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Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus · Garden Heights
Part 5
for Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus · Part 5 · Chapters 5–6
8 Parts40 min
What Happens in Part 5
The tour finishes at the main office with Principal, and the class visits the water fountain and the bathrooms. Then Lucille repeats a rumor from her brother — that children pour chocolate milk on your head on the ride home — and everything Junie B. has been dreading comes back at once. When the bell rings and the class lines up for the buses, she is last in line, and she simply does not go. She hides behind the teacher’s desk, then in the supply closet, and listens to the adults discover that a child is missing.
What We Will Learn
Section
What you will practice
Vocabulary
Playground and school-day words: principal, recess, sturdy, cushion, equipment…
Literary Elements
A narrator who is only five, funny exaggeration, and a chapter that ends on a worry
Cross-Curricular
The playground — taking turns, safe play, and why the equipment is built the way it is
Chapter Summary
Ch.
What happens
5
Principal — The tour reaches the main office and Principal. At the water fountain the other children tell her to hurry. They see the two bathrooms, and a boy named William has an emergency. Then Lucille repeats her brother’s claim that children pour chocolate milk on your head on the ride home, and Junie B.’s stomach goes squeezy all over again. A naming game teaches her Lucille, Charlotte and Grace. The bell rings, the class lines up, and Junie B. — last in line — does not follow them out.
6
A Good Hider — Nobody watches the last child in line. She hides behind the teacher’s desk, then squeezes onto the bottom shelf of the supply closet. Adults hurry in; she hears Mrs. say that one of her girls is lost and did not get on the bus. She stays hidden until the parking lot is empty of cars and buses. Then she rolls a ball of clay, opens the teacher’s drawer, finds gold stars and sticks one on her forehead, and plays teacher at the board with brand-new chalk.
Part 1
Vocabulary
Study 10 key words from Chapters 5–6, then answer each question.
📚Knowledge Bank · Words for the Playground
Language · Words of PlayThe words in these chapters come from two places at once. Some belong to the school day: a principal runs the school and everybody in it, a supply is anything a classroom keeps ready to use, and to dismiss a class is to send it away when the time is up. The others belong to the yard outside. Playground equipment means the swings, slides, and bars a crew bolts into the ground. Bars are called sturdy when they hold weight without bending, wood chips cushion a landing by making it softer, and a fence can prevent a ball from rolling into the street. Even the smallest playground word is really a word about being careful.
principaln.Ch.5
The leader who is in charge of a whole school
“The principal knows the name of every child in the building.”
nervousadj.Ch.5
Worried about something that is going to happen
“Junie B. feels nervous whenever the ride home is mentioned.”
recessn.Ch.5
The break in the school day when children go outside to play
“At recess the whole class runs straight for the swings.”
dismissv.Ch.6
To send a class or a group away at the end of a time
“The teacher will dismiss the class when the bell rings.”
supplyn.Ch.6
Something a school keeps ready to use, like paper or paste
“The closet is full of every supply a kindergarten needs.”
pretendv.Ch.6
To act as if something is real when it is not
“Junie B. likes to pretend she is the teacher of Room Nine.”
equipmentn.Ch.5–6
The swings, slides, and bars that are built for playing
“Playground equipment is checked for loose bolts every year.”
sturdyadj.Ch.5–6
Strong and not likely to break or bend
“The climbing bars must be sturdy enough to hold six children.”
cushionv.Ch.5–6
To make a fall or a bump softer and safer
“Wood chips cushion a fall from the top of the slide.”
preventv.Ch.5–6
To stop something before it has a chance to happen
“Swings hang far apart to prevent one rider from hitting another.”
ⓘ 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 leader who is in charge of a whole school is the ___.Ch.5
2‘Recess’ is the break in the school day when children go outside to play.Ch.5
3Something that is sturdy is ___.Ch.5–6
4To cushion a fall means to ___.Ch.5–6
5Fill in each blank with the correct word.Ch.5–6
Word choices:principalrecesssturdyequipment- some words will not be used
The is in charge of the whole school.
