SSAT Elementary Reading

Jun lost a red mitten at recess. After school he checked the lost box, and two red mittens lay inside. From the outside they looked the same, so color alone could not help him choose.

Jun turned each mitten over. One had a yellow star sewn inside the cuff, and his grandmother had sewn that star. The other mitten had no star. Jun took the starred mitten and left the other in the box.

On Saturday, Mom and Priya made tomato soup for lunch. Priya washed four tomatoes and cut them with a small knife while Mom watched. They cooked the tomatoes with water, salt, and one onion.

Priya stirred the pot slowly so it would not splash. When the soup was done, they ate it with toast. The soup was very hot, so Priya waited a minute before she took a big sip.

The library reading hour starts at 10:00 and ends at 10:30. Nia arrived at 10:05 with her book about horses and sat on the green rug. Mr. Cole read aloud a story about a farm.

Children listened until 10:30, and then Mr. Cole closed the book. Nia put her horse book back on the low shelf. She had stayed for the whole rest of the reading hour.

Rain tapped the windows all morning, and puddles covered the yard. Diego looked at his dry sneakers, then pulled on his tall boots and took his raincoat from the hook. His little sister was still in slippers.

Diego pointed to her boots and waited by the door. She grinned, sat on the step, and began to pull the boots on. Their jackets already hung over their arms.

Asha and her uncle took a red kite to Baker Hill. The wind was strong, and the kite rose above the oak tree. Asha held the string with both hands so it would not slip away.

After a few minutes the kite dipped. Her uncle said to let out more string, and Asha did. The kite climbed again. They stayed until the wind slowed, then rolled the string up and walked down the hill.

Room 12 has a hamster named Pip. A chart on the cage lists his care. Pip gets fresh water every day, and he gets a small scoop of food in the morning. Students may not feed him snacks from lunch.

On Friday, Ben almost dropped a cracker into the cage. Ms. Rivera pointed to the chart, and Ben ate the cracker himself. Pip kept nibbling the food from his morning scoop.

During the song, Malik's drumsticks kept tapping after the class had stopped. The sound was still going when Ms. Brooks held up a closed hand, the class sign for silence. Malik saw the sign.

His sticks froze in the air. He pressed his lips together and watched Ms. Brooks until she opened her hand for the next part of the song. Then he waited for the new signal before he played again.

The Lee family was moving to a new apartment, and every box had a label. Books went in the blue boxes. Dishes went in the green boxes. Toys went in one yellow box. Mina carried only light boxes down the stairs.

Her father carried the green boxes because dishes can break. By evening, the labels told the movers which room each box belonged in. No one had to open every box to find the dishes.

The picnic basket held six apples, four muffins, and two bottles of water. There were three children. Dad said each child could have one apple and one muffin. That left three apples and one muffin in the basket.

The extra muffin was for Dad. After a game of tag, the children drank the water. They saved the leftover apples for the ride home.

The chore list had three jobs: fold the towels, water the fern, and sweep the step. Omar wanted to finish fast, so he started all three at once. The towel pile slid off the chair, and the watering can tipped.

Grandma said to pick one job and finish it. Omar folded every towel. Then he watered the fern. Then he swept the step. The rooms looked neat when he did the jobs in that order.

Lila walked to the bakery with a coin for a roll. A paper sign hung on the door. The lights inside were off, and the bread shelves looked empty through the glass. No one stood behind the counter.

Lila put the coin back in her pocket. She waved at the baker's cat in the window and walked home. She ate an apple from the bowl on the table instead.

Grandpa and I built a bench for the garden. We chose thick boards that felt sturdy, not thin ones that bent in our hands. Grandpa sanded each board until the top was smooth.

I held the screws while he turned them tight. When we sat down together, the bench did not wobble. We set it under the pear tree and watched the leaves move.

Each student painted one part of a long paper mural for the hall. Some painted fish, some painted waves, and some painted boats. No one painted the whole ocean alone.

When the parts were taped together, the hall showed one big sea. Ms. Patel said the mural worked because every painter added a piece. People walking by could see the fish, waves, and boats as one picture.

Hana's street shoes were muddy from the walk to the pool. She stopped at the rack, pulled them off, and set them in a cubby. Then she put on clean swim shoes that were still dry.

