Text Leveling System

Weather

RDQ:	937	Max Word/Sent	43	Total Words	1087		Diff Words	457
Lex	730	Ave Word/.Sent	13	Hi Freq occurs	620	57%	Hi freq	146	31.9%
AR	3.5	Long Sentences	24.4	Low Freq occurs	49	4.5%	Low freq	38	8.3%

Your arms feel new as growing grass 
The first No-Sweater sun 
Your legs feel light as rising air 
You have to run - 
And turn a thousand cartwheels round
and sing - 
So dizzy with the giddy sun
 Of spring. ]]
The Sun
Someone tossed a pancake 
A buttery buttery pancake. 
Someone tossed a pancake 
and flipped it up so high 
That now I see the pancake 
The buttery buttery pancake 
Now I see that pancake 
Stuck against the sky. ]]
Mister Sun  
Mister Sun 
Wakes up at dawn
Puts his golden Slippers on 
Climbs the summer 
Sky at noon 
Trading places 
With the moon. 
Mister Sun 
Runs away 
With the blue tag 
End of day 
Switching off the 
Globe lamplight 
Pulling down the 
Shades of night. ]]
On a summer day
Noon's lion-faced sun 
shakes out 
its orangy mane. ]]
It's tongue 
scorches 
leaves. 
Even the bugs 
want 
rain. ]]
Sun
The sun 
Is a leaping fire 
Too hot 
To go near ]]
But it will still 
Lie down 
In warm yellow squares 
On the floor. 
Like a flat 
Quilt where 
The cat can curl 
And purr. ]]
August
The desert sun of August 
Is shimmering my street 
And turning houses into dunes 
That glitter in the heat. 
One tree is my oasis. 
I need the ice cream man! 
His truck comes just as slowly 
As a camel caravan. ]]
Wind and Clouds ]]
Go Wind
Go wind blow 
Push wind Swoosh. 
Shake things 
take things 
make things 
fly. ]]
Ring things 
swing things 
fling things 
high. 
Go wind blow 
Push things 
wheeee. 
No wind no. 
Not me - 
not me. ]]
Clouds
White sheep white sheep 
On a blue hill 
When the wind stops ]]
You all stand still. 
When the wind blows 
You walk away slow. 
White sheep white sheep 
Where do you go? ]]
For Keeps
We had a tug of war today 
Old March Wind and I. 
He tried to steal my new red kite 
That Daddy helped me fly. ]]
He huffed and puffed. 
I pulled so hard 
And held that string so tight 
Old March Wind gave up at last 
And let me keep my kite. ]]
The March Wind
I come to work as well as play; 
I'll tell you what I do; 
I whistle all the livelong day 
"Woooo." 
I toss the branches up and down 
and shake them to and fro; 
I whirl the leaves in flocks of brown 
And send them high and low. 
 strew the twigs upon the ground; 
The frozen earth I sweep; 
I blow the children round and round 
And wake the flowers from sleep.]]
Spill
the wind scatters 
a flock of sparrows - 
a handful of small change 
spilled suddenly 
from the cloud's pocket. ]]
Rain and Fog ]]
To Walk in Warm Rain
To walk in warm rain 
And get wetter and wetter ! 
To do it again - 
To walk in warm rain 
Till you drip like a drain. 
To walk in warm rain 
And get wetter and wetter. ]]
Grayness
Fog on the river 
fog in the trees 
gray mist moving 
the golden leaves. ]]
Willow bending 
dancelike 
long arms trailing 
trancelike. 
Gray morning
 gray light 
gray mist 
gray night. ]]
from Inside Turtle's Shell
Rain 
bends 
the tall grass 
making 
bridges 
for ant. ]]
Rain
Summer rain 
is soft and cool 
so I go barefoot 
in a pool. 
But winter rain 
is cold and pours s
o I must watch it 
from indoors. ]]
Thunder
Crashing
and 
Cracking - 
Racing 
and 
Roaring - ]]
It 
whips 
through 
a cloud. 
Why 
must 
thunder 
come 
rumbling 
this 
loud? ]]
Fog
The fog comes
on little cat feet. 
It sits looking 
over harbor and city 
on silent haunches 
and then moves on. ]]
Snow and ice ]]
