Home-School ConnectionHome-School Connection
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Dear Family Member:This week we’re reading Me
and Uncle Romie. It’s about a boy named James who goes to spend the summer with his aunt and uncle in New York City. When James meets his aunt, I can tell by all the places she takes him and from the things she says that she is a nice woman. I don’t know anything about Uncle Romie yet, but I’m sure in a while what he says and does will tell me what kind of man he is.
This Week’s Skills
Comprehension: character, setting, and plot
Vocabulary: context clues—defi nitions and examples
Spelling/Phonics: compound words
Name
Word WorkoutWORDS TO KNOW
barbecue collage glorious
skyscrapers strutting swarms
Test Me Look at each word and give me a clue to what it is. If I don’t know the word, give me another clue. Let’s see how many clues it takes me to say the word.
SPELLING WORDS
fi shbowl lookout backyard undertake
campfi re overhead waterproof grandparent
newborn bookcase bedroom blindfold
yourself railroad desktop snowstorm
bedspread overdo clothesline loudspeaker
Match the Parts I’ll give you just one part of a compound word. Let’s see if you can name the missing word in the compound and spell the entire word.
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Dear DiarySuppose you are in a new place with a person you do not know. Let’s read about each location and the person you’re going to be there with. We can make up that character. What kind of person is this? How does he or she show that? What would she do? What would he say?
You’ve been chosen to join a group of students on a trip to a Central American rain forest. You’ll spend your summer exploring the plants and animals that live there. Mr. Tanner will be your leader. When you get to the forest you are amazed at how green and beautiful it is. However, it rains every day, and soon you and everything you own are damp. You complain to Mr. Tanner.
You’ve loved dinosaurs your entire life, so when you’re invited on a summer dinosaur dig, you jump at the chance. You are with a small group of paleontologists in a desert, and you share a tent with two other young people. It is very hot and you tire easily. You carefully dig hour after hour, but fi nd nothing.
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Conexión con el hogarConexión con el hogar
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Queridos familiares:Esta semana estamos leyendo
Me and Uncle Romie. Se trata de un niño llamado James que va a pasar el verano con su tía y su tío en la ciudad de Nueva York. Cuando James conoce a su tía, por los lugares adonde ella lo lleva y por lo que le dice, puedo ver que es una buena mujer. No sé nada sobre el tío Ramie todavía, pero con toda seguridad lo que él diga y haga me va a indicar qué clase de hombre es.
Destrezas de la semana
Comprensión: personaje, ambiente y argumento
Vocabulario: claves del contexto—defi niciones y ejemplos
Ortografía/Fonética: palabras compuestas
Nombre
Ejercicio de palabrasPALABRAS DE VOCABULARIO
barbecue collage glorious
skyscrapers strutting swarms
Ponme a prueba Mira cada palabra y dame una pista para indicarme qué es. Si no sé de qué palabra se trata, debes darme otra pista. Vamos a ver cuántas pistas necesito hasta descubrir cuál es la palabra.
PALABRAS DE ORTOGRAFÍA
fi shbowl lookout backyard undertake
campfi re overhead waterproof grandparent
newborn bookcase bedroom blindfold
yourself railroad desktop snowstorm
bedspread overdo clothesline loudspeakerUna parte y la otra Te voy a dar sólo una parte de una palabra compuesta. Vamos a ver si puedes decirme la palabra que falta y luego deletrear la palabra completa.
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Querido diarioSupón que estás en un lugar nuevo con una persona que no conoces. Leamos sobre cada lugar y la persona con la que estarás. Podemos crear ese personaje. ¿Qué clase de persona es? ¿Cómo lo demuestra? ¿Qué hace esa persona? ¿Qué dice?
You’ve been chosen to join a group of students on a trip to a Central American rain forest. You’ll spend your summer exploring the plants and animals that live there. Mr. Tanner will be your leader. When you get to the forest you are amazed at how green and beautiful it is. However, it rains every day, and soon you and everything you own are damp. You complain to Mr. Tanner.
You’ve loved dinosaurs your entire life, so when you’re invited on a summer dinosaur dig, you jump at the chance. You are with a small group of paleontologists in a desert, and you share a tent with two other young people. It is very hot and you tire easily. You carefully dig hour after hour, but fi nd nothing.