Coach Lin smiled and opened the door to the wet deck. Hana walked through in the clean shoes. Her muddy pair stayed in the cubby the whole class.

Eli turned eight on Sunday. The cake had eight candles, and he blew them all out in one breath. His sister Clara gave him a book about trains. His uncle gave him a blue cap.

Eli wore the cap at dinner. He said the train book would be his bedtime story that night. Clara asked him to show her the page with the red engine.

Rosa wanted to ride her bike without the extra wheels. On the first try, the bike tipped and she put a foot down. She tried again on the flat sidewalk. Her father jogged beside her but did not hold the seat.

On the fourth try, Rosa pedaled to the corner and stopped with the brake. She grinned at her father. The extra wheels stayed in the garage that afternoon.

The family puzzle showed a red barn, but one piece was missing from the door. They looked under the table and in the box lid. The piece was not in either place, and the barn door stayed empty.

Later the dog stood up from the rug, and the missing piece stuck to his fur. They pressed it into the door. The barn picture was whole again, and the dog shook once and lay back down.

Three letters came in the mail. One was for Dad, one was for Mom, and one was for Grandma. The letter for Grandma had a stamp with a bird on it. Dad put that letter in a basket to take to her house after supper.

Mom opened her letter at the table. It was a note from the dentist about a checkup on Tuesday. She wrote the time on the calendar and left Dad's letter by his chair.

The bus to camp leaves at 7:15. Jonah's clock said 7:00 when he tied his shoes. He packed a water bottle and a cap. His brother Sam is not going to camp, so Sam stayed at the table with his toast.

Jonah and Dad reached the stop at 7:10. The bus came five minutes later, right on time. Jonah waved to Sam through the window as the bus pulled away.

After the sleepover, Wren wrote a note to Mr. and Mrs. Ortiz. She thanked them for the pancakes and for letting her use a sleeping bag. She drew a small sun at the bottom of the paper.

Mom gave her a stamp. Wren walked to the blue mailbox on the corner and slid the note in. She wanted the Ortiz family to know she had a good time at their house.

The choir stands in two rows. Short students stand in the front row, and tall students stand in the back row. Nina is tall, so she stands in the back. Her friend Otis is shorter, so he stands in the front.

They can still see the director, Mr. Shah, because he stands on a small platform. He lifts his hands, and both rows watch him. Nina sings the high part from her place in the back.

The community garden had an empty row of dark soil. Children poked holes, dropped in bean seeds, and covered them with a gentle pat. A sign said to water the row every morning if the soil was dry.

Noor filled a watering can and gave the row a slow drink. She did not flood the soil. The seeds were covered and watered, and the children washed their hands at the faucet.

The class made paper puppets for a story about a fox and a crow. Amir moved the fox. Bea moved the crow. The rest of the class sat on the rug to watch the show.

When the crow spoke, Bea used a high voice. When the fox spoke, Amir used a low voice. At the end, the audience clapped. The show worked because Amir and Bea took turns and kept the story moving.

I tied my shoes by myself for the first time. The bows were a little loose, but they stayed put when I wiggled my feet. Mom clapped once and did not redo them for me.

I walked to the door and back again. The bows held. I stood taller and looked down at the knots I had made. I wanted to wear those shoes for the rest of the day.

The family went to the city aquarium on a rainy Saturday. Tickets cost four dollars for each child and eight dollars for each adult. There were two children and one adult in the family.

They saw rays, seahorses, and a tank of silver fish. They did not buy a toy at the gift shop. They spent their time walking slowly from tank to tank.

In the cafeteria, students have jobs on Friday. Wes wipes tables. Imani hands out forks. Priya stacks trays. The jobs rotate each week, so next Friday Wes will stack trays.

Today Wes has a cloth and a spray bottle. He wipes one table, then the next, until the whole row is clean. Imani's forks stay in a cup at the end of the line.

Snow covered the park hill, and there was room for one sled at a time. Grace had a red sled. She rode from the top to the fence once, then walked the sled back up and gave it to Mateo.

Mateo rode down once and gave the sled to Noelle. Noelle took her turn and brought it back to Grace. They shared the one sled instead of arguing about who would go next.

