The Winter Count: read-along
The Winter Count as a read-along for the projector: 14 pages, 2149 words, level 17, beyond grade 8.
Page 1 of 14
Kit had a secret, and it lay face down at the bottom of her backpack. She had been pleading to join the winter count since she was eight, and in the January she turned twelve her mother finally agreed, on three conditions: that she wore every layer she was issued, that she remained within arm's reach on the riverbank, and that she did not, under any circumstances, complain about the snowshoes. Kit accepted all three in the kitchen, where it was easy. Her mother was a wildlife biologist for the state, and every winter, the morning after a fresh snowfall, she walked the same seven miles of the Callow River valley and tallied the tracks of every creature that had crossed it overnight: deer, fox, coyote, hare, mink, otter, and the delicate embroidery of mice. The survey stretched back forty years, preserved in a row of green binders on a shelf in her office, and Kit had read every one of them.
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 17, beyond grade 8
- 14 pages, 2149 words, about 16 minutes aloud
- A story, gentle
Related
About The Winter Count
Kit finally gets to join her mother's winter animal-track count, secretly hoping to fill a lynx column that has been empty for forty years, and her first big find belongs to a smug orange farm cat. Then an owl's snow angel and her own clumsy snowshoes lead her up a frozen creek to something that is watching back.
Words to preview
- biologist (by-OL-uh-jist)
- life scientist
- anecdote (AN-ik-doht)
- short story
- retracted (ree-TRAK-tid)
- pulled back in
- distributed (dih-STRIB-yoo-tid)
- spread out
- corridor (KOR-ih-der)
- long passage
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 Winter Count take to read aloud?
It has 14 pages and 2149 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 Winter Count?
Level 17, 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.