Howls at Dusk: Mateo Checks His Coyote Words

Mateo's Coyote Report

1Every evening at dusk, Mateo heard high, wavering cries drifting down from the hills behind his neighborhood. "Coyotes," said his grandma as she stirred a pot of beans on the kitchen range. Mateo decided to write his science report about them.

2On Saturday, Mateo and Grandma walked the dirt trail at the edge of the hills. Near a muddy puddle, Mateo spotted a line of oval paw prints. "Coyote tracks," Grandma said, kneeling down. Each print showed four toe pads and tiny claw marks. Mateo sketched one in his notebook.

3Back home, Mateo opened an online dictionary to check the words for his report. He typed coyote and clicked the small speaker button. A voice said the word in three syllables: ky-OH-tee. "Some people say KY-oht, with only two syllables," Grandma said. Mateo looked again and saw that the dictionary listed both ways to say it. He decided to use the first one when he read his report aloud.

4Next, Mateo looked up the word range. The dictionary listed several meanings. He learned that a coyote's range is the area where it lives and finds food. "So our hills are part of a coyote's range," he said, "and your stove is a range too!" Grandma laughed.

5Then Mateo read the first sentence of his report: "The coyotes made noise at night." It sounded dull. He opened a thesaurus and found several words for animal sounds. "Listen tonight," Grandma said, "and pick the word that fits best."

6That night, Mateo sat by his open window. First came one long, rising cry. Then several short, sharp cries answered it. Mateo crossed out "made noise" and wrote "howled and yipped." Now his sentence told exactly what he heard.