THEME: Balloon Flight

Talk About It . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 710

The Science of Hot-Air Balloons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .712

Vocabulary/Comprehension: Make Generalizations

Up in the Air:
The Story of Balloon Flight Nonfiction . . . . . .714
by Patricia Lauber

Hot-Air Balloon Haiku Poetry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 732

by Rita Bristol
Writing: Explanatory Writing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 734

THEME: Scientists at Work

Talk About It . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 736

Dr. Priscilla C. Grew, Geologist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 738

Vocabulary/Comprehension: Sequence

Hidden Worlds Nonfiction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 740

from the book by Stephen Kramer, photos by Dennis Kunkel

Mountain of Fire: A Native

American Myth Language Arts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 754
retold by Grace Armstrong
Writing: Explanatory Writing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 758

Test Strategy: Author and Me

National Parks: Our

National Treasures Social Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . 760

Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .764

15
 School
16
Contests
 Talk About It
What challenges and
responsibilities come with
entering a contest? What
emotions can affect the
contestants?

Find out more about

school contests at
www.macmillanmh.com

17
 Vocabulary
K_\
slumped strands
KXc\ek
:fek\jk
soggy gigantic
capable credit
categories luminous

Context Clues
Synonyms are words that
mean the same or almost
the same thing as other by Howard Gabe
words. For example, huge
is a synonym for gigantic.
When you read an unfamiliar
word, check to see if there
8 s Danny put his lunch tray onto
the cafeteria table, milk spilled all over his
is a synonym nearby to use sandwich. He sat down, hung his head forward,
as a context clue.
and slumped over the food in front of him.
Frowning, he began peeling the soggy milk-
soaked bread from his sandwich. “This is the
most ridiculous thing I’ve ever done!” he said.
“It’s not that bad,” said his friend Elena,
who was sitting across from him. “Just get
another sandwich.”
“Sandwich? What sandwich? I am talking
about the talent contest. It’s only two weeks
away and I don’t know what I’m doing!
Everybody will laugh at me. It’s inevitable.
There’s no way to avoid it!”
“Don’t be so negative, Danny,” said Elena
as she rolled her eyes. “You’re going to be
great. You’re very capable. You have the skills
to do just about anything.”
Danny moved his lunch tray to the side and
rested his head on the table.

18
 Vocabulary and Comprehension

“Sit up Danny,” ordered Elena. reading. You definitely have the talent
“I have an idea. Let’s brainstorm a list for it. Mrs. Pace always calls on you to
of things you could do. We’ll divide read aloud in class. You could read a
the list into categories or groups. play aloud. Maybe you could even
Let’s start with music. You play the get extra credit from Mrs. Pace. She
piano, right?” rewards students with points for doing
“I stopped taking lessons in third extra reading work.”
grade,” said Danny. Danny thought for a minute. Then
“What about singing a song?” he smiled. “Elena,” Danny said, “you
suggested Elena. are a great friend!”
Danny shook his head no. “Let’s Elena
move on to another category.” smiled
“What about juggling?” asked Elena, back. “I just
as she twisted thin strands of hair want to make
around her finger. sure you are a
bright, shiny,
“I don’t know how to juggle!” Danny
luminous
almost shouted. “Elena, how did I get
star when you
myself into this huge, gigantic mess?”
step out
“Stop being so...” Elena paused. onstage.”
“That’s it, DRAMATIC!” Elena shouted
excitedly. “You could do a dramatic

Reread for Comprehension

Story Structure
Character and Plot
A Character and Plot Chart helps you figure out
a character’s personality and events of the plot. 1VO`OQbS` >Z]b
These traits and events are part of story structure.
Use your Character and Plot Chart as you reread
“The Talent Contest” to figure out Elena’s traits
and how her actions affect the plot of the story.

19
 Comprehension
Genre
Realistic Fiction uses
settings, characters, and
events that could actually
exist.

Story Structure
Character and Plot
As you read, use your
Character and Plot Chart.

1VO`OQbS` >Z]b

Read to Find Out

How does the kind of
person Sage is affect
the plot?

