Page 37 - Ziptales Program Manual - US

Yucky Stories (Extending
Literacy 3-6)

What’s that smell?: Why call the family dog ‘King’? Because he is the ‘King of Bad Smells’.
The family finally work out who was making terrible smells, and find a way to deal with it.
(370 words) (Zip Stage 5) (Flesch 2.4) (Lexile 370)

Vomit: One day, Pat throws up in class. Fortunately the teacher remains calm and cleans
up. She then finds creative ways to take the children outside for their lessons. Far from being
horrified, the children are delighted. (500 words) (Zip Stage 5) (Flesch 2.8) (Lexile 500)

Arachnophoebe: Phoebe hates spiders. She has ‘arachnophobia’. She is terrified when a spider
falls on her book, and when a log her dad is chopping is full of spiders, and when she gets a doll
as a present – with its own spider. How will she cope with a school project on spiders?
(817 words) (Zip Stage 5) (Flesch 3.3) (Lexile 400)

The Gremlin Vine: Mom buys a new pot plant. It likes eating things, and has a nasty streak.
As the vine gets bigger and meaner, it becomes a major problem. It bites. It fights with people.
What to do to stop it? (1203 words) (Zip Stage 5) (Flesch 3.0) (Lexile 350)

Delicious: The narrator of this story wants to test out whether her family can tell the
difference between human food and dog food. To her horror, her deception works. But while
she has got away with her trick, there is a surprise ending waiting for her.
(370 words) (Zip Stage 5) (Flesch 3.9) (Lexile 350)

Spaghetti Face: A girl enters a competition to eat strange things blindfolded. She can cope with
dunking her face in spaghetti, but the next test involves live worms! Will she be able to go on?
(705 words) (Zip Stage 5) (Flesch 3.7) (Lexile 705)

Slime soup: Sybil the witch is making slime soup. They make the soup, but the snails escape.
What to do? Make soup from sneezes instead! (373 words) (Zip Stage 6) (Flesch 2.9)
(Lexile 520)

Dog Poo: Anna stands in some dog poo. No matter what she does it won’t go away, and the
smell is awful. What will happen next? (570 words) (Zip Stage 6) (Flesch 3.1) (Lexile 570)

Dead Meat: The boy is madly in love with Elanora. How to get to her heart? She loves animals,
so he buys Billy the goat. But Billy is not an easy pet. When Billy eats the ring he has bought
for Elanora things seem to be getting completely out of hand. (1003 words) (Zip Stage 6)
(Flesch 3.4) (Lexile 460)

Instant Vomit: Tyson comes up with the wild scheme of making fake vomit to sell in class.
However, all is not going to go smoothly in Tyson’s crazy scheme. (669 words)
(Zip Stage 8) (Flesch 5.2) (Lexile 740)

Maggots: Jason has a huge problem with his next door neighbor, Travis, who is a liar and a thief.
Jason sees a use for some custard tarts that have gone off. The maggots in the tarts might be a
cure for Travis. (524 words) (Zip Stage 8) (Flesch 5.4) (Lexile 880)

Simon’s Secret: Simon is a ‘Phantom wind breaker’. The teacher seems powerless to stop
Simon’s smells. But the Principal finds a quick way to fix Simon’s hobby. (689 words)
(Zip Stage 8) (Flesch 6.1) (Lexile 870)

At the end of every story are two interactive 35
comprehension tests, for immediate feedback.

Worksheets are available for every story.