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End of School Theme Unit

School’s Out! What Will We Do? (grades 5-6)

School’s Out! What Will We Do? (grades 5-6)
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 5 to 6
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   4.99

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    brittle, coordinating, mounting, quesadillas, Woo-hoo, repeated, summertime, smoothies, camps, agreement, intend, better, unbelievable, ought, collection, buds
     content words:    Clear Springs Elementary School

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School’s Out! What Will We Do?
By Brenda B. Covert 		  
1     "Woo-hoo! School's out!" Kyle pumped his fist in the air as he approached his friends. They stood clustered under a leafy maple tree in front of Clear Springs Elementary School.
 
2     "So what are you going to do all summer?" Shayna asked, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear.
 
3     "I'll be lying on the couch playing video games all day," he replied. "What a life!"
 
4     Shayna laughed and elbowed him. "I knew you were going to say that!"
 
5     "My family is going on a vacation," Summer announced, twirling around like a free spirit. "Dad said that if I kept my grades up, he would take us to the beach! I think we're going camping sometimes on weekends, too." She sighed happily. "It's going to be the best summer ever!"
 
6     "We've got one person playing video games and one going on vacation," Shayna summarized. She looked at Devin. He was pulling leaves off the tree and watching for his mother to drive up. "Devin, do you have any plans for the summer?"
 
7     "What?" Clearly, Devin hadn't been listening. Shayna repeated her question. "Oh, I guess I'll hang out at Kyle's house. I don't think Mom has any special plans for summer break."
 
8     "Is there anything you'd like to do?" Shayna persisted. "Everyone should plan to do something special over the summer."
 
9     Kyle crossed his arms and pretended to be offended. "Hey! Spending time with me is special!"
 
10     Marissa, ignoring Kyle's statement, nodded in agreement with Shayna. "My family has a tradition of designating certain summer weeks for interesting topics. My brother and I get to choose the subjects, and we have fun with them!"
 
11     No one thought that Marissa's idea sounded like fun. It sounded suspiciously like schoolwork, so she explained what it was like. "If I choose cooking as the topic, then we spend the week looking at cookbooks and trying fun recipes. Last year I learned how to make pizza quesadillas, peach smoothies, and peanut brittle!"
 
12     "Yum!" Kyle said appreciatively.
 
13     Marissa grinned at him. "My brother was interested in dinosaurs, so we built a model of a dinosaur skeleton together, read some books, watched some videos, and played a dinosaur game on the computer." Marissa's memories of the fun made her smile. Then she continued. "If Mom can't do the project with us, Grandpa usually can. My brother will probably do something with bugs this time; he's been talking about putting his bug collection on a mounting board." She made a face. "I don't think I care to join him in that project. This year I want to spend a week learning how to make different kinds of jewelry!"

Paragraphs 14 to 29:
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