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Comprehension Check
SummarizeUse a graphic organizer to
record information from the
book. Then use the information
to summarize the story.
Think and Compare 1. Look back at page 14. How does Carly change
as she tries to figure out the secret of the
photographs? Where does this take place?
(Analyze Character, Setting, and Plot)
2. Carly enjoyed photographing the sights around
Fort Peck Lake. If you were taking pictures
of Fort Peck Lake, which subjects would you
photograph? Why? (Apply)
3. Look at the Margaret Bourke-White photographs
in Chapter 3. How do photographs sometimes
make ordinary things look glorious? (Evaluate)
Setting
Character’sReaction
Event
Character’sReaction
Event
Character’sReaction
Event
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by Kirsten Andersonillustrated by Matthew Archambault
Beautiful or Not
Table of ContentsChapter 1
The Perfect Picture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2
Chapter 2
A Tip from a Visitor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7
Chapter 3
Learning from the Past . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12
Chapter 4
The Perfect Picture, Part II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16
Comprehension Check . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20
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Chapter 1
The Perfect PictureCarly held her breath as the broad-tailed
hummingbird fluttered near the cluster of
wildflowers. She stared into her camera,
waiting. A fly landed on Carly’s arm. She
flicked it away with a finger. The bird
flew near a flower. The flower wasn’t red
enough, though. Carly waited. The bird flew
to another flower. This one was too small.
Finally the bird hesitated over the largest,
reddest flower. Carly began to snap pictures.
She was certain that these would be some of
the best pictures she had ever taken.
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“Yes,” Carly said.
“They look like they’re big enough to hold
up a building. That’s good,” he said.
“Ugly things in dull places,” Carly
reminded him.
She printed out the pictures she liked, and
pinned them next to the collage of Margaret
Bourke-White photos.
“It’s not what it is, I guess,” Carly wrote
in her photo journal. “It’s how you see it.
You can see something a million different
ways—and that can be better than one
beautiful way.”
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“What are you doing?” Dad asked.
“Trying something new,” Carly said.
When Carly went home, she uploaded
her pictures. Some weren’t very good.
Others definitely were different. The fishing
poles looked gigantic. The floorboards had
contrasting patches of sun and shadows. They
might have been part of a railroad track.
Carly called Brad in to look at the
pictures.
“Are those fishing poles?” he asked, staring
closely at one picture.
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Carly raced home and uploaded the
pictures onto her computer. She couldn’t wait
to see the results.
But when the pictures came up on the
screen, she was disappointed. Carly studied
them, then opened her photo journal. She
wrote: “Hummingbird pictures: The bird’s
wings are a blur, not enough detail on flower,
bird isn’t close enough to the flower in any
shot. Why aren’t these the way I thought
they would be?”
“Carly, Mom says it’s time for dinner.”
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Carly’s brother Brad stood in the doorway,
drumming his fingers on the door. He played
the drums, and he practiced on everything.
“Look at these.” Carly pointed to the
computer screen.
“They’re nice,” he said.
“That’s it,” sighed Carly. “They should be
more than nice. It’s a beautiful day. The bird
is exciting and the flowers are gorgeous but
they’re just boring. Here.” She handed Brad
her camera. “You can have it. I’m done with
photography.”
“Thanks,” said Brad, taking the camera.
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Carly kept her camera out as she walked
to the store. She took pictures of cars, gates,
and the empty pathways and streets. She
took pictures of puddles and rocks, from
close up and from far away. When she got to
the store, she picked out a group of fishing
poles. She brought them out on the porch
and leaned them up against a wall. Then
she took picture after picture of them. She
went into the store and took pictures of the
counter. She knelt down on the floor and
took pictures of the floorboards.
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Chapter 4
The Perfect Picture, Part II
The next morning Carly took her camera
and ran out to the front porch. The family
had been cleaning out the cellar and attic.
The whole jumble was now on the front
porch. There were games, books, lamps, and
equipment for a variety of sports. The dogs,
Rusty and Scout, slept in the middle of it all.
Carly knelt down. She took pictures of
everything. She tried different angles. She
looked for shadows and blocks of sun.
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Carly stared at him nervously. Brad waited
a moment, then handed it back.
“You quit photography almost every day,”
he said. “Don’t worry.”
