• Ask students about vacations they may have taken. Talk about what they did, and focus special attention on the mode of transportation they used. How did students feel about riding a long distance in a car, airplane, bus, or train?
• Ask students if they have ever been on a train. What was it like? What did they see from the train? What kinds of cabins or cars were there?
• Ask if students have read other Hoppers stories. Discuss the characters and their actions. Who has had troubles in previous books? Who has gotten the Hoppers out of trouble in other books? What trouble do students predict might be in this book? What kind of trouble might the Hoppers get into on vacation? 

Preview the Book

• Show students the cover and read the title. Point out the words "A Hoppers Story" at the top of the page. Also point out the illustrator's name. Discuss the illustration and ask students what they think will happen in the book.
• Open the book to the title and copyright pages. Ask students about the information they find there. Have them make more predictions from the title page illustration. Point out the author information on the copyright page. Ask students if they know what an adaptation is. Tell them that sometimes, books have old-fashioned language in them that sounds funny today. The Hoppers books came from stories written almost one hundred years ago. Ask students to identify the original author. Explain that while the idea and the story came from the author, the language has been made more modern by the person who adapted the book.
• Hand out worksheet 1 and have students predict what might happen when the Hoppers go on vacation. Have them draw a picture or write a brief sentence.
• Show students the illustrations on pages 4 through 8. Then stop and have students revise or confirm their predictions based on the illustrations. Tell students that they will draw what actually happened after they finish reading. 

Word Attack Strategies
Remind students to use any or all of the following strategies if they come to an unfamiliar word:

• Reread the sentence.
• Use what you know about the Hoppers characters to figure out what might be going on.
• Sound out the word using known sound/symbol relationships.
• Look at the illustrations for clues.
• Look for known prefixes, suffixes, and root words.
• Keep reading and think about what might make sense.