The Coopersville Capers

Transcription

1 The Coopersville Capers Written by: Emily Gail Illustrated by: Len Gatdula Edited for Multi-Level Readability by: Amanda Hayes, 1st Grade Teacher and Linda Helgevold, 3rd Grade Teacher Special Mini-Playbook Playbook The full-length version of this story is available at Presented in. Brought to you by. PUBLISHED BY PLAYBOOKS, INC. Copyright 2004 by Playbooks, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Illustrations copyright 2004 by Playbooks, Inc. All Rights Reserved. First published by Playbooks, Inc Playbook, Playbook Format, and Playberized are trademarks of Playbooks, Inc. The unique format of a Playbook with character colorization and specialized readability levels is a proprietary method of book structure, writing, format, construction, re-construction, displaying and printing protected under US Patent No. 6,683,611, also under pending and approved Patent App No. 10/309,630, and additional pending patents. For information regarding licensing the rights to write, edit, construct, re-construct, display, print or publish any book in Playbook format or in Playberized Format (using character colorization), call No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or in part, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, call Playbooks, Inc. at This book is subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

2 Being a Star Makes Reading Fun Welcome to the world of Playbooks and the beginning of a wonderful reading adventure! When you read a Playbook, you and other readers become the characters in the story. As you read your part out loud, you will have fun acting like your character. Together with the other readers, you ll explore the story plot learning what will happen next. It s an exciting journey of discovery that pulls you into the story and you ll want to read it out loud again and again. HOW DO YOU GET STARTED? Begin your reading adventure with the character summary, which is located in the front of the book. You ll notice right away that the words and sentences for each character appear in a different color on this page and throughout the book, which makes it easy to follow along and read your part. As a reminder, the top of each page shows a chart with each character s name in the assigned color. It doesn t matter whether you are a beginning reader or experienced reader, there is a part for everyone. The number of characters in the story may not necessarily match the number of readers in your group. Readers can play more than one main character role, or they can combine a main character role with a shorter role. Have each person read the character summary from his or her own copy of the book to become familiar with all the characters and their personalities. Then, based on each person s reading comfort level, he or she can pick one or more characters to read out loud. The most experienced reader typically reads the narrator role. It s important for teachers and parents to refer to the Teacher or Parent Guide when assigning roles. Consult the reference section on the next page for more information. Sometimes you will see black italicized text inside parenthesis before or in the middle of sentences. These are called cues and tell you how to read a sentence with expression. For example, if the cue says (with surprise), speak the sentence with surprise in your voice! Cues are not read out loud. Have fun bringing your character to life by bringing your voice up and down, speaking softly or loudly, changing your facial expressions, and moving your hands or body. Trying different voices or accents can also be lots of fun. You can even wear simple costumes to help you get in character. Consider going on a scavenger hunt around your house or in your classroom to find simple items you can wear such as a hat or pair of glasses. Playbooks, Inc. offers optional mini costume kits at

3 MAKING THE MOST OF THE STORY You can start the story by reading it out loud the first time or by practicing your part on your own. As you get better with your role, you may want to change the way you express your character s personality or you may want to switch roles with another reader. Be creative! When all your readers get comfortable with their roles, you may want to perform in front of a friendly audience. Reading out loud is so much fun that it s easy to forget about the other readers. So be sure to read with good manners! Here are some helpful hints. Don t talk when other readers are reading. Keep up and be ready to read when it s your turn. Speak loudly and clearly so everyone can hear you. Stay in character for the whole story! Most importantly, enjoy your Reader s Theater experience. You and your cast of characters are ready to begin your Playbook adventure! FOR TEACHERS AND PARENTS Being an active participant in a story spikes the reader s curiosity to learn more about the story s theme. Playbooks, Inc. provides classroom activity suggestions and worksheets to reinforce concepts from the story and go beyond the story into the content areas of Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies, Art, Health, etc., as well as Character Development. Activities range in skill level and age appropriateness, so the teacher or parent can choose activities that best suit the readers. Activities include: comprehension quizzes, crossword puzzles, word search, vocabulary, discussion and writing prompts, story mapping, word problems, etc. To download FREE supplemental activity sheets currently available, please go to: supplements. Visit the Playbook website frequently as we are continually updating it with new storyspecific supplements. RESOURCES/RESEARCH The Playbook format is based on current instructional research. Using the Department of Education s published standardized measurement scales as a guide, credentialed teachers edit and approve all the Playbook stories and supplemental activity sheets for multiple reading levels and content. A Recommended Reader Assignment chart that identifies the reading level for each story character is included in the group set. For additional FREE copies, please go to: and locate the story s title. Rewarding a child for exceptional effort and performance is an excellent practice for boosting a child s reading confidence. To download FREE Award Certificates to recognize star performers, please go to: For specific guidance on implementing a Playbook story in the classroom or in the home, download a FREE Teacher or Parent Guide at the following link. TEACHERS: PARENTS: Seeing readers develop a passion for reading while working with the Playbook format will be one of your greatest rewards.

