Project Power !

English as a Second Language Elementary Cycle Three

Y oung Natalie Richard Marie-Hélène Roy

Inventors Reading, Activities and Project

Y oung

Inventors

Text 1

Panic in the Attic................................................. p. 4

Text 2

Three Young Inventors You Should Know............................................. p. 13

Text 3

Thinking Outside the Box.............................. p. 20

End-of-book Project

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Now It’s Your Turn to Be an Inventor!............................................. p. 28

III

Panic Attic in the

Before YOU READ

1. What is a diary? a) a short novel

c) a personal journal

b) a comic book

d) a newspaper

2. Do you write in a diary? If yes, for what reason? If not, why not?

4

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Glossary

Dear Diary,

way out [adjective]: far away.

What a weekend! I have so much to tell you!

trunk [noun]: a large box used to store things.

attic [noun]: a room at the top of a house.

Mom and Dad went away on a business trip, so we had to stay at Grandma’s for a few days. At first I was soooo disappointed! It’s not that I don’t love Grandma, but she lives way out in the country, and there is nothing to do there.

She doesn’t even have an internet connection!

Zack’s reaction was the exact opposite of mine. He was on cloud nine when he heard the news. He loves to visit Grandma.

Each time we stay with her, he spends all of his time up in the attic looking for treasures. Last time, he found Great-Grandpa Henry’s trunk. It was filled with all of Great-Grandpa Henry’s old things. Zack tried on everything! He even tried on GreatGrandpa’s old shoes, hats and glasses from the 1930s.

3. Scan the story to find: a) who wrote the diary b) who Zack is c) who went to Grandma’s house d) where the event took place

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5

This time, Grandma let us each bring a friend.

I invited Maïka, and Zack invited Lewis, his best friend. Those two are always together. Some say they are like two peas in a pod.

Maïka and I thought it would be just an ordinary weekend, but thanks to Zack and Lewis it turned out to be quite an adventure!

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On the way to Grandma’s, Maïka and I talked about the movies she brought: Robert and Amanda’s Zombie Wedding and Horror in L.A. They’re our two favourite horror flicks!

“Not scary movies again!” said Lewis.

Zack felt the same and shouted, “Yeah, I hate horror movies!”

Maïka asked them what they brought to play with. Lewis was happy to say that they didn’t need to bring anything because Zack told him that Grandma’s attic was full of amazing Glossary stuff to discover! flicks [noun]: films. stuff [noun]: things or possessions.

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When we arrived at Grandma’s, she was knitting on her front porch.

We entered the house and were welcomed by the smell of freshly baked cookies that were sitting on the kitchen counter. Grandma is the best baker in the world!

Maïka and I rushed upstairs to put our bags in our bedroom. Of course, the boys just dropped theirs in the living room like two bowling balls.

Bonk! Bonk! Then, they ran up to the attic to snoop around. OMG, Zack and Lewis can be so embarrassing sometimes.

While YOU READ

Glossary

porch [noun]: a covered area in the front entrance of some houses.

1. In teams, use words from the story to make two word chains, one with nouns, the other with verbs.

Each word needs to start with the last letter of the word before.

rushed [verb]: hurried; went fast. snoop [verb]: look around.

Example: attic, cookies … a) nouns:

, ,

,

,

,

,

,

b) verbs:

8

,

,

,

,

,

,

,

,

,

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Maïka and I sat in the dining room, and we had a nice chat with Grandma. She bought a new puzzle and had a board game she wanted to play with us during our stay. She also wanted to show us her old photo album from her teenage years.

“We are going to have a ball!” she said.

Maïka and I just stared at each other. We had other plans! But we didn’t want to hurt Grandma’s feelings, so we started the puzzle together right away.

Glossary

2. a) Scan the story and choose three words you don’t know. With the help of a dictionary, write your own definition for each chosen word.

1.

2.

3.

chat [noun]: a friendly conversation. stared [verb]: looked at for a long time.

b) Use each new word from Activity 2a) in a sentence.

1.

2.

3.

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9

After

We had two options: find a way to get the ring back or tell Grandma.

Zack froze and stared at me in silence. He didn’t know which option to choose. He was sitting on the fence.

Lewis said, “Wait! I have an idea! But we all need to cooperate if we want it to work.”

Maïka and I said, “Alright, let’s hear it.”

