Nate the Great and the Boring Beach Bag Read online

  over there. Then what did you do?”

  “I drank my glass of water

  and followed Esmeralda,” Oliver said.

  “When I saw my beach ball, I stopped.”

  “I, Nate the Great, say that

  you followed Esmeralda away from

  where you left your bag and ball.

  When you saw your ball

  you thought you were back

  at where you had left it.

  It is easy to get mixed up

  on the beach.

  If you are following someone,

  it is even easier.

  The case is solved.”

  “I will never follow anyone

  again,” Oliver said.

  “Good,” I said. “Sludge and I

  are going for a swim.”

  “I just changed my mind,”

  Oliver said.

  “I knew it,” I said.

  I, Nate the Great,

  and Sludge,

  and Oliver, of course,

  dove into the water.

  What’s Inside

  Nate’s Notes: Beaches

  Nate’s Notes: Beach Critters

  Eight Fun Things to Do on the Beach

  How to Have a Beach Treasure Hunt

  How to Make a Kite

  How to Make Ocean Ice Pops

  How to Make Starfish Sandwiches

  Eight Fun Things to Do on the Beach

  1. Swim. Use the buddy system. (Nate always swims with Oliver—whether Nate likes it or not.)

  2. Build a sand castle. Use a bucket and wet sand to form walls, towers, and bridges. Or scoop up a handful of soaking wet sand and let it dribble from your fingers to create a drip castle.

  3. Play tic-tac-toe in the sand.

  4. Gaze at the clouds. Which one is the most mysterious? Which one looks most like a pancake?

  5. Fly a kite. (See this page.)

  6. Have a relay race. Draw a line in the sand. Walk 100 paces. Draw another line. Divide your friends into teams. Have the teams line up behind the first line. Yell “Ready, set—go!” On “go,” each of the first runners runs to the second line, turns around, runs back, and tags the next member of the team. Keep going until everyone has run. Try having team members pass beach balls. Or try crab-walking!

  7. Do the long jump. Draw a line in the sand. Stand behind the line and see how far you can jump. Can you jump farther with a running start?

  8. Go on a treasure hunt. (See this page.)

  How to Have a

  Beach Treasure Hunt

  Nate finds Oliver’s bag on the beach. What can you find?

  GET TOGETHER:

  • this list

  • a shovel to help you dig

  • a pail to hold your treasures

  • paper

  • something to write with

  • a camera, if you have one

  Sand—Scoop a shovelful of sand into your pail. Examine it. What color are the tiny pieces? Are all the pieces the same shape? Are they all the same size?

  Shells—On some beaches, it’s hard to find even one shell. Other beaches are covered with shells. If your beach is covered with shells, find three with different shapes.

  Driftwood—Waves and sand smooth the edges of driftwood. Salt turns it white. If your piece of driftwood is small, put it in your pail. If you find a big piece, take a picture. Or write a sentence about it on your paper.

  A beach critter—Can you find a whelk or a hermit crab? How about a barnacle or a starfish? Watch your critter. Touch it gently. Leave it where you found it.

  Seaweed—Lots of plants grow in oceans or lakes. They can be green, yellow, or brown. Some have bubbles, or pockets of air, that help them float. Some are slimy. Put a piece of seaweed in your pail. Or draw a picture of what you find.

  Shorebirds—Pigeons and seagulls make their homes on city beaches. Big-billed pelicans live in Florida, California, and the Carolinas. Ducks and geese like lakes everywhere. See if you can spot three different kinds of birds. Write a sentence to describe each one.

  People—Can you count the people sharing your beach? Or is it too crowded?

  Trash—Pick up one piece of paper or plastic that doesn’t belong on the beach. When you leave, put it in the trash.

  Fish—Look for tiny fish in pools of seawater left behind at low tide, schools of fish in shallow surf, or fish bones on the sand.

  Something left by people fishing—Can you find an old hook or bobber? How about a piece of net or trap? Don’t pick up anything that looks rusty or sharp!

  Something else you find!

  How to Make a Kite

  Beaches are usually windy. That makes them great places to fly a kite.

  Ask an adult to help you with this project.

  GET TOGETHER:

  • a piece of 8½-by-11-inch paper

  • a roll of masking tape

  • an 8-inch bamboo stick (used to make shish kebabs)*

  • a hole punch

  • a ball of string

  • scissors

  • a roll of plastic surveyor’s tape**

  * Look for shish kebab sticks at the supermarket.

  ** You can buy surveyor’s tape at a hardware store.

  MAKE YOUR KITE:

  1. Fold the paper in half so that it measures 8½ by 5½ inches.

  2. Put the folded edge on the left.

  3. Fold the right side over diagonally.

  4. Open the diagonal fold. Use the masking tape to seal the crease completely.

  5. Tape the bamboo stick across the paper as shown in the diagram.

  6. Flip your kite over. Fold the front flap back and forth until it stands straight up.

  7. Punch a hole in the flap about ⅓ of the way down from the pointy front end of the kite.

  8. Tie the loose end of the ball of string to the hole.

  9. Cut a piece of surveyor’s tape about three feet long. Tape it to the front of the kite near the bottom. This is your kite’s tail.