4 Playbook Reading Levels In order to assist teachers and facilitate the assigning of roles for Reader s Theater small group reading, Playbooks, Inc. has developed a simplified series of reading levels. The following provides an approximate correlation between these levels and other reading level scales. Reading Level Correlation Approximate Correlation to Other Reading Scales Playbook Reading Level Playbook roles written at this level have Fountas & Pinnell/ Guided Reading Reading Recovery DRA Lexile Stage 1 Early Reader Grades K-1 Stage 2 Beginning Reader Grades 1-2 simple sentences and sight words or words introduced by another character role, 3-4 words per sentence, and 1-2 sentences per passage. simple sentence structure with slightly longer passages and more high frequency words, and 2-3 sentences per passage. C-F F-K Stage 3 Transitional Reader Grades 2-3 Stage 4 Intermediate Reader Grades 3-4 Stage 5 Advanced Reader Grades 5-6 Stage 6 Expert Reader Grades 7-12 some large chunks of texts with an increase in vocabulary difficulty and sentence structure, and 3-4 sentences per passage. longer passages and more elaborate vocabulary and sentence structure, and 4-5 sentences per passage. some use of complex sentences and concepts, more developed character dialogue and detailed text, and some figurative language. complex sentences, more advanced sentence variation, and figurative language. L-N O-S T-Y Z Not shown in Student Editions

5 Reader Assignment (Families, combine characters for your number of readers.) Special Mini-Playbook Playbook The Coopersville Capers Presented in... Story Character Reader 6% of story Stage 1 - Early Reader 7% of story Stage 2 - Beginning Reader 13% of story Stage 3 - Transitional Reader 14% of story Stage 3 - Transitional Reader 21% of story Stage 4 - Intermediate Reader Adult 39% of story Stage 4 - Intermediate Reader 2004, Playbooks, Inc., Laguna Hills, CA

6 Character Summary Before beginning this story, it is helpful for each reader to read his/her character's summary aloud. Hi! I m, and I can t wait to start the third grade! My best friend is, and we don t like GIRLS! I have some crazy tricks planned for the SILLY girls in our class. Adult Oh, hello. I m when he s all grown-up. You caught me at just the right time. I m about to tell my kids about the sneaky tricks I played on my third grade classmates! Sit back and relax the story is great! Hi! I m. My best friend is, and we have something to tell you GIRLS RULE! We will stop at nothing to get even with those icky boys for playing tricks on us. I m, s best friend. We like playing tricks on girls. But sometimes they play tricks on us! But just wait until you see how WE get even. We GIRLS are the ones who get even! Getting even with icky boys is a lot of fun! Howdy, y all. Myyy naaame is Mizz Pluuum, and I m from the South. In the South, we speak with an accent. People think it sounds niiice. Can ya try to talk liiike me? I just luuuv teachin the third graaade. But let me tell y all it s not that easy! All that trick playin just makes me pluuum tired!

7 Adult What is Cue Text? Cue text tells readers HOW to read their lines. Cue text is shown in both italics and parentheses and appears before a line of dialogue. Cue text is not read aloud. Example: (yelling) Look out! Chapter 1 Stuck In The Same Class Adult Adult Gather round, kids. How would you like your good ol dad to tell you a story about his days at school? Picture this: Coopersville Elementary School, and I'm nine years old. My best friend is, and we are ready to begin the third grade. We will now be the biggest kids on the playground! Welcome! Welcome to yer first daaay of school! The first daaay is alwaaays the best daaay. Our first day wasn t the best, however, thanks to our two greatest enemies, and, AND we were all stuck in the same class. Just as we arrived at school, we saw walking up the sidewalk. (laughing) Look! It s Wilson the freckle-faced dweeb from down the street! 1

