Wow! Can you believe it has already been 5 weeks? I can't! It is going SOOO fast! We have been so busy trying to learn procedures for classes, reading books, and writing that we are meeting ourselves coming and going! I am having a great time...I hope the kids are, too.
We have been working on figurative language in class. So far, we have learned alliteration (same consonant sound repeated in a sentence), onomatopoeia (words that imitate sounds), and idioms (phrases that mean something different than their literal interpretation). An example of alliteration would be: Christy cleaned Cathy's cluttered closet. Onomatopoeia would be: BOOM! A popular idiom is: It is raining cats and dogs. I hope we can begin to work on similes later this week. Similes are comparisons between two unlike things using like, as, than, or seems. A perfect example is: The test was as easy as pie. Ask your child to show you some examples of these types of figurative language in their novels or in the TV shows they watch.
An independent assignment was given on Sept. 15. It is due on Oct. 15. Student were given a novel to read. They must take an AR test over their novel. It will be worth 100 points and will be counted as the test for that book. They will also complete a double entry journal answering 6 essential questions comparing their independent novel to Holes (our current class novel). I will walk the students through this process. It will be a strenuous one (on both the students and me) but I will be walking them through it and showing them exactly how to answer the questions in order to make an acceptable grade. You can take a look at the essential questions on the "Destiny" page of my blog. I hope to post student work and other class activities to the page, as well.
Happy reading-
Mrs. Tipton
