Building BackgroundLesson 12

• A Pen Pal for Max is realistic fiction.

• Realistic Fiction:– Has characters with

problems people might face in real life

– Has a setting that could be real

A Pen Pal for Max

• This story is about a boy named Max who lives in Chile. Max becomes pen pals with a girl who lives in the United States.

A Pen Pal for Max

• Pen Pals write letters to each other.

Did you know?

vineyard

Seaport and freighters

earthquakeSpanish language

Comprehension

• PLOTThe plot is what happens in a story.

To understand the plot:• Find the problem in a story

I wonder what will be a problem for Max?

• Think about how the characters solve the problem

How will Max solve his problem?

PhonicsSome words have a silent first letter.

knotknees

gnat

wrist wrench

VocabularyLet’s read some new words

together…• Translate• Repairs• Heaving• Bothersome• Din• Dodging• Catastrophe• fortunate

translate

• If you translate something you say or write it in another language.

• To read this letter we would need to translate it to English.

repairs

• When something needs repairs, it needs to be fixed.

• This car is in need of repairs.

heaving

• Heaving is throwing something heavy with great effort

• The stormy seas heaved the big boat.

bothersome

• When something is bothersome, it bothers you and causes problems.

• When my friend talks to me while I am studying, it is bothersome.

din

• If there is a din, there is so much noise that it is hard to hear anything over it.

• The din of the roller coaster could be heard through out the amusement park.

dodging

• When you are dodging something, you avoid something that is coming toward you.

• The cat tried to dodge the annoying dog.

catastrophe

• A catastrophe is something really terrible that has happened.

• The earthquake damage was a sad catastrophe.

fortunate

• If you are fortunate you are very lucky.

• I was fortunate to find a four leaf clover.

mistaken

• If you are wrong about something you are mistaken.

• Mom was mistaken when she called the twins by the wrong name.

deciphered

• If you figured out a message that is difficult to understand or that is written in code, then you deciphered it.

• The boy used Braille to decipher the code.