ACARA Years 3-6
— Rain transforms from mist to downpour, its gray fingers reaching through fog and pine trees, as the speaker celebrates the wet beauty of their Pacific Northwest home.
— A boy returns to his late grandfather's wilderness farm for the first time since his death, finding solace when sunlight breaks through storm clouds onto a magnolia tree.
— A girl selling oranges at a Chinese market warns customers her fruit is sour, then runs after them to return their change, teaching a lesson about honesty.
— A girl who was found on a beach as a baby discovers through a magical conch shell that she was rescued by whales after her parents' ship capsized.
— A girl recalls summers at her family's Maine house, exploring tide pools and climbing Cannon Rock, where she collected sea glass and dreamed of becoming a marine biologist.
— A boy ignores earthquake warnings to go skateboarding with his friend, then gets trapped when a major quake hits the skate park and the building collapses.
— A boy remembers his grandmother through the landscape she loved — hot air balloons, hilltop trees, vineyards — and the moment of scattering her ashes.
— Three cousins rowing to a Maine lighthouse are caught in a sudden storm, their boat capsizes, and they barely make it to shore alive.
— Ed plays basketball with his friend Dave before a school bingo night where he comes within one number of winning an air-hockey table, losing to an elderly woman.
— A drama-loving girl accidentally breaks a precious jade elephant in an antique shop and offers to perform for the elderly owner's sick husband as recompense.