Yahaaa · Reading
Stories for the classroom
Short narratives that put vocabulary into a scene a learner can follow. 7,459 on the shelf, each with a discussion question.
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Story Common Nouns in English: writing 1
The Brave Agent Jack: An Adventure in Allegories
A brave agent named Jack uses his wit and the power of allegories to save a kingdom from danger and become known as the greatest agent in all the land.
Talk about it 1. What was Jack's assignment from the king? 2. How did Jack use allegories and analogies to help him understand the world around him? 3. What did Jack learn about the kingdom's ambiance? 4. Who was the evil antagonist in the story? 5. How did Jack become known as the greatest agent in all the land?
Open reading -
Story Common Nouns in English: writing 2
Penelope's Journey to Better Stories
A writer named Penelope learns to improve her stories with the help of an editor named Edita.
Talk about it 1. What was the problem with Penelope's stories at first? 2. Who helped Penelope improve her stories? 3. What did Edita teach Penelope about dialogue and diction? 4. How did Penelope's stories change after she worked with Edita? 5. Do you think it's important for writers to have someone look at their stories before they share them with others? Why or why not?
Open reading -
Story Common Nouns in English: writing 2
The Magic of Words: A Young Writer's Journey
A young writer discovers new words and creates a unique story that becomes a classic and propels her to fame.
Talk about it 1. What inspired Lily to write a story using new words she found? 2. How did Lily feel when her story was finally complete? 3. What was the most exciting part of the story for Lily? 4. Why did Lily include a byline on each page of her story? 5. How did the story become a classic and what did this mean for Lily's future as a writer?
Open reading -
Story Common Nouns in English: writing 3
The Magic Manuscript: A Tale of Adventure and Imagination
A young boy discovers a magical manuscript that brings his stories to life and becomes known as the greatest storyteller in all the land.
Talk about it 1. What was special about the journal that Max found in the library? 2. How did Max bring his stories to life? 3. What happened to the knight in Max's story? 4. How did Max become known as the greatest storyteller in all the land? 5. What happened to the journal with the hook and imprint after Max used it?
Open reading -
Story Common Nouns in English: writing 3
Lily's Literary Journey: Discovering the Magic of Words".
A young girl named Lily discovers the joys of reading and writing different genres in a library book called "Editorial Adventures".
Talk about it 1. What did Lily learn about words in the book called "Editorial Adventures"? 2. Can you write a Haiku like the ones Lily wrote in the story? 3. What is the purpose of Formatting in a book? 4. What is the difference between a Frontlist and a Backlist book? 5. Can you think of an example of a euphemism?
Open reading -
Story Common Nouns in English: phones 1
Binny and Bar's Bandwidth Adventure
Binny and Bar work together to solve Binny's slow bandwidth issue and learn the importance of keeping code organized.
Talk about it 1. What was Binny's problem in the story? 2. Who helped Binny solve his problem? 3. What did Binny and Bar learn from their adventure? 4. How do you think Binny feels after his bandwidth is fixed? 5. Can you think of any other ways to keep your computer running smoothly?
Open reading -
Story Common Nouns in English: phones 1
Bot the Superhero: A Tale of Antennas and Apps
A little robot named Bot becomes a superhero with the help of an app and a stronger antenna.
Talk about it 1. What was Bot's problem with the app at first? 2. What did Bot do to fix the problem with the app? 3. How did Bot become a superhero? 4. What did people in the city call Bot after it became a superhero?
Open reading -
Story Common Nouns in English: phones 2
Chip the Robot's Frequency Adventure
Chip the robot embarks on an adventure to find a frequency that fixes his faulty firmware and restores his ability to communicate with his friends.
Talk about it - Why did Chip's firmware stop working? - What did Chip do to try to fix his firmware? - What was the special frequency and how did it help Chip? - How did Chip feel when his firmware was fixed? - What did Chip learn from his adventure?