The climbing bars must be enough to hold six children.
6To ‘prevent’ something means to let it happen first and then fix it.Ch.5–6
7A person who feels nervous is calm and sure about what is coming next.Ch.5
8To dismiss a class is to ___.Ch.6
9Fill in each blank with the correct word.Ch.5–6
Word choices:cushionpretendnervoussupply- some words will not be used
Wood chips a fall from the swings.
Junie B. likes to she is the teacher.
10Swings, slides, and climbing bars are all playground ___.Ch.5–6
Part 2
Comprehension
Show you understood what happens in Chapters 5–6.
📋Knowledge Bank · Why Playgrounds Have Soft Ground
Science · Safety DesignLook down the next time you stand under a set of swings. The ground there is almost never bare dirt, because packed dirt is nearly as hard as a sidewalk and most playground injuries come from falling. Safety crews spread a thick layer of wood chips, sand, or rubber tiles instead. That layer is called the surface, and it works by slowing a body over a few extra inches so a landing is spread out instead of sudden. The rule is simple: the higher the equipment, the deeper the surface must be. Inspectors measure that depth with a ruler, because a bare patch is the one place a playground stops being soft.
1Where does Junie B.’s class go in Chapter 5?Ch.5
2What does Junie B. notice about Principal?Ch.5
3A boy named William is allowed into the bathroom because he has an emergency.Ch.5
4What does Lucille say happens on the bus ride home?Ch.6
5Write the numbers 1–5 in the boxes to show the correct order of events in Chapters 5–6. Number 1 = what happens first.Ch.5–6
She wakes from a nap and sees an empty parking lot.
Lucille warns Junie B. about what happens on the ride home.
The class visits the office where the Principal works.
Junie B. hides in a supply closet instead of lining up.
Lucille tells the Principal about her brother.
6Junie B. lines up with the other children when the buses arrive.Ch.6
7What does Junie B. see when she looks outside after her nap?Ch.6
8How does Junie B. feel about being left in the school alone?Ch.6
9Junie B. hides because she wants to ride the bus home with Grace.Ch.6
10What does Junie B. do once she is alone in Room Nine?Ch.6
Part 3
Literary Elements
Understanding HOW and WHY Barbara Park tells the story across Chapters 5–6.
🧠Knowledge Bank · A Narrator Who Is Only Five
Literary Craft · Voice & HumorBarbara Park lets Junie B. tell her own story, and that one choice creates most of the jokes. A narrator is whoever is speaking the words of a book, and this one is five years old, so readers see only what she sees. When Lucille reports that children pour chocolate milk over one another on the bus, Junie B. never asks whether it is true. That growing is exaggeration, and it is funny because grown-up readers know better while she does not. Park uses her narrator for suspense as well: a chapter closes on an empty parking lot, and the page has to be turned. It simply lets a small person be completely and cheerfully certain.
Narrator
Junie B. tells her own story, so readers only ever learn what one five-year-old happens to notice — and she is completely certain about all of it.
Exaggeration
One story about chocolate milk grows, in a single telling, into proof that the ride home is something nobody could survive.
Suspense
Chapter 6 begins with a warning and ends with a child alone in a building, so a reader has to keep going.
1The whole story is told by Junie B. herself, so she is the book’s ___.Ch.5–6
2Fill in each blank with the correct literary term.Ch.5–6
Word choices:narratorsuspenserhymechorus- some words will not be used
The of this book is Junie B. herself.
Ending a chapter on a worry builds .
3Treating one story about chocolate milk as proof that the bus is dangerous is ___.Ch.5
4Because Junie B. tells the story, readers learn what every other child in Room Nine is thinking.Ch.5–6
5Chapter 6 ends with an empty parking lot mainly to ___.Ch.5
6How does the author show that Junie B. is afraid of the bus, without saying so?Ch.5
7A narrator is the person telling the story.Ch.5–6
8Fill in each blank with the correct literary term.Ch.5–6
Word choices:exaggerationhumorsettingstanza- some words will not be used
Making a small thing sound huge is .
