English
Term 1 Week 8
Familiar reading
Using familiar texts;
Read to a friend
Read to a book buddy
Film yourself on an ipad (Change focus eg fluency and phrasing or reading to punctuation)
Checklist bookmark (Who, What, Where, When and Why)
Pretend you are a teacher and read to a group.
Spelling focus
Soudwaves program Students enter this code girl344 at www.soundwaveskids.com.au
Grammar focus Adjectives
Most adjectives of one syllable form the comparative by adding 'er' and the superlative by adding 'est'.
When an adjective ends in 'e', add 'r' for the comparative and 'st' for the superlative forms of the adjective.
When a one syllable word ends in a consonant-vowel-consonant, add the consonant and 'er' for the comparative form and the consonant and 'est' for the superlative form.
When the adjective ends in a 'y' and is preceded by a consonant, change the 'y' into 'i' before adding 'er' for the comparative and 'est' for the superlative form of the adjective.
When the adjective has two or more syllables, the comparative is formed by using the adverbs 'more' or 'less', and the superlative is formed by using the adverbs 'most' or 'least'.
Some adjectives are compared irregularly. This happens when their comparative and superlative forms are different from the original adjective.
Activities to support the strategy
Activity 1: notebook thick and thin descriptions
Ask students questions about the topic to identify their prior knowledge. (What are comparative and superlative adjectives? Also ask questions which explore their understanding of adjectives and their purpose in texts.) Use the Notebook Thick and Thin descriptions. Have students compete in small groups to complete the 'thickest' description for each page. Springboard from this activity to write or find the 'thinnest' of stories and then elaborate them into the 'thickest'. The thinnest stories may be the students' own previous work.
Activity 2: Guess which one
Take the students into the library / computer lab / garden and get them to identify three objects of the same kind, e.g. books, computers/ laptops, pencils, desks, shrubs or trees, seats. Put students in groups and get each group to differentiate between the objects. Each group must write at least four sentences that compare the objects they have chosen. Get each group to share their conclusions with the rest of the class who raise their hands if they agree with the comparative judgment made by the group. This gives the group feedback on the accuracy of their comparisons.
Activity 3: use superlative and comparatives with peers
Reinforce comparative and superlative adjectives by having the students in the class compare themselves. Organise the students into groups of four and get them to spend a couple of minutes each telling the rest of their group about themselves. They are then to make as many true sentences as they can to compare each other. They can base their comparisons on:
how big their families are
how many after school activities they engage with
how many books they have borrowed this term/ year
how many times have they played on the computer this week
how much television they watch
what time they arrive at school
how big their school bag is
how close they live to the local shops.
At the end of the time allocated for the activity, get some of the students to read out their sentences.
Activity 4: magazine cut out
Pairs and groups of students find and cut out pictures of different objects, animals or people from magazines. Students are to make up two sentences each for the comparative and superlative degree by contrasting and comparing the objects in the pairs of pictures. Students also need to identify the form of the comparison (comparative or superlative) used in the sentence. Students are to work individually and within a set time limit.
The teacher can also source as many pictures as they choose, making the pictures relevant to topics being taught in class across Key Learning Areas.
Activity 5: adjective game on a board
Use a 'Snakes and Ladders' game board or other produced one or a teacher/student made board (printed and laminated). Use a dice and game pieces.
Print and laminate the adjective cards - the ones below. Each card has one adjective. The student must express a superlative or comparative adjective in order to take a turn in the game. Students need to be careful that some of these are irregular.
Activity 6: introducing adjectives smart notebook
Go to exchange.smarttech.com
and look at the Introducing Adjectives Smart Notebook. Select parts of the Notebook useful for your class. You must register for and then sign into the Smart Exchange website to access files.
Activity 7: grammar blast
Use the resources found at http://www.eduplace.com
. To play Grammar Blast, have two teams. A representative (change after each question) from each team takes it in turn to answer the questions with the team with the highest score winning.
Writing focus: Sentence structure – prepositions
Prepositions usually come before another word, such as a:
noun.
pronoun.
noun phrase.
gerund (participle of verb - ends in –ing – but used as a noun, e.g., There was a lot of joking during the script writing ).
Guided and independent activities
Texts that students are currently studying could be used to determine and highlight prepositions. Students can highlight prepositional phrases and discuss their purpose. They can explore innovating texts by changing prepositional phrases. Students should be encouraged to share the changes and provide justifications as to choices made.
Activities to support the strategy
Activity 1: prepositional poetry composition
Complete prepositional poems
Students write a prepositional phrase one each on a strip of paper. These are grouped, corrected and rewritten if necessary to correct spelling, enrich vocabulary choices etc. They are then organised and added to in order to create the best poem using the following formula.
Line one: first prepositional phrase with the topic.
Line two: where.
Line three: where.
Line four: where/what.
Space.
Line five: feelings concerning topic.
e.g. thanks to Cathy
At the Beach
at the beach
amid many sunbathers
on my blanket
with my book
in the beautiful sunshine
is my favourite place to relax!
And
At the Mall
at the mall
with my mum
near the dressing room
in the ladies clothing department
around the perfume and jewellery
is the WORST place for me to be!!
Activity 2: prepositional pictionary
Create a set of cards with prepositions that are ‘drawable’. Like Pictionary the drawer has a time frame to draw with a time frame for students to guess. Accurate guesser gets to then select a new card and to draw it whilst the others guess.
Activity 3
The teaching of prepositions both for comprehension and for production could be taught in this approximate order:
spatial location – answers the where question (e.g. The clock is over the chalkboard). Often signalled by the prepositions above, below, over, in, on, under, underneath, at
the relationship between two or more things. (e.g. I found my pen lying among the books). Often signalled by among, between, beside, in front of, behind, next to, with, and in the middle of
direction- identify the direction an object moves in space (e.g. The bird flew over the tree.–direction in space). Often signalled by to, toward, into, onto, by, over, under, past, at, from, on, off, and out of
locates something in time – Often signalled by at, on, by, before, from, since, for, during, to, until, and after
Websites for each type of preposition with activities to learn about and use (all these sites are without pictures):
Spatial location
Ten sentences to fill in the missing preposition. The site scores the quiz and gives feedback:
www.angelfire.com/on/topfen/testsprepplace3Fifteen cloze sentences {in/at/on} – prepositions of place - easy level:
esl.about.com/library/quiz/blgrquiz_prep1Multiple choice responses to complete sentences – all require a preposition expressing the notion of location:
www.eslpartyland.com/quiz-center/preploc
Prepositions of time
This is a fill in the blank test with more on, in, and at prepositions expressing time concepts. The program gives hints before you answer, if you want them. The program also corrects your answers and gives you a percentage score. Incorrect answers are erased and you are allowed to try again:
web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/elc/studyzone/200/grammar/prepo1Forty-one sentences are provided to practise the prepositions: at, in, and on
www.aitech.ac.jp/~iteslj/quizzes/js/ni/fb-prepositionsFifteen easy cloze sentences to practise using the prepositions for, while and during:
esl.about.com/library/quiz/blgrquiz_prep4