Elementary ELA

We played a fun game called Quicktionary, which challenged groups to come up with words that fit certain parameters.  For HW this week, students need to complete their packet and make a draft of their short story, which we will share next week.  They should also read chapters 5-8. 

This week we started our last book, which is a graphic novel called The New Kid by Jerry Craft.  In class today, we talked about how to read graphic novels and some graphic novel vocabulary (panels, tiers, gutters, etc).  We also learned about analogies and practiced saying analogies.  Finally, this week, we will begin writing a short story.  Students need to plan their story this week and we'll draft it next week.  Pages in the packet marked with a star can be completed without reading the chapters (1-4).  

Today we worked on comparing two nonfiction texts and the details found in each one.  We also worked on the progressive verb form.  We'll finish up Odder this week and begin reading The New Kid next week.  I'm excited to see everyone's colorful one-pager about Odder next week.  I know they will be awesome! 

Today we reviewed the parts of speech and I gave everyone a reference guide to help them remember all the parts of speech and bbs, ASBA.  We also had an egg hunt that had various lines from Odder in it.  Students worked collaboratively to create a brand new verse poem about Odder.  Next week, we'll work on a collaborative research paper about the 50! Students learned about verbs of being this week as well.  

Today we started work on our new book, Odder.  It's a verse novel, so it's a completely different format that we have read all year long.  There are also some pretty challenging vocabulary words in there!  One of the challenging skills we worked on this week is the schwa sound.  It's one of the most frequently used vowel sounds in the English language, but it's sort of sneaky because it can sound different ways and it is spelled differently.  I'd love for the kids to watch the following videos about the schwa sound.

Video One
Video Two
Video Three

This week, we'll be listening to another podcast, but focusing on a different listening comprehension skill.  On our last podcast, Mars Patel, the story was a narrative arc over the course of the entire series.  This week, we're focusing on what it is called an episodic series.  We're also working on arguments and supporting our claims with evidence.  For that reason, students need to listen to any episode of their choosing of the podcast Smash, Boom, Best.  Students may choose their episode, but they will be listening to and working with that one episode for the entire week.  Smash, Boom, Best is formatted in Rounds, so the students have several activities to do in each "Round" of their packet this week.  By the end of the week, students will work on focusing their own claims and providing evidence to support those claims. 

If students have siblings in the middle school class, they also have a Smash Boom Best assignment that follows the same format (but slightly elevated), but they do NOT have to listen to the same episode. 

Today we did our room escape game for The Sisters Grimm.  We will continue these puzzles when we come back from break.  For HW this week, students should listen to the Mars Patel podcast.  I am linking directly to the original source here, but you can find a youtube version with no ads.  Students should listen to one episode at a time and then complete their response page in the packet (there are 10 episodes in all).  In other words, do not listen to the entire podcast and then complete your packet because several of the questions will then become irrelevant.  If you have siblings in the MS class, they have the same assignment and siblings are free to work together if they would like.  

As a reminder, we will not meet next Monday, but I will see you again on 3/18. 

Today we reviewed a bunch of vocabulary from the book and we also reviewed syllable divisions and syllable types.  We worked in pairs to do this and everyone did a fantastic job! 

This week, we're finishing up the Sister's Grimm.  I wanted to let you know that if you are an audible subscriber, the entire series is available for free right now!  I downloaded all of them and have been giving them a relisten! 

Today we REALLY worked on understanding what a topic sentence is and selecting good topic sentences for our writing.  There is more practice on this in the at home work this week.  We also reviewed that every sentence needs a subject and a predicate.  Finally, we reviewed our mentor sentence for the week.  It was a great week!

We have two more weeks until spring break!  We'll finish up The Sisters Grimm next week and then we'll do something really fun the last week before break. 

Today we worked on descriptive writing by using our sensory images to state what love is.  We then used that to make a shape poem!  We also worked discussed what has been happening so far in the Sisters Grimm story, which we are all loving so much right now!

For HW: Please complete the packet for the week.  Also, on the calendar, some skills are marked out.  Please ignore those.  I used the calendar when I was making the packets and I was marking those off my list of to dos :) I forgot to erase my mark-throughs. 