YOU READ

To be continued…

1. a) Find the six idioms in the story in pink. Write them in the table.

1.

4.

2.

5.

3.

6.

Idioms are expressions that have a different meaning than what is written. all ears = be attentive

!

b) Write each idiom next to the corresponding illustration.

time

TO TALK

I remember when…

One time when I went…

When I was in Grade…

Something happened once when…

2. In teams, share your own experience of one of the idioms from Activity 1.

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Three Young

Inventors

You Should Know

Children are great inventors. In fact, many things that improve our everyday lives were created by kids. Kids use their imagination in ways that adults don’t.

Before

Here are three young inventors who created great devices.

YOU READ

1. Look at the inventions below. Circle the ones you think were invented by children.

trampoline

popsicles

toy truck

flippers

earmuffs

wristies

snowmobile

It’s a fact!

Kid Inventors’ Day is held on January 17th each year to celebrate young inventors and to encourage their creativity.

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13

Abbey Fleck Did you know that Abbey Fleck is one of the youngest female inventors in US history?

Her success came from a device called Makin Bacon®.

On a Saturday morning in 1993, eight-year-old Abbey made bacon in the microwave with her father. They realized that they had no paper towels to absorb the cooked bacon fat so they wanted to use newspaper instead. Abbey’s mother disagreed with this idea, so Abbey and her father worked on a solution. They used a plate, coat hangers and pieces of wood for the cooked bacon to hang on and to let the fat drip off. Hanging the cooked bacon was a good idea, but it was messy.

Glossary

hang [verb]: suspend. drip [verb]: let liquid fall off. messy [adjective]: untidy or dirty.

After YOU READ

time

TO TALK

1. In teams, answer the questions. a) What else do you think Makin Bacon® could be used for?

b) Do you think Makin Bacon® is a good name for Abbey’s invention? Why or why not?

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I think…

In my opinion…

How about…

I think so too.

I don’t think so, because…

Me too!

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That’s when Abbey decided to invent a better device to solve their greasy problem. She thought that hanging the bacon while it cooked would be a cleaner solution.

So Abbey developed a prototype made of a plastic dish with three T-shaped supports to hang the strips of bacon on. Tada!! Makin Bacon® was born. Abbey’s design allowed people to cook bacon in the microwave while all the fat dripped into the dish below it.

Makin Bacon® was an instant success because it solved the problem of excess fat and messy cooking.

Glossary

greasy [adjective]: covered in fat or oil. prototype [noun]: the first model of something.

2. Imagine that Abbey’s product was for cooking potatoes in the microwave.

Find three original names for her product.

1.

2.

3.

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15

Shubham Banerjee In 2014, 12-year-old Shubham Banerjee invented a device for a science project called the Braigo printer. This device is an affordable way to print Braille texts.

Currently, blind people have many software applications available to them.

These applications read to blind people out loud so that they can listen instead of reading. But not everyone has access to this software and Braille printers cost a lot of money. This is why Shubham wanted to invent a less expensive printer.

But wait!

What is Braille?

Braille is a reading code for blind people. This code consists of tiny dots that represent the letters of the alphabet. Blind people read this code by feeling the dots with the tips of their fingers.

Glossary

device [noun]: an object invented for a particular purpose. affordable [adjective]: does not cost a lot of money.

After YOU READ

BRAILLE ALPHABET

1. Write your name using the Braille alphabet.

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Shubham’s first prototype was not a success, but he was very lucky because his father, a software engineer, encouraged his son not to give up. After many prototypes and a lot of hard work, Shubham finally succeeded in creating the printer. He used a LEGO® MINDSTORMS® EV3 robotics kit that his parents bought for him as well as some electrical parts to develop his invention. He managed to lower the cost of the printer from a few thousand dollars to a few hundred dollars.

As of January 2019, Shubham’s printer is not on the market yet, but let’s hope it will be soon!

2. a) Write a short sentence using the Braille alphabet.

b) Ask a partner to decode your sentence.

3. In teams, discuss what you think are some difficult challenges for blind people. © 2019, Les Éditions CEC inc. • Reproduction prohibited

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Thinking

Outside the Box

“What about a golf club? Or a cane? Or an umbrella?” said Lewis. We looked around the room but could not find anything long enough to reach the ring.

