant healthy. P
When it is ready, a plant will grow more leaves so that it can absorb even more sunlight. P
Certain types of plants called cacti live in hot, dry deserts. P
They have thick skin to hold in all of their water. P
These plants survive because they can stand the heat until it rains again. P
They have thorns to stop other animals from eating them for their water. P
3-5 Ugly Baby Swans
The swan eggs hatched and the baby swans were born. P
Mr. and Mrs. Swan were very happy. P
When they were ready, the new parents took their babies out to swim in the water. P
The baby swans could already swim! P
The babies followed their parents in a line. P
Mrs. Swan taught her children to find worms hiding at the bottom of the pond. P
They stayed in the shallow waters so that the small babies could reach the bottom. P
Across the pond, the swans' neighbors, the ducks, were also taking their babies out for a swim. P
The ducklings were much smaller than the baby swans. P
Mr. Duck commented on how ugly the baby swans were compared to their parents. P
A frog came by and made fun of the baby swans. The baby swans cried. P
Mrs. Swan said, "Now children, when you grow up, you will be beautiful." P
And just like she said, the baby swans grew into beautiful adults. P
Everyone who lived in the pond was very surprised. P
3-6 Proper Names for Foods
A lot of foods have names that make sense. P
For example, the nuts that come from pine trees are called pine nuts. P
It is logical to call that food by that name. P
But there are some foods like grape nuts, which are not grapes or nuts. P
They are made from wheat and barley. P
Grape-nuts are small and round, but you cannot plant them into the ground and they do not grow on a vine. P
The grape-nut is a breakfast cereal, not a type of seed. P
The name grape nut does not really make sense. P
What would be a better name for grape-nuts? P
For breakfast you might have cereal with milk. P
Did you know that grains like wheat and barley are also called cereals? P
However, you cannot eat them without cooking them or turning them into flour. P
Cereals are actually a type of grass. P
The word is from the name Ceres who was the Roman goddess of the harvest. P
3-7 Unusual Sharks I
When people think of sharks, they think mostly of the sharks that they have seen in movies. P
Usually, great white sharks are the "stars" that appear in movies. P
The great white shark is just one of the over 250 kinds of sharks in the world. P
Some sharks out there have never been seen alive. P
Those sharks live deep in the ocean where we have not yet explored. P
They look like the sharks that lived over 300 million years ago. P
For example, the goblin shark is a type of shark that lives hundreds of feet below in the water. P
Scientists believe that the goblin shark could only live in deep water and it would not survive if it came to the surface. P
In Japan, scientists built a submarine to study the goblin sharks. P
Another type of shark that people don't know much about is the megamouth shark. P
The word mega means big and strong. P
Scientists have found one megamouth that was 15 feet long. P
The mouth of this shark was 4 feet long. P
3-8 Unusual Sharks II
Scientists want to study more about other unusual sharks. P
One shark they want to know more about is the frilled shark. P
The frilled shark has a body that looks like an eel. P
There are frills on its neck, which is how it got its name. P
Sharks are not always big. There are various small sharks too. P
Although it is only 16 inches long, the cookie-cutter shark has very large teeth. P
It uses its strong lips to take huge bites out of larger fish. P
Smaller sharks can hunt together to kill fish that are too big for them to take down alone. P
The cigar shark does this because, as its name suggests, they are very small and can even fit inside your hand. P
They are even shaped like a cigar. P
3-9 Sled-dog Race
The Iditarod is a sled-dog race that goes across Alaska. P
Each team consists of one person who drives the sled and directs 12 dogs who pull the sled along. P
The person in the sled is called the musher. P
The sled is packed with food and supplies because they must cross more than 1,000 miles of snowy landscape to reach the finish line. P
This journey takes up to two weeks. P
The dogs are outfitted with special socks on their paws to protect them. P
The musher cares and feeds the dogs along the way. P
The dogs must be quick and strong to pull the musher to the end. P
3-10 Oz
Frank Baum was telling a story about a girl named Dorothy to some children. P
Her home was swept up in a tornado and into a strange and magical place. P
There were witches, talking animals, and tin men in this place. P
The children asked what the name of this land was. P
Baum looked around the room, grasping for something that would be a good name. P
His eyes landed on a filing cabinet. P
The labels were from A-G, H-N, and finally O-Z. P
He decided to name the land after the last cabinet. P
Later, Baum publish a book called The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. P
3-11 Chameleon
There is a kind of lizard called a chameleon. P
The skin of the chameleon is clear, but it can change its color. P
This is because under its skin is a layer of cells that have yellow, red, and black in them. P
When it is angry, its skin will darken. P
When chameleons are scared, they will turn into a lighter color. P
Fear can make yellow spots appear. P
Depending on the temperature and light of its surroundings, the chameleon can also be seen a different color. P
These kinds of changes make it hard for predators to see chameleons. P
The chameleon can easily blend into its surroundings and stay safe. P
3-12 The Braille I
Louis Braille was a man born in a small French town. P
When he was three years old, he lost his eyesight. P
At ten he was sent to a special school for blind children. P
The school taught from books with raised letters so that they could feel the letters to read. P
It was hard for them to read this way because some letters like Q and O would be too similar. P
Braille took a very long time to read and understand what was on the page. P
Braille later learned a different way to read things. P
He learned this from a soldier who had to send messages in the dark where they could not read with their eyes. P
They had to punch holes into the paper and read it with their fingers. P
They would feel the dots to understand the messages. P
3-13 The Braille II
The idea of reading with dots really appealed to Braille, but he believed that it could be made easier. P
By the time Braille turned fifteen, he had invented a new way of writing. P
By using raised dots, Braille formed an alphabet. P