Junie B. gets things wrong, and the mistakes create .
9Junie B. never makes a mistake about how school works.Ch.5–6
10Chapters 5 and 6 mainly work to ___.Ch.5–6
Part 4
Think Deeper
Four deeper challenges — no single-word recall. Read, weigh the evidence, and reason it out.
💡Knowledge Bank · Taking Turns Is a Kind of Machine
Social Studies · Fairness & RulesA slide can only hold one child at a time, so a line forms, and the line is really a small machine for sharing. Grown-ups call the idea behind it fairness: everybody gets the same chance, and nobody gets two chances before somebody gets one. Turn-taking works because each person gives up a little speed and receives something better, which is the promise that their turn will come. It does not just steal one slide ride; it breaks the trust that holds the line together. Watch a busy playground for five minutes and you will see the rule teaching itself, without a single adult saying a word, in the oldest lesson children invent for one another: wait.
Think back over these chapters. A story about a shouting grown-up turns a school office into a place of danger, at least in one five-year-old’s mind. A game of names goes around the room, and being looked at feels wonderful. Then somebody says the words “ride home,” and a small stomach goes tight. At the end of the day, while everybody else lines up, one child steps sideways into a closet full of paper and paste, waits in the dark, and falls asleep. When she wakes, the parking lot is empty, the building is hers, and she walks straight to the front of Room Nine to teach an imaginary class.
Original passage written for Garden Heights — not a quotation from the novel.
1Claim: “In Chapters 5 and 6, Junie B. solves her bus problem by hiding instead of asking for help.” — choose the two details that best prove it.Claim & Evidence
2Safe choice on a playground, or Unsafe choice on a playground? Tap each detail to send it left or right.Sort into two
◄ Safe choice on a playgroundUnsafe choice on a playground ►
3Match each cause to its result. For each cause, pick its result.Cause & Effect
Lucille describes what happens on the bus ride home→
The buses pull up outside at the end of the day→
She makes herself comfortable in the dark closet→
She wakes and looks out at the parking lot→
4Fill both blanks to complete the reasoning.Build the Argument
Junie B. hides in the supply closet rather than telling an adult about the bus because , which shows that .
Part 5
Standardized Test
Reading passage · Built for Safe Play · Central Ideas & Words in Context · 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
Engineering a Safer Playground
Every part of a playground is planned long before anyone turns a bolt. The planning starts on the ground. Packed dirt is almost as hard as a sidewalk. Most playground injuries come from falling. So crews spread a thick layer of wood chips, sand, or rubber tiles under the swings and slides. That layer will cushion a landing. Height comes next, because a short drop is a safe drop. Equipment made for kindergarten children stays low, and the bars must be sturdy enough to hold a whole line of climbers at once. Designers measure the space between bars so a head or an arm cannot get stuck, and they hang the swings far apart to prevent crashes. Rules finish the job that building began: one child at a time on the ladder, and no pushing near the edge.
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, why do crews spread wood chips or rubber tiles?TOEFL · Factual Information
3In the passage, cushion means to ___.SAT · Words in Context
4According to the passage, why does equipment for young children stay low?TOEFL · Factual Information
5In the passage, sturdy means ___.TOEFL · Vocabulary
6Why is the space between bars measured so carefully?TOEFL · Factual Information
7In the passage, prevent means to ___.SAT · Words in Context
8According to the passage, why are slides turned away from the afternoon sun?TOEFL · Factual Information
9The passage suggests that building a playground well is ___.SAT · Inference
10Which idea from this passage best matches the water-fountain line in Chapter 5?SAT · Inference
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 5 “The Playground Rule I Would Make”
Playground rules exist for reasons: one child at a time on the ladder, everybody waits for a turn, no jumping off a moving swing. Think about a playground you know well. What is one new rule you would add, and what problem would it fix? 6–10 sentences. End by telling how you would help a younger child learn your rule.
You can start with: “If I could add one rule to my playground, it would be...”
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 5 Complete!
You finished Chapters 5–6 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.
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.
