Welcome to Kids Chapter Check-Ins, a space where we pause, think, talk, and write about great books together. Books are better together. So grab your book and let's check in. Welcome back, readers. Today we're going to check in on Frindle by Andrew Clements. Before we start, make sure that you've read chapters four through six. This is episode two of our Frindle series. If you're not quite ready yet, just pause the episode, read those chapters, and come right back. Ready? Let's check in. Things are really starting to get interesting here in chapters four through six. In these chapters, Nick comes up with a new word and he decides to use it instead of the word pen. He starts calling a pen a frindle. At first, it seems like no big deal, just a small joke with his classmates. But then Nick and his classmates use that word so much that it starts to spread. As the word starts to spread, some people like it, and some people, like Mrs. Granger, do not like it at all. In these chapters, Nick is really starting to learn that words can have power, and that even just a small idea that you might be joking about with your friends can turn into something pretty big. Let's pause for a vocabulary check-in. In these chapters, you heard the word primly. Primly means that you're acting very neat, very proper, and very careful. Someone who's acting primly is probably standing up straight and following the rules perfectly. I always think about princes and princesses, kings and queens when I think of the word primly. I also think about situations where I might have to be on my best behavior. I might have to act primly in those situations. Like maybe I'm attending a wedding. I might need to act primly to attend a wedding. Can you think of a time in your life when you might need to act primly? Pause the episode here and share your thinking. Let's check your understanding. You're going to hear three questions about the word primly. Listen to each one and answer yes or no. You can answer out loud or in your head. If someone is slouching in their chair, are they acting primly? Is someone acting primly when they sit at the table with their hands folded in their lap? Is a student acting primly if they follow the rules perfectly at school? If you said no, yes, yes, great thinking. It's time for our reading focus. Today's reading skill is cause and effect. I love to think about rainbows when I think about cause and effect. Close your eyes and picture a big, beautiful rainbow. Rainbows happen because of a storm. The storm is the cause, and the beautiful rainbow is the effect. Now I want you to think about the book Frindle. Think about Mrs. Granger. What is something that Mrs. Granger does in these chapters? Let's think about that moment with cause and effect. First, let's think about the cause. What did she do? Once you have your cause, you can move on to the effect. How did Nick or the class respond to what she did? As you continue to read, keep cause and effect in your mind. You're gonna find examples of cause and effect on almost every page. As you're reading, ask yourself these questions when you get to an interesting part of the story. You can ask yourself things like, what caused that to happen? Or, oh, what's gonna happen because of that? Now let's turn your thinking into writing. Here's a sentence frame that you can use if you'd like. In the story, blank happened because of blank. If you're still feeling stuck on your idea, think about these parts of the story. Why do you think Nick had to write a report for Mrs. Granger? What caused Nick to be nervous to go to seventh period? What happened as a result of Nick's report being so long? Feel free to go back into your book and find your evidence if you need to. When you get to writing, you don't need to write a lot. Just one clear sentence is enough. Writing this way can really help you to organize your thinking and explain your ideas clearly. As you continue reading Frindle, I want you to think about a couple of things. First, why do you think that Nick feels so challenged by Mrs. Granger? And do you think that challenges help people to grow? Or is all of this just making Nick's life harder? Keep these questions in mind as you read the next few chapters. Thank you so much for checking in with me today. I will see you next time where we check in with chapters 7 through 9 of Frindle. Thanks for checking in with me today. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to follow along so you don't miss our next check in. And remember, keep reading, keep thinking, and keep talking. Because books are better together.