5PA Update

Students had a fun-filled day in PA today!  We celebrated the completion of our grammar unit by eating a tasty snack and watching "Grammar House Rock".  I believe that the students had a much clearer understanding of what the video was depicting because of the learning that had taken place over the last few weeks.  For the remainder of the week, the students will be reviewing systems.  Students will be asked to consider the following key points about systems:

1. Systems can be productive or dysfunctional.
2. The interactions and outputs of a system change when the system's inputs, elements, or      
     boundaries change.
3. Over time, human systems adapt, change in prominence or are replaced.
4. Systems are interdependent.
5. Many systems are mad up of smaller systems.

They will also participate in an activity that will help them to realize how systems can personally affect them in the classroom setting.  My hope is that they will be able to make connections and internalize the importance of systems in their everyday lives.

Students will also review change.  This is another major concept that students will see throughout the year. The following ideas will be introduced and discussed:

1. Change can be positive and/or negative.
2. Change can be orderly or random.
3. Change can be natural or caused by people.
4. Change happens over time
5. Change is everywhere.

Students will be asked to consider some thought provoking questions and to share their ideas with their peers.  I am looking forward to listening in on these conversations and fostering positive learning opportunities this week!

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Prepositions

I promised the students  that I would include a post about prepositions to help them remember how to identify these words....so here it is!

HOW TO FIND A PREPOSITION: First of all, remember to find the nouns, articles, adjectives, and pronouns before you do anything else. Then, looking among the words left over, find the prepositions. It's easier than you think! Almost all prepositions will fit into the following little sentence (it's very handy, so memorize it!).

The package under the tree is mine. The package in the tree is mine. The package near the tree is mine.

I will see you before lunch. I will see you during lunch. I will see you after lunch.

"THE MOUSE GOES ___________ THE BOX (OR BOXES)."

Take each preposition that was used in the sentences above, and put it in the blank of the "mouse-box" sentence. It works for every one of those prepositions except during, doesn't it? The "Mouse-Box" sentence will help you find most prepositions, but what about the ones that don't fit?

Some prepositions won't fit into the "mouse-box" sentence. There are nine very common ones, which may seem like a lot to remember. To help you with this, here's a little memory trick. Remember: you may not be able to remember them, BUT AL DOES! B = but A = as D = during U = until L = like O = of T = than E = except S = since

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4PA Update

4PA students are eager to move on to literature during the upcoming week.  We are wrapping up our learning of the eight parts of speech and celebrating our accomplishments by watching "Grammar House Rock". We will also enjoy a little snack.  Before we dive into our literature unit, the students will be taking a pretest.  They will be asked to read a short story entitled "Poor People" by Leo Tolstoy.  Students will then be asked to answer open-ended questions about the theme, conflict and change that happens throughout the story. This week students will also be introduced to three very important skills: identifying the theme or underlying message within a text, understanding how point of view shapes the content and style of a text and the importance of citing specific textual evidence when sharing their opinions/ideas about a text. This is sure to be an exciting week for the students in 4PA!  I can't wait to see what wonderful ideas your children will share.

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3PA Update

This week 3PA will be wrapping up our learning on the eight parts of speech.  The students have shown progress with their knowledge of grammar and have learned an abundance of information about the use of words. They will continue to practice their skills each day by analyzing one sentence and identifying the parts of speech present.   We will celebrate our learning by having a snack and viewing "Grammar House Rock".   I am excited to move into our new unit titled "Literature Journeys".  This week students will be taking a pretest in which they will be required to read a brief passage and answer open-ended questions regarding the text. They will also review theme.  Theme is the underlying message present in the story.  Theme often has to be inferred and is the big idea present in the story.  In addition, students will spend some time discussing generalizations.  They will learn that a generalization is a broad conclusion drawn from specific examples. Below are some generalizations of change that we will be examining throughout our unit:

1.  Change is everywhere.

2.  Change can be positive or negative.

3.  Change can be random or orderly.

4.  Change can be caused by internal or external forces.

5.  Change is linked to time.

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5PA Update

5PA students have continued to move full steam ahead on their grammar voyage.  Last week we reviewed adjectives and learned about the three degrees of adjectives: positive, comparative and superlative.  We had great fun investigating these different forms and were able to figure out one of our lingering questions, "What is a positive adjective?"  We found out that it is an adjective in its simplest form (i.e. cold).  The students learned that we form comparatives by adding "-er" to the end of a word when comparing two things (i.e. colder), and we form superlatives by adding "-est" to the end of a word when comparing more than two things (i.e. coldest).  We also viewed a fun video about these types of adjectives.  

Students were given the challenging task of identifying nouns, pronouns and adjectives in an excerpt from Herman Melville's Moby Dick.  They did an outstanding job and were able to justify their thinking by providing accurate reasons which were based on their knowledge of nouns, pronouns and adjectives.  Students also learned about possessive adjectives.  Students realized that it is important to remember that these adjectives show ownership and can often be confused with pronouns.  It essential to consider how the word is being used in the sentence. Next week students will continue to learn about the two different types of verbs, action and linking.  They will also be introduced to adverbs, conjunctions, prepositions and interjections.

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4PA Update

Last week students continued to learn about the eight parts of speech by delving into the text Grammar Town. Students briefly reviewed the noun system which includes three kinds of words: nouns, pronouns and adjectives.  Students also reviewed the two parts of a sentence, the subject (who or what the sentence is about) and the predicate (what the subject is or does).  4PA participated in a simple, but fun way to practice this understanding.  They worked with a partner and took turns writing the subject part of the sentence and the predicate part of the sentence.  They alternated roles, which provided the opportunity for each student to write both the subject and predicate.  4PA also viewed the video about Mr. Norton which solidified their understandings and was an absolute hit!  

Another focus for the week was verbs.  Students learned about the difference between action verbs and linking verbs and analyzed a passage titled "The Day that Push Came to Shove".  By completing this analysis, students realized the importance of using strong action verbs within their writing.  They were also exposed to a list of linking verbs and were surprised that I had to memorize these words as an elementary student.  They learned that a linking verb's job is to connect ideas.  Sentences that include these types of verbs are very similar to number equations.  For example, we know that 2+2=4.  This is an equation in which both sides are equal.  In the sentence, "John IS a good sailor." John=good sailor.  John and sailor are the same.  This helped students to distinguish the difference between a linking and action verb. Next week students will be learning about adverbs, conjunctions, prepositions and interjections.

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3PA Update

This week the students continued their journey through Grammar Island.  Students discovered that adjectives are words that modify nouns or pronouns.  They were asked to apply their learning by identifying adjectives within a text. Students also learned about three little words named articles.  These are special adjectives.  I was excited that students knew that the word "a" should be used before nouns that begin with consonants and the word "an" should be used before nouns that begin with vowels. They were taught that "the" is a definite article and should be used to refer to a specific noun and "a" and "an" are indefinite articles that refer to non-specific nouns.  

We also reviewed the two parts of a sentence, the subject and the predicate, and enjoyed watching a video about Mr. Norton which enhanced their understanding of this topic. Towards the end of the week, students learned about the difference between action verbs and linking verbs.  Next week we will continue our journey and will investigate adverbs, conjunctions, interjections and prepositions.

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Welcome to PA Blog!

Welcome to the new Project Arrow Blog.  I am excited to use our blog to share what we will be doing in PA during the 2015-2016 school year.  Our blog will be up and running by Monday, September 21st. 

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