Brussels Sprouts
Mum put the plate of food down in front of me. "Now, no excuses.excuses. We try all our vegetablesvegetables in this family,family, young man!"
I lookedlooked glumlyglumly at the lime green balls, nestlednestled besidebeside the slices of roast beef, glisteningglistening with their coat of deliciousdelicious gravy.gravy. The pile of creamycreamy white mashedmashed potato,potato, like a fluffyfluffy cloud againstagainst the blue of my dinnerdinner plate, lookedlooked yummy.yummy. The carrotcarrot sticks addedadded a bright orangeorange shout of colourcolour and I knew I would enjoy their crunch in my mouth. But the brussels sprouts were my enemy.enemy. The very thought of them made me want to throw up.
I took up my utensils,utensils, speareded the meat and saweded through it until I had a bite-sizedsized piece on the end of my fork. Then I addedadded potato and a stick of carrot. I cheweded and swallowed,swallowed, then bravelybravely turneded my attentionattention to the remainingremaining vegetable. First I cut it, then I looked closelyclosely at the half I was aboutabout to pop intointo my mouth. The curleded up leafleaves made me think of a miniatureminiature cabbage.cabbage. I liftedlifted it to my nose and took a sniff. I gaggedgagged at the smell - it almostalmost had a whiff of rottenrotten eggs about it. No way could I eat it!
I carvedcarved out a goal in the rest of the mash and usedused my knife as a hockeyhockey stick to roll the sprouts around my plate. Since the grown-ups were talkingtalking to each other I got brave and rolledrolled one right off the table ontoonto the servietteserviette on my lap. Just two more left. I quicklyquickly ate the rest of the food on my plate, and askedasked to leave the table.table. CarefullyCarefully tuckingtucking the edges of the napkinnapkin aroundaround the green mess in my lap, I droppeddropped it in the rubbishrubbish bin as I left the room.
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Comprehension Clarify these words: excuses, glumly, nestled, glistening, gravy, enemy, throw up, utensils, speared, sawed, turned my attention, remaining, minature, gagged, whiff, carved out, serviette, lap, napkin. Retell what has happened in this Slice of Life. What prediction can you made about what might have happened next? Make inferences or give opinions about:
What question could you ask about this Slice of Life? Visualise these uses of descriptive language: looked glumly; lime green balls; nestled beside; glistening with their coat of delicious gravy; pile of creamy white mashed potato; like a fluffy cloud against the blue of the plate; a bright orange shout of colour; crunch in my mouth; brussel sprouts were my enemy; want to throw up; speared the meat and sawed through it; chewed and swallowed; bravely turned my attention to...; curled up leaves; miniature cabbage; gagged at the smell; whiff of rotten eggs; carved out a goal in the mashed potato; used my knife as a hockey stick to roll the sprouts around my plate; green mess in my lap. Make a connection with this narrative so far. |
Word Study Verb endings: What happens when we add s, ed or ing to: nestle, gag, carve, use, eat, drop. Other affixes: What happens when we add other prefixes and suffixes like ly, ful, y, s to these words: glum, brave, close, quick, careful, care, fluff, leaf. Why is there a silent t in nestled, glistened, a silent d in edges? What two words make up these compound words: beside, onto, around.
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