Read Well 2
In spite of the hard work and danger,
most cowboys loved their job. They told
stories and sang songs about the cowboy
life. In 20 years, more than a million
cattle were moved along the trails.
The Cattle Drives End
Settlers moved west too. They built
farms and fences. Barbed wire was
invented to prevent cattle from trampling
crops. The railroad moved farther and
farther west, and by 1900 the long cattle
drives were over.
Unit
8
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The Cowboy Trail
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Chapter 1
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Nonfiction
Questions to talk about:
1. Why do you think most cowboys loved their jobs? If you were a
cowboy, what do you think you might like about it?
2. Why was barbed wire invented?
3. By what year were cattle drives over?
This reading folder belongs to:
______________________________________________
I’ve listened to my child read the passage, and we’ve discussed the questions.
Please listen to your child read the story for accuracy and
expression. You may wish to have your child read a second time
to strengthen skills.
Date __________ Signed __________________________________________
Optional Second Reading (initial here): ________
Note: Numbers are for school use only.
16 Homework 1
© 2009 Sopris West Educational Services. All rights reserved.
183
Modified Practiced Passage
The Cowboy Trail
A Cowboy’s Job
Cowboys worked from before sunup
to long after dark. The trail was hot
and dry. Rattlesnake bites and lightning
strikes were common. Cowboys drove
cattle year round. They worked in
hailstorms and even blizzards. The most
dangerous thing was a stampede. In
a stampede, the cattle would trample
anything in their path—even cowboys.
Chapter 1 • The Cowboy Life
The West in the 1860s
In the 1860s, the West was a wideopen place. Buffalo, elk, wolves, and
coyotes roamed the prairies. Millions of
longhorn cattle ran wild along the Rio
Grande River.
Cowboys and Cattle Drives
Texans began rounding up the
longhorn cattle and driving them north
to the railroad. Men came from all over
to join the cattle drives. These men were
called cowboys.
Cowboys were black, white, Mexican,
and American Indian. There were
cowgirls too. On the trail, it didn’t matter
if you were rich or poor or even a former
slave. Strength and courage mattered.
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Questions to talk about:
1. What was the West like in the 1860s?
2. Who could be a cowboy?
3. What mattered most if you were on a cattle drive?
Note: Numbers are for school use only.
Questions to talk about:
1. What was it like for the cowboys on a cattle drive?
2. What was the most dangerous thing on a cattle drive?
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Read Well 2
Plenty of danger was waiting along
the trail—rattlesnakes, hailstorms,
blizzards, and worst of all, stampedes.
Sometimes the cattle got spooked.
They would run in all directions. They
trampled everything in the way—cactus,
trees, even cowboys.
The cowboy life was hard. But I loved
my horse and that wide-open Texas sky.
Come night, when the stars were out, I
rode around the herd. I sang the folk
songs Mama taught me to settle the cattle
down for the night. I’d sit up tall and
proud in the saddle and say to the stars,
“At last! I am a free man!”
Unit
6
16 Homework 2
10
16
21
28
The Cowboy Trail
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Chapter 2
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Fiction
This reading folder belongs to:
Questions to talk about:
1. What kinds of dangers did cowboys face?
2. How did being a cowboy make the main character feel?
______________________________________________
I’ve listened to my child read the passage, and we’ve discussed the questions.
Please listen to your child read the story for accuracy and
expression. You may wish to have your child read a second time
to strengthen skills.
Date __________ Signed __________________________________________
Optional Second Reading (initial here): ________
Note: Numbers are for school use only.
© 2009 Sopris West Educational Services. All rights reserved.
185
Practiced Passage
The Cowboy Trail
Our cook got coffee and bacon
ready long before sunup. He cooked us
three square meals a day. He could also
shoe a horse in 10 minutes flat and set
our broken bones. He would stitch a
cowboy’s sleeve to the chest of his shirt to
keep a broken arm steady.
Chapter 2 • A Cowboy’s Story
I am 17. I am a free man. All my life,
my family lived in a one-room shack. My
family farmed all day on the same little
patch of ground.
One day, I got myself a horse and a
broadbrim hat. I left that little patch of
land and rode the open range. I moved
longhorn cattle up the trail from the Rio
Grande Valley hundreds of miles to the
railroad yard in Kansas.
I was a cowboy. We were white,
Mexican, Indian, and black, but we all
ate together around a campfire. We
treated each other with respect. On the
trail, the only things that mattered were
strength and courage.
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Questions to talk about:
1. Is this story fact or fiction? How can you tell?
2. Who is the main character?
3. What was important on the trail?
Note: Numbers are for school use only.
Questions to talk about:
1. What else did the cook do besides cook?
2. Do you think the cook had to work hard?
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© 2009 Sopris West Educational Services. All rights reserved.
