Andy on Monday

The alarm rang loudly.  Andy pulled the covers over his head.  It couldn’t be Monday already.  The weekend had gone by too fast. But when he heard Mom calling for him to get up RIGHT NOW, he knew that it was really Monday.

Andy dragged himself out of bed.  He put on his school clothes and left his pajamas in their usual place in the middle of the bedroom floor.  He knew Mom would fuss at him, but he figured that she might as well realize now, that he was not perfect. 

multiple: Letter Name

listen: Letter Name
	H e

 

listen: Letter Name
	L e f t

 

listen: Letter Name
	M i g h t

 

listen: Letter Name
	R e a l l y

 

look: Letter Name
	H e

 

look: Letter Name
	L e f t

 

look: Letter Name
	M i g h t

 

look: Letter Name
	R e a l l y

 

Andy used to love school. When he was in second grade, everything had seemed so easy. But as he got into higher grades, things were not as easy as they had been before, when he was a little kid in second grade. He liked math, and he mostly liked history.  He loved science.  But reading and spelling – not so much.  And then there was music class.  He liked that too, but he could not admit to himself why.

So off he went to catch the bus.  Mom had packed a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch, along with some chips.  Monday was mac-and-cheese day at school.  Most of the kids loved it, but it almost made Andy sick just to think of the mushy macaroni and runny salty cheese sauce. The only day that was worse was Thursday, which was mystery meat day.  Some of the kids said it was fried rats.  Others said it wasn’t meat at all, just the soles of old sneakers, boiled up with salt and pepper, and served with some awful gravy.  Whatever it was, Andy wanted no part of it.  Almost everyone brought their own lunch from home on Thursdays. 

multiple: Silent

listen: Silent
	W h e n

 

listen: Silent
	S e e m e d

 
 

listen: Silent
	W h y

 

listen: Silent
	P e a n u t

 

listen: Silent
	F r i e d

 

listen: Silent
	G r a v y

 

look: Silent
	W h e n

 

look: Silent
	S e e m e d

 
 

look: Silent
	W h y

 

look: Silent
	P e a n u t

 

look: Silent
	F r i e d

 

look: Silent
	G r a v y

 

Andy went to his homeroom and sat quietly, kind of, while his teacher took roll.  He took a couple of seconds to shoot a rubber band at his best friend, Connor, who immediately shot it back at Andy.  The teacher looked up, saw Connor and told him that if she caught him doing that again, he would be spending recess in her room doing work.  Andy grinned at Connor.  Connor rolled his eyes. 

Then everyone went to the room down the hall for math class.  Andy was good at math.  He could add and subtract big numbers where he had to borrow, multiply in his head, and even do some fractions. Sometimes the math teacher would ask him to help the kids who were having a tough time.  The math teacher liked Andy, and Andy liked him. 

Then on to history.  History was great today because they were talking about Thomas Edison, who was a great inventor, so it was kind of like learning about history and science at the same time.  Andy liked to imagine that one day he would be an inventor.  He hoped that all the good inventions had not already been invented. 

multiple: Common

listen: Common
	B a n d

 

listen: Common
	U p

 

listen: Common
	H i m

 

listen: Common
	S u b t r a c t

 

listen: Common
	A s k

 

listen: Common
	A t

 

listen: Common
	H a d

 

look: Common
	B a n d

 

look: Common
	U p

 

look: Common
	H i m

 

look: Common
	S u b t r a c t

 

look: Common
	A s k

 

look: Common
	A t

 

look: Common
	H a d

 

Then it was time for literacy class, which was all about reading.  Andy never wanted to go to literacy class. He dragged his feet as he walked down the hallway to the classroom. He always checked to see if maybe he had a stomach ache, or maybe a really bad headache.  Anything that would need a trip to see the school nurse, and get him out of literacy.  Nope, he felt fine. Just not happy. Sure, the teacher was nice enough, and she always smiled and greeted him when he walked in, but as class moved along, he felt as if he was in a little boat, going around and around and getting sucked down into a giant whirlpool of words.

Everyone had to take turns reading out loud. Andy did not like to read out loud.  The sentences usually started out ok, and sometimes he could read a couple of sentences all the way through without getting hung up, but he knew that at some point, it would happen.  He would try his best, but the words just did not make any sense.  How could words be spelled one way with one set of letters, but sound like they were spelled with all different letters.  When he was in second grade, most of the words made sense.  Words like up, down, dog, book – those were pretty easy. But this year the words were much harder.  He had to read words like cough and rough.  How could the letters ‘ough’ make an ‘f’ sound.  It made no sense.  And there was no point in memorizing the rules. 

First of all, there were too many of them.  Second, they were too long.  Finally, there were so many times that the rules did not work.  So why bother!  Andy decided that he had enough.  Wait, wasn’t ‘enough’ another crazy word?  Why did the people who invented this language make it so hard?  Andy tried every way he could think of to keep from getting called on.  He would pretend to have a coughing fit, or drop his pencil, or, if he was really lucky, the teacher would let him go to the boy’s bathroom.  By the time he got back, the story was almost always over, so he would not have to read.

At least when literacy class was over, he got to go to lunch.  This was good when his stomach was not upset from sitting through literacy class.  And then recess with his friends, which was always fun.  Andy and Connor would play soccer with some of their other friends, or sometimes just talk.

When the bell rang for music class, which happened on Monday and Wednesday, Andy always got a little nervous.  He tried to get to the music room early.  It wasn’t because he loved music so much, but if he got to class early, he could get a seat by Elisa.  She had brown curly hair and big brown eyes.  She always smiled at Andy, and she looked like she would be fun to talk to.  It’s not like she was his girlfriend or anything.  She was just a friend, and she just happened to be a girl. 

At the end of the day, the bus took Andy home.  Sometimes he did chores, or played with his friends.  Then it would be time for dinner, and then homework.  If he finished early, he was allowed to watch an episode of his favorite TV show, Star Trek, before he went upstairs to get his backpack ready for Tuesday, and then to bed. 

1) Why would Andy leave his pajamas in the middle of the bedroom floor?  
  a) so Mom would buy new ones
  b) because he didn’t like them
  c) so Mom would realize that he wasn’t perfect.

2) Andy’s favorite class in school was:  
  a) reading
  b) science
  c) spelling

3) Who was Andy’s best friend? 
  a) the math teacher
  b) Carol
  c)Connor

4) Andy thought that words that were spelled one way but sounded a different way were:   
  a) really easy to read
  b) made no sense
  c) were fun to guess at

5) Andy liked music class because: 
  a) he could play the piano
  b) he liked to sing
  c) he liked to sit by Elisa

6) In reading class, Andy tried to invent reasons so he could get out of:  
  a) reading out loud
  b) writing stories
  b) going to the bathroom.

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