Anthology Activity

For a comprehension activity to go along with our current anthology story, students had the following events and had to place them in the correct sequential order.  We will be using the correct order to practice writing a procedural paragraph. 

Catching and Preparing Salmon to Eat	Hooking Halibut and Making Tamuuq
Set a gill net	Bait the hook with salmon
Pull the net the next day	Attach heavy sinker to hook
Put on gloves	Hang line overboard
Separate fish	Wait and feel a tug on the line
Cut off the head	Give line a hard tug when fish nibble
Pull out the guts	Hold on and pull line in
Leave the skin and tail on	Slice halibut into strips
Leave scraps for scavengers	Hang up to dry
Put cleaned fish in the smokehouse	Wait ten days
Hang fish outside to cure	The tamuuq is ready to eat
The salmon is ready to eat

New Anthology Vocabulary

These are the new words that students learned to go along with the Anthology story, Salmon Summer.

Key Vocabulary	Definition	Sentence
Abundance (p.642)	More than enough	There’s an abundance of salmon for all.
Ancestors (p.637)	People in one’s family who lived many years ago	Like their Aleut ancestors, they catch fish to feed their family.
Lure (p.644)	Fake bait used to attract fish	Alex ties a silver lure with three hooks on it to his line.
Scavengers (p.640)	Animals that feed on dead animals	Alex leaves salmon scraps to wash away with the tide and be eaten by scavengers.
Spawn (p.637)	To lay eggs and reproduce	To complete their life cycle, they’re coming back to the same stream to spawn.

Descriptive Paragraph

Students are beginning the process of writing a descriptive paragraph.  We are writing one as a class about going on a roller coaster ride.  The use of a graphic organizer is helping us organize our thoughts.  We are writing things that we might see, hear, feel, or taste; specifically, before, during, and after the ride.  You can ask your child what some of the thigns are that they described.

New Anthology Theme

Our new Anthology Theme is "Nature: Friend and Foe."  In class, we started by doing an activity called "Surprise Book."  Students waited in anticipation and made predictions while a picture representing the theme was uncovered.  They were asked:
In what ways do you interact with nature?
How does nature affect your life?
How do you affect nature?
Why do you think this theme is called Nature: Friend and Foe?
How does the picture show both sides of nature?
Next, we did an activity called "Stand Up/ Sit Down."  Students had to decide whether a certain picture of weather represented nature as a friend or foe and had to be prepared to say "why." 

New Math Unit

Our Math Topic 12 is entitled "Understanding Decimals."  This will be our last math unit of the year.  We will be taking a cumulative math test at the very end.  This Topic's lessons are:

• Decimal Place Value
• Comparing and Ordering Decimals
• Fractions and Decimals
• Fractions and Decimals on the Number Line
• Mixed Numbers and Decimals on the Number Line
• Problem Solving: Draw a Picture

Facts and Opinions

We recently did an activity called "Stand Up, Sit Down."  I read statements from our Anthology story and students had to stand if they believed it was a fact and sit down if they believed it was an opinion.  In either case, they had to be prepared to defend their decision and tell us "why".  What I discovered was that this was a good skill to discuss and practice as many students struggled in their decision making.  The following are the statements I used. 

• The first World Series was playing in 1903.
• Through eight years of school Lou didn't miss a single day.
• Those were the first two games in what would become an amazing record. 
• He was selected again as the league's MVP in 1936. 
• The 1927 Yankees were perhaps the best team ever.
• It was a courageous speech.
• The more than sixty thousand fans in Yankee Stadium stood to honor Lou Gehrig.

New Social Studies unit

The Southeast comprises 12 states from teh Atlantic Coast to the Mississippi River.  Rivers, farms, and coal mines are important resources of the region.  First the Cherokee and later the English settled in the region.  Here colonists elected government leaders and the Civil War was fought.  The civil rights movement led to changes in the region and the nation.

Writing Descriptive Paragraphs

We have begun discussion on writing a descriptive paragraph.  So far, students have learned to include different words that involve the senses.  For example:

• Taste: bland, buttery, sugary, syrupy, rotten, nasty
• Feeling (physical or emotional): gentle, rough, furious, soft, kind
• Shape: rectangular, irregular, ovaly
• Size: tiny, ginormous, average, miniscule
• Texture (feels or looks): rough, squisy, shiny, dull, slippery
• Movement (feels or looks): lunge, drag, sidestep, scatter
• Sound: yell, sputter, ring, shout, whistle

Anthology Vocabulary

Students have learned the following vocabulary from our newest Anthology story, Lou Gehrig.

Key Vocabulary	Definition	Sentence
Consecutive (p.589)	Following one right after the other	For the next fourteen years Lou Gehrig played in 2,130 consecutive Yankee games.
Fielding (p.591)	In baseball, picking up the ball and throwing it to the correct player	He had trouble fielding.
First baseman (p.589)	The baseball player who guards the area around first base	The next day Lou played in place of first baseman Wally Pipp.
(to) honor (p.594)	To show special respect for	Many of the players… came to honor their former teammate.
Modest (p.590)	Having a quiet, humble view of oneself	Lou was shy and modest, but people who watched him knew just how good he was.
Shortstop (p.589)	The baseball player who guards the area between second base and third base	…The Yankee manager sent Loud to bat for the shortstop.
Sportsmanship (p.595)	The quality someone has when acting with dignity in difficult situations	… the mayor… told Lou, “You are the greatest prototype of good sportsmanship and citizenship.”