Vocabulary List (20 words):

1. Apprentice: A person who is learning a job from a skilled master.
2. Brilliant: Very smart, clever, or talented.
3. Magnificent: Extremely beautiful and impressive.
4. Meticulously: Doing something very carefully and paying great attention to every detail.
5. Luminous: Softly shining or glowing with light.
6. Foundation: The basic ideas or rules that something is built on.
7. Immense: Extremely large or great in size.
8. Concoctions: A mixture of different ingredients, often a strange one.
9. Dazzling: So bright that it is difficult to look at.
10. Iridescent: Showing bright colors that seem to change when seen from different angles.
11. Volatile: Likely to change in a sudden or extreme way.
12. Impatient: Not able to wait calmly for something or someone.
13. Spectacular: Very beautiful, exciting, and impressive.
14. Sludge: A thick, soft, wet substance like mud.
15. Deafening: A sound that is so loud you can’t hear anything else.
16. Disarray: A state of being messy, untidy, and not organized.
17. Tremendous: Very great in amount, size, or intensity; huge.
18. Fundamentals: The most basic and important rules or principles of a subject.
19. Process: A series of actions or steps taken in order to achieve a particular end.
20. Creation: The act of making or producing something new.

Note: The vocab in this reading is quite long and complicated. I recommend reading each word aloud and pronouning each part of the word.

The Potion of Patience

In a cozy workshop tucked inside the trunk of a giant willow tree, lived a young gnome named Pip. His ears were pointy, his hair was the color of grass, and his heart was full of big dreams. Pip was the one and only apprentice to the wisest potion-maker in the Whispering Woods, an old gnome named Master Elm. Master Elm was brilliant, but also famously grumpy. His long, white beard was burned at the tips from leaning too close to bubbling cauldrons. All day long, Pip dreamed of creating magnificent potions that shined with rainbow colors.

Instead, his jobs were very boring. He would meticulously scrub the heavy cauldrons until they were as clear as mirrors, grind moon flowers into a fine, silver dust, and organize many luminous river stones by their exact size and how brightly they glowed. “These tasks are the foundation of all magic, Pip,” Master Elm would grumble, not looking up from his work. “Do not rush them, or your potions will fail.”

Pip would let out a long sigh and watch his master create his magic. Master Elm would take the simple, perfectly prepared things Pip had worked on, and with immense care and focus, mix them into the most amazing concoctions. He made potions to help flowers bloom in winter, and potions that could make a person sing with the beautiful, clear voice of a bird. The workshop shelves, which reached all the way to the ceiling, were filled with dazzling and mysterious ingredients that Pip wanted to use. There were jars of sunlight, iridescent feathers from a phoenix that had caught fire, and tiny glass bottles holding dew that had been carefully collected from a dragon’s tears. He had cried when his jewels had been stolen. Pip was sure that the secret to great potions was in these rare items. If he could just use them, he was sure he could create the most wonderful potion the world had ever seen.

One sunny morning, Master Elm announced he had to leave. He needed to journey to the Foggy Fen to find a rare, singing mushroom, which sang a little tune when it was ready to be picked. “Pip,” he said, pointing a wrinkled finger at him. “Your only job today is to organize the crystal bottles by size. Dust them, line them up, and do not touch anything else. The phoenix feathers are volatile right now. Am I understood?” Pip nodded his head so hard his hat almost fell off, but inside, he had a more exciting idea. He felt so impatient, like a bottle of bubbling soda waiting to be opened. As soon as the door clicked shut behind his master, Pip decided this was his chance. He would prove to Master Elm that he was ready for more than just boring chores. He was going to create something truly spectacular.

With a big smile, Pip excitedly pulled the most amazing ingredients from the highest shelves. He didn’t bother with the measuring cups or scales. He poured a whole jar of captured sunlight into the biggest cauldron, where it sloshed around like liquid gold. He tossed in three phoenix feathers, which hissed as they hit the liquid. For extra sparkle, he added a huge handful of shimmering dust from a fallen star. He just threw in everything that looked beautiful and powerful, humming a little tune to himself as if he were the master. He stirred the wild mixture with a silver ladle, expecting a brilliant flash of rainbow light. Instead, the concoction began to bubble slowly and angrily. It thickened and churned, turning from a beautiful gold into a thick, lumpy, disgusting grey sludge that smelled like burnt toast and wet socks. It did not sparkle at all.

Pip stared into the cauldron, his happy grin completely gone. He was looking at a disappointing, lumpy grey goo. “Oh no,” he whispered. Suddenly, the sludge began to tremble and hiss loudly, like an angry cat. A huge bubble formed in the middle, growing bigger and bigger until, with a deafening FWOOMP, the potion exploded out of the cauldron! The sticky, warm grey mess flew everywhere. It splattered across the curved wooden walls, dripped from the enchanted lanterns on the ceiling, and covered Pip from the tip of his hat to the toes of his boots. The beautiful, cozy workshop was in complete disarray. Just then, the door creaked open. Master Elm stood there, holding a red mushroom, his eyes wide as he looked at the tremendous mess. Pip felt his face turn red with shame. He wished he could melt into the floor like the goo.

But Master Elm did not yell or shout. He looked at the dripping walls, at the goo-covered floor, and finally at the goo-covered Pip. He let out a long, slow sigh that seemed to carry all the tiredness in the world.

“Ah,” he said calmly, taking a careful step inside. “It seems you have learned a very valuable, and very messy, lesson.”

He explained that magnificent ingredients are not what make a potion great. 

“The most important ingredients, Pip, are not found on a shelf. They are patience and care. The ‘boring’ jobs I give you teach you the fundamentals. They teach you to be careful and to respect the process of creation.”

Together, they started to clean up the sticky mess. Afterwards, Master Elm showed Pip how to take one moon-petal, a drop of water, and a single luminous stone, and slowly, carefully, create a simple but very useful potion to make plants grow strong and healthy. Pip finally understood. The real magic wasn’t in the rare, flashy items, but in the quiet patience it took to do things the right way.

Update: The first version of this worksheet was missing some pages. Here is the correct version!