Today we reviewed syllable types and everyone has a color coded syllable chart reference page to help with syllable divisions.  We also worked on adjectives and describing words.  Lastly, we had several share their descriptive writing of their families hair!  I started reading The Sisters Grimm aloud to the students and we didn't get too far, but we were already intrigued by this story! It was a fun day!  This week, we'll continue working on descriptive writing by writing about our favorite places. We'll also reading Sisters Grimm Chapters 1-3.  Make sure to check the calendar and packet for other information. 

Today we read a very short story by Sandra Cisneros called "Hairs," which is about the hairstyles of everyone in a family.  We also worked on a TON of grammar skills and writing!  We reviewed figurative language and learned a new type (personification).  We also reviewed sentence structure (subjects, predicates, direct objects) and practiced writing our answers in a complete sentence by using part of the question.  Whew!  That was a lot of information today!  For those who are new, I am sure it is very overwhelming!  Please don't be overwhelmed.  It will get easier (I promise!).  Also if you are new, there is a sentence that says to use "bbs."  I didn't get a chance to teach that yet, so if you are new, you do not have 

On our Mentor Sentence for this week:
Subject: Kiki
Predicate: has
Appositive: who is the youngest
Direct Object: hair like fur

My goodness what fun we had today!  We quickly reviewed our last Green Ember packet of the semester and then launched into starting our ROOM ESCAPE!  It was so much fun.  One group was finished with two puzzles and the other group is just getting started on the fun and they have completed one puzzle!  We'll continue the room escape next week too! 

This week we worked on the differences between similes and metaphors.  We also learned the difference between there, their, they're and to, two, too.  Read to chapter 32 and complete the packet.  

Today we learned about different kinds of conflict and examples of those in The Green Ember.  We also learned about -tion words. 

We will use next week as a "catch-up" week of sorts.  I will not send home any new "at home" work, so you can have plenty of family time and hopefully a little bit of time to get caught up.  The packet assigned today will be due on 11/

Today we discussed The Green Ember and especially focused on characterization.  We learned the multiple ways that authors use dialogue and actions to reveal a character's personality.  We also learned about sensory detail and how those help readers paint a picture in their minds as they are reading.  Finally, we focused a bit more on some explicit instruction of the mentor sentence/parts of speech section (day 2). 

Roll a Word Vocabulary! 

Today we reviewed the soft and hard sounds of c and g.  We learned that when those letters are followed by e, i, or y, they make their soft sounds.  When they are followed by a,o, u then they make their hard sounds.  We also learned about similes and we talked about our scary stories.  Lastly, we previewed The Green Ember, which we will start reading this week!  There is no mentor sentence this week!  

Today we worked on syllable division and learned multiple new syllable types.  We color coded our reference page.  Please keep this reference page handy as students are working and color coding this week.  Students also have a packet of Halloween short stories and poems to complete for the week.  Finally, I discussed with students the importance of having multiple exposures of the ELA work each week and when they save all their work for one day, they are limiting their exposures.  Hopefully, this will encourage sticking to the calendar as it is lined out as much as possible.  

Today we worked a bit on reviewing the concept of open and closed syllables in preparation for our spelling test next week.  We'll also be testing over the skills -ch/-tch, -ge/dge.  After that, we spent some time revising one another's papers.  Dr. Rowe read them aloud and we checked off which elements we heard from our master list.  In this class, students should include:

Hook and Who/What/When/Where in the first paragraph
3 Main Ideas and details for those ideas
A summary and a reflection in the conclusion
because, but, so in the middle of a sentence
an appositive.  

The final paper is due on MONDAY!!! If you are able to type it and email it to me, that is fantastic (but not required). 
We're finishing up The Girl Who Drew Butterflies this week.  Next week, we'll have some spooky short stories to read, but please start getting your copy of The Green Ember, as we will start those on 11/1.  

Today we reviewed our mentor sentences and did some observations on a new sentence.  Then we started organizing and brainstorming our paper topics.  As you read, continue to record your open and close syllables! Finally, we created a booklet to keep up with our butterfly vocabulary.  Students should have a draft of their informative report when we return on 10/16.  We also got a new calendar for October today!

As a reminder, next week is Fall Break and we will not meet on our normal Monday,  so I won't see you until 10/16!  

