Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus · Garden Heights

Part 1

for Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus · Part 1 · Chapter 1

8 Parts40 min

What Happens in Part 1

Junie B. Jones introduces herself — almost six, in afternoon kindergarten, and insistent that people keep the B. The chapter looks back at Meet the Teacher Day, when she visited her room, met the teacher she calls Mrs., showed off her new shoes, and chose the red chair she wanted. The grown-ups talk about the bus, and Junie B. keeps asking the one question nobody answers: where is it going to? Mother finally explains that it is yellow, that it stops at the end of their street, and that Mrs. will meet it in the parking lot. Junie B. nods yes on the outside and says no inside her head.

What We Will Learn

Section	What you will practice
Vocabulary	First-day school words: kindergarten, alphabet, decorate, driver, remember, proud…
Literary Elements	A narrator who says I, a funny wrong-sounding voice, and feelings hidden under complaints
Cross-Curricular	The school bus — routes, stops, and why every bus is painted the same yellow

Chapter Summary

Ch.	What happens
1	Meeting Mrs. — Junie B. introduces herself: almost six, in afternoon kindergarten, and firm that the B is the part of her name she keeps. She has been to the room once before, on Meet the Teacher Day, where her teacher was decorating a bulletin board with the alphabet. She cannot remember the rest of the teacher’s name, so she calls her Mrs. She shows off new shoes and a hat from her grandfather and picks out a red chair she wants. Mother says she will ride the bus, and Mrs. says the driver is Mr. Woo. Mother explains that the bus is yellow, stops at the end of their street, and that the teacher will meet her in the parking lot. Junie B. nods yes and thinks no.

Ch.

What happens

1

Meeting Mrs. — Junie B. introduces herself: almost six, in afternoon kindergarten, and firm that the B is the part of her name she keeps. She has been to the room once before, on Meet the Teacher Day, where her teacher was decorating a bulletin board with the alphabet. She cannot remember the rest of the teacher’s name, so she calls her Mrs. She shows off new shoes and a hat from her grandfather and picks out a red chair she wants. Mother says she will ride the bus, and Mrs. says the driver is Mr. Woo. Mother explains that the bus is yellow, stops at the end of their street, and that the teacher will meet her in the parking lot. Junie B. nods yes and thinks no.

Part 1

Vocabulary

Study 10 key words from Chapter 1, then answer each question.

🎓Knowledge Bank · The Words of a First Day

School Life · Starting WordsA first day of school arrives with its own set of words, and knowing them makes the day less strange. The class that comes before first grade is kindergarten, and Junie B. goes to the afternoon one. The letters from A to Z are the alphabet, which is exactly what her teacher is pinning up when she walks in. To decorate a room is to add things that make it look nicer. The person who steers the bus is the driver, and hers has a name before she ever meets him. Junie B. can hold on to some of these words and not others, which is why a whole teacher’s name shrinks down to a single word.

kindergartenn.Ch.1

The class children go to before first grade

“Junie B. goes to kindergarten in the afternoon, not the morning.”

alphabetn.Ch.1

All the letters from A to Z

“The teacher is pinning the alphabet along the top of the board.”

decoratev.Ch.1

To add things to a place to make it look nicer

“A teacher will decorate the room before the children arrive.”

shinyadj.Ch.1

Bright enough to catch the light

“New shoes are shiny until somebody scuffs them.”

explainv.Ch.1

To tell more about something so it is clear

“Mother has to explain what a bus stop is.”

rememberv.Ch.1

To bring something back into your mind

“She cannot remember the whole name, so she uses the first word.”

nodv.Ch.1

To move your head up and down to mean yes

“You can nod yes and still be thinking no.”

drivern.Ch.1

The person who steers a bus or a car

“The driver of her bus is named Mr. Woo.”

agreev.Ch.1

To say yes to what somebody else wants

“She seems to agree, but only on the outside.”

proudadj.Ch.1

Pleased about something you have or have done

“She is proud of the hat her grandfather gave her.”

ⓘ The vocabulary words in this list are selected to help you understand and complete this workbook. Some may not appear verbatim in the original novel.

1The class children go to before first grade is ___.Ch.1

2All the letters from A to Z together are called the ___.Ch.1

3To decorate a room means to add things that make it look nicer.Ch.1

4Something ___ is bright enough to catch the light.Ch.1

5Fill in each blank with the correct word.Ch.1

Word choices:nodexplainforgetremember- some words will not be used

When you move your head up and down to mean yes, you .

To something is to tell more about it so it is clear.