20
 Main Selection

Miss
Alaineus
A VOCABULARY DISASTER
written and illustrated by
Debra Frasier

21
 N one of this would have happened if it wasn’t for Forest.
Forest is not a thicket of trees. Forest is a boy. A sick boy. A
boy sneezing and coughing all over my desk and pencils.
I caught Forest’s cold and had to stay home from school on
Tuesday. Tuesday is Vocabulary Day at Webster School. Follow
my advice: Never get sick on Vocabulary Day.
On Tuesday afternoon I called my best friend, Starr, who is
not a luminous celestial object seen as a point of light in the
sky, but a very smart girl who listens perfectly on Vocabulary
Day. She was late for baseball practice, so she spelled the first
fourteen vocabulary words as fast as she could.
I had to scribble them quickly because her mom was calling
her to the car. “This last one’s ‘Miss Alaineus’!” Starr yelled.
“I gotta go. I hope you feel better tomorrow, Sage.” And she
hung up the phone with a crash.
22
 I didn’t feel much better on Wednesday,
so my mom called Mrs. Page, who is not a
single side of a printed sheet of paper usually
found bound in a book. She’s my teacher, and
actually Mrs. Page is a good name for her
because she reads to us every day. My mom
told her yes, I had my math problems and
vocabulary words, and yes, I would get better
soon.

Plot
How do you think Starr’s rush to
give Sage the vocabulary words
will affect what happens next?

23
 Every week Mrs. Page gives us a list of words with a theme,
like Story Writing or Musical Performance or Electricity.
We’re supposed to look up each word in the dictionary, but
sometimes I already know the words, so I
try to make the definitions sound like I looked them up.

I thought I was pretty good at definitions until this week.

My mom says, “Pride goeth before a fall.”
Pride: an unduly high opinion of oneself.
Goeth: Old English for “to go.”
Fall: what happened on Monday, Vocabulary Test Day.

24
 By Thursday afternoon my head felt like it was stuffed with
cotton and my throat felt swollen shut. I finished defining
my vocabulary words while propped up in bed with a box of
tissues on one side and a gigantic red dictionary on the other.
It’s hard to look up words in a huge book while you’re in bed
blowing your nose, so I made my own dictionary language for
as many of them as I could.

25
 The last word seemed a little odd to me because I couldn’t
figure out what she had to do with snakes or categories or
theories. Mrs. Page rarely gives us people’s names on our
vocabulary lists, but we have had a few that turned into
words, like Louis Pasteur for pasteurization and George
Washington for Washington, D.C., so I decided she must have
been included for a reason.
You should know that for years I had wondered who Miss
Alaineus was. When I was little I figured out that she had
something to do with the kitchen, because the Miss Alaineus
drawer held the spoons too big to fit anywhere else, the
sharp corn holders shaped like tiny cobs, and the spaghetti
spork, that weird cross between a spoon and a fork that
perfectly lifts slippery spaghetti out of the bowl. I thought
maybe she was an ancestor: an ancient relative long dead,
who left us all these odd things in the drawer.
Then just last year my mom and I were at the grocery store
and it all fell into place. We were in one of those Very Big
Hurries when she said, “You go get some of that long Italian
bread and two sticks of butter. I’ll get Miss Alaineus’ things
and meet you here at the cash register.”

26
 I found the bread and butter, and my mom came back with
spaghetti sauce, a can of Parmesan cheese, a can of corn, and
a big green box of spaghetti with a beautiful woman on the
front. She was drawn so that her hair tumbled perfectly across
the box and ended in a little plastic window, making the
spaghetti look just like the ends of the strands of her hair.
There she was—Miss Alaineus.
So, propped up on pillows in my bed, with a tissue in one
hand and a pencil in the other, I wrote:

And then I fell asleep.

27
 I finally got better over the weekend and felt great on
Monday. I turned in my homework to Mrs. Page and sat down
at my desk, glad to be back at school with my friends. I was
even glad to see Forest at our morning circle meeting.
“First, I want to remind you of the Tenth Annual
Vocabulary Parade on Friday,” said Mrs. Page. “I hope you
are all working on your word costumes. Second, please
remember to bring your bus money and permission slips for
our science museum field trip tomorrow. And third, instead
of our usual Monday test, we are going to have a Vocabulary
Bee today.

