November 2, 2009

The spelling test will not be until November 20 due to ERB testing and Camp Allen.

spelling list: decent, secure, standard, frontier, stampede, dentist, finish, shelter, corner, hollow, famous, silver, capture, diner, dinner, minus, minute, value, reward, enough

Reading: Last week we read the story of Abraham and Sarah and the Tower of Babel. The children enjoyed singing "Father" Abraham", an old song that reminds us of God's covenant with Abraham. The children also read "The Boy Who Knew No Fear" which was accompanied by activities on drawing conclusions, antonyms, vocabulary words, and setting. A second story ,"The Day Pecos Bill Rode Old Twister" is an American tall tale that they very much enjoyed. The story provided tasks on drawing conclusions new vocabulary, similes, and exaggeration. The children are working hard at writing in complete answer form and skimming for answers. This past week similes, metaphors, and personification were introduced. Now the children will be able to identify these kinds of figurative speech while reading. Because of ERB testing this week, we will hold off on War of the Worlds and just do two short stories, "Belling the Cat", a fable,  and "The Day the Yam Talked" which is an Ashanti folktale. Skills involved are locating answers within the text, new vocabulary words, point of view, personification, and identifying the primary settings of the stories.

English: This past week we worked on commas and the rules for their usage. The hardest ones for them are in introductory clauses and in combining two complete sentences with a conjunction. This week or next week we will work on possessives. Pronouns have also been introduced and if time permits, we will learn exactly where and how they are to be used. The children also had a writing assignment this week, but they are not complete. They had to draw a camel, name it, describe it, and tell anything else they knew about it. We did learn that they have tongues that are seventeen inches long and when they walk, the side right legs move together in a forward motion and then the left legs move together in unison.

Spelling: We did a few activities in spelling but not many. They took the spelling test, but it will not be coming home until the end of this week due to the skating party. Again, there will be no spelling test until the week after Camp Allen.

***With testing this week, it is important that the children have a bite to eat each morning to give them energy. Looking over the test, it appears that it is a great tool to assess the children at this time of the year.