The Seedling Stand

Esme and Tobias turn a windowsill of basil seedlings into a stand at their block's yard sale. Across a four-part story, students in grades 3-5 learn business words, highlight the sentence that explains Esme's idea, work out why nobody stopped at first, predict what a better sign and a dark cloud will bring, and name how the kids feel. Then they sort questions into right-there and inference, choose a reply that keeps a customer conversation going, match words with two meanings, and find every supply in a busy garage. Every passage, question and answer has a read-aloud speaker, so students who are still decoding can work on the language goals.

• A four-part story with a picture and read-aloud for every part
• 5 business vocabulary cards
• Highlight-the-evidence, prediction and cause-and-effect questions
• A right-there vs. inference question sort
• A two-meaning word match and a find-the-supplies picture hunt

• Find the sentence in a story that answers a why question.
• Predict what will happen next and name the clue that supports it.
• Explain a cause and its effect in a story.
• Tell whether a question is answered right in the text or needs an inference.
• Use context to choose the meaning of a word with two meanings.
• Keep a conversation going by answering and asking a related question.