Miscellaneous
What is the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere?
The shortest day of the year is the Winter Solstice occurring around December 21st or 22nd.
What are two adjectives to describe S. Wendall Palomino?
Answers will vary, but could be: dishonest, conniving, immoral, deceitful, untruthful, insincere
What is a homophone? Give an example.
Homophones sound the same, but have different spellings and different meaning. Example: two, to, too
What does agonizing mean? See bottom of page 30 if you want to see in context.
Causing great physical or mental pain.
What was the point of the sleepover that Griffin had planned at the Rockford estate?
Griffin was upset that the adults at the town meeting had not even taken the time to hear the kids plan to create a skate park where the Rockford estate was. This sleepover was a secret protest so kids felt some control over.
Name all 5 teachers who work in this classroom.
Mrs. Gardner, Mrs. Gutner, Mrs. Myers, Mrs. Weisenfluh, Mrs. Hicklin
What is Griffin's last name?
Bing
Jagged and vacant are examples of:
1) nouns
2) Verbs
3) Adjectives
3) Adjectives
Look at top of page 3. What does seethed mean?
Seethed means to be filled with intense but unexpressed anger.
Where did Griffin find the Babe Ruth baseball card?
The card was an old-fashioned desk in the abandoned Rockford estate. The card was in a secret locked drawer.
Which word of the week could be used to describe the Rockford Estate in the story Swindle?
Vacant is the best one, but if you said jagged and could explain why, that works, too. Definitely not enticing!
Griffin can be described as " __________ with a ______________"
Man, plan
Use entice in a sentence.
Answers will vary.
Name a word of the week from this year or last that was in Swindle ( Mrs. Weisenfluh got very excited, while Tommy and Lewis groaned).
Jagged, pleaded, exclaimed
What did Mr. Palomino tell Griffin about the baseball card?
That it was not worth a lot because it is a fake. He said it was a reissued card. He said he could tell because this one had a solid blue border and the original border was striped.
If you could invite anyone to dinner (dead or alive) who would you invite and why? Choose 3 adjectives to describe this person.
Answers will vary
Ben has always been a loyal friend. Why does he say, "no," to Griffin and what events happen to make him change his mind?
He says "no" because Griffin is suggesting doing something illegal and he does not want to be a part of it. However, when he goes to Griffin's house and sees a For Sale sign in yard and learns about the Bing's money troubles, he decides he will do whatever it takes to help his friend.
Break all three words of the week into syllables (write them on a white board) and then label the syllable types.
jag ged closed, closed
va cant open, closed
en tice closed, VCe syllable
What does lamenting mean? See page 53 for context.
Express regret or disappointment over something considered unsatisfactory, unreasonable or unfair
Why is Griffin so stressed about his family? What is going on?
Griffin is stressed because his parents are fighting all the time and are struggling to pay bills. The father quit his job and put all this money towards his Smartpicker invention which has not been successful (yet?).
What is the name of the Doberman in Swindle?
Luthor
Choose any of the characters in the book and compare or contrast them to a character from another book you have read. Describe how they are similar or different.
Answers will vary.
What do the prefixes re, dis, and un mean?
What does the suffix ed mean?
re = again
dis = not
un = not
ed makes a base word in the past tense ex. stay becomes stayed
What does swindle mean?
Use deception to deprive someone of money or possessions; a fraudulent scheme or actions
"The world is a big fat scary place filled with people who'll chew you up and spit you out if you give them half the chance. Consider this your first life lesson." Who said this and what was this person talking about?
S. Wendell Palomino said this to Griffin and basically admitted that he swindled Griffin and that there was nothing Griffin could do about it.