Illustration of a daughter splashing fountain water at her dad

Illustrations by Lance Lekander

One Word, 3 Ways / Root Power

Weird, Wild, and Wonderful Words

By Della Herden

From the May/June 2025 Issue

Featured Skill: Vocabulary and Grammar,

Standards

The Story
Resources

One Word, 3 Ways

Look how this fun-loving kid uses the word of the issue, grounds.

Grounds can mean:

the gardens and lawns around a building
punishes by forbidding to leave the house to see friends
the reason for doing or believing something

For fun, I splashed my dad from the fountain on the museum grounds.

Then I worried, What if he grounds me?

But he laughed, “This is grounds for war,” and splashed me right back!

Wild Word Challenge!

The word grounds appears in this issue’s play. Can you find it and determine which meaning is used there?

Root Power!

Meet Lexie! She time traveled from the ancient world and landed in Storyworks. Lexie loves words—especially ones with Greek and Latin roots. Today she’s using words with the Greek root ge (or geo). That means earth. Can you figure out the meanings of the orange words below?

Lexie: I love the geography of the Southwest, especially the deserts.

Lexie: While looking at rocks, I found this beautiful geode.

Lexie: It’s inspired me to become a geologist.

Write to Win

What root should Lexie use next? Find three words that contain the same Greek or Latin root of your choice. Then write a sentence for each word (or create a comic that features your words). Entries must be submitted to “Root Power Contest” by a teacher, parent, or legal guardian.* Students whose entries are chosen for a future issue will receive a prize! Visit the Storyworks Contests page for more information.

^{*Entries must be written by a student in grades 2-8 and submitted by their teacher, parent, or legal guardian, who will be the entrant and must be a legal resident of the U.S. age 18 or older. See the Digital Resource Guide or visit storyworks.scholastic.com/contests for details.}