Chapter 6 - Westlock School Grades K-3

Eight words (from two presentations): bicycle, awesome, books, possible, hippopotamus, gregarious, stupendous, giganotosaurus

Students were just settling back into their desks when Mr. Tiger asked everyone to take out their books for the science lesson.

“Frogs!” shrieked Janice.

“Really Janice,” chided Mr. Tiger as he began writing on the whiteboard. “You’re quite right, we are studying amphibians, but I hardly think your response is…”

Mr. Tiger’s reprimand was cut short as Janice jumped onto her chair and shrieked again. “EEEEEEEeeeeee! Frogs!”

From inside her desk hopped three large green frogs. Chaos erupted in the classroom as some students pressed in for a better view and others scrambled to get away from the source of excitement. Only Ricky remained seated, a satisfied smirk creeping across her face. “Awesome!” someone said.

“Stupendous!” announced Mr. Tiger as he realized the source of the commotion. “How fortunate that we should have some live specimens to illustrate our lessons. I’m glad we are studying frogs rather than the hippopotamus or the giganotosaurus or we’d need a larger classroom!” Then he added, “Ricky, would you kindly capture these gregarious new members of our classroom and set them into the empty aquarium on the side counter?”

After a bit of scuffling and laughing, the frogs were safely contained in their new glass home and students returned to their desks once more. Before beginning the science lesson, Mr. Tiger called Ricky to the front of the class.

Now she’s going to get it, thought Henry, but he was shocked by what happened next.

Mr. Tiger picked up the sheriff’s star from his desk and announced, “Ricky, for your good work in capturing the frogs, I am appointing you as our very first classroom deputy.” Mr. Tiger explained that the deputy was responsible for catching people doing nice or helpful things and rewarding them with cool prizes.

Henry could not believe his ears! Was it possible that Mr. Tiger didn’t know Ricky had hidden the frogs in the desk? How could he give Ricky such an important job when most of what she did was mean? Henry made a mental note to check the lock on his bicycle at lunchtime, just to make sure it was secure.