A Very Improbable Story

P. 3 – If it isn’t Ethan’s cat, where did it come from? Why is it sitting on his head?

P. 7– This would look really funny - “He shakes his head back and forth, does jumping jacks, a cartwheel, and a handstand, and there is a cat on his head!”

P. 19 – Imagine the mess of marbles that he is now arranging in groups of two.

P. 13 - groaned. Let’s take a closer look at the word groaned and break it into parts. First, do you see a smaller word inside it? The base word is groan, which means to make a deep sound when you're upset, tired, or in pain—like when you don’t want to wake up early for school!

Now, let’s look at the ending: -ed. This is a suffix that tells us the action already happened—it’s in the past. So, groaned means someone made a groaning sound in the past.

P. 19 – combinations. Let’s break the word combinations into smaller parts to help us understand its meaning.

First, do you see a base word inside it? The base word is combine, which means to bring things together.

Next, we see the suffix -ation—this changes the verb into a noun, meaning the act or result of combining.

Finally, the -s at the end tells us it’s plural, meaning more than one combination.

So, combinations means ‘different ways things can be put together.’ Can you think of a time you used combinations, like mixing colors or creating different outfits?

P. 7 – “How is... what kind of... I can’t believe this!”

P. 19 – “What’s the pro-ba-ba-blib-idy?”

P. 16 – I can tell from how Cindy acted when she saw the cat that she is young. And I can tell by how she counts. I will change my voice to sound like a little girl when I read her talking parts. “One, two, five kazillion...I know a game. Let’s jump on the marbles!”

P. 3 – improbable

P. 5 – budge

P. 7 – probability (author clarifies, “how likely it is that something will happen.”)

P. 15 – squinting

P. 20 – mismatched