The Word Up Project: Level Red
Unit 7 – Candy
actual
advice
brief
consider
decay
digest
distant
individual
nectar
nursery
7A Introduction
Do you have a sweet tooth? Do you like candy? Well, candy is a big business. Every Halloween,
Americans buy $3 billion worth of candy. That’s a lot of sweets! This song is about a girl who loves
candy so much she even dreams about it.
7B Song Lyrics
My name is Reason. How many of you out there like candy?
Ha ha ha ha ha, hee hee hee
I know there’s a lot of kids just like me.
Don’t worry, Mama, I’ma brush my teeth,
But first I’m gonna eat candy.
I’m not Pinocchio; I’m not going to lie,
This is how it actually is in real life.
Ever since I was a baby in the nursery,
That’s, um, the room for the kids only.
I didn’t want toys or My Little Pony,
All I wanted was some tasty candy.
My mom says, “Would you think about, or consider,
What you want to eat after dinner?”
Mom, we ate broccoli and chicken for dinner,
So for dessert, let’s eat some Snickers.
I like the strong juice from a fruit, the nectar,
Things so sweet-sweet taste much better.
I’m just one person, I’m an individual,
But when I see some Skittles I’ma s-s-say,
“Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!”
Am I wrong ’cause I like Starburst and Skittles,
And Now and Laters, and M&M’s?
Ha ha ha ha ha, hee hee hee
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actual / advice / brief / consider / decay / digest / distant / individual / nectar / nursery
Unit 7
I know there’s a lot of kids just like me.
Don’t worry, Mama, I’ma brush my teeth,
But first I’m gonna eat candy.
Now her mind’s distant, far away as she sleeps,
Dreaming she’s in Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory.
Bubble gum, Hershey’s, Jolly Rancher candy,
Her eyes bright like midnight on 42nd Street.
So much to digest and eat
That she had candy up to her knees.
A smile forms, as she lays there sleeping,
Hoping she doesn’t wake, like please don’t pinch me.
But she knows better because her mama taught her so,
The advice that she gained was worth more than gold.
Whoa! And she knows
If she eats all that candy her tummy would blow.
Her teeth would decay, rot away like dinosaurs.
She loves candy, but loves her smile much more.
That’s the end of the story. “You mean there’s no more?”
No, I kept it brief and short.
Ha ha ha ha ha, hee hee hee
I know there’s a lot of kids just like me.
Don’t worry, Mama, I’ma brush my teeth,
But first I’m gonna eat candy.
7C Words Defined
actual
(adj) . Real. Though some children fear them, no actual monsters live under the bed.
advice
(noun) . Ideas or suggestions to help someone with a problem. Since Alexis is older, she
gave me lots of advice about what to do with bullies.
brief
(adj) . Short in time, not lasting long. I like it when my coach keeps his half-time speech
nice and brief.
consider
(verb) . To think seriously about something. Danielle considered trying out for the
school play, but she decided she wanted to play kickball instead.
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The Word Up Project: Level Red
decay
(verb) . To slowly fall apart and become ruined. A few days after
Halloween, our pumpkin began to decay.
(noun) . The falling-apart of something. If you visit it again and again,
you can see the decay of a tree that has fallen down.
digest
(verb) . To change food that the body has eaten into energy and other forms the body can use. For
food to be digested, it must go down your throat and into your stomach.
distant
(adj) . Far away from. Bud and Ellie walked all day, but the mountain
remained distant. Related word: distance. (noun) . The amount of space
between two things. The distance between New York City and Los
Angeles is 2,500 miles.
individual
(noun) . A single person. After playing hide-and-seek for an hour, only
one individual was still hiding.
(adj) . Single and separate. Instead of sleeping in one big tent, we
stayed in a motel and got individual rooms.
nectar
(noun) . Strong juice from a fruit, or the sweet liquid made by
flowering plants. Hummingbirds suck the nectar from flowers
with their long beaks.
nursery
(noun) . 1. A room used for taking care of babies and small children.
In the movie Mary Poppins, the kids get help cleaning up their nursery. 2. A place where plants
are grown and raised. Because they are full of fresh plants, nurseries always smell nice.
7D Synonyms
Circle the word on the right that matches the meaning of the word or phrase on the left.
1. think about
2. short
3. juice
4. break apart
5. far away
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decay
brief
nursery
digest distant
consider
actual
advice
decay
individual
digest
distant
nectar
consider
actual
actual / advice / brief / consider / decay / digest / distant / individual / nectar / nursery
Unit 7
7E Fill in the Blank
Write the word in the blank so that the sentence makes sense.
