1 It was Earth Week in Mrs. Kim's class. They had been doing jobs all around their school. They raked leaves. They picked up trash. They weeded the flower beds. They had piled up all of the trash they had found.
2 "Whew!" exclaimed C. J. "I'm really tired. I have been working hard all week on that trash pile."
3 "That's not work," said Sarah. "That's helping the environment!"
4 "I have too been working," said C.J. "Haven't I, Mrs. Kim?"
5 "According to the rules of science, you certainly have worked," answered Mrs. Kim. "Work is what occurs anytime a force moves an object any distance."
6 "So there," said C.J. "I moved trash from around the school to here. That is a lot of work."
7 "We're not done yet," said Mrs. Kim. "We have more work to do before our job is complete. We must move all of this trash into the back of that truck. Once we are done, Mr. Jeffries can take the load of trash to the dump."
8 The children started to gather round the back of the truck. They looked at each other and then at the pile of trash. "How are we going to get all of that trash up into the back of the truck?" asked Matthew.
9 "We are going to use machines," said Mrs. Kim.
10 The class looked all around. "I don't see any machines around here," said Maddie. "Is someone going to bring them here?"
11 "No," said Mrs. Kim, "everything we need is already here at school. We are going to use simple machines."
Paragraphs 12 to 35:
For the complete story with questions: click here for printable
