Grade 4: Week 3: Little House on the Prairie (Including By the Shores of Silver Lake)

 Hello, this week's (and next week's) story is about the Little House series which was authored by Laura Ingalls Wilder about a fictionalized version of her childhood on the open prairies of western America in the 1800s.

It was a set of stories that is quite similar to the experiences that she (and also her husband) experienced, but it is different enough to be considered a work of fiction with characters from the imagination of the author.

Week 3 Vocabulary

 1 readiness (n.): the state of being prepared for something 

 2 cloudy (adj.): covered with clouds 

 3 stormy (adj.): having strong wind, rain, thunder and lightning 

 4 peaceful (adj.): calm and quiet; free from disturbance 

 5 eagerness (n.): strong desire or enthusiasm 

 6 illness (n.): the state of being unwell; disease 

 7 freshness (n.): the quality of being new and clean 

 8 happiness (n.): the feeling of being glad or content 

 9 graceful (adj.): moving in a smooth, elegant way 

 10 frightful (adj.): causing fear; shocking 

 11 horribly (adv.): in a very bad or unpleasant way 

 12 furious (adj.): extremely angry and excited 

 13 disturb (v.): to interrupt someone or interfere with something 

 14 insist (v.): to demand something firmly 

 15 terribly (adv.): to a great extent; very much 

 16 billow (v.): to move or roll in a smooth way like smoke 

 17 plow (n./ v.): a farm tool for digging and turning soil; to dig with a plow 

 18 shriek (n.): a loud, high-pitched cry 

 19 thrash (v.): to move violently and wildly 

 20 smother (v.): to kill by preventing air from reaching the lungs 

 21 flutter (v.): to move quickly and lightly 

 22 pant (v.): to breathe quickly with short breaths 

 23 prairie (n.): a wide, flat area of grass 

 24 furrow (n.): a long, narrow cut in the ground

Little House on the Prairie

YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBOtCcC-MAg

One day they were helping Ma get dinner.

Baby Carrie was playing on the floor in the sunshine, and suddenly the sunshine was gone.

Ma said that it is going to storm.

Laura looked up to see great black clouds that were billowing up in the south, across the sun.

Pet and Patty were coming running from the field and Pa was holding to the heavy plow and bounding in long leaps behind it.

Pa was shouting about a prairie fire, and that we should get the tub full of water.

Ma ran to the well, and Laura ran to tug the tub.

Pa tied Pet to the house.

He brought the cow and calf from the picket-line and shut them in the stable.

He caught Bunny and tied her fast to the north corner of the house.

Ma was pulling up buckets of water as fast as she could.

Laura ran to the sacks that Pa had flung out of the stable.

Pa was plowing and shouting at Pet and Patty to make them hurry.

The sky was black now, and the air was as dark as if the sun had set.

Pa plowed a long furrow west of the house and south of the house, and back again east of the house.

Rabbits came bounding past him.

Pet and Patty came galloping, the plow and Pa bounding behind them.

The tub was full of water.

Laura helped Ma push the sacks of water to soak them.

A big rabbit bounded right over the tub while Pa and Ma were lifting it.

Ma told Laura to stay as the house.

Pa and Ma ran staggering to the furrow with the tub.

The wind was rising and wildly screaming.

Thousands of birds flew before the fire, and thousands of rabbits were running.

Pa was going along the furrow, and was setting fire to the grass on the other side of it.

Ma followed with a wet sack.

The whole prairie was hopping with rabbits, and snakes rippled across the yard.

Pa's little fire was all around the house now, and he helped Ma fight it with wet sacks.

A red light came from rolling black clouds of smoke overhead.

They realized that Baby Carrie was in the house.

Laura wanted to do something, but tears poured out of her stinging eyes.

Her eyes and her hose stung with smoke.

The wind rose to a high rushing shriek.

Then it was over-the fire went roaring past and away.

By the Shores of Silver Lake

Grace is lost on the prairie.

Laura ran panting up the hill.

Along the edge of the Big Slough toward Silver Lake she looked, and over the flowery prairie.

Pa met her on the slope and Ma came up gasping for breath.

It would be hard to find Grace on the Big Slough.

The old, dead grass stood higher than Laura's head, over acres and acres, for miles and miles.

The deep mud sucked at bare feet, and there were water holes.

Laura could hear the sound of coarse slough grass in the wind, a muffling sound that almost smother the shrill calls of Ma for Grace.

Laura started to screech and started running across the sunny prairie.

Laura looked all around the Big Slough and on the prairie for her baby sister, but couldn't find her.

They found Grace with her hands full of violets as Laura was panting for breath.

They found a lake full of violets along the grass banks.

Ma and Pa came to the two girls and they were draggled, muddy, tired, and thankful to find their baby girl.

Week 3	Homework 回家功課
Monday September 14th	1. Vocabulary #9-16x3 + definitions x1 2. 5 sentences
Tuesday September  15th	1. Vocabulary #9-16x3 + definitions x1 2. 5 sentences 3. Shared Worksheet
Wednesday September 16th	1. A2 Level Worksheet
Thursday September 17th	1. Knowledge Building Worksheet
Friday September 18th	1. Week 4 Vocabulary #1-8x3 + definitions 2. 5 sentences