Week 5

Post date: Jul 29, 2009 7:26:2 PM

This week has been extraordinary--also, it's the word of the week! This week we've been reading about extraordinary things, events, and heroes. Your child has read several reading selections from our classroom magazine, Heroes and Heroines. Some of the stories that we read were Jackson Jones, Keelboat Annie (tall tale), To The Rescue: Special Heroes, Tiger Woods (biographical snapshot), The Quiet and the Brave, and Heroes (poem). The reading selections from this week vary from non-fiction to realistic fiction. Realistic fiction is an untrue story that has real people's name or real events, but the story itself never actually happend. Non-fiction is a story that tells about or has real people, real events, facts, photographs, captions, bold words, maps, graphs, table of contents, index, or a glossary. These are features of non-fiction text.

Wanna help out? We need some tasty snacks for our last day of summer school! If you are interested in donating some snacks to help us celebrate, please email me. I would love to end our class book with a group food fest next week. What a fun way to relax and enjoy reading!

Couplets were the hit of the week! The children made several rhyming pair sentences in which both sentences contained a similar rhyme. For example,

"I was hungry at the beach.

I decided to eat a peach."

Both of these sentences end with a similar rhyme, making it a couplet. Notice that I bolded the word "couple" to show how couplets come in a couple or set of 2. Read your child's couplets that are in his/her stapled packet in the Summer School folder.

A special thanks goes out to our student volunteer from Longwood University, Ms. Gibson! She will be graduating with her Masters in Education in 2 years and has been a wonderful help to us this week. Good luck in school, Ms. Gibson!

In word study (or "phonics" as it used to be called), we've been working on suffixes at the end of words. Here are some hints that you can use to help your child with suffixes -ed, -er, and -ing.

Short Vowel = If the word has a short vowel near the end, make sure it has 2 consonants in a row before you add the suffix at the end. If it only has one consonant, double it! The rule is 2 consonants have to be at the end if the vowel is short. Short vowels have this mark over them: ă ĕ ĭ ŏ ŭ

Example: jump + ed = jumped (The 2 consonants are MP.)

run + ing = running (We added another N, so we have two N's.)

crack + er = cracker (We already have 2 consonants in a row, CK. Just add -er!)

start + ed = started (We already have 2 consonants in a row, RT.)

jog + ing = jogging (We added another G, so we have two G's.)

Long Vowel = If the word has a long vowel near the end, just add the suffix to the end. If there is an E, remove it first before adding the suffix. Long vowels have this mark over them: ā ē ī ō ū

Example: say + ing = saying

make + ing = making

cute + er = cuter

pile + ed = piled

Jackson Jones Recap: Jackson and Reuben are still not talking, and Jackson is starting to get grumpy. One morning, Jackson finally has flowers growing in his garden, but only the $1.00 flowers are growing. He doesn't have any luck with his rose bush, or his "puddle of thorns" as it appears. He decides that he would like to sell his flowers but isn't sure how to start his business. Gabby and Ro tell Jackson that they will help him for free if he will think about letting them join his "business." After Gabby and Ro con an old lady into buying $10 of flowers, they decide they want their share ($7) from Jackson. Jackson is not happy with this arrangement. The next morning, Jackson goes out to look at his garden and finds a sea of green stems with no flowers! Someone has chopped off the flowers, and now Jackson is furious. He goes to school and approaches his bully, Blood. Thinking that Blood is responsible for the headless flowers, Jackson punches Blood in the face and starts a fight. Both boys go to the principal's office, and Jackson's mother takes him home to discuss what happened. He explains that he was going to give her the garden as a gift after he earned enough money to buy a new basketball. Then he tells Mama that he never wanted a stupid garden in the first place! Mama's feelings are hurt, but she explains to him that she put a lot of thought into his gift. After he apologizes, they celebrate her birthday with an ice cream treat. The next morning, Jackson goes to check on his garden, and he sees something that surprises him. There are bows all over his flower stems but no flowers. He figures out that Reuben put the bows on as a peace offering. The two boys become friends again. At Jackson's Mama's birthday party, Gabby and Ro apologize for cutting Jackson's flowers. They explain that they only did it to make a perfume that they could sell and would give Jackson some of the profit. Jackson quickly realizes that he must apologize to Blood for punching him. Blood surprises everyone by accepting Jackson's apology but still continues to be his grumpy self. When Jackson returns to his garden, which has begun to bloom again, he sells 25 zinnias to Mailbags. When he gets the $25, he buys the best basketball he can find. At home, Jackson sees something odd-25 zinnias on the kitchen table in a vase. Mama explains that Mailbags brought them over as a gift for her birthday. Flowers aren't the only thing blossoming in the garden now. Each day, Jackson finds Mama and Mailbags chatting in the garden--is this a possible romance starting? We can only guess, but at least Jackson has his basketball, his garden, and one happy Mama!

"Mrs. Franza, I noticed that my child doesn't know the difference between short and long vowels. Help!"

Isn't it funny how we teach the basics in the earlier grades and then assume that the kids know them? Using these basics to help decode unknown words helps readers of any age! Studies show that students who have a good sense of word study and phonics are better readers and writers. WOW! Now that is a great reason to review these basics at home.