The paint on Dev's paper was still shiny. He reached for his backpack, but Ms. Ortiz shook her head and pointed at the drying rack. Dev slid the paper onto the rack with space around it.

He washed his hands at the sink and left the picture lying flat. He did not stack another paper on top of it. His backpack stayed empty of wet art.

The ice cream tub was light when Cara lifted it. She could see the bottom in two places. Her brother asked for a full bowl. Cara scooped what was left into a small cup.

She split that scoop with a spoon into two even parts. She handed him one part and kept the other. Neither cup was full, and the tub was empty when she set it in the sink.

Uncle Theo hung a feeder on the maple tree and filled it with black oil sunflower seeds. A chickadee landed, took one seed, and flew to a branch to eat it. Then it came back for another.

A squirrel climbed the trunk and jumped toward the feeder. A metal skirt around the pole was too smooth to grip, so the squirrel slid down. The chickadee returned and took one more seed.

The tent was dark except for a small lantern. When Dad turned the lantern down, the crickets sounded louder. Hana zipped her sleeping bag up to her chin and laid her head on the pillow.

She could not see the path outside, but she heard Dad say the trail would still be there in the morning. She closed her eyes. The lantern glow became a thin line and then almost nothing.

The train was fast. For a moment, passengers got a glimpse of the river between two hills. Then the trees closed in and blocked the view. Jonah pressed his forehead to the glass.

He hoped the river would show again. A minute later he saw only barns and green fields. The river was already behind them, and the train did not slow down.

The pool was quiet during the lesson. Sam climbed the ladder to the low board, walked to the end, and did not jump yet. He seemed to hesitate, curling his toes on the wet board.

Coach said he could bend his knees and go when he was ready. Sam nodded, bent his knees, and stepped off into the water. He came up smiling and swam to the side.

Grandma's pancake card lists the steps in order. First, mix one cup of flour with one cup of milk. Second, crack one egg into the bowl. Third, stir until the lumps are small. Fourth, pour circles onto a warm pan.

We made eight pancakes. We did not add chocolate chips this time, because the card did not list chips. The first pancake was a little pale, so we left it on the pan a bit longer.

At the children's museum, each visitor got a paper map. A box called the key sat in the corner of the page. On that key, a blue square meant restrooms, a red drop meant the water fountain, and a green tree meant the garden door.

Luis was thirsty. He found the red drop on the map and walked to that spot in the hall. A fountain was there. The key had told him what the little pictures meant.

At the town parade, a fire truck carried a large United States flag. Maya counted the stripes and found seven red and six white, thirteen in all. Her older cousin said the thirteen stripes stand for the first thirteen colonies.

Maya then counted the stars in the blue box. There were fifty stars, one for each state. The truck rolled on, and the flag rippled above the crowd while the band played.

The thunder finished, and the yard grew bright again.

I opened the door and let the dog come out with me.

He sniffed the wet grass and wagged his whole tail once.

My tight shoulders dropped, and I laughed into the cool air.

The storm was over, and our long walk could start at last.

I clipped his leash and stepped onto the shining walk.

Ms. Adeyemi set two bean plants on a sunny shelf and watered both pots on Monday and on Wednesday. Then she put a dark box over the plant on the left. The plant on the right stayed in the light and got the same water.

By Friday, the covered plant was pale and limp. The plant in the light was green and standing tall. Ms. Adeyemi told the class that green plants need water and light to grow well.

It was a hot day. Omar filled a glass with ice water and set it on the picnic table. Soon the outside of the glass was covered with drops. He wiped them off with a towel, and new drops formed.

He had not spilled the drink. The water was still full to the same line inside the glass. The cold glass was cooling the air right next to it, and the outside kept getting wet.

The class filled a clear bowl with water, and Rae dropped in an ice cube. The cube floated, with part of it above the water. Mr. Bennett said solid water is less dense than liquid water, which means ice is lighter for its size, so it floats.

Rae pushed the cube under, and it popped back up. Then she dropped in a rubber stopper, and the stopper sank. The stopper was denser than the water. The ice was not.

The classroom globe is tilted, just as Earth is tilted in space. Ms. Flores shone a flashlight, standing for the Sun, on the globe. When the northern half leaned toward the light, that half got a more direct beam. She said that season is summer there.