8 Adult Adult Adult (very upset) They re not freckles! They re angel kisses! (laughing) ANGEL KISSES? (laughing) and I fell over laughing. stuck her tongue out and stomped away. (to herself) That s it! If they want to make fun of me, I will do something to them, too! The schoolyard was busy with groups of excited kids talking and laughing. The teachers were running around trying to get everyone to go to class. Alriiight, boys, it s tiiime to git to class. Yes,. Okay,. (shouting)! Hey, I m over here! Hi! This is going to be a great day! It sure is, and it's going to get EVEN better. Guess who I bumped into on the sidewalk outside of school? Who? and. Ewww! I know. Icky, isn t it? I bet that was bad. That s for sure! It was horrible. And do you want to know the WORST thing? Yeah, what? That awful called me a freckle-faced dweeb! (mad) We will get them back! That's why this is going to be one really cool day. We're going to do something so horrible so terrible those icky boys will NEVER forget it! 2

9 Adult Adult And that s just what they did. When I wasn t looking, taped a sign to my back that said I love Barbie dolls. Kids snickered and laughed at me for hours before I figured out what had happened. So and I decided we would just have to GET EVEN., I have the perfect plan! I'm great at getting even! This is going to be fun! Those girls will be sorry! Oh, YES, they will be VERY sorry! Chapter 2 The Cafeteria Caper! Adult Adult The Cafeteria Caper was on! and I managed to get picked by our new teacher,, to go to the cafeteria to get the morning snack which, of course, included milk. We just happened to take a bottle of glue with us. It was all part of my plan. (giggling) Ha, ha! and won t suspect a thing! Mix it up! It can t be too thick, or they will know something is up! We quickly made our way back from the cafeteria with no one suspecting anything. Whyyy, boys thaaank y all evuh so kiiindly fer gettin our snacks fer us. 3

10 Adult Adult Adult Adult Adult Adult (very nice) You re welcome,. We d do anything for a nice teacher like you! Now then, boys, please pass out the miiilk. I laughed to myself as I set the first booby-trapped carton of milk on s desk. By the time I reached s desk, we could hardly contain our laughter. This milk is SO good. Go ahead,. Drink up! (whispering to himself) Now, for the moment of truth! slowly reached for her milk. The suspense was killing us as we awaited the look on her face after the first giant gulp. And then. (coughing) YUCK! Ewww! YUCK! Ewww! At about the same time, took her first drink. (mad) Yuck! This milk is bad. Yuck! What is in it? (shocked) This tastes like like GLUE!!! (laughing) Well,, how do you know what glue tastes like? (laughing) Yeah, do you drink it a lot? Does it taste good? Now, class... is everythang okaaay? Luckily, the girls didn t give us away. We later found out why. Yes,. Everything is fine. Yes, it s okay. Then turned to me with a very angry look on her face. (mad) You did this, Peters! No, WE did it! That s right WE did it! And what are you going to do about it, Freckle Face? Get even that s what! And they re ANGEL KISSES! You just wait! 4

11 Adult Chapter 3 Adult Adult Adult Adult But It Wasn t Me! went right into our math lesson after snack time. Worried by 's threats, we never took our eyes off the girls. Now, class, I want y all to have the fiiive story problems on page six of yer math book done byyy tomorrah. And don t forgit to show yer work. That s reeeal important. We became even more anxious when we saw smile while she whispered to. (whispering) Here s the plan, Steph. (pausing) You draw an ugly picture of and sign s name on it. Have it say,, look at this! Okay. This will be funny! (worried) What's she doing? I can t see. I don t know, but 's up to something. We were getting more nervous by the minute watching those tricky girls. Then brought something up to s desk. (afraid) What is she bringing over there? I can t see it, but it looks like a piece of paper. Even though I was really worried by what was doing, I tried to play it cool. Then came over to my desk and, without saying a word, left that AWFUL picture right on top of my math book! All I could think of for the rest of the lesson was how I was going to get back at that horrible! 5

12 Adult Chapter 4 Adult Adult Adult Yummy! I was furious! This was no longer a game! Boy o boy! sure got back at you! That s it. Now, it s war! Okaaay, class. It s now tiiime fer mornin recess. Let s all liiine up. Hey, this way. I know how we can get even with those girls. Once outside, I told of my plan to spoil s lunch! It involved the juicy earthworms that we could always find behind the basketball court. Here are some more. (whispering) Great, I ll keep them all in my pocket until we get to the cafeteria. How will we get them into her lunch? You bump into so she won't be looking at her plate. That s when I ll drop the worms into her spaghetti. Sounds good to me! Before long, it was lunch and time to carry out my plan. There she is, sitting next to. Hey, Freckle Face! THEY'RE ANGEL KISSES, YOU DOOF! What do you want? Why don't you just go away? 6

