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. Hey readers, welcome! Today we're checking in on I Survived Hurricane Katrina by Lauren Tarshus. This is episode one of our I Survived Hurricane Katrina series. Before we begin, make sure that you've read chapters one through three. If not, you can pause the episode, read those chapters, and come right back. It may be helpful to have your book and some paper handy for this episode. Take a moment to gather your materials if you need to. Ready? Let's check in. In chapters one through three, we're introduced to Barry Tucker, and we learn more about his life in New Orleans just before Hurricane Katrina arrives. Barry is trying to figure out where exactly he fits in, especially when it comes to his friendships and his family relationships. In these chapters, news about Hurricane Katrina is becoming more serious. Barry's family has to make some important decisions about whether to stay or leave. And readers can already start to feel this growing sense of worry and uncertainty. In these chapters, we're starting to get to know the characters while also building up some suspense for the dangerous storm that's on the way. Let's pause for a vocabulary check-in. In today's reading, we hear the word evacuate. Evacuate is a verb that means to leave a place quickly in order to stay safe from danger. In the book, the word evacuate is used to describe people who are leaving New Orleans to get away from the storm. If you've ever participated in a fire drill, you have practiced evacuating. You practice leaving a building quickly to prevent danger from happening. Can you think of a time when someone might need to evacuate from their house? Now let's take a moment to check your understanding. You'll hear three questions about the word evacuate. Listen to each one and answer yes or no. You can answer out loud or in your head. Are you ready? If you smell smoke in your house, should you evacuate? If someone stays in the middle of a dangerous flood area, are they evacuating? If your family decides to go to a hotel before a blizzard hits, are you evacuating your house? If you said yes, no, yes, great thinking. If you're looking for an extra challenge, grab a piece of paper and draw a scene of a family evacuating their house. It's time for our reading focus. Today we'll focus on making predictions. A prediction is a smart guess about what might happen next. It's based on clues from the story and what you already know. Making predictions is very similar to making an inference. The biggest difference is that when you make a prediction, you're thinking about what is going to happen next instead of focusing on what's happening right now. Now I know what you're thinking. It's pretty obvious what's going to happen next in this story. The title and the cover image clearly reveal a pretty big event, the hurricane. But good readers know that predictions are about much more than just guessing what the big event is going to be. Readers can also predict things like what small events might happen that lead to a big event? Or how might characters respond to the problem that they're facing? Let's explore some possible predictions that we could make. Do you predict that Barry and his family will travel to Houston like they planned? Do you predict that Barry will be able to successfully mail his Akimo character like he promised? What do you predict might cause Barry to be separated from his family during this hurricane? Choose an idea from the choices and make a prediction. You could write your prediction down or just share it out loud with someone nearby. Remember to find evidence to support your prediction. Strong readers don't just make a guess, they can back up their thinking with evidence to prove it. Barry and his friend Jay spend a lot of time together in these first few chapters, and we start to learn a lot about their friendship by listening to their conversations and the way that they act around each other. So here's your challenge. Pause the podcast and write a short text message conversation between Barry and Jay. What do you think they would text to one another? Would they talk about their comic book contest, or maybe they would reflect on their interaction with their neighbor Abe? As you begin to think of your ideas, don't forget to think about the emotions of the characters. Do you think they'd be joking around? Would they seem worried? Would one friend try to help the other feel better? You could write a few short messages back and forth, or even draw what the conversation might look like on a phone screen. There is no single right answer here. Just think about what you know about these characters so far. Pause your episode here if you want some time to create these text messages. Now that our brains are warmed up, let's try a would you rather question. Would you rather evacuate before a storm hits? Or would you rather attempt to survive it at home? Think about your answer in your head or talk about it with someone nearby. Before we end today's check-in, here's something to think about as you keep reading. What questions do you still have after you've read chapters one through three? Keep these questions in mind as you read the next couple of chapters. You may even find yourself getting some answers as the story progresses. Thank you for checking in with me today. I'll see you back here soon for episode two, where we check in on chapters four through six of I Survived Hurricane Katrina. 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.