Listen
Scrunch scrunch scrunch. 
Crunch crunch crunch. 
Frozen snow and brittle ice 
Make a winter sound that's nice 
Underneath my stamping feet 
And the cars along the street. 
Scrunch scrunch scrunch. 
Crunch crunch crunch. ]]
Icicles
Have you tasted icicles 
fresh from the edge 
of the roof? 
Have you let the sharp ice
melt 
in your mouth 
like cold swords? ]]
The sun plays them 
like a glass 
xylophone a crystal harp. 
All day they fall 
chiming 
into the pockmarked 
snow. ]]
Lying on Things
After it snows 
I go and lie on things. 
I lie on my back 
And make snow-angel wings. ]]
I lie on my front 
And powder-puff my nose.
I always lie on things 
Right after it snows. ]]
Snowflake Souffle?
Snowflake souffle? 
Snowflake souffle? 
Makes a lip-smacking lunch 
On an ice-cold day!
You take seven snowflakes
 You break seven eggs ]]
And you stir it seven times
With your two hind legs. 
Bake it in an igloo 
Throw it on a plate 
And slice off a slice 
With a rusty ice-skate. ]]
Winter Morning
Winter is the king of showmen 
Turning tree stumps into snow men 
And houses into birthday cakes 
And spreading sugar over lakes. 
Smooth and clean and frosty white 
The world looks good enough to bite. ]]
That's the season to be young 
Catching snowflakes on your tongue. 
Snow is snowy when it's snowing 
I'm sorry it's slushy when it's going. ]]
Winter Sweetness
This little house is sugar. 
Its roof with snow is piled 
And from its tiny window 
Peeps a maple-sugar child. ]]
Weather Together ]]
A week of Weather
Monday Muggy-day 
Tuesday - Tornado-day 
Wednesday Windy-day 
Thursday Thunder-day 
Friday Foggy-day 
Saturday Soggy-day 
Sunday at last! 
Sun day. ]]
Rain Song
Spring rain is pink rain 
For petals sweet and fair 
Summer rain is rainbow rain 
With colors everywhere. 
The rain of fall is brown rain 
With leaves that whirl and blow 
And winter rain is white rain 
But we call it snow. ]]
Looking out the Window 
I like it when it shines 
on the oaks and pines. 
I like it when it snows 
and a white wind blows. 
I like it when it tinkles 
with sprinkles of rain 
that crinkle the face 
of the windowpane. ]]
Understanding
Sun 
and rain
and wind 
and storms 
and thunder go together. ]]
There has to be a little bit of each 
to make the weather. ]]
Weather
Whether the weather be fine 
Or whether the weather be not 
Whether the weather be cold 
or whether the weather be hot 
We'll weather the weather 
whatever the weather 
Whether we like it or not. ]]
Weather together
There are holes in the clouds 
where the sun peeks through 
Patches of sky 
scraps of blue.
It's raining rain 
and bits of ice 
Bounce down like 
tiny grains of rice. ]]
This weather together 
changes by the minute 
And I can hardly wait 
to walk out in it!]]

Subjective Criteria

Illustrations: Some support

Unconventional format

Opening and closing text varies

Some phrases/refrains repeated

Vocabulary: More decoding/definition issues

Language: Colorful, figurative

Sentences: Many Long Complex

Text structure: Story/Poem

Inferences: Some implications

Concept: Fanciful

Features

Rhyming

Unconventional punctuation

Topic

Sun

*Weather

Spring

Summer

Winter

Autumn

Wind

Snow

Low Frequency Words

buttery	cartwheels	dunes	giddy	harbor
haunches	hind	icicles	lamplight	livelong
maple	muggy	noon's	oasis	orangy
patches	pockmarked	pours	scorches	scrunch
season	shimmering	showmen	slushy	smacking
souffle	sparrows	stamping	strew	sweater
sweetness	swords	tornado	trancelike	understanding
whirl	windowpane	xylophone