13 Adult Adult Adult We just wanted to stop by to say hello. Well, hello and GOODBYE! Just then, walked in carrying her plate of spaghetti. She sat next to with a big smile on her face. Hi,. Well, hello y all. I am so exciiited y all are in myyy class this year. So are we. I'd be so honored to sit riiight here with y all fer lunch. Of course. Go right ahead! Thaaank y'all, kiiindly. (whispering to ) Quick, do it now while they aren t looking! I quickly dumped the worms from my pocket onto s plate of spaghetti or at least I THOUGHT it was s plate of spaghetti! At exactly the same instant, both and took bites of their spaghetti. s smile continued while 's faded into an awful frown! Oh, I deeeclare! This is aawlful just aawlful! What is it,? WORMS! I caaan't bahlieve there are worms in myyy spaghetti! Look at em, they re MOVING! WHAT? Oh, yuck! They re alive! (to himself) Oh no! We re in trouble now! There are worms in myyy spaghetti! (pausing) Oh myyy! Which one of ya mischuf-maaakers did this?? (panicked) It wasn't me!? No, not me! 7

14 Adult Adult? (surprised) Of course it wasn't me!? Well, I really didn't I mean I did not I mean. What DID ya do, then? (sadly) I don t know,. Well, somebody plaaayed this terrible trick on little ol me. All was quiet. Nobody said a word. Chapter 5 Adult A Little Compromise Never Hurts! Well, if nobody will confess, then I m afraaaid I ll have to send y all to see Principal Cole. But no! No buts. Now git... all a ya to the principal s office! Terrified, we all marched down the hallway. This is all SUCH a terrible mess! No kidding! It's YOUR terrible mess! Yeah, it s not OUR mess. It s YOUR mess! But you tricky girls started all of this! Remember, if WE get in trouble, YOU get in trouble, too! 8

15 Adult Adult quietly entered the small room outside Principal Cole's office. I d liiike to hear what y all have come up with. Do ya have any solutions to yer little... uh... problem? But it was the boys,! Not us! I d liiike to let y'all in on a little secret. Ya see, I know a lot more about y all than ya thaaank. You do? (afraid) What exactly do you know? I know who reeeally drew that aawlful picture of me and who it was that TOLD er to draw it. You do? I suuurely do. And,, I bahlieve I saw ya take a bottle of glue out of yer pocket after the girls spit out that horrible miiilk. Uh yes,. HE put the glue in my milk! HE S the problem! Well, THEY started it all! But you called me FRECKLE FACE! That s quiiite enough now! (to himself) Oh, boy... are WE in trouble! (patiently) Now, I m willin' to forgit everythin I ve seen today if y all can compromiiise with each other and agree to stop all these tricks. Ya know, gettin' even can go on forevah! At some point, ya just have to compromiiise. That will be yer lesson fer todaaay compromiiise! So what's it gonna be? (thinking it over) Compromise, huh? Well, I don t know. 9

16 Adult Adult I guess we have no other choice. My mom would KILL ME if I had any trouble on the first day of school. Mine, too! Yeah, mine, too. Well, is it a deal, everyone? Fine! (giving in) It s a deal. Okay, I'm in. Yeah, count me in, too. I think we re all together on this,. Good! Then it's settled. Shall we shaaake hands on it? We shook hands just as Principal Cole came outside to speak with us. simply told him it had all been a misunderstanding. We did apologize to her later and said we were sorry for ruining her spaghetti. It took awhile, but we all became friends after that year. And now, even today, I have to remember to compromise when your mother and I don t see eye to eye. I just look at her and say, you have the most beautiful Angel Kisses in the world no matter what says. See what a little compromise can do? The End Please be responsible, kids, and don't try these pranks at home or school. Leave these things to the fantasy of the story. 10

17 Adult Mini-Costumes for Each Story Character Make-Them-Yourself Have fun cutting out and wearing these mini-costumes to bring your characters more to life! Follow the instructions. If you are assigned more than one character, wear more than one costume! 11

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