Grade 4-I2

 Adelina's Whales Story Summary: This story is an expository text which provides factual information about whales and the story of Adelina in Baja California, Mexico. Adelina's home is in the city of La Laguna in Baja California where electricity is only on for a few hours per day. In La Laguna, one can smell the clams and seaweed from the ocean. In late January, Adelina walks to the beach to see the gray whales after school. The gray whales travel from far away, as far away as Russia, to come to Baja California for the winter months. There is a protected lagoon near her home where she can hear the sounds of passing gray whales. It is in this lagoon in Mexico where humans can touch the massive heads of gray whales. Whales have been migrating to this lagoon from Alaska and Russia for hundreds of years. Adelina's grandfather, Pachico, was the first person to talk about a friendly visit with a gray whale. The family likes to go whale watching in the lagoon, and like to watch t...

 Week 13  Story Summary: The Man Who Named the Clouds   As a boy, Luke Howard wondered about the weather and daydreamed about clouds, and ended up creating a scientific system for naming clouds.  Luke Howard was born in the city of London, England in the late 1700s.  As a young boy, Luke noticed that some clouds were feathery, some were puffy, and others looked like gray blankets. He started keeping a weather journal at the age of ten. Luke had three younger brothers and a younger sister. Many of the siblings and half-siblings worked hard in the family's ironworks business and studied hard as well. Many others in London also kept weather journals to learn what caused clouds and weather for curiosity and to advance science. In the 1700s, the causes of weather were still a mystery, and sailors relied on signs. They might rely on pinecones and on rhymes to predict the weather. One such rhyme was "Red at night, Sailor's delight. Red sky at morning, sailors take warn...