The BulleTin • Monday, May 10, 2021 A9
© 2021 by Vicki Whiting, Editor Jeff Schinkel, Graphics Vol. 37, No. 23
For about as long as folks can remember, cowboys have been
telling tall tales about the greatest cowboy ever known …
Now, you
won’t find
Pecos Bill
in history
books …
No, to find out
about ol’ Bill,
you just have to
sit around a
campfire and
listen as someone
tells you the tale.
Find t
h
coyot e
that is e
differe
nt.
Pecos Bill once traveled to
_______________ to help build
an ____________ __________.
People came from miles around
to see this _________________
How many cactus plants can you find on this page?
It was said Bill could ride anything. No
horse could throw him. He even rode a
mountain lion once. So when
Bill was the youngest of 17 kids.
When Bill was just a baby, he fell
out of his folks’ wagon out on the
Texas prairie. And, naturally, he
began to cry and howl as the
wagon traveled out of sight. His
howling attracted a pack of
coyotes. They joined in howling
with Bill, but after a few hours,
their voices were gone. They
decided that Bill must be a
coyote at heart, and they
adopted him into their pack.
Have a friend give you each
type of word to fill in the blanks.
Then read the story aloud!
the biggest cyclone anyone had ever seen
blew into town one day, Pecos Bill jumped
right on it, riding it for days and days. The
cyclone got frustrated and started crying
big, salty tears around Utah. Today that
pool of tears is known as the:
cowboy in person.
Bill picked up a huge stack of
_________________ and some
_________________ and got to
right to work. Widowmaker
carried ___________________
The cyclone mixed up
the letters. Unscramble
them to reveal the
name of this famous
body of water.
__________________.
At lunchtime, Pecos Bill poured
_________________ and black
pepper on his chili. Suddenly, he
That poor cyclone had
never met a cowboy like
Pecos Bill and after trying
to shake him loose from
Texas to Arizona, it gave
up and decided to turn to
rain. That rain flowed and
flowed and created one
of the wonders of the
natural world: The
Grand Canyon!
felt a sneeze coming on, so
everyone began to ___________!
During a __________
drought, Pecos Bill
needed to get water to
his _______. There wasn’t
a cloud in the sky, so he
got himself a big ol’ stick
and ___________ it across
the Texas desert to the
Gulf of __________. And
that’s how the _________
called the Rio Grande
was born!
Replace
the missing
words.
Pecos Bill sneezed so hard that
________________ ended up in
_________________________.
Houses rolled like tumbleweeds,
and a large _________________
landed in a ______________.
It took Pecos Bill more than a
year to ___________ everything
e was named
Pecos Bill’s hors ecause no cowboy
Widowmaker b attempt to ride him.
could survive an uld, of course, and
But Pecos Bill co d Bill became the
Widowmaker an
best of friends.
back to where it belonged.
Create a
Tall Tale
Lots of cowboys know how to make a lasso out
of a rope. But Pecos Bill invented the first lasso
and he did not use a rope. Lasso every other
letter to see what he used.
Standards Link: Reading Comprehension: Read a variety of genres including tall tales.
Widowmaker was no ordinary horse. Instead of apples or
carrots, he used to chomp on this unusual treat that Pecos Bill
gave him. Cross out every other apple to reveal it.
Standards Link: Reading Comprehension: Follow simple written directions.
The fun of a tall tale,
like Pecos Bill, is that
the story gets a little taller
and more outrageous
with each telling. Find
a sports story in the
newspaper and start
adding silly, strange and
larger-than-life details to
it to create a new tall tale.
Complete the grid by using all the letters
in the word PECOS in each vertical and
horizontal row. Each letter should only
be used once in each row. Some spaces
have been filled in for you.
Standards Link: Writing
Applications: Write stories with
a setting, main characters,
beginning, middle and end.
WIDOWMAKER
PECOS
COWBOY
E T A R E G G A X E
DROUGHT
R S A X E T D W H Y
CYCLONE
TEARS
I A P L T H L D O C
RANCH
H O I E C G I B W P
HORSE
O W A N C U W B L A
EXAGGERATE
R R A E N O L C Y C
TEXAS
S R O Y C R S B I K
PACK
E L S R E D N O W L
WONDERS
WILD
R E K A M W O D I W
HOWL
Standards Link: Letter sequencing. Recognize identical
RAIN
words. Skim and scan reading. Recall spelling patterns.
This week’s word:
OUTRAGEOUS
The adjective outrageous
means going far beyond
what is correct or true.
Tall tales contain outrageous
characters and details.
Try to use the word
outrageous in a sentence
today when talking with your
friends and family members.
All About
Mom
Write about a special day or a
Action Language
Read today’s newspaper and highlight each of
the following examples of active writing:
• A sentence that commands or directs action
• One or more exciting verbs
• The shortest sentence you can find
ANSWER: A kettle rustler!
Standards Link: Grammar: Identify different kinds of sentences.
Standards Link: Grammar: Use nouns,
adjectives and verbs correctly in writing;
understand the meaning of words from
context clues.
special experience you had
with your mom (or a special
lady in your life).