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

Part 7

for Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus · Part 7 · Chapter 8

8 Parts40 min

What Happens in Part 7

Her next hiding place is the nurse’s office, which turns out to be full of interesting things: plaid blankets, a scale, an eye chart with a giant E, and a box of Band-Aids she cannot resist decorating herself with. She puts on the nurse’s sweater and plays at being in charge. Then she finds the crutches. They are much too long, so she climbs onto the nurse’s wheeled chair to use them — the chair rolls away, she is left dangling, and she lands hard and bangs her head. She decides the nurse’s office is dangerous.

What We Will Learn

Section	What you will practice
Vocabulary	Building words: custodian, supplies, closet, label, repair, tumble…
Literary Elements	A five-year-old narrator, and why we laugh before she does
Cross-Curricular	The rooms behind the doors: supplies, heat, and the custodian’s day

Chapter Summary

Ch.	What happens
8	The Dangerous Nurse’s Office — She hides there for the plaid blankets, and takes in the scale and the eye chart with its giant E. She finds a box of Band-Aids in several colors and shapes and puts three on herself, then puts on the nurse’s purple sweater and pretends to telephone a hospital and Room Nine. Then she finds crutches. They are far too long, so she climbs onto the nurse’s chair to use them — but the chair is on wheels. It rolls out from under her, she is left hanging, and she comes down hard and bangs her head. She decides the nurse’s office is dangerous and runs out.

Ch.

What happens

8

The Dangerous Nurse’s Office — She hides there for the plaid blankets, and takes in the scale and the eye chart with its giant E. She finds a box of Band-Aids in several colors and shapes and puts three on herself, then puts on the nurse’s purple sweater and pretends to telephone a hospital and Room Nine. Then she finds crutches. They are far too long, so she climbs onto the nurse’s chair to use them — but the chair is on wheels. It rolls out from under her, she is left hanging, and she comes down hard and bangs her head. She decides the nurse’s office is dangerous and runs out.

Part 1

Vocabulary

Study 10 key words from Chapter 8, then answer each question.

📦Knowledge Bank · What a School Keeps in Its Closets

School Life · Supplies and StorageEvery school has a room that most children never enter. Behind a plain door stand tall shelves of supplies: stacks of paper, boxes of chalk, soap, paper towels, light bulbs, and rolls of tape. Each shelf carries a label, so a teacher who needs one box in a hurry can find it without hunting. Once a month somebody counts what is left and writes the numbers down, and the office uses that list to order more before anything runs out. Nothing on those shelves is a surprise, because a building this busy uses the same things over and over again. The person who unlocks that door, carries the heavy boxes, and fixes whatever breaks is the school custodian.

custodiann.Ch.8

The worker who keeps a school clean and fixes what breaks

“The custodian unlocks the school before the first bus.”

suppliesn.Ch.8

Things a school keeps to use up, like paper and soap

“Two shelves of supplies sit behind that plain door.”

closetn.Ch.8

A small room with shelves for storing things

“The mops live in a closet next to the office.”

labeln.Ch.8

A small sign on a box that tells what is inside

“The box has a label that says PAPER TOWELS.”

repairv.Ch.8

To fix something after it breaks

“Someone will repair the wobbly chair tonight.”

explorev.Ch.8

To go around a new place to see what is there

“Junie B. wants to explore the quiet hallway.”

bandagen.Ch.8

A strip that covers a cut while it heals

“A nurse covers a small cut with a bandage.”

crutchesn.Ch.8

Sticks you lean on under your arms to help you walk

“A hurt leg may need crutches for a week.”

cotn.Ch.8

A small low bed for resting

“A sick child may lie on the cot for a while.”

tumblev.Ch.8

To fall over suddenly

“Stand on that and you will tumble right off.”

