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Copywork
About This Passage
Mario's tender cleaning of the cricket right after finding him under a pile of soot. The sentence is a quiet lesson in how a person handles something small and fragile — one Kleenex to lay the cricket on, another to dust him off, gentle taps on each body part named one by one. The passage teaches young readers how to write careful sentences about careful actions.
Mario pulled out a Kleenex and laid the cricket on it. Then he took another and started to dust him off. Ever so softly he tapped the hard black shell, and the antennae, and legs, and wings. Gradually...
Full copywork activity with handwriting lines available in the complete study guide.
Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
In your own words, tell what happens in Chapter 2. What sound does Mario hear? What does he find? How do Mama and Papa react? What is decided at the end?
Discussion Questions
- Mario hears a sound in the subway station and thinks he has heard this kind of sound somewhere before. What in the story tells you where Mario remembers hearing this sound?
- When Mario finds the cricket covered in dust and soot, he pulls out a Kleenex, cleans off the cricket very softly, and makes him a matchbox bed with another Kleenex folded inside. How do you know Mario is being careful with the little insect?
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Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
A small animal with six legs and often wings, like an ant, bee, or cricket.
Item 2
The hard outside covering of an animal such as an insect, a turtle, or an egg.
Item 3
The parts of an animal's body used for flying, like the ones on a bird or an insect.
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Critical Thinking
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