Recess Time - January 8

Hi, Boys and Girls. Today is Friday, January 8. I have a story for you and a game to play when you finish reading it. This is football season and this is a football story. Are you ready?

Quincy the Quick Quarterback

by

Judith Lawrenson

Once upon a time there was a very quiet little boy named Quincy. He was quiet and shy because the other children teased him about his name. They called him "Quincy Pincy," and "Quint the Dint," and they even chanted "Get a Hint Quint" when he didn’t know the answer right away in math or reading.

He asked them to quit it, but it did not do one bit of good. "Oh, boy," he thought to himself. "If I could only do something really well, just one thing, they wouldn’t tease me quite so much. I wish I could do something to get a cool nickname like some of the other kids. Mark is so smart in math they call him ‘Brain’ and Jacquie can draw so well they call her ‘Artist’ they call Jenna ‘Blondie’ because her hair is blond. Boy, I wonder what I could do?"

As he was thinking and thinking what he could learn to do, he passed the high school football field where the Pop Warner kids were practicing. As he looked up, the quarterback made a pass. It headed straight for Quincy and guess what-he put out his hands and caught it, just like that! He not only caught it, he quickly tossed it right back to the quarterback-all the way across the field.

The coach of the team saw the throw and thought that it was of the highest quality ever. He quickly ran over to Quincy and said, "You are quite a quarterback. Are you qualified to play for a quality team like this one? Why don’t you play with us for a quarter and find out?"

Well, Quincy was very surprised, let me tell you. He loved to play catch with his father and he had always loved football but he never thought he was good enough to play with a real team. After he played the quarter, the coach invited him to be on the team. He did not stop to question the coach. He ran straight home to ask his father.

When he got home, his father was in the garage and his mother was working on a quilt. Quilting was her hobby and she was working on the Queen Ann pattern as he came into the family room.

"Mom, that is a beautiful quilt," he said. "Guess what happened to me while I was walking home from school."

"Don’t quiz me, Quincy," she answered. "I already know. The coach called your father to ask if he could fill out the questionnaire so that you could play on the team. Your father said he would talk to you first. Go in the kitchen now and get a drink and them go out to the garage and talk to your father."

Quincy went into the kitchen and drank about a quart of milk he was so thirsty. Then, he went into the garage to talk to his father.

"Can I play, Dad, please?" he begged.

"Sure you can Quincy. You are the right age, in the right grade, and the coach says you are really good. As long as you can do your schoolwork and keep up your grades, I think it is a good idea. I think it would be good for you. Maybe you will be good enough to earn a new nickname like you have wanted."

Well, you can guess what happened. Quincy turned out to be the best quarterback in the league at both passing and running. In fact he did earn a great new nickname. Do you think it was "Quincy the Quick Quarterback"? Well you are wrong. They called him SPEEDY!

Now that you have finished the story, go back to the beginning and see if you can find all of the words that begin with the "qu" sound. Remember you never see a q in a work unless it is followed by a u. Q and U always stay together. "Qu" makes the same sound as kwuh. That is silly but there are many letters in English that don’t always sound the way we think they should. Sometimes you just have to remember things.

Be sure to email (jlresource@aol.com) with how many "qu" words you can find.

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               September 01, 2011