She turned the globe so the northern half leaned away, and the beam spread weakly. She said that season is winter there. Seasons come from this tilt. They do not come from Earth moving closer to the Sun.

A storm sat over the far hills, and lightning flashed. The children were already inside the gym. The boom of thunder came after the flash. Mr. Ortiz said light reaches us almost at once, but sound takes time to travel.

He counted slowly between one flash and its boom and got to eight. On a later flash, he only got to three. He told the class that a longer wait means the lightning is farther away.

Snow started at lunch, and some children had no mittens for recess. Clara opened her bag and pulled out a second pair she had packed by mistake. She was generous and gave that pair to a boy who was blowing on his bare hands.

She kept her own mittens on. The boy smiled and ran to the slide with warm hands. Clara could still build a small snow wall, and so could he.

On Saturday, Dad and I walked down Main Street. At the bakery we bought a loaf of bread to carry home. The loaf is a good, a thing you can hold. Next door, Dad got a haircut.

The haircut is a service, which is work someone does for you. We paid money in both shops. We could hold the bread in a bag. We could not put the haircut in a bag and take it to the car.

A painted compass on the playground shows the letters N, E, S, and W. N means north. The garden gate is north of the swings, and the library door is east of the swings. East is to the right when a person faces north.

Jonah wanted the garden. He walked toward the N and reached the gate. He did not walk toward the E. That path would have taken him to the library instead of the beans and flowers.

The spelling test is on Thursday, and there are ten words. One word is friend. Another word is because. Students may practice at home, but they may not look at the list during the test.

On Wednesday night, Amina wrote each word three times. She asked her brother to read the words aloud while she spelled them. She will take the test with the list closed inside her desk.

A bench by the park path had a paper sign taped to the top slat. The sign said WET PAINT. The bench looked bright green and still shiny in the sun. Malik reached a hand toward it, then pulled his hand back.

He sat on the grass beside the path instead. When he stood up to leave, his pants had no green marks. The sign stayed taped to the bench for the next walker.

It was a cold night, so the family made chicken soup. They used carrots, celery, noodles, and chicken. They did not use beans. The soup cooked on the stove for forty minutes.

Grandpa liked the carrots best. The baby ate noodles that had been cut into small pieces. Everyone at the table had a bowl, and the pot was almost empty at the end.

The front step was covered with a thin sheet of ice. Dad was cautious, so he held the rail and put his foot down slowly. He did not run to the car. He sprinkled salt on the ice and waited beside the rail.

When the ice looked slushy, he walked to the car. He still kept one hand near the rail until he reached the clear part of the walk. Then he unlocked the door.

I folded a homework page into a little paper boat.

I set it on the gutter stream beside the curb.

It spun once, bumped a brown leaf, and hurried on.

It headed toward the dark grate at the corner.

I ran beside it, but the metal bars were close together.

The boat slipped through, and the street grew quiet.

I stood there and listened to the water fall below.

In class, a lamp stood for the Sun, and it stayed in one place. A globe stood for Earth. When Ms. Khan spun the globe, the side facing the lamp was bright. That side had daytime. The side facing away was in shadow, and that side had night.

She spun the globe one full turn and said that turn is about one day. The lamp did not travel around the globe. Day and night came from Earth turning in the light.

At dusk, a thin bright curve hung in the sky. Ben said Earth's shadow was covering the Moon. His aunt shook her head. She said the Moon does not make its own light. The Sun lights part of the Moon, and we see the bright part.

A crescent is a small sunlit slice of the Moon. Earth's shadow does not make that crescent. Earth's shadow can fall on the Moon during a lunar eclipse, and that happens when the Moon looks full, not when it is a thin curve.

The class had a jar of steel paper clips, plastic buttons, and wooden beads. Nora held a magnet just above the jar. Paper clips jumped up and stuck to the magnet. The buttons and the beads stayed in the jar.

Mr. Ellis said a magnet pulls iron and steel. The clips are steel. Plastic and wood are not. Nora held the magnet against a button, and the button did not move, no matter how close she brought it.

For social studies, Hugo gave a report about Washington, D.C. He learned it is the capital of the United States. The president lives and works there, and Congress meets there to make laws for the country.

