Holes

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Vocabulary Words of the Day - preposterous and intensity

preposterous - so devoid of wisdom or good sense as to be laughable, absurd, crazy, excessive, extreme, far out, foolish, harebrained, insane, irrational, laughable, loony, ludicrous, nonsensical, outrageous, ridiculous, senseless, silly, stupid, unreasonable, unthinkable, wacky

Page 34 -

"Why not let Myra decide?" suggested Elya.

"That's preposterous!" exclaimed Igor, expelling saliva as he spoke.

"Myra is just an empty-headed girl," said her father. "How can she possibly decide, when I, her father, can't?"

intensity - exceptionally great concentration, power, or force, acuteness, anxiety, deepness, depth, earnestness, emotion, emphasis, intenseness, keenness, magnitude, might

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Zero stared at him for a moment, with the same intensity with which he had been staring at the letter.

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Activities

Fossils

In Chapter 10 Stanley found a fossilized skeleton of a fish. He thought it was just the type of thing that Mr. Pendanski was looking for and he would get out of digging for the remainder of the day. Unfortunately, this was not what Mr. Pendanski was looking for.

Try making you own fossil. Add a thin layer of clay to the bottom of an empty meat tray. Press objects such as shells, bones, etc. Fill the imprints with plaster of Paris. Allow this to dry overnight. Remove the fossils carefully.

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Palindromes

"A year later their child was born. Sarah named him Stanley because she noticed that "Stanley" was "Yelnats" spelled backward."

Words that are spelled the same backwards or forwards are known as a palindrome. Here are examples of palindromes:

PIP	LEVEL	DEED	RACECAR
MADAM	TOT	REFER	ROTOR
	RADAR	GAG	EYE

Another type of palindrome are called mirrored palindromes. Here are some examples:

TIM	MIT
bid	dib
EVIL	LIVE
STRAW	WARTS

Phrases may also be Palindromes

Now I won

Nurses run

Top spot

Go dog

Palindrome Converter http://eeunix.ee.usm.maine.edu/~ttran/form.html

Palindromes at Enchanted Learning http://www.enchantedlearning.com/english/palindromes/

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/english/palindromes/quiz1.shtml

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Foreshadowing and Flashbacks

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West Texas Desert

The setting for Holes is West Texas. Louis Sachar describes the desert setting. Learn more about this area of the United States.

What animals live in this area?

Wild Texas: Desert Mule Deer (Odocoileus hemionus crooki) http://www.wildtexas.com/wildguides/muledeer.php

Wildlife Fact Sheets http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/nature/wild/wild.htm

Elf Owls in West Texas http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/nature/wild/birds/elfowl.htm

Lizard from EduScapes NatureScapes http://www.eduscapes.com/nature/lizard/

Scorpion Emporium! by S.A. Stockwell http://wrbu.si.edu/www/stockwell/emporium/emporium.html

Scorpion Files by J.O. Rein http://www.ub.ntnu.no/scorpion-files/

Scorpions from DesertUSA http://www.desertusa.com/oct96/du_scorpion.html