Open reading -
Story Common Nouns in English: phones 2
The Adventures of Lily and her Digital Carrier
Lily learns about codecs and shares her memories with the world through her digital carrier.
Talk about it 1. What was Lily trying to do with her pictures? 2. What did Lily learn about to help share her pictures? 3. Why did Lily sign a contract with a company? 4. How does the codec help Lily share her pictures? 5. What is the moral of the story?
Open reading -
Story Common Nouns in English: phones 4
Robo's Wireless Adventure
A robot named Robo discovers the joys of a wireless connection while searching for the perfect wallpaper and voice to match its daily mood.
Talk about it 1. What was Robo's favorite thing to do every day? 2. How did Robo change its wallpaper and voice before it discovered the wireless connection? 3. What did Robo have to do to upgrade to a wireless connection? 4. How did Robo feel after it upgraded to a wireless connection? 5. Why do you think Robo was so excited about the wireless connection?
Open reading -
Story Common Nouns in English: phones 4
Lily's Touchscreen Adventure
A girl named Lily gets her tablet fixed with the help of a subscriber, allowing her to continue drawing with her stylus and listen to music with her new speaker.
Talk about it 1. Why did Lily have trouble using her tablet's stylus? 2. What did the subscriber tell Lily to do to fix her tablet? 3. Why was Lily careful with her tablet after it was fixed? 4. What did Lily do with her tablet after it was fixed? 5. How did Lily feel at the end of the story?
Open reading -
Story Common Nouns in English: machine learning 2
The Data-Driven Adventure
A group of friends use data analysis techniques like covariance, correlation, convolution and convergence to make the best decision based on their findings from a large database.
Talk about it 1. What is the story about? 2. Who are the characters in the story? 3. What techniques did the friends use to analyze their data? 4. What was the result of their data analysis? 5. What kind of decision did they make based on their findings?
Open reading -
Story Common Nouns in English: machine learning 3
Lily's Sunny Discovery: A Data Science Adventure
A young data scientist uses histograms and her skills to make an inference about park attendance on sunny vs cloudy days.
Talk about it 1. What is a histogram and how did Lily use it? 2. What is a hypothesis and what was Lily's hypothesis about the park attendance? 3. What is an inference and what was Lily's inference about the park attendance? 4. What is a hyperparameter and why was it important for Lily's analysis? 5. Why was Lily proud of her work and what did she do with her results?
Open reading -
Story Common Nouns in English: machine learning 3
The Prince, the Wizard, and the Energy Generator
A young prince learns about entropy and builds a machine to generate unlimited energy with the help of a wise wizard named Estimator.
Talk about it 1. Who is Estimator and what is he known for? 2. What does the prince want to build and why? 3. What does Estimator teach the prince about entropy? 4. What happens as they work on building the generator? 5. Why is the prince hailed as a hero?
Open reading -
Story Common Nouns in English: machine learning 4
Robo's Mathematical Adventure
A robot learns about regression, residuals, transfer learning, and variance to improve his ability to recall and predict in "Robo's Mathematical Adventure".
Talk about it 1. What did Robo learn about regression? 2. What is the difference between actual values and predicted values? 3. How can Robo use what he learned in one task to help him perform better in another task? 4. Why is variance important in fitting data to a model? 5. How did Robo's understanding of these mathematical concepts help him recall his skills and knowledge?
Open reading -
Story Common Nouns in English: machine learning 4
Robo's Precision Adventure
Robo, a special robot with a brain made of neurons, overcomes a loss and improves his precision to meet his objectives through fine-tuning his parameters with prior instances.
Talk about it 1. What was Robo's problem in the beginning? 2. How did Robo's programmer fix his parameters? 3. How did Robo improve his precision with each new instance? 4. What is the importance of fine-tuning parameters in reaching an objective?
Open reading -
Story Common Nouns in English: furniture 1
The Adventures of the Furniture Friends
Four pieces of furniture, a pouf, sectional, settee and sofa, become the best of friends after playing hide-and-seek together.
