The Language Arts Lowdown!
Volume 5, Issue 24 February 7, 2014
Here's the Scoop
How wonderful to have a full "normal" week in school! We've been very busy trying to get caught up, and are looking forward to getting back on schedule next week! Have a wonderful weekend!
4th Grade
Grammar:
This week, we had our first imperative sentence in DGP. We learned about the "you understood" subject of imperative sentences!
Word Study:
This week, we looked at words with the short "o" sound, created by "au", "aw", and "ou". Next week, we will look at the hard and soft 'g' and 'c' sounds.
Writing:
This week, we continued writing poetry! We talked a lot about word choice as related to the Japanese styles of poetry we've been working on. We also started discussing the use of figurative language in our writing.
Reading:
This week, we continued our reading of The Witch of Blackbird Pond. For next week, the students should read through chapter 12, and their reading groups will be choosing a scene from the book to present in "play" form to the class next Friday.
5th Grade
Grammar:
This week, we reviewed compound sentences, and the use of commas with conjunctions.
Word Study:
This week, we reviewed words with the hard and soft "c" and "g" sounds. Next week, we will focus on words with a final "l" sound, and review schwa and multisyllabic words.
Writing:
This week, we continued writing poetry! We talked a lot about word choice as related to the Japanese styles of poetry we've been working on. We also started discussing the use of figurative language in our writing.
Reading:
We are really enjoying Out of the Dust! We are also watching portions of Ken Burns' documentary, "The Dust Bowl", to help put much of our reading into context. It is very interesting to see how the author of the novel uses free verse to tell the story with so much detail and complexity.
Greek and Latin Roots
No roots this week--we were catching up on other stuff!!
5th Grade
Navis-Latin--means ship, boat--seen in words such as naviagate, navy, and navigation.
Homos--Greek--means same, common, joint--seen in words such as homograph, homonym,and homogenize.
Heteros--Greek--means other, different--seen in words such as heterogeneous, heteronomy, and heterodox.
Reading Requirements-3rd 9 weeks
4th grade:
1-Myth/Fable/Folk/Fairy Tale
1-Fantasy
2- Non-fiction
1-Historical Fiction
2-Realistic Fiction
1-Choice
5th grade:
2-Non-fiction
1-Historical Fiction
2-Realistic Fiction
1-Biography
2-Poetry (poems of at least 10 lines)
1-Fantasy
1-Choice