Illustration introducing main characters of comic, Jack, Tate & Malik, Jack's mom, & Ms. Perez
Art by Shannon Wright
Mini Graphic Novel,

Pine School Pals: The New Car

Meet the Pine School second-grade class. In this story, Jack has something he wants to show his friends. Read to find out what happens in Pine School Pals: The New Car!

By Laine Falk
From the February 2025 Issue

Learning Objective: Students will practice finding the problem and solution in a fiction story.

Lexile® measure: 490L
Featured Skill: Use Visuals, Main Idea,
Topic: Social-emotional learning,
Common Core Standards
  • Key Themes
    Self-management, navigating social groups
  • Common Core Standards
    RL.2.1 Key details RL.2.3 Describe how characters respond to events RL.2.5 Story structure RL.2.7 Use information from illustrations to understand characters, setting, and plot RL.2.10 Read grade-2-appropriate stories SL.2 Participate in conversations about grade-2 texts
TEKS Standards
  • Health
    (3) Mental health and wellness--social and emotional health. The student identifies and applies strategies to develop socio-emotional health, self-regulation, and healthy relationships. The student is expected to: (A) communicate needs, wants, and emotions in healthy ways (G) identify the feelings and perspectives of others by interpreting their verbal and nonverbal cues

Magazine View
See Student View

Pine School Pals:
The New Car

By Laine Falk

Front row: Niki, Sara, Ben, Ava, Riley, Tate
Back row: Ms. Perez, Nora, Theo, Jack, Jun, Zoey, Malik
 

video (2)
video (2)
Slideshows (1)
Activities (3)
Skills Activities
Answer Key (1)
video (2)
video (2)
Slideshows (1)
Activities (3) Download All Quizzes and Activities
Skills Activities
Answer Key (1)
Step-by-Step Lesson Plan
Download the Lesson Plan

Implementation

  • Small group; whole group; independent reading

Pairings and Text Connections

Before-Reading Resources

  • Text Preview Bookmarks
    (5 minutes) Kids can cut out the fiction bookmark and use it to preview the text.

Suggested Reading Focus

Reading fluency, performance (30 minutes)

  • Have students read the mini graphic novel aloud in small groups. You can assign different students different roles. The characters are all listed on the first page to make this easy.
  • After students have practiced with their small groups, they can perform their “play” for the rest of the class (while reading from the magazine—they don’t have to memorize their parts). 
  • Then you can discuss the story. What was the problem in the story? What was the solution?

After-Reading Skills Practice

(15 minutes for each activity)

  • Problem and Solution: This activity helps students reflect on the structure of the comic they have just read.
  • Video: Choose one of two videos to show students. “What Makes a Good Friend?” will help illustrate what friendship can look like. “What’s in a Comic?” is a fun video that helps kids understand features of comics, like speech bubbles, thought bubbles, and more. 
  • Friends Chart: Compare the themed texts in the issue.

Text-to-Speech