  10. Go fly a kite!

  How to Make Ocean Ice Pops

  Playing on the beach can make you hot and thirsty. Cool off with these cool blue pops.

  Makes six pops.

  GET TOGETHER:

  • fish-shaped candies

  • 6 Dixie cups or other paper cups

  • blue Gatorade (or another blue sports drink)

  • 6 craft sticks*

  *You can find these at a supermarket or a big variety store.

  MAKE YOUR POPS:

  1. Plop one or two candy fish into each cup.

  2. Fill each cup ⅔ full of sports drink.

  3. Place the cups in the freezer. Wait 60 minutes, then add a craft stick to each cup.

  4. Leave the cups in the freezer at least four more hours.

  5. Take out the pops. Peel off the paper cups.

  6. Slurp up your pops! Share with your friends.

  How to Make Starfish Sandwiches

  Rosamond sells sand sandwiches. If you’re hungry, these taste better.

  Makes about a dozen large or two dozen small sandwiches.

  GET TOGETHER:

  • a loaf of bread sliced very thin (Pepperidge Farm Very Thin works great.)

  • mayonnaise

  • a pound of sliced American cheese

  • a star-shaped cookie cutter

  MAKE YOUR SANDWICHES:

  1. Lay one slice of bread on a clean, flat surface. Spread with mayonnaise.

  2. Put a slice of cheese on the bread.

  3. Place another slice of bread on top of the cheese.

  4. Use the cookie cutter to cut star shapes. Get as many stars as you can out of each sandwich. (Save the scraps to eat later, if you wish.)

  A word about learning with

  The Nate the Great series is good fun and has been entertaining children for over forty years. These books are also valuable learning tools in and out of the classroom.

  Nate’s world—his home, his friends, his neighbor
hood—is one that every young person recognizes. Nate introduces beginning readers and those who have graduated to early chapter books to the detective mystery genre, and they respond to Nate’s commitment to solving the case and helping his friends.

  What’s more, as Nate the Great solves his cases, readers learn with him. Nate unravels mysteries by using evidence collection, cogent reasoning, problem-solving, analytical skills, and logic in a way that teaches readers to develop critical-

  thinking abilities. The stories help children start discussions about how to approach difficult situations and give them tools to resolve them.

  When you read a Nate the Great book with a child, or when a child reads a Nate the Great mystery on his or her own, the child is guaranteed a satisfying ending that will have taught him or her important classroom and life skills. We know that you and your children will enjoy reading and learning from Nate the Great’s wonderful stories as much as we do.

  Find out more at NatetheGreatBooks.com.

  Happy reading and learning with Nate!

  Solve all the mysteries with

  Nate the Great

  Nate the Great Goes Undercover

  Nate the Great and the Lost List

  Nate the Great and the Phony Clue

  Nate the Great and the Sticky Case

  Nate the Great and the Missing Key

  Nate the Great and the Snowy Trail

  Nate the Great and the Fishy Prize

  Nate the Great Stalks Stupidweed

  Nate the Great and the Boring Beach Bag

  Nate the Great Goes Down in the Dumps

  Nate the Great and the Halloween Hunt

  Nate the Great and the Musical Note

  Nate the Great and the Stolen Base

  Nate the Great and the Pillowcase

  Nate the Great and the Mushy Valentine

  Nate the Great and the Tardy Tortoise

  Nate the Great and the Crunchy Christmas

  Nate the Great Saves the King of Sweden

  Nate the Great and Me: The Case of the Fleeing Fang

  Nate the Great and the Monster Mess

  Nate the Great, San Francisco Detective

  Nate the Great and the Big Sniff

  Nate the Great on the Owl Express

  Nate the Great Talks Turkey

  Nate the Great and the Hungry Book Club

  Nate the Great, Where Are You?

  MARJORIE WEINMAN SHARMAT has written more than 130 books for children and young adults, as well as movie and TV novelizations. Her books have been translated into twenty-four languages. The award-winning Nate the Great series, hailed in Booklist as “groundbreaking,” has resulted in Nate’s real-world appearances in many New York Times crossword puzzles, sporting a milk mustache in magazines and posters, residing on more than 28 million boxes of Cheerios, and touring the country in musical theater. Marjorie Weinman Sharmat and her husband, Mitchell Sharmat, have also coauthored many books, including titles in both the Nate the Great and the Olivia Sharp series.

  MARC SIMONT won the Caldecott Medal for his artwork in A Tree Is Nice by Janice May Udry, as well as a Caldecott Honor for his own book, The Stray Dog. He illustrated the first twenty books in the Nate the Great series.