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Read Well 2
“That horse is called Widow Maker
because no one can ride him,” warned
the cowboy. “He eats gunpowder for
breakfast and fireworks for lunch.”
“That’s my kind of horse,” Bill said.
16 Homework 3
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Bill let out a yip-yahoo and ran to
catch Widow Maker. The silver horse
galloped away, faster than the wind. Bill
and Widow Maker ran neck and neck
across the tall grass prairie. They ran
clear to the North Pole and back without
breaking a sweat.
40
“You are the fastest cowboy in the
West,” Widow Maker said. “We should
be partners.”
85
And from that day on, they were.
Unit
6
The Tall Tale of Pecos Bill
Chapter 1
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Fiction
This reading folder belongs to:
Questions to talk about:
1. Why did Bill want Widow Maker to be his horse?
______________________________________________
I’ve listened to my child read the passage, and we’ve discussed the questions.
Please listen to your child read the story for accuracy and
expression. You may wish to have your child read a second time
to strengthen skills.
Date __________ Signed __________________________________________
Optional Second Reading (initial here): ________
Note: Numbers are for school use only.
© 2009 Sopris West Educational Services. All rights reserved.
187
Practiced Passage
The Tall Tale of Pecos Bill
Bill turned around ten times and
didn’t see his tail once. “Well, tie me up
and call me a gopher,” Bill said. “I must
be a man after all.”
Chapter 1 • Pecos Bill Becomes a Cowboy
When Pecos Bill was a small boy,
he bounced out of his family’s covered
wagon. The Pecos River took him deep
into the heart of West Texas. Lucky
for Bill, a coyote mother found him
and raised him up as her own pup. Bill
learned to run and eat and sing like a
coyote.
One day, Pecos Bill saw a cowboy
filling his canteen at the river. The
cowboy greeted Bill. “Howdy, partner.
How come you don’t have a horse?”
“Coyotes don’t ride horses,” Bill
answered.
“Shucks, you’re a man. You aren’t
a coyote. Where’s your tail?” asked the
cowboy.
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From that day, Bill decided to be a
cowboy.
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“If you’re going to be a cowboy, you’d
better get a horse,” the cowboy said.
Bill noticed a silver mustang out in
the sagebrush. “I like that one,” he said.
Questions to talk about:
1. What is a tall tale? How can you tell this story is a tall tale?
2. Who is the main character?
3. Why did Pecos Bill think he was a coyote?
Note: Numbers are for school use only.
6
Questions to talk about:
1. How did Bill find out he wasn’t a coyote?
2. What did Bill need to be a cowboy?
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Read Well 2
In Arizona, Bill put on the brakes.
He dug his heels into the dirt. The
cyclone dragged Bill along until they
carved out the Grand Canyon.
Unit
7
16 Homework 4
15
21
26
The Tall Tale of Pecos Bill
Chapter 2
Some folks say Bill rode that cyclone
clear to the moon. Other folks say that
on a Texas night if you hear a yip-yahoo,
that’s Pecos Bill having a wild time. And
if it suits your fancy, you can yip-yahoo
right back.
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Fiction
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This reading folder belongs to:
Questions to talk about:
1. How does the story say the Grand Canyon was created?
2. What does “if it suits your fancy” mean?
______________________________________________
I’ve listened to my child read the passage, and we’ve discussed the questions.
Please listen to your child read the story for accuracy and
expression. You may wish to have your child read a second time
to strengthen skills.
Date __________ Signed __________________________________________
Optional Second Reading (initial here): ________
Note: Numbers are for school use only.
© 2009 Sopris West Educational Services. All rights reserved.
189
Modified Practiced Passage
The Tall Tale of Pecos Bill
Bill was about to declare his true
love to Sue when the sky grew dark. A
cyclone spun up. It headed straight for
town.
Chapter 2 • Pecos Bill Rides a Wild Cyclone
One day, Bill rode Widow Maker to
the Rio Grande. He saw a gal riding by
on a 50-foot catfish, swinging a gator by
the tail and shouting yip-yahoo like a
coyote. It was Slue-Foot Sue.
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“Excuse me, Miss,” Bill said.
“Someone has got to explain to that there
cyclone that it has no business going into
town.”
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Bill walked up to the cyclone. He
grabbed it and tried to wrestle it to the
ground, but the twister kept on twisting.
Bill lassoed it. He hopped on its back
and steered it out of town. Bill road that
whirlwind 27 hours a day, 17 days a week.
He rode it clear across Texas and New
Mexico.
Bill’s heart melted.
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Questions to talk about:
1. What is a cyclone?
2. Could someone really ride a cyclone?
3. What is it called when someone makes something seem bigger, better,
or more important than it really was? (exaggeration)
Questions to talk about:
1. What was Slue-Foot Sue doing when Bill first saw her?
2. What does “Bill’s heart melted” mean?
Note: Numbers are for school use only.
