Building a Better Park
by J. Blue Spicer

The park had long been abandoned and forgotten and the playground equipment was in disrepair—leftovers from the previous generation of children who once lived in the neighborhood. The surface was torn and moldy after years of overuse and extreme seasons. Jamal had grown tired of skating past it every day and seeing it in such shape, so he went home one day and told his parents he wanted to turn it into a skate park. Every kid in the neighborhood wanted something to replace the playground—they had their own swing sets and slides in their backyards—and they all loved to skate.
Jamal had heard Niall complain to his parents that the increased traffic made it harder for him to safely skateboard. So when Jamal told Niall his idea, Niall was on board. He volunteered to get all the kids together for a meeting at the park to discuss how to make the skate park a reality. Niall skated door-to-door, asking friends to come to the meeting and to pass the news on to their friends. So when the day came and the park was filled with 40 kids, Jamal and Niall were pleasantly surprised.
Jamal laid out his idea. However, there was one problem: who was going to organize this mass of kids into a working group that could get a skate park done, and where would they start? Thankfully, Jasmine came to the gathering and quickly took charge. Jasmine's mother was the head of the neighborhood association. After the meeting, Jasmine took Jamal and Niall to her house and helped them present their idea of turning the old playground into a new skate park. Jasmine was determined to be heard, and told her mom she, Jamal, Niall and the rest of the neighborhood's kids could make this happen. Jasmine got her wish; as it turned out, the parents were not very happy with the playground either and wanted something to be done. It had become a hazard and dangerous to play on, so they agreed to turn the park over to the kids. Jasmine promised the children would help to take good care of it after they built the skate park. It took the rest of the summer to complete, and some help from the adults to complete, but the neighborhood skate park became the popular attraction in the neighborhood.

1
Drag the tiles to the correct boxes to complete the pairs.
Match the characters to the ways they develop the plot.
Niall
Jamal
Jasmine
organizes the children so they can convince
the parents they need a skate park
arrowBoth
has the idea to turn the old playground
into a new neighborhood skate park
arrowBoth
volunteers to get all the neighborhood kids
to a meeting to hear about the skate park