We started our time together with a short spelling and phonics quiz.  This covered the previous two weeks worth of skills (r controlled and open and closed syllables).  We'll keep doing these quizzes at least every other week.  We also read the first page of The Girl Who Drew Butterflies and discussed what our next writing assignment would be (informative paper).  We'll select our topics next week in class, so it is essential that students fill out the ABC brainstorming organizer this week as they are reading.

We also started a new grammar concept this week called Mentor Sentences.  When used correctly, mentor sentence greatly increase students' grammar and writing skills, so I'm very excited to see how much the student excel with this concept.  Because it is new, it may be challenging at first.  I told students to try their best and bring their best to our next class and we'll work on learning the process together.

Students also have a creative writing prompt this week.  The prompt is on MONDAY, so check there for the prompt.  Finally, the word game is meant to be fun, but challenging.  Please do not allow students to simply look up the answers.  The goal is to play around with the letters and determine words as they manipulate the larger word.  I love to use scrabble tiles for this.  Give students the scrabble tiles for BUTTERFLIES and see what they can do when they are able to move the letters around.  Just looking at the word BUTTERFLIES may not be easy for some students, but moving the letters around will definitely help! 

As always, please don't hesitate to reach out with questions! 

Today we zoom zoomed through our assignments and worked on getting our openings and conclusions to our personal narratives ready.  We'll be drafting those this week, so make sure you are following along on the calendar. For HW:

Finish reading up Knuckleheads or Smile (whichever book you chose)
For Vocabulary, complete the Multiple Meaning Words packet.
For spelling, students should do their syllable assignments (look at the calendar)
Finally, for writing, students should draft their personal narrative stories.  We discussed these extensively in class for the past two weeks.  These will be 16-20 sentences long and should follow this formula:

Opening: Hook + Who+ did what + where/when
Beginning (Main event #1) + sensory detail + emotions or feelings + thoughts or dialogue
Middle (Main event #2) + sensory detail + emotions or feelings + thoughts or dialogue
End (Main event #3) + sensory detail + emotions or feelings + thoughts or dialogue
Closing: Something I learned "That day I learned..."  + my feelings about the whole experience "I felt..."

If you count each of these out, you will get 16 sentences.  Students may write up to 20, but no more than 20 sentences.  Students should also skip lines.  

Today we worked really hard on starting our personal narratives.  We discussed how Knuckleheads and Smile are the actual story of Jon and Raina's life, and we determined that we can tell stories too.  Everyone was able to come up with some great ideas for their stories, so I'm excited to see how that process unfolds! I do need to make an amendment to the work calendar.  For this Thursday and Friday, it says to draft their narratives.  We aren't quite there yet, so we'll move that to next week. 

I also handed out the No Excuses list this week.  Students should always keep up with this.  They will not be tested on these words, but they should make sure that all work handed in has all of these words spelled correctly each time.

For spelling this week, students will be working on r-controlled vowels.  I will not give students  a list to learn each week because research indicates that is a poor way to learn spelling.  Instead, students will be asked to apply a rule to an unknown word.  The rule for this week is r-controlled vowels.  We discussed how vowels change when an r is with the vowel. 

As always, please don't hesitate to reach out if you have questions. 

Fabulous Conjunctions

We had an amazing day today!  I was so, so proud of how hard everyone worked.  I sent home three important pieces of paper.  The first was our assignment calendar.  This is for the remainder of August and September.  I will try to stay as close to this calendar as I can.  If something changes, I will update that here on my website.  The assignments are divided out per day, but you are free to do that however it works best for your homeschool environment.  Today we were able to complete several things on the calendar as well, so technically, they are already ahead!

They all did a great job reviewing parts of speech and coming up with creative ideas for our picture prompt.  This is great because we will be using this picture prompt for the next few weeks.  Please bring it back to class on 9/11.  Everyone also worked hard on completing their parts of speech organizer.  Students should use this to creative and write 10 sentences on a separate sheet of paper.  Speaking of paper, I wasn't able to tell the students this in class, but I would like for students to use as few sheets of paper as possible, so they are welcome to put more than one assignment on a page.  They should use the front and back as well.  It should be possible to get everything on one piece of paper (just don't forget to write names on the top right corner!). 

If at any time there is confusion or you need clarification, please don't hesitate to reach out.  I won't see you next Monday, but there is work assigned for next week, so you are welcome to email me at any time if you need clarification!

Thanks for letting me teach your kiddos!