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 the One and Only Ivan by Catherine Applegate. This is episode one of the One and Only Ivan series. Before we begin, I want to review a couple of important things about this book. First, this book features lots of very short chapters. It might seem like you have to read a lot of pages before you listen to an episode, but many of these pages do not have very many words on them. And many of the chapters are very short. So don't let the number of pages overwhelm you. Just read at your own pace and check in whenever you're ready. Also, instead of chapter numbers, our series is going to be broken down by page numbers. It's possible that your book might have different page numbers than my book. So for that reason, I will also always tell you the names of the chapters that we're going to be discussing in each episode. So before we begin today's episode, make sure that you've read pages 1 through 50, which ends with the chapter called Mac. If you're not quite there yet, no worries. Just pause the episode, read those pages, and come right back. It might 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 this first section of our story, we meet Ivan. He's a gorilla who lives at the Exit 8 Big Top Mall and Video Arcade. Ivan spends his days watching TV, drawing pictures, and entertaining the crowds of people that come to see him. We also meet Stella, an older elephant, and Bob, a stray dog, who have both become some of Ivan's closest friends. Although Ivan has been at the mall for as long as he can remember, the crowds have really started to slow down. As fewer visitors come to see the animals, we begin to notice that life at the mall may not stay the same way forever. Let's pause for a vocabulary check-in. In today's reading, we hear the word domain. In fact, we hear that word on just about every page in this section of text. So what is a domain? Domain is a noun that means a dedicated space or zone. In the book, the word domain is used to describe the individual animals' rooms or houses at the mall. If you look around your house, you'll see lots of domains. The kitchen is a domain in your house where you cook, and your bedroom is a domain where you play and sleep. You may have a domain in your house that is a playroom or an office. What other domains can you name from your house? Now let's take a moment to check your understanding. You'll hear three questions about the word domain. Listen to each one and answer yes or no. You can answer out loud or in your head. Are you ready? Do schools have different domains? If a dog has a spot in the house where it always sleeps, could that be his domain? If a king or queen rules over a castle on the land nearby, could that area be their domain? If you said yes, yes, yes, great thinking. It's time for our reading focus. Today we'll focus on context clues. A context clue is a clue that the author gives us in the text to help us figure out tricky words. If you've listened to the Choose Your Own Check-in episode about context clues, you have a head start on today's focus. As you begin reading this story, I bet you notice that the author uses a lot of vivid vocabulary. For some of us, that could make the story a little hard to understand. That's where context clues comes in. When we're reading and we find a word that we don't know, we don't always have the ability to grab a dictionary or ask a grown-up to help us with that word. Context clues helps us to find out the meaning of the words based on the clues that the author sprinkled into the words around that tricky word. Let's look at an example. On page 13, the author uses the word migrate in this sentence. Our circus doesn't migrate. It stays where we are, like an old beast too tired to push on. For many of us, that word migrate might be new, or at least a little bit tricky. But the author actually tells us what that word means right in the same sentence. Listen again. Can you find the clue that she snuck into that sentence? Our circus doesn't migrate, it stays where we are, like an old beast too tired to push on. We can tell the word migrate means to move, because the author says that the circus doesn't migrate, it stays where it is. If something stays where it is, it doesn't move. So if the circus doesn't migrate, migrate must mean to move. As you read, there may be a few words that can really stump you and you may need to ask for help. But I challenge you to stop and look at clues that are right around the next tricky word that you find. In most cases, the definitions for those tricky words are actually hidden right inside the text. Grab a piece of paper if you can, or find a thinking partner. Ivan talks a lot about drawing in this section of the text. He mentions how much he loves to draw, how Julia taught him how to draw, and how his artwork is even sold to customers. Take a moment to draw out what you imagine Ivan's domain would look like. You can do this from your memory, or you can look back at the chapter titled Artist on pages 15 through 18 of the story. These pages will give you lots of great text evidence that you can use in your drawing. If you don't have any paper, just describe what your drawing might look like to someone nearby. You can pause the podcast here if you would like some time to draw. Now that our brains are warmed up, let's try a would you rather question. Would you rather live somewhere that is comfortable but boring? Or live somewhere that is exciting but dangerous? Think about your answer in your head or talk it out with someone nearby. Before we end today's check-in, here's something to think about as you keep reading. Do you think that Ivan is happy with his life? Keep this question in mind as you read the next section of the story. And if you're excited to explore the amazing vocabulary in the story, be sure to ask a grown-up to download the free word bingo in the show notes. Thank you so much for checking in with me today. I will see you back here soon for episode two, where we check in on pages 51 through 105, which is chapters not sleepy through Ruby's Story. 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.