Summary
The Skeleckians, a race of technologically advanced but socially awkward aliens, are introduced in this episode. Dax, a member of this race, helps Lisa with her science-fair project—a shrinking machine to explore a model of the Solar System. Francine, hoping to win the fair, sabotages the project, shrinking the two and trapping them in the model. They must communicate with the other members of the Electric Company to escape, yet they accidentally get shrunk as well. They need to get out, however, there is nobody outside the model who can work the machine. Villain: Francine Words: Solar system, constellation, enlarge, atmosphere, terrain Like every Electric Company adventure, the story hangs on reading, decoding, and vocabulary under pressure.
Viewer safety
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Teaching resources
Discussion questions
Discussion
Every Electric Company episode builds its story around wordballs — words the team reads, decodes, and uses under pressure. Watch for the vocabulary the episode leans on and how the characters puzzle words out.
- Which words did the Electric Company have to read or decode to solve the problem?
- How did a character figure out a word they didn't know at first?
- Where could you use one of this episode's words this week?
Quick work-a-long
Vocabulary: decode, wordball, clue, solve.
Try it: Keep a wordball list while you watch — every word the show spotlights goes on the board, and each student picks one to use in a sentence afterward.