Gooney Bird and All Her Charms Read Online Free

and—what else?”
    â€œSeeing!”
    â€œSmelling!”
    â€œHearing!”
    Every child had a hand in the air.
    â€œThe brain is like Command Central,” Mrs. Pidgeon said. “Messages zoom around brain cells faster than we can even imagine. And we have billions of brain cells! They’re called
neurons
.
    â€œThey tell us if we’re hungry or thirsty, or if we hear an airplane—”
    â€œOur ears tell us that!” Ben said.
    Mrs. Pidgeon used her pointer and tapped on the left ear of the figure on the chart. “Correct. Our ears take in the vibrations that cause the sound, and then the inner parts of the ear process the vibrations and send them to the brain so that Command Central can decide what the sound is. A jet engine? A mosquito? A baby crying?”
    â€œ
Triplets
all crying at once!” Malcolm said, and put his hands over his ears.
    â€œAnd if the brain tells you it’s a jet flying over, it also tells you to—”
    â€œLook up at the sky?” said Nicholas.
    â€œRight. But if the brain says, ‘Mosquito zooming in’?”
    â€œThen Command Central says to slap it!” Beanie said. The children all slapped at their own arms and necks.
    â€œRight. The brain tells your muscles to move your arm into a slapping position.”
    â€œNever fast enough,” Tricia said. Everyone laughed.
    â€œLet’s begin reading this chapter. Tyrone? Will you read the first paragraph aloud?”
    Mrs. Pidgeon paused and looked at Gooney Bird. “Gooney Bird? You with us? Or is your brain still working on its idea?”
    Gooney Bird looked up. “Nope,” she said. “My idea is all worked out.”
    â€œTell us! Tell us!” all the second-graders called.
    â€œI will,” she said, “after we read about the brain. Go ahead with your turn, Tyrone. Is your brain making a rap?”
    Tyrone grinned. “Tryin’ to,” he admitted. “But I always tell it to stop when we’re workin’ on serious stuff.”
    He stood and began to read aloud as the other children followed the words in the book.
    They took turns. Tyrone stood beside his desk and read about how important the brain was, and how it never stopped working, not even when you were asleep.
    â€œI think it makes dreams,” Felicia Ann whispered.
    â€œAnd nightmares?” asked Keiko nervously.
    â€œYes, nightmares too.”
    â€œOh dear,” said Keiko.
    â€œWhy don’t you go next, Keiko?” Mrs. Pidgeon suggested.
    So Keiko stood and read about how the eyes are connected to the brain, and the brain explains to us what we are seeing.
    Then Malcolm read to the class the paragraph about hearing. He still wanted to tell the class about the noise the triplets in his family made. All that screaming, Malcolm described, came in through your ears as vibrations, and if there were too many vibrations, and therefore too much noise, the person whose brain was hearing it might get a terrible headache.
    â€œMy mom always has a headache,” he said.
    â€œBut sometimes those babies are laughing, Malcolm,” Mrs. Pidgeon pointed out. “Does your mom have a headache then?”
    â€œWell, no,” Malcolm admitted. “She starts to laugh. We all do.”
    One by one the children stood and read aloud about the many things that the brain can do. When Chelsea read about the sense of smell, they held up different things that had different smells: an eraser, a jar of paste, an open marking pen, and an orange from Ben’s lunch. They read about taste.
    â€œThe brain has to work
hard
,” Barry said.
    â€œAnd it has to remember everything!” Chelsea pointed out. “It has to
memorize!
”
    â€œIt’s how we learn, isn’t it, Mrs. Pidgeon? With our brains?” Tyrone asked. His foot began to tap a bit. He snapped the fingers on one hand.
    Mrs. Pidgeon started to laugh a little. “Tyrone, I can tell