Free Read-Aloud Story for Kids Ages 5-8: The Winning Number

Looking for a read-aloud story that builds your child’s love of reading? Adventures with Rocky follows a golden retriever and his kids on gentle adventures written for Kindergarten through Grade 3.

How to use this story at home

• Read one page aloud, then let your child read the next sentence.
• Pause and ask, “What do you think happens next?”
• Point to tricky words and sound them out together.

Read the opening: The Winning Number

Adventures with Rocky, number 11, the winning number, chapter 1, two hours, the trophy was heavier than Mara expected, she nearly dropped it when the photographer asked her to turn, her teammates laughed, and she left too, because that was what the photograph needed. Behind them, the projections screen showed their winning score, 97 .4, the second place had earned 96 .8, six tenths of a point, a distance too small to see and large enough to change everything. At the edge of the hall, Rocky, a golden retriever lab mix, lay beside an empty chair, golden paws crossed beneath his chin, he yawned, flashing the two black spots on his tongue, and then looked unusually stern, Mara glanced away. Chin up, chin up, said the photographer, she obeyed, she obeyed, two hours earlier, she had changed a number in the submission file, nobody had seen, at least that was what she believed until Rocky rose and walked out of the hall.

Chapter 2, chapter 2, what the model could do, the competition was called Tomorrow's Coast, build a practical solution to a local environmental problem, test it, show your evidence, explain your limits, Mara loved those last three words when they were printed on a poster, she loved them less when they belonged to her project. Her team had built a low cost water sensor, designed to warn community volunteers when a drainage channel needed a closer look, it couldn't tell anyone that water was safe to drink, it couldn't identify every pollutant, what it could do was spot a change worth investigating. Sometimes was the problem, their competitors had expensive equipment, matching shirts, and a teacher whose entire job seemed to be carrying clipboards. Mara's team had a school lab open two evenings a week, a grant that barely paid for the parts, and Benji, who could make almost anything work as long as nobody asked how long it would take.

They also had Lena, Lena could explain everything, sometimes twice, sometimes twice, we need another field test, Lena said on the Tuesday before the final, we need a working presentation, Mara said, the presentation is not going to fix the false alarms, they're not all false, Lena pushed her notebook across the table, these four are, Mara read the entries, those charity knew them, Rocky slept beneath the bench, where the lab teacher had put a bowl of water, he had wandered into the science lab during Mara's first week of ninth grade, and refused to leave, so the team had adopted him as its mascot, he was a terrible scientist, he believed every smell, immediate and immediate investigation, without opening his eyes, he said, the notebook remains undefeated, Mara stood, I get it, I get it, but she didn't mean she accepted it, she meant she wanted the conversation to stop, Benji rolled a tennis ball across the bench to break the silence, Rocky kept a stash of them in the supply closet, someone had written on this one in black marker, someone had written Rocky on all of them, we need a winning number, Benji said, not a ball with the dog's name on it, Rocky opened one eye, the winning number says, Rocky, Rocky, her father stopped in the doorway, looks serious, final round, final round, you nervous, you nervous, no, no, he smiled at the lie, because he thought it was the ordinary kind, good nervous is allowed, Mara pointed to one of the college photographs, wide lawns, a glass laboratory, students who appeared to have no financial concerns, excellent coats, if I get the placement, it helps, he leaned against the door, he leaned against the door, yes, yes, it really helps, I know, I know, he wasn't being dismissive, that almost made it worse, we'll work out options, he said, Mara wanted him to promise there would be options worth having, he couldn't, he couldn't, after he left, she opened the results spreadsheet again, their sensor had performed well under some conditions, badly under others, the pattern was interesting, it was also complicated to explain, 5 minutes, 5 minutes, promising to save the ocean, she added a note to the slides, further testing required, then she deleted it, then she deleted it, then she put it back, chapter 4, 6 tenths, 6 tenths, on competition day, the hall filled with confident voices, Lena talked to a team from Westbridge, who censored housing, their captain, showed her the broken part, we redesigned it, she said, now we know where it fails, Mara watched from their display, Benji nudged her, you look like you're calculating a crime, I'm calculating how far behind we are, you don't know that, neither do you, he raised both hands and went to fetch water, the first judging session went better than Mara expected, the judges liked the cost, the way younger volunteers could read the display, then one asked about reliability, Lena answered honestly, Mara saw the judges pen move, before the final presentation, teams were allowed to correct formatting errors and confirm their submitted results, an organizer reminded them that the data had to match the underlying records, Lena went to print a missing diagram, Benji went with her because the printer had developed a personal grievance, Mara sat at the laptop alone, the results lay open, she didn't change 100 things, she changed one summary value, so it excluded 4 convenient readings without the explanation, the rules required, the number became cleaner, the model became better on paper than it had been in the channel, she clicked safe, rocky lifted his head, Mara closed the window, chapter 5, a perfect answer, winning came in layers, first the announcement, which she didn't believe, then Benji shouting directly into her ear, then Lena hugging her hard and unexpectedly, then the trophy, then the trophy, the organizer said a sponsor wanted to discuss a pilot at the community garden, Mara nodded, her mouth hurt from smiling, at the back of the hall she found Rocky beside a vending machine, you missed the picture, you missed the picture, a loss to the archive, what?

Talk about it

• How did the characters feel at the start?
• What would you have done?
• Retell the story in three sentences.

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