The Skeleckian Hiccups
From The Electric Company (2009) · 2009

Summary
Jessica and Danny compete in a chess tournament. Unfortunately, Jessica comes down with a case of the Skeleckian Hiccups. This ailment makes her speak her private thoughts out loud, which makes her unable to stop announcing her chess moves. She has a choice: lose the tournament, or eat two disgusting leaves daily for a week. Special Guest Appearance by: June Angela Villain: Danny Words: Reveal, remedy, diagnosis, herbal, private 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.