Hugo also learned that Washington, D.C., is not one of the fifty states. It is a district set aside for the capital. On his map, he colored the fifty states green and left the capital a different color.

Our block has a picnic every Fourth of July. Grandma said the date marks July 4, 1776, when the thirteen colonies approved the Declaration of Independence. They were saying they would be free from Great Britain.

We did not read that old paper aloud at the picnic. We ate watermelon, ran sack races, and watched the town fireworks after dark. The holiday remembers the decision those colonies made in 1776.

Rain canceled the soccer game, so Samir and his cousins stayed inside. They built a fort with chairs and blankets in the living room. They brought two flashlights and one book, and they took turns reading a page.

When thunder rumbled, they stayed in the fort and kept reading. The game outside could wait until another day. The fort was their dry, lamplit place for the whole afternoon.

Morning fog covered the soccer field from one end to the other. The far goal seemed to vanish, as if someone had erased it. Coach blew the whistle, and the players walked closer until they could see the lines.

By ten o'clock the sun had burned the fog away. The goal was standing there, just as it had been all morning. Nothing had moved it. The fog had only hidden it from view.

I keep a smooth gray stone in the pocket of my coat.

I found it where the creek runs thin and cold and clear.

My thumb knows every little dip along its side.

When the day feels loud, I hold the stone one time.

It is cool and solid, and my breath begins to slow.

The stone does not fix the day, but I feel steady.

I slip it back beside the note I folded twice.

Maya set her lunch bag on the bus seat, and a sweet smell rose from a wet spot on the side. Her fingers were sticky when she lifted the bag. She laughed and pulled a napkin from her coat pocket.

Her sandwich was still wrapped in dry paper. The orange at the bottom of the bag was soft, and juice had seeped into the seam. She wiped her hands before she opened the sandwich.

The library was full of readers. A sign by the desk showed a finger held in front of lips, and people spoke in soft voices. When Jed's chair scraped the floor, a few readers looked up from their pages.

Jed lifted the chair instead of pushing it. He set it down gently at an open table. The readers looked back at their books. He opened his own book without making another scrape.

A whale swam past the wide window and then rose to the top of the tank. A cloud of mist shot from the opening on its back. The guide said whales are mammals and breathe air with lungs.

She said they cannot take oxygen from water the way fish do with gills. The whale stayed up for a breath and then dove. The fish kept swimming along the bottom of the tank.

These boots are stiff and smell a little like the store.

I stamp once in the hall just to hear the solid sound.

The laces pinch a bit, but I do not take them off.

Tomorrow we will cross the muddy field behind the school.

I set them by the door so I can find them very fast.

I check the gray sky and hope the puddles last all day.

The kitchen clock is five minutes fast, and Mom leaves it that way on purpose. When the clock shows 7:30, the real time is 7:25. The school bus comes at 7:40 real time. The stop is at the corner of Tariq's block.

Tariq grabs his bag when the kitchen clock shows 7:35 and walks to that corner. He does not wait for the clock to show a later time. His jacket is already zipped.

The dog came in from the muddy yard and shook from nose to tail. Brown spots landed across the white rug. Lena looked at the dog's paws. They were wet and dark, with bits of soil stuck in the fur.

She led the dog to the mat and wiped each paw with a towel. Then she blotted the rug until the spots faded. The dog sat, cleaner, by the door and did not shake again.

Grandpa set four photos in a line on the table. The first showed him as a baby in 1952. The second showed him in a school band in 1965. The third showed his wedding in 1978. The fourth showed him with our family last summer.

He said a timeline puts events in the order they happened, from earlier to later. The baby photo had to come first. The wedding photo could not come before the school band.

The holiday ornament was fragile, so we wrapped it in soft paper before it went into the box. It was thin glass, painted with a small gold star. Mom said one hard bump could crack it.

I carried the box with two hands and did not stack heavy books on top. At Grandma's house we lifted the ornament out. It was still whole, and the star caught the light.

In the class play, Jules was the baker. He forgot the line about the pies that stayed in the oven too long. His mouth opened, and no words came out. The girl playing the customer looked at him.

She asked, "Did the pies stay in too long?" Jules let out a breath and answered that he would bake a new tray. The scene kept going, and the audience never heard a long silence.