6To remember something is to bring it back into your mind.Ch.1

7The person who steers the school bus is the ___.Ch.1

8If you agree with someone, you say no to what they said.Ch.1

9Fill in each blank with the correct word.Ch.1

Word choices:shinybumpyprouddriver- some words will not be used

Junie B. feels of the hat from her grandfather.

Her new shoes are so that she wants everyone to look.

10Someone who feels pleased about something they have is ___.Ch.1

Part 2

Comprehension

Show you understood what happens in Chapter 1.

📍Knowledge Bank · How a Bus Route Is Built

Geography · Routes and StopsNobody decides each morning where a school bus will go. Weeks before school starts, a planner takes a map of the town, marks every home with a child in it, and draws a route that reaches all of them and still arrives before the first bell. Children who live near one another share a single stop, because a bus that halted at every front door would take hours to finish. The planner also counts minutes: how long a door takes to open, how long a line of children takes to climb aboard. The finished plan is really a promise to every family. Stand on the right corner at the right time, and the bus will be there.

1What does Junie B. want people to call her?Ch.1

2How old is Junie B. when the story begins?Ch.1

3Why does Junie B. call her teacher Mrs.?Ch.1

4What is the teacher busy doing when Junie B. arrives?Ch.1

5Write the numbers 1–5 in the boxes to show the correct order of events in Chapter 1. Number 1 = what happens first.Ch.1

She remembers visiting her room once before, on Meet the Teacher Day.
Junie B. tells us her name and that she is starting kindergarten.
She picks out the red chair she wants to sit in.
Mother explains that a yellow bus will stop at the end of their street.
She shows off her new shiny shoes and the hat from Grampa Miller.

6Junie B. had already seen her classroom once before her first day.Ch.1

7Which chair does Junie B. decide she wants?Ch.1

8Junie B. tells her mother plainly that she will not ride the bus.Ch.1

9What does Mother tell Junie B. about the bus?Ch.1

10Junie B. nods yes about the bus even though inside she means no.Ch.1

Part 3

Literary Elements

Understanding HOW and WHY Barbara Park tells the story across Chapter 1.

💬Knowledge Bank · A Story Told by a Five-Year-Old

Literary Craft · First-Person VoiceThis book has a narrator who is only five years old, and that one choice changes everything. Junie B. tells the story herself, using the word I, so readers learn only what she happens to notice. She also gets things wrong on purpose: her grammar bends, her facts wobble, and she blames a bus for a bad smell when the truth is that she is scared. Barbara Park lets a reader see both layers at the same time, the funny wrong words on top and the real feeling underneath. That small gap between what a character says and what a reader understands is one of the oldest tools in comedy, and here it is also how the book shows fear.

First-person narrator

Junie B. tells her own story using the word I. The reader sees only what she sees and hears only what she thinks.

Voice

The special way a character sounds on the page. Junie B. breaks grammar rules on purpose, and that wrong-sounding voice is a big part of the fun.

Showing feelings

Instead of writing that Junie B. is frightened, the author lets her complain about a bus. The reader works out the real feeling underneath.

1Who tells the story of Chapter 1?Ch.1

2Fill in each blank with the correct term.Ch.1

Word choices:narratorvoicesettingrhyme- some words will not be used

The person telling a story is the .

The special way a character sounds is her .

3Junie B. breaks grammar rules when she talks because ___.Ch.1

4Because Junie B. tells the story, readers also learn what her teacher is thinking.Ch.1

5A story told with the word I is called a first-person story.Ch.1

6When Junie B. nods yes but thinks no, a careful reader can tell she is ___.Ch.1

7Fill in the blank with the correct term.Ch.1

Word choices:first personthird personrhymechapter- some words will not be used

A story told with the word I is written in the .

8Chapter 1 is written to sound like a grown-up explaining the rules of school.Ch.1

9Putting the bus in the title of the book mainly tells a reader that ___.Ch.1

10Chapter 1 mostly works to ___.Ch.1

Part 4

Think Deeper

Four deeper challenges — no single-word recall. Read, weigh the evidence, and reason it out.

💡Knowledge Bank · Why Every Bus Is the Same Yellow

Science & Safety · Color and SightThe color of a school bus is not a decoration; it is a safety tool. In 1939, American school officials met and agreed on one exact shade so that every bus in the country would look alike. They chose yellow because the edges of human vision catch yellow faster than red or blue, which matters when a driver is looking straight ahead and a bus pulls out from the side. Yellow also holds up in bad weather, staying visible through fog, through rain, and through the gray light of early morning. Black letters printed on top of it stay sharp from far back in traffic. One old agreement still keeps millions of children safe.