ⓘ 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 worker who keeps a school clean and fixes what breaks is the ___.Ch.8

2‘Supplies’ are things a school keeps to use up, like paper and soap.Ch.8

3A small room with shelves for storing things is a ___.Ch.8

4To ‘explore’ a place means to clean it from top to bottom.Ch.8

5Fill in each blank with the correct word.Ch.8

Word choices:bandagecrutchescottumble- some words will not be used

A nurse covers a small cut with a .

A hurt leg may need for a week.

6A small low bed for resting is a ___.Ch.8

7To ‘repair’ something means to fix it after it breaks.Ch.8

8Fill in each blank with the correct word.Ch.8

Word choices:labelcustodiansuppliesrepair- some words will not be used

The box has a that tells what is inside.

The will fix the broken sink.

9A small sign on a box that tells what is inside is a ___.Ch.8

10To fall over suddenly is to ___.Ch.8

Part 2

Comprehension

Show you understood what happens in Chapter 8.

🧷Knowledge Bank · The Custodian’s Day

Careers · Keeping a Building RunningA school building has one worker whose day begins before the first bus and ends long after the last one. Early in the morning the custodian unlocks the doors, switches on the lights, and makes sure the heat is working. All through the day the job is repairing: a stuck window, a wobbly chair, a puddle by the water fountain. Once the children go home the real cleaning starts — floors, sinks, trash cans, and chalkboards, room after room, until the whole building is ready for tomorrow. A custodian also carries a heavy ring of keys, because nearly every door in the building is locked at night. Quiet work, done alone, is what keeps a school open.

1Why is the school so quiet at the start of Chapter 8?Ch.8

2Which room does Junie B. explore in Chapter 8?Ch.8

3Junie B. is careful to touch nothing at all in the nurse’s room.Ch.8

4What does Junie B. stick all over herself?Ch.8

5Write the numbers 1–5 in the boxes to show the correct order of events in Chapter 8. Number 1 = what happens first.Ch.8

She finds the nurse’s room and plays nurse.
She sticks bandages on her arms and legs.
She falls off the crutches and bumps her head.
She walks down the empty hallway alone.
Junie B. comes out of her hiding place.

6Junie B. tries out the crutches she finds in the nurse’s room.Ch.8

7How does Junie B. hurt herself in this chapter?Ch.8

8What does Junie B. decide about the nurse’s room?Ch.8

9A grown-up catches Junie B. while she is in the nurse’s room.Ch.8

10Which word best describes how Junie B. acts in this chapter?Ch.8

Part 3

Literary Elements

Understanding HOW and WHY Barbara Park tells the story across Chapter 8.

😀Knowledge Bank · Why We Laugh at a Narrator

Literary Craft · A Five-Year-Old VoiceThis book has a five-year-old narrator, and she tells the story in her own words, mistakes and all. Her grammar is wrong on purpose. Barbara Park is not making fun of her; she is letting readers hear how a brand-new kindergartner really sounds when she is proud, or frightened, or certain she is right. Because we see only what Junie B. sees, we sometimes understand more than she does. She looks at a pair of crutches and sees a fine ride. We already know they are going to spill her onto the floor. That small gap between what the reader knows and what the narrator knows is where this story finds its humor.

Setting

Where and when a scene happens. Chapter 8 moves the story into a room most children only see when they are hurt — and empties it of grown-ups.

Narrator

The person telling the story. Junie B. tells her own, so readers get her feelings first and her mistakes uncorrected.

Humor

The reader knows something Junie B. does not: crutches were never toys. That small gap is where the laugh comes from.

1Chapter 8 is told by ___.Ch.8

2Fill in each blank with the correct term.Ch.8

Word choices:narratorsettingtitleending- some words will not be used

The person who tells the story is the .

Where a scene happens is the .

3Why is an empty school a good setting for this chapter?Ch.8

4Junie B. uses correct, careful English when she tells the story.Ch.8

5The crutches are funny to read about because ___.Ch.8

6Which detail best shows that Junie B. is only five?Ch.8

7Barbara Park writes Junie B.’s mistakes on purpose, not by accident.Ch.8

8Fill in the blank with the correct term.Ch.8

Word choices:humormysterypoemplot- some words will not be used

Writing that makes us laugh has .