“I just want to take beautiful pictures of
beautiful things in wonderful places,” Carly
said, shaking her head.
“Maybe you should take ugly pictures of
ugly things in dull places,” Brad said.
“Very funny,” Carly said.
“I’m about to feed your barbecue to Rusty
and Scout,” Mom called.
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Brad rushed out the door.
Carly looked at the hummingbird pictures
again. She had always been fascinated by
cameras and photographs. Her father had let
her take pictures with his camera as soon as
she could hold one. At first it was just fun.
She took pictures of anything. Now Carly
wanted something more.
“I want to take the kinds of pictures that
make people stop and look,” she thought.
“Rusty’s eating your dinner!” Brad yelled.
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The pictures that fascinated Carly the most
were some of the least glamorous. Margaret
had taken a series of pictures of a Cleveland
steel factory in the late 1920s. It wasn’t a
particularly exciting subject—it was just the
factory at work. Still, Carly loved the pictures,
especially the one of a giant ladle pouring
liquid steel. The light, shadows, and bigness
of everything made it all seem somewhat
glorious.
Carly cut out the Margaret Bourke-White
photographs she had found. She taped them
on a corkboard and made a collage. She
stared at them, trying to figure out the
secret.
“Maybe,” she wrote, “great pictures aren’t
just about looking for beautiful things. Maybe
it’s looking for the beauty in everyday things
that is important.”
Carly looked back at the collage and
smiled. She was ready to start over.
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Chapter 2
A Tip from a Visitor“I’m going to the stockroom, Carly,” Dad
said. “Call me if you need help.”
“Sure,” said Carly.
Carly’s family lived near Fort Peck Lake in
Montana. Her parents owned a fishing tackle
and camping supply store. During the busy
summer season, swarms of tourists came to
fish at the lake and camp in the Charles M.
Russell National Wildlife Refuge. Carly and
Brad helped their parents in the store.
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Carly loved talking to visitors about the
area. Fort Peck Lake was so big that she
couldn’t see where it ended. Ducks skimmed
across the surface of the lake. Geese strutting
along the shore were a regular sight.
Kingfishers sat on the rocks at the water’s
edge. In the forested areas, Carly saw deer,
raccoons, owls, and even foxes. She spent
hours looking for subjects for her pictures.
Each season everything changed, and she was
never bored.
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Carly searched for other Margaret
Bourke-White pictures. Many were of things
that Carly wouldn’t usually have found very
interesting: ordinary bridges, towers, buildings.
But these pictures caught her attention
somehow.
“Maybe it’s that they’re in black and
white,” Carly wrote. She looked at some
of her own pictures on her computer. She
changed them from color to black and white,
but they looked pale and faded. That wasn’t
the answer.
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Chapter 3
Learning from the Past
When Carly got home that afternoon, she
looked online for the Fort Peck Dam picture.
She printed it and looked at it closely.
Carly wrote in her photo journal: “It
isn’t that the dam is beautiful. I think it
has something to do with the angle of the
picture. Maybe it’s the clouds. Did she wait
for the perfect day, with the perfect piece of
sky, to take the pictures?”
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Carly had visited her cousins in Seattle
many times. The streets were filled with cars,
and the houses were close together. Carly
wondered what it must be like in Chicago
or New York, where people were packed into
apartment buildings, and skyscrapers blocked
the sun. She looked at pictures of cities,
and thought the big, gray buildings were
dull. Carly thought it must be hard to be a
photographer in the city.
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A young couple came into the store. The
man went to get some batteries. The woman
told her that they were on their way to Fort
Peck Dam. The dam had been built in the
1930s. It had blocked off the Missouri River,
creating Fort Peck Lake.
Carly made a face. “Really? The dam’s
pretty boring.”
“Oh, not at all!” the woman said. “Look.”
She pulled a magazine out of her knapsack.
She opened it and handed it to Carly.
Carly looked at the photograph. She had
never seen the dam like this before. It looked
like a giant castle. Its towers seemed to brush
the clouds in the sky. At the bottom of the
picture were two tiny figures. They made the
dam look even bigger and more impressive.
“Who took this?” Carly asked.
“Margaret Bourke-White,” said the woman.
“It’s from 1936.”
Carly looked at the picture again, and
wrote the photographer’s name on a slip of
paper. She couldn’t wait to find out more
about the photographer.
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