Think back over this chapter. A girl who is almost six stands in a classroom she has seen only once before, talking hard at a teacher who is busy pinning letters along a board. She has new shoes that catch the light and a hat from her grandfather, and she has already decided which chair is hers. Then the grown-ups start talking about a yellow bus that will stop at the end of her street, and she nods along as though that is settled.

Original passage written for Garden Heights — not a quotation from the novel.

1Claim: “Chapter 1 shows that Junie B. has already decided against the bus, whatever she says out loud.” — choose the two details that best prove it.Claim & Evidence

2Something Junie B. is told, or Something Junie B. decides? Tap each detail to send it left or right.Sort into two

◄ Something Junie B. is toldSomething Junie B. decides ►

3Match each cause to its result. For each cause, pick its result.Cause & Effect

Junie B. cannot recall her teacher’s full name→

She visited the room once on Meet the Teacher Day→

Mother explains where the bus will stop→

She picks out the red chair straight away→

4Fill both blanks to complete the reasoning.Build the Argument

School buses are painted one exact shade of yellow because , which shows that .

Part 5

Standardized Test

Reading passage · Why School Buses Are Yellow · Words in Context & Central Ideas · SAT & TOEFL-style practice

🎯 What this section practices

You already have these skills from the sections above — here they appear in the exact question types the SAT and TOEFL use. Read the passage (the highlighted words are tested below), then answer. Tap an answer to select it, then tap it again to confirm — you can change your choice until you confirm.

SATCentral Ideas — the main point of the passage as a whole
TOEFLFactual Information — a fact stated directly in the passage
SATWords in Context — what a word means the way this passage uses it
TOEFLVocabulary — the meaning of a tested word as this passage uses it
SATInference — a conclusion the passage supports without ever stating it outright

Why School Buses Are Always Yellow

American school buses all share one exact color. School officials agreed on that shade back in 1939. They wanted every bus in the country to look the same, from one state to the next. Yellow was chosen because the human eye catches it first at the edge of sight. It stands out in gray rain, in thick fog, and in the weak light before sunrise. Black letters look sharpest against that background. A driver following behind can read the word STOP long before the bus begins to slow. Each bus also travels a planned route, a fixed path with a list of stops. Children wait on the same corner every morning, and the driver expects them there. Because the driver knows how many passengers belong at each stop, an empty corner or a missing child is noticed within minutes.

Original passage written for Garden Heights — not a quotation from the novel.

1What is the main idea of the passage?SAT · Central Ideas

2According to the passage, when did officials agree on one bus color?TOEFL · Factual Information

3The passage says yellow was chosen because the human eye ___.TOEFL · Factual Information

4In the passage, route means ___.SAT · Words in Context

5In the passage, stops are ___.TOEFL · Vocabulary

6In the passage, passengers are ___.SAT · Words in Context

7According to the passage, black letters are used because they ___.TOEFL · Factual Information

8The passage suggests that a missing child is noticed quickly because the driver ___.SAT · Inference

9The passage suggests that the same yellow is used everywhere so that ___.SAT · Inference

10Which detail from Chapter 1 does this passage best explain?TOEFL · Factual Information

Part 6 · Optional

Creative Writing

A bonus challenge to practice your English. Take your time and have fun with it.

About This Section

This writing task is optional and is not part of your auto-graded score. The feedback below checks only the basics — length, spelling, and grammar — not whether your ideas are right or wrong. It is meant for classroom discussion and creative practice, so feel free to use your imagination!

Writing Task — Part 1 “My First Ride”

Junie B. decides how she feels about the bus before it has even moved. Write about a first time of your own: a first bus ride, a first day, or a first visit somewhere new. What did you see first? What did you worry about? 5–8 sentences. End by telling whether the thing turned out to be as bad as you expected.

You can start with: “The first time I rode to school, the very first thing I noticed was...”

0 / 40 words minimum

🗣 Teach It · Just for Fun (optional)

No right or wrong — close the screen and tell someone nearby what happened in this part. Can’t find anyone? Tell yourself out loud. The moment you teach it, you truly understand it.

Part 1 Complete!

You finished Chapter 1 of Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus.

Here are your auto-graded results:

-

points out of 100

🗣 Teach It · Just for Fun (optional)

Teach it to someone

The best last step is to teach it. In your own words, explain what happened — retell a favorite scene, teach a character’s big choice, or sum up the main idea for a parent, friend, or classmate. When you can teach it clearly, you truly own it.

Move on to Part 2 →

Independent study guide by Garden Heights. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Barbara Park. Contains original analysis only; no text from the novel is reproduced. Reference text: This workbook follows Barbara Park’s classic text (the standard Puffin edition sold worldwide). Revised 2023 UK editions change some wording and may not match the vocabulary studied here.