28
 “Everyone line up here by the chalkboard, and I’ll choose
a word from our list. After I pronounce the word, please spell
and define it. If you are correct, go to the end of the line. If
you miss the word, please sit down at your desk and look it
up in the dictionary. Write the word five times and define
it once.”
Starr was first with museum: “M-U-S-E-U-M: a building for
exhibiting objects about art or history or science,” she said,
and went to the back of the line.
Cliff, not a high, steep face of rock, but one very tall
boy, answered to the word dinosaur: “D-I-N-O-S-A-U-R:
a prehistoric, extinct reptile, often huge,” and he went to the
back of the line.

29
 I was tenth, and when Mrs. Page called out my word, I
spelled: “Capital M-I-S-S, capital A-L-A-I-N-E-U-S,” and added,
“the woman on green spaghetti boxes whose hair is the color
of uncooked pasta and turns into spaghetti at the ends.”
There was a moment of silence in the room. I smiled at
Mrs. Page. She waited to see if I would add anything else, and
when I didn’t, she grinned. Not smiled—grinned: to draw back
the lips and bare the teeth, as in a very wide smile—and the
entire class burst into one huge giggling, laughing, falling-
down mass of kids. Forest was doubled over. Starr, my best
friend, was laughing so hard tears came to her eyes. By now,
even Mrs. Page was laughing.
Pride goeth before a fall. I was Sage: one who shows
wisdom, experience, judgment. Why were they laughing?
“Wise-girl-with-words” my dad always called me. What
had I said? I was beginning to turn red. Red: the color of
embarrassment.

30
31
 Finally the room quieted. Mrs. Page opened her dictionary
and wrote on the chalkboard:
Miscellaneous: adj. 1. consisting of various kinds or
qualities 2. a collection of unrelated objects
My jaw dropped as I looked at the spelling. My eyes
bulged as I read the definition. I didn’t bother to tell anyone
about my mom and the spaghetti spork and the grocery
store. Humbled: aware of my shortcomings, modest, meek,
I dragged back to my seat and wrote miscellaneous five
times and defined it once. And that’s when I remembered
I had even drawn a picture of the spaghetti box for extra
credit. I was devastated: wasted, ravaged. Ruined: destroyed.
Finished: brought to an end.

Character
What does Sage’s reaction to her
mistake tell you about her character?

32
 They called me Miss Alaineus for the rest of the day.
Sometimes a person couldn’t even get the words out
before bending over with laughter. The day took a week to
end. When I got off the bus I slumped home—devastated,
ruined, finished.
I told my mom the whole story, from the kitchen drawer
to the grocery store to the Vocabulary Bee. Even my own
mother laughed a little at the part about the drawing for
extra credit, but at least she stopped fast and said, “You
know what I always say . . . There’s gold in every mistake.”
Gold? A bright yellow precious metal of great value?
Mistake? Something done, said, or thought in the
wrong way?
“Impossible,” I told her. Impossible: not capable
of happening.
33
 I couldn’t believe I ever
had to go back to school.
But the next day we went
to the science museum, and
everyone forgot all about Miss
Alaineus at the snake exhibit
and the dinosaur bone lab.
Then the guide said, “The
field of bone archaeology has
been influenced by a wide and
unusual array of miscellaneous
discoveries around the world.”
The class burst out laughing,
and the guide was pleased
with herself for entertaining
us so easily. And I knew: to
apprehend with certainty, that
my mistake was still alive and
well, and nothing like gold.
After school I lay on my bed
and stared at the wall. How
could I have been
so stupid?

34
 My mom came in and
said it was time to work
on my costume for the
Vocabulary Parade. We
had finished the cape for
Capable, but I still needed
to make the lettering down
the back.
“Mom,” I said, “I could
only be a mistake this year.
Miss Stake.”
Suddenly I sat up.
I looked at my mom. She
looked at me.
I smiled.
She smiled.
“Sweetheart,” she said,
“let’s take another look at
that cape.”

