The Weather Balloon: read-along
The Weather Balloon as a read-along for the projector: 14 pages, 2120 words, level 15, beyond grade 8.
Page 1 of 14
The plan, as Hattie Marchetti wrote it across the top of a brand-new notebook, was to send a camera to the edge of space and retrieve it in time for the county science fair in March. Her twin brother Jude said the plan was excellent, and that anybody launching an expedition to space should at least be permitted to decorate the capsule. The capsule was a foam picnic cooler about the size of a loaf of bread, with a circular hole cut in one side for the camera lens and a padded compartment inside for the tracker. Jude painted it a loud, unapologetic orange, the precise color of a traffic cone, and then he covered it with googly eyes. Hattie said it looked like a toy. Jude said that was the point, because nobody calls the police on a box with eyes. Then he lettered a message on the lid in thick black capitals, for anybody who happened to discover it lying in a field.
Keys: ← → or Page Up and Page Down turn the page, Space starts and pauses the voice, Home and End jump, F fills the screen. Tapping the right side of a page goes on; the left side goes back.
How to use it
- Press Full screen (F) to put the book on the projector.
- Press Read to me (Space), or read it yourself and turn pages with the arrow keys or a tap. Pick the Pace that suits the class.
- After the last page, three questions come up to talk about.
About this book
- Level 15, beyond grade 8
- 14 pages, 2120 words, about 16 minutes aloud
- A story, gentle
Related
About The Weather Balloon
Hattie and Jude's science-fair balloon is meant to carry a camera to the edge of space and land beside a reservoir twenty miles away. Instead it vanishes over sixty miles of farmland, and finding one small orange box before dark means doing the arithmetic, knocking on a stranger's door, and meeting a sheep named Gerald.
Words to preview
- latex (LAY-teks)
- stretchy rubber
- payload (PAY-lohd)
- carried load
- stubble (STUB-ul)
- short cut stalks
- arithmetic (uh-RITH-muh-tik)
- working with numbers
- horizon (huh-RY-zun)
- sky's edge
Questions that fit any book
- What happened at the beginning, in the middle and at the end?
- Which page was your favorite? Why?
- How did the main character feel at the end? What tells you?
Questions
How long does The Weather Balloon take to read aloud?
It has 14 pages and 2120 words, so about 16 minutes at the Steady pace and a little less at Quick. If you stop to talk on the way, plan for more.
What reading level is The Weather Balloon?
Level 15, beyond grade 8. The library numbers its levels from 0 to 18 and puts the level of a book on its cover; levels above 13 are beyond grade 8 and have no grade. A level is a guide for choosing, so look at the pages yourself.
Whose voice is it?
Your browser's own. Read to me uses a speaking voice already on the computer, so it sounds like that computer and works without a sign-in. Voices differ: some light each word as it is spoken, and some do not, in which case the highlight follows a steady pace instead. Some browsers use an online voice; if yours does, the browser, not us, sends the words of the page to its speech service. If no voice is installed, turn the pages and read it aloud yourself.
Do students need an account?
No. Nothing is asked of anyone and nothing is sent to us. Project the page, or share the link and let students open it on their own screens.
Where does this book come from?
It was written for Peabody's library. It is not copied from a published book.
Nothing you do here is sent to us. The voice is your browser's own. No sign-in, no ads.