9Because Junie B. tells the story, we learn what every other character is thinking.Ch.8

10What does Chapter 8 add to the story?Ch.8

Part 4

Think Deeper

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

🔑Knowledge Bank · Rooms With Locks on Them

Buildings · Heat, Water and SafetyA school is much more than its classrooms. Behind the doors marked for staff sits a room full of pipes, where a furnace heats water and pushes it out to every radiator; nearby there are electrical panels. Children are kept out of these rooms for one plain reason: the things inside can hurt somebody who does not know how to use them. Cleaning liquids are poison if swallowed. Ladders tip over. Even a nurse’s crutches are measured to fit one person’s height. Adults are trained for each of these tools, and every locked door is really a kind of promise. A building stays safe when the right person handles the right equipment.

Picture the building after everyone has gone. The hallway lights are still on, and the floor shines all the way to the far end, and there is no line of children on it, and no voices anywhere. One door stands open on a small room with a low bed, a box of bandages, and a pair of crutches propped in the corner. A five-year-old walks in as if she has been invited. She works the bandages onto her arms, one after another, though nothing hurts at all. Then she reaches for the crutches, because in an empty school they look exactly like something built for riding.

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

1Claim: “Chapter 8 shows that a school keeps rooms a child should not use alone.” — choose the two details that best prove it.Claim & Evidence

2Anyone may use it, or Only a trained grown-up? Tap each detail to send it left or right.Sort into two

◄ Anyone may use itOnly a trained grown-up ►

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

A light bulb burns out in the hall→

The paper shelf is nearly empty→

Junie B. climbs onto the crutches→

The last child goes home→

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

Junie B. treats the nurse’s room like a playroom because , which shows that .

Part 5

Standardized Test

Reading passage · The Rooms Behind the Doors · Supply Rooms & the Custodian’s Work · 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

The Custodian's Hidden Rooms

Walk down a school hallway and count the doors. Some of them open into classrooms, but others stay shut, and those are the rooms that keep the whole building running. One is a storeroom, where shelves hold the supplies a school uses up every week: paper, soap, chalk, towels, and light bulbs. Another holds the furnace and the pipes that carry heat to every room. A third is a small closet of mops, buckets, and tools. The worker who unlocks these doors is the custodian. Before the first bus arrives, this worker turns on the lights and checks the heat. During the day the job is to repair whatever breaks: a stuck window, a wobbly chair, a puddle by the fountain. After the last child leaves, the cleaning begins and lasts for hours. Those quiet rooms are the reason the school can open again tomorrow.

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, what is kept in the storeroom?TOEFL · Factual Information

3In the passage, supplies means ___.SAT · Words in Context

4What does the worker do before the first bus arrives?TOEFL · Factual Information

5In the passage, custodian means ___.TOEFL · Vocabulary

6According to the passage, when does the cleaning begin?TOEFL · Factual Information

7In the passage, repair means ___.SAT · Words in Context

8The passage suggests those doors stay shut because ___.SAT · Inference

9Which room does the passage say holds the furnace?TOEFL · Factual Information

10What would MOST likely happen if nobody did this work for a week?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 7 “The Room I Never See”

Every school has rooms that children almost never go into: a supply room, the room with the furnace, a closet full of mops, the office where somebody orders more paper. Pick one room in your school that you have never been inside. Write about what you think is in there, who opens the door, and what job that person does with the things inside. Then explain one reason the door is kept shut. 5–8 sentences. Finish with one question you would ask your school custodian.

You can start with: “There is a door in my school that I have never gone through, and I think inside it there is...”

0 / 40 words minimum

🗣 Teach It · Just for Fun (optional)

No right or wrong — 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 7 Complete!

You finished Chapter 8 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 8 →

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.