35
 It took the most courage I’ve ever had
to walk out on that stage as Miss Alaineus,
Queen of All Miscellaneous Things. But
when Mr. Bell read my word and definition,
everyone applauded and laughed wildly: in a
manner lacking all restraint, and I grinned at
my mom across the auditorium.

36
 Forest came right after me. When he
bowed, his Precipitation watering-can hat
rained on Mr. Bell’s new suit, and the entire
audience gasped, then cheered when Mr.
Bell smiled at his soggy clothes.

37
 To my astonishment: great shock and amazement, I won a
gold trophy for The Most Original Use of a Word in the Tenth
Annual Vocabulary Parade.
So this time Mom was right. There was gold in this mistake.
And next year I think I’m going to be . . .

38
 Miss Sterious,
Investigator of All Things Mysterious!

39
 A Few Words About
Debra Frasier
Debra Frasier’s fifth-grade daughter
said to her one day, “Mom, today I figured out
that miscellaneous is not a person.” Her
daughter’s new wisdom gave Debra two gifts:
a good laugh and the idea to write Miss Alaineus.
Debra says her books take a long time because
she loves the creative process. Being creative
is nothing new for Debra. As a child in Florida, she used to make collages
with old wood she found on the beach and miles of tape.

For the illustrations, Debra again turned to her daughter for

inspiration. Papers, glue, scissors, and pencils that were crammed in
her daughter’s desk gave her the idea for the story’s school setting.
At last Debra had completed a fun adventure about the usually tame
world of vocabulary.

Another book by Debra Frasier:

Out of the Ocean Author’s Purpose
Authors of fiction usually
write to entertain, but they
may have another purpose.
What clues can help you
figure out if Debra Frasier
had more than one purpose
for writing Miss Alaineus?

For more information about

Debra Frasier visit
www.macmillanmh.com

40
 Comprehension Check

Summarize
Use your Character and Plot Chart to help you summarize Miss Alaineus.
1VO`OQbS` >Z]b Include
only the most important events that lead to Sage’s creative
solution to her problem.

Think and Compare

1. Miss Alaineus is written from Sage’s point of view. How does
this help you know what she is like? What words or phrases
would you use to describe her? Use story details in your
answer. Story Structure: Character and Plot

2. Reread page 38. What does Sage mean when she says,
“there was gold in this mistake”? Use details from the story to
support your answer. Analyze

3. Even the most capable people make mistakes. How do you

feel when you make a mistake? Compare your feelings to
Sage’s feelings. Analyze

4. Why might it be helpful to have

a sense of humor when you
are trying to solve a problem?
Evaluate

5. Look back at “The Talent

Contest” on pages 18–19.
How is Danny’s experience
similar to Sage’s? Use details
from each selection.
Reading/Writing Across Texts

41
 ) )
Language Arts
Genre
Nonfiction Articles provide
information about real
people, places, or events.

Text Feature
Photographs and Captions
give visual examples
that help explain what
the text states.

Content Vocabulary
)
competition
orally
eliminates
)

The National

by Nicole Lee

) Does the word autochthonous sound familiar? Luckily, to

David Tidmarsh, it did. David correctly spelled autochthonous
to win the 77th National Spelling Bee. David, from South Bend,
)
Indiana, won the spelling championship at age 14. In the final
) round of competition, David beat Akshay Buddiga, a 13-year-old )
boy from Colorado.

42
 Language Arts

)
Welcome to the exciting and intense world of spelling bees.
The National Spelling Bee takes place each June in Washington,
D.C. The competition has been around for a long time. It began
in 1925 with only nine contestants. In 2004 there were 265
)
contestants ranging in age from 8 to 15. Contestants for the
National Spelling Bee come from English-speaking countries all
over the world. Students from Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and even
Saudi Arabia have competed in the National Spelling Bee.
It takes a lot of hard work and dedication to advance )
to the National Spelling Bee finals. Students spend a lot of
time preparing for competition. The words chosen for the
competition are chosen from the dictionary by a panel of
word experts. There are more than 470,000 words in the
dictionary, and any one of these words could be chosen for
the competition. David spent several months preparing )
for the finals. He spent many hours studying a dictionary,
and a list of 10,000 words that he created. Fortunately for
David, autochthonous was one of the words on his list. After
David won he said, “I was just hoping I got a word I studied.”