The students that studied with Braille at his school all liked this new alphabet. P
Many of the teachers, however, did not because they preferred the old alphabet. P
They thought that the raised letters were good enough. P
The new way of writing was revealed to the public in 1844. P
As people were shown how it worked, they decided that they liked using it. P
The alphabet was named after Braille. P
People all over the world use Braille today. P
3-14 Thomas Edison I
Thomas Edison is one of the most famous inventors in America. P
He is credited with many inventions like the phonograph. P
It is one of his best-known inventions. P
The phonograph was the first machine to record and play sound. P
Thomas built it in 1877 and the fact that he invented it was interesting because Thomas was almost deaf. P
When he was a teenager, Thomas worked on a train. P
He was late for work one day and had to run to catch up to the train. P
The conductor saw him and tried to help Thomas get on. P
Grabbing hold of Thomas's ears, the conductor pulled Thomas up. P
Thomas later said, "I felt something snap inside my head." P
From that point on, Thomas's hearing was never the same. P
3-15 Thomas Edison II
Even though he lost his hearing at a young age, Thomas Edison went on to invent a lot of things. P
It is said that the phonograph was his favorite invention. P
When it was built, Thomas tested it by singing, "Mary had a little lamb," into the machine. P
The machine worked and played back Thomas's words. P
How did someone who was deaf build a sound machine? P
Sounds vibrate when they make noise. P
All Thomas had to do to know that the machine was working was to feel the vibrations. P
Thomas chose to keep his bad hearing even though he could have had an operation to get it fixed. P
He decided that being deaf helped him concentrate. P
He could think better when there were no distractions. P
Sometimes your shortcomings can be your greatest asset! P
3-16 Weather Telling Animals I
Look at your animals if you want to tell the weather. P
They sometimes know when it's going to rain. P
For example, if you want to go on a hike, check if your dog is pacing or if your cat is twitching. P
If they are, it probably is going to rain that day. P
If you want to check if it is going to be sunny, go outside and look for a spider. P
A spider spinning a new web means that it is going to be a nice day. P
Do you think you want to fly a kite? P
The night before you do that, look at the stars. P
If the stars are bright, you should be able to fly your kite because it will be windy the next day. P
Maybe you actually feel like swimming instead. P
Then you should listen to the crickets and count their chirps. P
If they chirp enough, you will know if it is warm enough to swim. P
3-17 Weather Telling Animals II
How can animals tell about the weather? P
When it is about to rain, water will collect in the air. P
This water makes an animal's fur swell and that is why they get so restless. P
Spiders can tell when it is about to rain too because it has to be a nice day for them to spin their webs. P
Moisture in the air will ruin their webs and make the string less sticky. P
It is best for the air to be dry for the spider to make their web. P
How does the brightness of stars tell you about the weather? P
When it is windy, dust and clouds that would normally cover the stars are blown away. P
The next day the winds reach the grounds and it becomes windy. P
What about the crickets? P
Why should you listen to them to tell the weather? P
If you count the number of chirps a cricket makes for 15 seconds and add 37 to the number you get, P
you can find out the temperature. For example, if you hear 32 chirps then you know that it is around 69 degrees. P
3-18 Porcelain
A beautiful vase is made from wet earth. P
This wet earth is known as clay. P
The potter shapes the vase on a special table that spins around. P
The force of the spinning moves the clay outwards which the potter can manipulate to the shape that he wants. P
When the clay is shaped, the potter takes it to the kiln. P
A kiln is a large oven that bakes the clay so that it becomes hard. P
Before putting the vase into the heat, the potter can decorate the vase with designs or different kinds of glazes that will make it change color. P
The finished product will be a smooth and polished with the right kind of glaze. P
China's porcelain was especially treasured for a long time. P
The method to achieve the colors used by the Chinese were kept a secret for many centuries. P
When you paint something onto porcelain, you must fire it several times and repaint it again and again. P
The colors fade as they are bonded to the clay. P
However, this is all worth the effort because the colors are permanently on the clay. P
This means that they can never be washed away. P
3-19 Airplane
Orville and Wilbur Wright invented the airplane. P
When it was first invented, the airplane only went a few feet up in the air and could not fly for very long. P
The airplane was later improved so that it could be used during war. P
People still did not use them for travel, however. P
Theodore Roosevelt was the first president to ride an airplane. P
Charles Lindbergh made the first non-stop flight from New York to Paris in 1927. P
Air travel developed quickly, connecting nations that once took months to get to by sea. P
Air travel was expensive at first, but became cheaper as time passed by. P
Ordinary passengers could use it to travel quickly across the country. P
Airplanes were faster than trains and saved people a lot of time. P
With the progress of technology, travel becomes easier and quicker. P
There are developments for flying cars and high-speed railways. P
In Japan, it only takes a few hours to go from the top of the country to the bottom on train. P
3-20 Tears
People cry for all kinds of reasons. P
When you are sad, tears can come out. P
When you are happy you can cry tears of joy. P
The tears in your eyes can even come out when you yawn. P
Tears are important because they keep your eyes moist. P
You produce tears even when you think you are not. P
If your eyes became too dry, they would get scratches more easily. P
Think of your eyes like windows. P
With too many scratches, it would be very hard to see out of them! P
Tears keep the clear layer of your eyes moist and flexible. P
Tears overflow from your eyes when you cry. They go down your face. P
Tears are helpful for many reasons. P
They can keep your eyes safe by protecting them from harmful things in the air. P
People who wear contact lenses have special eye drops. P
The lenses can make the eye too dry so they need the drops to keep them moist. P