1. Roxaboxen
Unit 3: Lesson 6

2. Day 1: Word Knowledge Line 1: buried belonged looked jeweled
Line 2: white whitest big biggest old oldest
Line 3: shelf shelves elf elves leaf leaves
Line 4: amber amethyst sea-green
Line 5: grave steer kind light club
Line 6: became like reach stone jewels
Sentence 1: Roxaboxen had always been there and must have belonged to others, long before.
Sentence 2: When Marian dug up a tin box filled with round black pebbles everyone knew what is was: it was a buried treasure.
Sentence 3: Charles made his of the biggest stones.
Sentence 4: A precious stone, like a diamond, is just one of many jewels.

3. What do these words have in common?
buried belonged looked jeweled
These words all have the suffix –ed
What happens to a verb when –ed is added?
Use each in a sentence.

4. What do these words have in common?
white whitest big
biggest old oldest
These words are superlatives.
Name some other superlatives.
smallest, cleanest, shiniest, craftiest

5. What do these words have in common?
shelf shelves elf elves
leaf leaves
These are all words that end in f with a plural ending added.
What is the spelling change that takes place when a word ends in f and you add a suffix.

6. What do these words have in common?
amber amethyst sea-green
These words are all the names of colors, some perhaps unfamiliar to you. We will look for these colors in the paintings as we read.

7. What do these words have in common?
grave steer kind
light club
These words are all homographs-words that are spelled the same but have different meanings.
What are some meanings of each word?

8. What do these words have in common?
became like reach
stone jewels
These words are found in “Roxaboxen” and review the long-vowel sound spelling patterns.

9. What do these words have in common?
Sentence 1: Roxaboxen had always been there and must have belonged to others, long before.
Sentence 2: When Marian dug up a tin box filled with round black pebbles everyone knew what is was: it was a buried treasure.
Sentence 3: Charles made his of the biggest stones.
These sentences are found in the story. Can you identify the words with the suffix –ed?

10. What do these words have in common?
Sentence 4: A precious stone, like a diamond, is just one of many jewels.
Which words have the /o/ sound?
The /i/ sound?
The /oo/ sound?

11. Build Background
How would you create an entirely new society? How would the society be ruled, what would the currency be, and how would the tasks be divided?
This story is based on people’s memories of their childhood. The author researched her mother’s drawings, interviewed relatives, and reviewed their maps and memories and mementos of Roxaboxen.

12. Browse Now let’s browse the first page or two of the story.
Let ‘s read aloud: the title, the author and illustrator.
Now let’s browse the first page or two of the story.
What might this story tell about imagination?
Look at the illustrations in the selections.
Make sure you make predictions about the text to help monitor your comprehension.
Look for: clues, problems, such as unfamiliar words (trans. 46)

13. ford: to cross by wading
After that you had to ford a river to reach Roxaboxen.
During the hike, we had to ford a creek that was knee high.

14. traced: formed carefully, to sketch
A town of Roxaboxen began to grow, traced in lines of stone: Main Street first, edged with the whitest ones, and then the houses.
The border of the garden was traced with pansies.

15. mayor: the chief elected official of a city
Marian was mayor, of course, that's just the way she was.
The town elected a new mayor last week.

16. decorated: added ornamentation; adorned
Each year when the cactus blossomed, they decorated the grave with flowers.
The students decorated the room for the party.

17. blossomed: Bloomed, produced flowers
And spring came, and the ocotillo blossomed, and everybody sucked the honey from its flowers, and everybody built new rooms, and everybody decided to have jeweled windows.
Our plum tree blossomed this spring.

18. bordering: to be lying on the edge of
She could see the white stones bordering Main Street, and there where she could see her house the desert glass still glowed – amethyst, amber, and sea-green.
There was a river bordering the town where we lived.

19. Have you ever imagined that the playground, your background, or your bedroom is a different place?
What places do you imagine they are?
What do you do in your imaginary worlds?

20. Why did the person telling this story call Roxaboxen “a special place”?
What made it special? Who can me find clues to answer this question?

21. Good readers make connections with what they read to remind them of what they already know about something or about how they feel.
I can remember playing with my friends in my neighborhood and making up special places. Who else has other connections to the story that they would like to share?

22. I think I know why Marian is the mayor of Roxaboxen
I think I know why Marian is the mayor of Roxaboxen. The story says nobody cared because that’s they way she was. I know kids like Marian. They always volunteer and like to be in charge of things. I think Marian likes to be in charge, too.

23. This part of the story talks about the children having cars and going to jail for speeding. But I know that they’re only children-who shouldn’t be driving cars!
Of course, they didn’t really have cars.
It’s all part of their make-believe world.
It is important that I clarify confusing things so that you understand what you’re reading.

24. I’m not sure what a bridle is. I guess I should read this part again.
It says the kids need a bridle and a stick. The stick is probably the horse. I guess a bridle is something that goes on the horse.

25. I wondered why Roxaboxen did not end when the children grew up.
When I read on, I saw that it lived on in the children’s memories.
Does anyone have connections to the story?

26. Charles came back to Roxaboxen when he was old and found a pebble that reminded him of Roxaboxen.
Does anyone have something that reminds of somewhere they have been?

27. Discussion Why did the children invent the town?
What was the town they invented like?
What did they do in the town?
What happened to the place?
What made the place special?
How does it connect to imagination?
What did you learn that is new?
What are you still wondering?

28. What do these words have in common?
grave steer kind
light club
These words are all homographs-words that are spelled the same but have different meanings.
Use a word in a sentence. Then someone else use another meaning of the word in a new sentence.

29. In first-person narrative, the writer tells the story as if they are a character in the story.
Clue words: I, me, mine, we, our, ours.
In third-person narrative, the writer tells the story as if the storyteller were not in the story.
Clue words: he, him, she, they, and theirs.

30. Checking Comprehension
Who uses their imagination in this story?
How do they use imagination?
How do we know that Roxaboxen was important to the children?
How does this selection contribute to your understanding of the unit theme Imagination?

31. Point of View
Generally in a story first-person or third-person point of view is used.
The indicators of first-person point of view are that the person telling the story is involved in the action and uses pronouns like I, me, my, mine, we, us, and our.
In third-person point of view, the person telling the story is not involved in the actions but is reporting them. This point of view uses third-person pronouns like he/him, she/her, and they/them.