Facts, Fractions, and Sentence Fragments

The kids' "Secret Garden" opener projects have sprouted!

Spelling-  After our big two week review, we are back to learning new words.  This week's list consists of words from our current social studies topic, the Progressive Era, our recent biology lessons, and vocabulary words from the first few chapters of The Secret Garden.  There are many "rule breaking" words in this list.  Many of them have an "e" at the end that does not cause the preceding vowel to make a long sound.  For instance, the words desolate, suffrage, and cartilage look as if they would have a long vowel sound in their final consonant.  The class will be studying this list at home, and we will be working on a crossword puzzle later in the week.

Grammar- Today the class learned some new concepts!  Last week, they learned that two smaller sentences can be combined together by a comma and a conjunction to form a longer, compound sentence.  Today, they took that idea a step further.  They learned what happens if that connection (or "splice") isn't strong enough to hold the two smaller sentences together!  They learned about comma splices and run-on sentences.  Further, they learned that there is another acceptable way to join the sentences together; you can join them with a semicolon.  The students will be working on diagramming compound sentences that use both methods.

Writing- Today, the students presented their completed stories!  There are still some final revisions that need to be made, but we were able to read them out loud and give the eager audience conclusions to the many story lines!   I truly believe that reading them aloud after completing each section helped to keep the students motivated to continue developing their plots.  Their peer audience also provided a tangible reason to add adjectives, adverbs, and transition words. 

We are moving on to opinion and persuasive writing.  To prepare, we reviewed last week's lesson on fact and opinion.  We also discussed the purpose of persuasive writing.  At home, they will be finding a persuasive article of their own.  It can be from a newspaper, a book or movie review, a magazine article, etc.  They will be answering some questions on the article, as well as bringing it in for further discussion. 

Math- The 4B math class worked on dividing numbers that contained decimals.  They have been working with decimals for a few weeks now, and are doing a fabulous job adding, subtracting, multiplying, and now dividing.  The 3B math class was introduced to fractions today.  Ms. Jennifer taught the concept by allowing the students to color in different fractions.  Then, they learned to write the fraction for each image.

Spanish- Today was test day in Spanish class.  They have been working for weeks on the Spanish names for family members.  Today, they put what they learned to the test.  Instead of simply testing them on rote memorization, Ms. Rose used questions such as "Abuelo es __________ de mi mama.  This incorporated the vocabulary that they have learned with the articles and pronouns that they know.  It also required the students to truly think about what each word means, not just regurgitate the definition.

Social Studies- Mr. Dennis began by reviewing the material from Friday and Monday.  The students have been learning about the Progressive Era, and muckrakers.  They read about the Progressive Movement and reformers of the time period.  Using the text that they were given last week, as well as the material that they printed from home, they worked in small groups to complete a crossword puzzle.  On Thursday, this lesson will continue, so be sure to review the reading, if needed!

Art- Today's art class was spent working diligently on their stitching projects.  The kids' patience is amazing, and these birds are looking great!

Test Prep- The class has been working through the Language Arts section, at home.  In class, we are going over each missed problem, discussing it in detail.  Today, we tackled issues such as:

• If there is a passage, then the answers to questions in that section will be found, or will pertain to, that passage.  (For instance, the opposite of the word "poor" may be "rich", but not if it is referring to a snake's "poor eyesight".)
• If you are having trouble discerning the genre of writing, figure out what its purpose is.  Is it to entertain the reader?  To inform them?  
• Sometimes, the answer is obvious because the other answers are just plain wrong!
• Take your time and read all of the directions.
• Read the questions carefully.
• Don't be tricked into thinking that command sentences (imperative sentences) are fragments just because the subject is an understood "you".
• Sometimes, the answers to the questions are ALL correct, but it is asking you for the BEST answer.