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Vocabulary Words of the Day  - contagious and penitentiary

contagious - Capable of transmitting disease; carrying a disease, catching, transmittable, infectious

Page 9 - "Right now?" Miss Hemphill stared. "Why, he shouldn't be in school with red spots! It could be measles or chicken pox . . . any number of things . . . contagious things."

penitentiary - a prison for those convicted of major crimes, correctional institution,  joint, keep, lockup, pen, penal institution, prison, reformatory, slammer

Page 14 - We figured they were headed straight for %*!#, by way of the state penitentiary . . .  until they got themselves mixed up with the church, and my mother, and our Christmas pageant.

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Activities

Build Your Own Fire Extinguisher

The Herdmans may not have burnt the toolhouse up if they had made a fire extinguisher from the chemistry set before starting to work on other experiments. Learn how to make a fire extinguisher at http://208.179.38.157/sci3.htm.

Other sources for fire extinguishers:

Discovery Science Center -- Kids, Science Experiments  http://www.discoverycube.org/kids/exp0.htm

How can I make a fire extinguisher?  http://www.reachoutmichigan.org/funexperiments/quick/fireextinguisher.html

Scholastic's The Magic School Bus Simple Science  http://www.scholastic.com/magicschoolbus/simplescience/archive/labs/pop.htm

Doughnut Fun

The Herdmans loved doughnuts. Have a little fun with doughnuts. How about an eating contest. Tie a number of  doughnuts by string and hand them from the ceiling. Line up students, one per each doughnut. See which student can eat the doughnut the quickest without using his/her hands.

Fire Trucks

graham cracker / spread red frosting on cracker, mini Oreos for the wheels, pretzels for the ladders, M&Ms for the lights.

Make the Herdmans' cat

Using clay, stuffed paper bags, or even construction paper make a model of the Herdmans' cat.

Page 4 - It was the meanest looking animal I ever saw. It had one short leg and a broken tail and one missing eye, and the mailman wouldn't deliver anything to the Herdmans because of it.

Draw the Herdmans

Page 4 - They were just so all-around awful you could hardly believe they were real: Ralph, Imogene, Leroy, Claude, Ollie, and Gladys --six skinny, stringy-haired kids all alike except for being different sizes and having different black-and-blue places where they had clonked each other.

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