) )
) )

)
) Spelling contestants spend months poring over the dictionary.

43
 / )

)
Intense moments

arete on David’s road to

V-I-C-T-O-R-Y!

)
The purpose of the National Spelling Bee is to encourage
students to improve their spelling, broaden their vocabularies,

) and develop correct English usage. During round one of the

championships, the spellers have to take a 25-word written test.
In round two, each student spells a word orally. Next, the judges
score the students. The top 90 students move on to round three.
Any mistake during round three or the later rounds eliminates the
)
speller. Some of the words that David had to spell before the 15th
and final round were gaminerie, arete, balancelle, and sumpsimus.

)
)
)
) Akshay (left) and
David anxiously
await their turns.

44
) Spellers qualify for the finals by winning locally sponsored
spelling bees in their home communities. Qualifying for the
national competition is a significant accomplishment. Every )
student who advances to the national competition is awarded
a prize. The champion gets $17,000, a set of encyclopedias, an
engraved trophy, and several other prizes. When asked what he
would do with the prize money, David said, “I might put it in a
) savings account,” and “I’ll probably take a little and spend it at
the mall.”
)
)
o n o u s
auto chth gamine
rie
)

Connect and Compare

1. Look at the photo of the spellers sitting on the stage.
What feelings do you think the contestants experienced
during the competition? Photographs and Captions

2. What advice do you think David would give to someone

who wanted to enter a spelling bee? Evaluate

3. Think about this article and Miss Alaineus. Compare how

Sage prepared for the vocabulary bee and David prepared
for the spelling bee. Reading and Writing Across Texts

Language Arts Activity

Does your state have spelling bees? Research
spelling bees in your state and write a paragraph
about what you need to do to enter a local
spelling bee.

Find out more about the National Spelling Bee at

www.macmillanmh.com

45
 6LCN?
<ION
;

Writer’s Craft 2"'..+

A Good Paragraph
A good paragraph has a
topic sentence that lets
".-3$23
a reader know what the
subject of the paragraph
will be. Supporting details
add information about Always ne
the subject.
Hundred Percent
by Christina M.
My topic sentence is
Every Friday morning my friends and I sit
a clue that practicing
on the rug in class and practice our spelling
spelling words is
words before the weekly test. We have a
the main idea of the
contest to see who can spell the words the
paragraph.
fastest. One of us sits in our teacher’s chair
and reads the spelling words. Whoever slaps
I use supporting the floor first gets a two-second head start
details to add spelling the word.
information about my A few weeks ago, Miguel had been reading
topic sentence. the words, and Kevin and I were spelling them.
For one of the words, I lifted my hand in such
a hurry that it flew back and hit my nose. We
all laughed hysterically. Miguel laughed so hard
he fell out of the teacher’s chair, and that
started us laughing all over again.
Our weekly contest works out well even
when nothing funny happens. We get one
hundred percent on our spelling tests! You
should try it. It’s a fun way to study
spelling words.

46
 Personal Narrative

Your Turn
Write two or three paragraphs about a
school contest that you have entered or
that you would like to enter. Tell about
what happened to you and how you
felt. Be sure to use a topic sentence and
supporting details in each paragraph.
Use the writer’s checklist to
check your writing.

Writer’s Checklist
Ideas and Content: Are my ideas clear?

Organization: Did I use a topic sentence to create

a strong beginning for my paragraph?

Voice: Do the details tell how I feel? Do they make my

writing sound like something I would have written?

Word Choice: Did I choose strong words to tell what

is happening?

Sentence Fluency: Did I join related sentences

to make compound sentences?

Conventions: Did I capitalize proper nouns?

Did I check my spelling?

47