1. The children got to hold the __________________________________ jacket that Elvis wore in his last concert.
brief
actual
distant
2. Tim didn’t know what to do, so he asked his big sister for __________________________________.
nectar
decay
advice
3. The baby ate applesauce because the spaghetti was too hard for her to __________________________________.
digest
consider
decay
4. Susan’s new teacher made the students sit at __________________________________ desks, not at tables together.
distant
brief
individual
5. Shaminah visited the __________________________________ to buy some plants for her garden.
nectar
nursery
distance
7F Connections
Each sentence has a strong connection with one of the words from the unit. Write the correct
word on the line below.
1. Alex’s friend told him how to stay calm before a big test. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
2. Before my brother was born, we painted his room light blue.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
3. The fruit was so old it began to rot.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
4. Tamara thought about it before answering the question.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
5. I squeezed the juice out of the peach.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
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The Word Up Project: Level Red
7G Applying Meanings
Circle the letter that makes sense or answers the question.
1. If you needed a brief rest, what would you do?
(A) go to sleep early
(B) take a nap
(C) go for a long run
(D) have lots of dreams
2. When do you start to digest your food?
(A) before lunch begins
(B) when you’re cooking dinner
(C) on your way to school
(D) when it goes into your stomach
3. Which of the following is the most distant?
(A) your hand
(B) a car
(C) the moon
(D) your school
4. Which of the following is an individual?
(A) George Washington
(B) the Boston Red Sox
(C) Bert and Ernie
(D) America
5. How could you figure out your actual height?
(A) take a guess
(B) use a measuring tape
(C) ask your little sister
(D) stand next to a basketball player
7H Reading
Read the passage below and then answer the questions that follow.
Dinosaur Bones
When you picture dinosaurs roaming the earth, you probably picture a distant time and place.
It’s true—dinosaurs lived millions of years ago. But did you know that you don’t have to travel halfway
around the world to visit a place where dinosaurs once lived? Dinosaurs actually lived all over the
United States!
One of the most famous sites for finding dinosaur fossils is in Colorado at Dinosaur National
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actual / advice / brief / consider / decay / digest / distant / individual / nectar / nursery
Unit 7
Monument. The site was discovered by a dinosaur
scientist named Earl Douglass. In 1909, he was
digging and found a bone from a brontosaurus tail.
He kept digging and found many other bones that
belonged to the same dinosaur. Each individual
bone was dug up and then put back together to
form the skeleton of a brontosaurus. Since then,
thousands of other bones have been found and
dug up. Ten different kinds of dinosaur fossils have
been found in this same area.
Scientists think there is a reason why so
many fossils have been found in this one place. One hundred and fifty million years ago, the
area had a river that dinosaurs would go to for water. When the river dried up, the dinosaurs
died and their bones collected in the area. The dinosaurs were buried in mud, water and rock.
Even after the skin and muscles of the dinosaurs decayed, the bones stayed buried until Earl
Douglass discovered them.
Dinosaur National Monument isn’t just famous for the bones that were dug out of the
ground. It’s also considered a great place because of the bones that are still in the ground.
In the 1950s, scientists decided it would be a great idea to leave the bones in the ground for
people to see. If you visit the site, you will see more than 1,400 fossils sticking up out of the
ground!
1. What state is Dinosaur National Monument in?
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
2. Who discovered the first fossils at Dinosaur National Monument?
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
3. Why were so many bones found in that area?
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
4. What parts of the dinosaur decay and what parts remain?
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
5. At Dinosaur National Monument, what did scientists leave in the ground?
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
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actual / advice / brief / consider / decay / digest / distant / individual / nectar / nursery
Bonus: Crossword Puzzle
Solve this crossword puzzle. Note: Some answers may be different forms of the vocab words above.
1
3
2
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
ACROSS
1 Mrs. Tompkins would never tell
her students her ________ age.
3 From the top of the building you
could see the ocean off in the
___________.
6 "Let me give you some
________: Don't cheat on tests."
8 Hummingbirds have long beaks
so they can reach the _______ in
the flower.
9 Recess is too ____________; I
want to play for an hour!
10 The building was so old the bricks
were starting to _____________.
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DOWN
2 I have to ____________ my
choices before I order at a
restaurant.
4 Courtney didn't want to share; she
wanted her own _____________
pencil.
5 It was so loud in the
____________ because of all the
crying babies.
7 You can't go swimming. You have
to wait until you ___________
your lunch.