A glass case in the history room held a clay bowl. The card said the bowl was ancient, made about three thousand years ago in a city near a great river. People then used bowls like it for food.

The bowl was brown, with one chip on the rim. The card said it was not a copy made last year. Our class stood back from the glass so no one would bump the case.

The night path was bright enough to see without a flashlight. Nina said the Moon must be burning like a giant lamp. Her brother said no. The Moon does not make its own light. Light from the Sun hits the Moon and bounces to Earth.

That bounced light is what people call moonlight. A cloud slid over the Moon, and the path grew dark. When the cloud moved on, the path was bright again. The Moon had not turned itself on or off.

At the zoo, a camel stood in the sun with a tall, firm hump. A boy told his sister the hump was a jug full of water. The keeper heard him and stopped to explain. She said a camel's hump stores fat, not drinking water.

The fat is energy the camel can use when food is hard to find. Camels drink water and can go a long time between drinks, but the hump itself is not a water jug. This camel had drunk that morning, and the hump was still a hump of fat.

The pool doors would open at nine. Jasmin was eager, bouncing on her toes at the front of the line. She already had her swim cap and goggles on. Her brother yawned and leaned against the wall.

Jasmin kept looking at the clock above the door. When the doors opened, she walked in quickly, still smiling. Her towel was folded under her arm, ready for after the swim.

The bake sale table had a price card. Muffins were one dollar, cookies were fifty cents, and juice was one dollar. Mr. Nguyen bought two muffins and no cookies. He paid with a five-dollar bill.

The student helper gave him three dollars back. He checked the coins and bills, then took the muffins to a bench and shared them with his daughter. The juice stayed in the cooler.

The wind had filled the yard with dry leaves, and the job looked too big for one person. Then three neighbors came over with rakes. Each person took one part of the yard and worked toward the middle.

By noon, six bags were full and tied. No one had raked the whole yard alone. The grass showed again because they had worked at the same time and shared the piles.

I pat every pocket twice, and the silver whistle is not there.

I check the wooden steps, the green bench, and the ground under the swing.

A small bright glint is caught on a high branch of the cedar tree.

The string is tangled, and the whistle dangles far above my hands.

I rise on my toes and still cannot touch the lowest twig.

I go to find a grown-up and the long rake from the shed.

Mrs. Alvarez grows apples on her farm outside the city. A truck takes crates of those apples to a store on a busy city street. People who live in apartments can buy the apples there.

They do not have room for an orchard of their own. The farm has the trees and the open land. The store has the shoppers. The truck is the link between the two places.

The baby was asleep in a basket in the sunny room. The family carried their snacks into the kitchen instead. They turned the radio down until it was only a soft hum.

When someone laughed too loud, Grandma put a finger to her lips. Everyone lowered their voices. The baby stayed asleep. After the nap, they moved back to the sunny room and opened the curtains wider.

The class made a chart of small animals from the school garden. An ant had six legs and three body parts. A bee had six legs too. The chart called ants and bees insects. A spider had eight legs and two body parts.

The chart did not call the spider an insect. The spider had its own row. The students counted legs first, then body parts, before they wrote each name.

A closed jar held a little water and sat in the sunny window. Later, drops hung on the underside of the lid. Ms. Brooks said the sun had warmed the water, and some of it had become vapor, which means water as a gas.

The vapor touched the cooler lid and turned back into drops. She said the jar was a small model of how water rises and falls in the world. The water was not gone. It had changed form and collected again.

The relay team had four runners, and each runner raced one part of the track. The stick had to be passed inside a marked box. If the pass happened outside the box, the team would be out of the race.

Lila ran the third part. She waited until her teammate's hand was inside the box, then she took the stick and ran. The pass was fair, and the team stayed in the race.

Ned pulled his coat zipper up, and it stopped halfway to his chin. A bit of cloth from his shirt was caught in the metal teeth. He pulled harder, and the zipper still did not move. He stopped tugging so he would not tear the shirt.

His teacher, Mr. Brooks, slid the cloth out with two fingers. Then the zipper ran up smoothly to Ned's chin. Ned zipped his coat the rest of the way and lined up with the class.

The class chose a read-aloud book by voting. Each student who was there could vote once. Twelve students voted for the mountain story. Nine students voted for the ocean story. Two students were absent and did not vote.