Talk about it 1. Which piece of furniture was the best at hide-and-seek? 2. Why did the pouf ask the others to play with it? 3. Why were the sectional, settee, and sofa unable to play hide-and-seek? 4. Who popped out from under the coffee table and said "Here I am"? 5. How did the furniture become friends after playing hide-and-seek?
Open reading -
Story Common Nouns in English: furniture 1
The Friends' Comfy Seating Hunt
A group of friends explore a furniture store and find the perfect seating for their chats after discovering the unique features of a banquette, bench, chair, chaise, couch, futon, loveseat, and ottoman.
Talk about it 1. What are the different types of seating in the furniture store? 2. Why did the friends buy a little bit of everything from the store? 3. Which piece of furniture was perfect for lounging on a sunny day? 4. What was the ottoman good for? 5. Can you think of any other types of seating that could have been in the store?
Open reading -
Story Common Nouns in English: history 1
Celebrating Heritage: A Classic Culture Festival Story
A children's story about a festival celebrating cultural heritage during the Classic Epoch, highlighting the importance of preserving traditions for future generations.
Talk about it 1. What was the annual Classic Culture Festival all about? 2. How did people celebrate their heritage during the festival? 3. What did the children learn from the festival? 4. Why was it important to keep the cultural traditions alive for future generations? 5. What did the children feel at the end of the festival?
Open reading -
Story Common Nouns in English: history 1
Lily's Time Travel Adventure
A young girl discovers a mysterious old calendar and learns about the different ways of measuring time throughout history.
Talk about it 1. What is Lily's favorite subject? 2. What does Lily discover at the archive? 3. Why is the old calendar so interesting to Lily? 4. How does Lily learn about chronology? 5. What does Lily learn about studying the past? 6. What is the theme of the story?
Open reading -
Story Common Nouns in English: plants 1
Buddy and the Magic Cactus
A little bud named Buddy learns about a magical cactus that grants wishes and goes on an adventure with his friends the bulbs.
Talk about it - What did Buddy wish for? - Why did the bulbs go to see the magic cactus? - How did Buddy and the bulbs spread joy? - Why was Buddy fascinated by the cactus? - What happened when Buddy touched the cactus? - How did Buddy and his friends change after visiting the cactus?
Open reading -
Story Common Nouns in English: plants 1
Sammy the Squirrel's Bamboo Adventure
A squirrel named Sammy goes on an adventure to a bamboo forest and learns about new food and friends.
Talk about it - What did Sammy find in the bamboo forest? - Was the brush hog a danger to Sammy? Why or why not? - What did Sammy learn about new foods and friends on his adventure? - What did Sammy do when he first saw the bamboo forest? - Where did Sammy live and what did he like to collect?
Open reading -
Story Common Nouns in English: plants 2
The Blade of Grass and the Grove in the Garden
A blade of grass learns to appreciate its uniqueness and forms a friendship with the trees in a grove in a beautiful garden filled with grains.
Talk about it 1. What did the blade of grass think about itself in the beginning of the story? 2. How did the blade of grass feel when it met the trees in the grove? 3. Why was the garden more beautiful because of the different plants growing in it? 4. Can you think of a time when you felt like you didn't belong? How did you feel? 5. What can we learn from the blade of grass and the trees in the grove about friendship and appreciating our uniqueness?
Open reading -
Story Common Nouns in English: plants 2
Cloe and The Lost Cork: An Adventure Through The Forest
Cloe, a clover, helps a lost cork find its way home and becomes friends with it in the forest filled with beautiful flora and fruits.
Talk about it 1. Why did Cloe offer to help the lost cork? 2. What did Cloe and the cork see on their journey through the forest? 3. How did Cloe feel when she helped the cork find its family? 4. Do you think Cloe and the cork will continue to be friends? Why or why not?
Open reading