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© 2009 Sopris West Educational Services. All rights reserved.
Read Well 2
“Sit yourself down, Mr. Bear, but
don’t get too comfortable.”
Sue told that bear a story so scary, so
creepy, so full of horrors that the bear’s
hair stood up. His eyes bugged out. He
jumped clean out of his skin and ran
away, never to be seen again.
Unit
6
16 Homework 5
10
19
27
35
The Tall Tale of
Slue-Foot Sue
43
49
Chapter 1
Fiction
This reading folder belongs to:
______________________________________________
I’ve listened to my child read the passage, and we’ve discussed the questions.
Please listen to your child read the story for accuracy and
expression. You may wish to have your child read a second time
to strengthen skills.
Date __________ Signed __________________________________________
Optional Second Reading (initial here): ________
Note: Numbers are for school use only.
© 2009 Sopris West Educational Services. All rights reserved.
191
Practiced Passage
The Tall Tale of Slue-Foot Sue
One day, a bear came out of the
backwoods. It scared away the fishermen
and ate up their fish. It scared away the
farmers and ate up their chickens. But
that bear did not scare Sue.
Chapter 1 • Slue-Foot Sue in the Swamp
“Go away!” Sue shouted from her
canoe. The bear stole Sue’s lunch pail
and ate her jam sandwiches.
A long time ago in Louisiana lived a
gal named Sue. Folks said that she was
full of spunk. She wasn’t afraid of the
darkest night or the wildest weather. She
could wrestle a hurricane right back out
to sea and let out a holler folks could hear
a hundred miles away.
Sue roamed around the swamp in her
own boat, pushing it with a long pole.
When a gator swam up looking for lunch,
she swung him by the tail just to hear his
teeth rattle. She spent so much time in
the blackwater swamp that folks called
her Slue-Foot Sue.
“Now you’ve gone too far,” Sue
yelled. She whacked the bear with her
push pole. The bear snapped it in two
with his teeth. He lunged at Sue and
wrestled her down into the dark water.
She wrestled him right back. They
growled and shoved all day and into the
night.
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“You don’t scare me,” Sue said. “But
I bet I can scare you.”
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“Scare me? Impossible!” said the
bear. “You’re just a little gal.”
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Questions to talk about:
1. Is Slue-Foot Sue a real person?
2. What kind of story is this?
Note: Numbers are for school use only.
Questions to talk about:
1. Why was Sue mad at the bear?
2. How do you think Sue is going to scare the bear?
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Read Well 2
She went straight into a spin. She
spun like a top. The floor started to
smoke. Sue spun straight through the
floor. She drilled a hundred feet down.
Just when folks thought she might vanish
forever, a gusher of oil came out of the
hole with Sue riding on top.
Unit
7
16 Homework 6
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The Tall Tale of
Slue-Foot Sue
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Chapter 2
Fiction
This reading folder belongs to:
______________________________________________
I’ve listened to my child read the passage, and we’ve discussed the questions.
Please listen to your child read the story for accuracy and
expression. You may wish to have your child read a second time
to strengthen skills.
Date __________ Signed __________________________________________
Optional Second Reading (initial here): ________
Note: Numbers are for school use only.
© 2009 Sopris West Educational Services. All rights reserved.
193
Practiced Passage
The Tall Tale of Slue-Foot Sue
Word got around about the dancing
gal named Slue-Foot Sue. A challenge
came from Texas—a dance contest.
Chapter 2 • Slue-Foot Sue Dances Up a Storm
Sue arrived in style, with one foot on
the back of a coyote and the other on a
cougar.
The banjo and fiddle players tuned
up. The judges swept the barn floor. The
dancers laced up their best shoes. Then
with a loud yip-yahoo, the music began.
A long time ago, there lived a spunky
gal named Sue. Sue lived in the great
state of Louisiana.
Sue’s mother was an Irish fiddler.
She taught Sue to dance an Irish jig so
light she was three feet off the ground.
Whenever there was a shindig or a
hootenanny, Sue was right there dancing
the stars clean out of the sky.
Sue danced a line dance, a square
dance, and a round dance with ease. She
moved on to the rectangle dance. Other
dancers dropped out, gasping for air.
The triangle dance finished off the rest
of them. Sue was the winner! The crowd
went wild, but Sue didn’t stop to take a
bow.
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Questions to talk about:
1. Where was Slue-Foot Sue from?
2. Why was Sue such a good dancer?
3. What is a shindig or a hootenanny?
Note: Numbers are for school use only.
Questions to talk about:
1. What is a challenge?
2. How did Sue arrive at the contest?
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