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 Lemonade War by Jacqueline Davies. This is episode 5 of the Lemonade War series. Before we begin, make sure that you've read chapters 12 and 13. If not, you can pause the episode, read those chapters, and come right back. It might be helpful to have your book and some paper handy for this episode. If you're using your companion pack, now is a great time to grab that too. Take a moment to gather everything you need, and then we'll get started. Ready? Let's check in. Chapters 12 and 13 are short, but they sure do have a lot of action. In this section, Jessie spends most of the day with Megan, but she can't stop thinking about Evan. And at the same time, Evan is having a day with his friends. When the boys decide to go swimming, Evan thinks that Jesse's money is safely hidden away, but by the end of the day, he discovers something shocking. As readers, we have to pay special attention to the clues that the author is giving us so that we can figure out what's really happening here. Let's pause for a vocabulary check-in. In today's reading, we hear the word crisis. Crisis is a noun that means a major problem. It's often a very difficult situation where something has gone very wrong and people need to act very quickly. A house fire is a great example of a crisis. Now let's take a moment to check your understanding. You'll hear three questions about the word crisis. Listen to each one and answer yes or no. You can answer out loud or in your head. Are you ready? Is it a crisis if your favorite toy breaks? Is it a crisis if a hurricane hits a town and causes lots of damage? Is it a crisis if your favorite shirt gets a hole in it? If you said no, yes, no, great thinking. It's time for our reading focus. Today we're going to focus on making an inference. If you've listened to the podcast before, it's no secret that I love to make inferences. It's the time when we can combine the clues in the story with what we already know to make a really good guess. There's a part of chapter 13 that leads us to a pretty major inference. If you have your book handy, open it up to page 158. Take a moment to read over that page if you need to. Now let's think about the money that was in Evan's pocket, Jesse's money. What could have happened to it? We need to make an inference. Let's start with our text clues. In the text, the author tells us that Evan left his heavy shorts with the envelope stuffed in his pocket in a pile in his friend's room. The author also tells us that Scott went inside from the pool to use the bathroom. We learn in the story that a few minutes later, Scott comes back to the pool and says, I have to go, and he leaves in a hurry without giving a reason. The text also tells us that later Evan finds his shorts on the floor and they're no longer folded up. Now let's combine those text clues with what we already know in our brain. We already know in our brains that shorts don't just move by themselves. So if Evan's shorts were somewhere besides where he put them, somebody probably touched them. And in our brains, we already know that when you go inside to use the bathroom, you could stop in other parts of the house. We also know in our brain that when someone is rushing around and acting strange, they could be trying to hide something. So when we combine the tech's clues with what we already know in our brain, we can make an inference. So I want you to tell me, what do you think happened to this money? I bet your inference is the same as mine. We can infer that Scott most likely took the money. Pause your podcast here and look for another place where you could make a similar inference. It's your turn to jump into the story. Grab your companion pack or a piece of paper. If you're listening with someone else, invite them to be your thinking partner. For this activity, you're going to need to step into the shoes of Evan and Scott. Imagine that Evan texts Scott after the missing money is discovered. What do you think Evan would say to Scott? And how do you think Scott might respond? Use clues from the story to make a realistic inference about each character's words. Pause the podcast here and plan out their text and conversation. It's time to talk about it. If you were Evan, would you have brought the money with you to Scott's house? Why? 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. Do you think that Jesse's money is gone for good? And how do you think this is going to affect this war between Evan and Jesse? Keep these questions in mind as you read the next section of the story. Thank you so much for checking in with me today. I will see you back here soon for episode six, where we check in on chapter 14, the final chapter of the Lemonade War. That's it for today's chapter check-in. If you'd like additional support, check out the link to our companion packs in the show notes below. If you're enjoying Kids Chapter Check-Ins, make sure to follow and subscribe so you don't miss an episode. New chapter check-ins are released weekly. I'll see you back here soon. Until then, keep reading, keep thinking, and be sure to share this episode with a friend. Because books are better together.