The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis by Barbara O’Connor

A wonderful "small" story of newly formed friendships, mystery and unexpected discovery, set in South Carolina, and along the way too some great vocabulary...



Popeye (a one-eyed boy thanks to his uncle's mis-aim with a BB gun) is waiting disconsolately for the rain to stop and something to happen, when sure enough it does - a motor-home with 6 kids aboard gets stuck in the mud outside his house and things aren't quite the same again.

Popeye's grandmother knows words and gives Popeye a new one to learn each week, and these are seamlessly introduced into the story adding richness and humour. The first word is vicissitude and by the end of the book the reader has been introduced to nomad, reminisce, quandary, plethora, mesmerise, diverse, avuncular…among others, and some sparky kids and gone-but-not-forgotten coon dogs...

This would make a great little read aloud at upper primary. I also really enjoyed another book by Barbara O'Connor - How to steal a dog.
http://www.barboconnor.com/pages/books/novels/bk_popelvis.html

“Vocabulary knowledge is knowledge; the knowledge of a word not only implies a definition, but also implies how that word fits into the world.” Steven Stahl, 2005

From http://www.ldonline.org/article/Teaching_Vocabulary
Incidental vocabulary learning
The scientific research on vocabulary instruction reveals that most vocabulary is acquired incidentally through indirect exposure to words. Students can acquire vocabulary incidentally by engaging in rich oral-language experiences at home and at school, listening to books read aloud to them, and reading widely on their own. Reading volume is very important in terms of long-term vocabulary development (Cunningham and Stanovich, 1998). Kamil and Hiebert (2005) reason that extensive reading gives students repeated or multiple exposures to words and is also one of the means by which students see vocabulary in rich contexts. Cunningham (2005) recommends providing structured read-aloud and discussion sessions and extending independent reading experiences outside school hours to encourage vocabulary growth in students.