The mountain story had more votes, so Ms. Greene will read that book next. She said the number of votes decided the winner. The louder cheers for the ocean story did not add any votes.

The corner stand sold lemonade for fifty cents a cup. By two o'clock, the pitcher was empty and so was the stack of cups. People were still standing in line, hoping for a drink.

Rita wrote SOLD OUT on a card and set it on the table. She did not pour water and call it lemonade. She thanked the people in line and closed the cooler. The sale ended when the lemonade and the cups were gone.

The knot in the necklace chain was small and tight. Grandpa was patient, working the tiny knot loose without a yank. He sat by the window, held the chain still, and teased one loop free with a pin.

It took a long time. I wanted to pull the chain hard, but he shook his head in a kind way. At last the knot opened, and the chain lay smooth on the table.

At lunch, the flagpole's shadow was short and stayed close to the pole. The Sun was high overhead. After school, the same pole threw a long shadow across the grass. The Sun was much lower in the sky.

No one had moved the pole or replaced it with a taller one. It was the same pole, in the same hole, both times. Only the Sun's place in the sky had changed.

The morning air was brisk, so the runners wore light jackets at the start of the mile. Their breath showed in little white clouds. They bounced in place while they waited for the whistle.

By the end of the run, some runners unzipped the jackets. The air had not turned hot. It was still cool on their faces. The running had warmed their bodies.

A small lamp stays lit in the hall through the night.

Its circle of yellow rests softly across the floor.

I can see the way from my bed to the bathroom.

The rooms on either side of me can stay dark.

I do not need a bright light shining in my face.

The gentle glow is enough, and I feel safe.

I pass the lamp and touch the wall with one hand.

Then I find my door and leave the lamp for morning.

A globe is round, like Earth. You can spin it and see that oceans and land wrap around without a cut. A paper map is flat. To make Earth lie flat on paper, mapmakers have to stretch some places.

Our teacher showed Greenland looking huge on one flat map. On the globe, Greenland was clearly smaller than Africa. The globe did not need to stretch Greenland to make it lie flat. For the round world, we trusted the globe.

The button jar held buttons of many sizes and colors. The puppet project needed four large red buttons. There were exactly four large red buttons in the jar. There were also small red buttons and several large blue ones.

Sasha sewed the four large red buttons down the front of the puppet's coat. She left the blue buttons and the small red ones in the jar for another day. The puppet's coat looked even when she held it up.

The jar of marbles tipped, and the marbles rolled across the floor. Most of them were green, and they hid under the couch. One blue marble stopped against my shoe. I picked it up and held it to the window.

That blue marble was the one my friend had lent me for the week. The green ones could wait until later. I put the blue marble in my pocket so I could return it to my friend that same day.

The choir robe was too long for Luis. The hem dragged on the floor, and he stepped on it during practice. Before the concert, the director pinned the hem up so it cleared his shoes.

Luis could walk to his place without tripping. He still stood in the back row, the same row as at practice. The pins did not move him. They only made the robe short enough to wear safely.

We set three beans on a wet paper towel inside a cup. We did not shine a light on them, and we kept the towel damp. In a few days, pale roots and pale shoots appeared. Then we moved the cup to a sunny window.

We watered the towel whenever it felt dry. The shoots turned greener in the light. Our teacher said a seed can start growing with water, and the young plant needs light once it has leaves to spread.

We stood at a canyon lookout with a rail in front of us. My cousin shouted her name toward the far wall. A moment later the sound came back, softer than her shout. A ranger standing nearby smiled.

The ranger said the shout had bounced off the rock wall. That returning sound is called an echo. She also told us not to lean over the rail. We called once more, heard the echo, and stepped back to the path.

Amira's backpack strap dug into her shoulder on the walk to school. At home she had taken out a rock collection she did not need that day. She had also left three library books that were not due yet.

She lifted the bag again in the morning. The strap sat more softly on her shoulder. She still had her homework folder, her lunch, and her pencil case. Those were the things she needed for school.

My bike wheel was flat on Saturday morning, and I thought the ride was over. Dad showed me how to ease the tire off, pull out the tube, and find the hole with soapy water. A tiny stream of bubbles marked the spot.

