Official Kids Mag www.kidscoop.com © Vicki Whiting January 2023
10
Standards Link: History: Recognize similarities and differences of earlier generations in such areas as work, drawing from folklore. Narrative Analysis: Comprehend the basic plot of folk tales.
When John left home, he went to work for the railroad. With his mighty ___________
he pounded away at the mountains, tunneling a path for the tracks that connected
people around the U.S.
One day the boss of the railroad crew brought a machine called a steam drill.
"This ___________ can do the work better than men," the boss said.
John Henry replied, "Let's have a ________. Me and my
hammers against your steam drill."
The Big Race
The boss told John Henry to start digging on the other side of
the mountain. "I'll use the ________ on this side. Whoever
gets to the middle first wins," the boss said.
John Henry and the steam drill went at it all day and all night.
Early the next morning, John Henry's __________ met the
one dug by the steam drill. The boss' jaw dropped in wonder.
John Henry had cut through 15 feet of solid _______; the
machine had only cut through nine!
Those who tell the tale say that John Henry worked so hard he
broke his heart. When the contest was done, he laid down his
hammer and died. Some say that to this day, when the
_____________ sing, you can hear John Henry's hammer ring.
As Americans connected the far corners of North America with train tracks, legends telling of amazing achievements celebrated the
hard work of the people who laid the tracks.
ome say that on the day John Henry was born, all the creatures came to get a look. Before you could
say "oooh" and "aaah," baby John jumped out of his mother's arms and started to grow. He grew
and he grew and he grew until his head busted through the porch roof!
Standards Link: Reading Comprehension; recognize sequence of events in a text.
rock
hammers
drill
bluebirds
machine
contest
tunnel
John Henry's hammering has shaken a few words out
of his story. Replace each blank line in the story with
one of the words above so that the story makes sense.