All of a sudden Maïka and I had the same thought and said, “Grandma’s knitting needles!”

Maïka and I tiptoed down the stairs and quietly walked past Grandma who was asleep on the couch. We found Grandma’s knitting bag outside on the porch. We carefully removed two needles and took them back upstairs to the attic.

Before YOU READ

1. Guess the improved versions of the items below.

20

Glossary

knitting needles [noun]: pointy tools used to knit. tiptoed [verb]: walked quietly.

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Zack and Lewis waited impatiently. As soon as we returned, Zack inserted the needles into the crack between the floorboards.

The others waited in silence.

“I can touch it!” Zack shouted.

Using them like chopsticks, he tried to lift the ring up very slowly, but the ring was too slippery.

We sat down on the floor, discouraged, staring at the crack.

“Wait a minute! Is gold magnetic? If it is, then we could easily pull the ring out with a magnet!” I said.

I went back downstairs and peeked into the living room again. Grandma was still asleep. I went to the kitchen, grabbed a magnet from the refrigerator door, and Glossary quickly ran back up to the attic. chopsticks [noun]: narrow sticks used for eating food.

peeked [verb]: looked quickly without being seen. grabbed [verb]: took something suddenly.

2. Find five regular and five irregular verbs in the story. In the table below, insert the simple present and simple past for each verb you found.

Regular Verbs

Irregular Verbs

Present

Past

Present

Past

look

looked

go

went

1.

1.

2.

2.

3.

3.

4.

4.

5.

5.

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Maïka taped the magnet to the end of one of the needles. I then slowly inserted the needle into the crack while the others watched in suspense.

“It’s not moving! The magnet is not attracting the ring,” said Lewis.

“I guess gold is not magnetic.”

Zack started to cry again and said, “We need to tell Grandma. We’re never going to get the ring back!”

“Come on, Zack! Don’t give up. We can’t throw in the towel after only two tries!” I said.

Glossary

While

in suspense [phrase]: a feeling of excitement while waiting for something.

YOU READ

1. Insert the names of the parts of the house in the blank spaces below. Write the letters from the numbered squares in the right order to find the secret message. a) The room at the top of a house.

e) The room where you eat.

3

8

b) The room where you cook food.

2

f) The place where you park your car indoors.

5

6

c) The covered area in the front entrance of some houses.

10

g) The room where you sleep.

1

d) The way to go up and down in a house.

4

h) The room where you spend time with your family.

7

9

Secret message: G

.

1

22

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

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2. Write the words from the word bank in the illustration below.

dress-up • floorboard • knitting needles • ring • trunk

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END-OF-BOOK

Project

Now It’s Your Turn to Be an

Inventor!

Identify a problem 1. In teams, identify five problems or objects than can be improved.

Share your ideas with the class.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Brainstorm 2. Think of ways to solve some of the problems listed above.

How creative can you be?

3. Choose one of the problems to solve from your list above. Remember to be realistic in terms of time, tools and the materials you will need.

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Design 4. Make a list of materials for your invention and where to find them. Find substitutes for materials that you can’t get or that are too expensive.

Materials

Where to find them

5. Draw a sketch. Get feedback from other teams to make your invention even better!

FEEDBACK

Build 6. Build your invention. Make sure you have all the materials you need before you start. © 2019, Les Éditions CEC inc. • Reproduction prohibited

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Test, evaluate 7. Test your invention. Is it successful?

8. Evaluate. What do you need to change?

Improve 9. Make the necessary changes and test your invention again.

Repeat this step until it works.

NOTES

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Share 10. Once your invention is finalized, give it an original name and then present it to the class.

NAME OF INVENTION

PRESENTATION NOTES

IMAGE

Make sure to include:

the name of your invention

the problem it solved

who will use it

how it works

materials used

changes made in

steps 8 and 9 © 2019, Les Éditions CEC inc. • Reproduction prohibited

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Project Power! is a project-based series for students in Cycle 3 and Intensive English.

Project Power! offers • three booklets, each with its own captivating theme • two narrative texts and one informative text per booklet • reading activities to be done before, during and after each text • stimulating reinvestment tasks for Competency 2 • end-of-book projects that consolidate learning • engaging C1 activities that encourage authentic communication • three separate teachers’ copies that each include pedagogical notes, reproducible material, quizzes and evaluation grids

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