We dried the tube, pressed on a patch, and pumped the tire. I pushed it with my thumb, and it stayed firm. I felt a rush of relief. The ride with my friends could happen after all.

We sat on the curb to observe the ants on the walk. We watched their line and wrote down what we saw. We did not pick the ants up or move the crumb they wanted. Our pencils stayed busy.

The ants followed a crack toward that crumb. When a shadow passed over them, they paused, then moved again. Our notes said they used the crack as a path. We only watched and recorded.

Our school uses a lot of paper, and that paper comes from trees. Trees are a natural resource, which means something from nature that people use. On Friday we planted three young trees in the schoolyard.

Planting them does not bring back trees already cut for paper we used before. It does add new trees to the yard. We also set out a box for used paper so that paper can be made into paper again.

One umbrella sat by the door, and two children needed to walk to the library. The rain was steady and cold. They stood close together and held the handle at the same time. Their outside shoulders got a little wet.

Their books stayed dry under the middle of the umbrella. They walked slowly so neither one slipped ahead into the rain. Sharing the one umbrella got both of them to the library door.

Two blue cups sat in the sink after breakfast. One had the letter K written on the bottom. Kim always writes K on her cup so it will not get mixed up with her brother's cup. The other cup was plain, with no letter at all.

Kim washed the cup with the K and set it at her place at the table. She left the plain cup upside down in the rack. Her brother could take that one when he got home.

The path behind the cabins looked familiar, even in the dark. I knew the bend by the big rock and the dip just before the dock. I had walked that path every summer since I was small. My cousin, who was new here, held my sleeve.

I did not need a map for this path. I could name each turn before we reached it. The dock lamp came into view right where I said it would.

An enormous balloon shaped like a dog turned the corner at the end of the parade. It was so large that it filled the street from curb to curb. People tilted their heads back to see its floppy ears. Handlers held many ropes.

A regular toy balloon would have fit in a pocket. This one could not. It drifted slowly above the band, and the handlers walked under it with careful steps.

I forgot my baseball mitt on game day. The coach looked worried until Pedro held out his extra mitt. I was grateful, and I said thank you twice. Pedro shrugged and smiled, then ran to his base.

I used his mitt for the whole game and wiped it clean before I gave it back. The next week I brought two mitts in my bag, in case someone else forgot one.

Rain ticks the tent in a steady silver sound.

We are warm in our bags, shoulder pressed to shoulder.

A flashlight makes a small moon on the cloth above.

Nobody asks to go out into the wet dark.

We listen, and the whole day feels soft and slow.

I would not trade this drum of rain for a dry hotel.

The storm can last. We have everything we need.

Cars moved fast on Oak Street near the school, and students had to cross there each morning. The town painted a crosswalk and put up a sign telling drivers to stop for people on foot. A crossing guard now stands at the corner before the bell.

Students still look both ways before they step out. The painted lines do not stop a car by themselves. People have to follow the new rule, and the guard helps. With those changes, the crossing is safer than it was before.

The muffin card said to use three-fourths of a cup of milk. The measuring cup had a line marked for three-fourths. Ben poured milk to that line, not all the way to the top. The top line was one full cup.

He also added one egg and one cup of flour. He did not add sugar, because this card was for plain muffins. The card listed salt, but only a pinch. He slid the tray into the oven.

The camp bus has ten rows of seats. Rows one through four are for the younger campers. Rows five through ten are for the older campers. This camp calls ages six, seven, and eight younger.

Nia is nine, so she sits in row six with the older campers. Her brother is seven, so he sits in row two. Bags go under the seats, not in the aisle. The driver walks the aisle once before the bus moves.

A puddle covered part of the sidewalk after the night storm. The next day was sunny and windy. By afternoon, the puddle was gone and the sidewalk was dry. No one had come with a mop.

Ms. Rivera said the water had evaporated. That means it had turned into vapor and mixed into the air. It was not a cloud yet. It had simply left the sidewalk as vapor.

A green tip pushed the dark soil aside this morning.

I kneel and speak to it more softly than I speak at school.

I do not poke it, though I want to see the hidden roots.

Two leaves are folded tight, like a note inside a fist.

I water the dirt around it, slow and close to the stem.

Then I stand up smiling at that little flag of green.