I explained to the kids about our semester Chart Challenge. We will have an epic Nerf gun war and other rewards IF they complete the following number of charts:
250 charts - everyone receives 25 Nerf darts
500 charts - everyone receives 50 Nerf darts
750 charts - Nerf war and ice cream
1,000 charts - Nerf war, ice cream and taco bar at my house!
Encourage your kids to complete as many charts as they can! If you use the Chart Tracker it will make it a lot easier and you can keep the charts at home for posterity! ;) If you have questions, please ask!
EEL - New structure and pattern!
Structure - Complex
Purpose - Declarative and Exclamatory
Pattern - S-Vt-IO-DO
We started class reviewing S-Vt-DO pattern and then morphed it into S-Vt-IO-DO. Doing this made it easy to understand the new pattern.
Remember: an IO is a noun or pronoun that answers the question to whom or for whom. It does not receive the action of the Vt. There has to be a DO to have an IO. The IO will come between the Vt and the DO.
SN Vt IO aa DO
Jesus made me a crown.
Jesus made a crown for whom? me - IO
We started discussing the Complex Structure as well. We reviewed Independent Clauses by referring back to the Simple and Compound structures. Then we discussed dependent/subordinate clauses. Independent clauses have a S-V and can stand alone as a sentence (makes complete sense). A dependent/subordinate clause also has a S-V but is dependent on the Independent clause to make sense. The dependent clause makes a statement or answers a question about the independent clause.
Tom, who loves animals, owns a Shetland sheepdog.
While 'who loves animals' could stand on its own as an interrogative question, it is a dependent clause in this sentence because it is describing Tom. It is an adjectival clause.
Two kinds of clauses:
Adjectival clauses begin with a relative pronoun and usually begin with who or which.
Adverbial clauses begin with subordinating conjunctions - www.asia.wub - and answer the Adverb questions.
If our kids can begin recognizing who/which and www.asia.wub in sentences, they will immediately KNOW that they are looking at a clause and will be able to identify what kind and label it as such! So exciting!
I don't have a picture of the chart I made but here is the picture that I based mine on:
We also discussed Phrases. In the most simple terms, Phrases do not contain a S-V. There can be adjectival, adverbial or noun phrases. A good example of a phrase is a Prepositional Phrase.
In the garden, over the hedge, under the water
We used the #3 sentence in our weekly practice sentences to review all we had learned that day. We did the question confirmation for both the Independent and dependent clauses and discovered that they each had their own pattern. Learning all this info will really stretch our kids' thinking!
HOMEWORK - Moms - please read through the upcoming week's lesson. It will benefit you and your child both if you are aware of what is coming in class!
Kids - New Chart - M - Complex structure. Work on this as much as you can. The quicker they learn the structure, the more successful they will be as they write their papers. Many charts to review this week - A, E, F, H, I, L
IEW - New Unit - Unit 6 - Summarizing Multiple Sources
In preparation of writing their FoH papers, we will be focusing on different aspects of writing a 'research' paper. This week, summarizing multiple sources is the first step.
I reminded the kids that when they are finding their facts for their KWO they don't need to write *everything* down. We are SOME-a-rizing the information. They only need to use some of the info, what they think is interesting or important from the source text.
We began by reading through the first text about the Civil War and the kids highlighted or underlined what sentences they wanted to use. We completed a KWO on the board together with the facts they shared. Then we read the second text and did the same thing.
After we completed the second KWO I described to the kids how to fuse their KWOs into one KWO using facts from each outline. We decided on the info we thought was most interesting or important. I showed the kids that they didn't have to use their KWO in the order they had written them. We combined sentences together if they had the same info in them. We didn't get to writing a topic sentence or a clincher though.
I think it helped them to see that they are not bound by the KWO they create. They have the freedom to write what they want based on the KW they chose but they can rearrange their sentences to write a paper that expresses what they want to say. It leads to such freedom in writing!
I neglected to discuss the #3 opener - the -ly adverb. Having used -ly adverbs in writing already this year, I don't think it will be a problem for the kids to begin using this in their papers. It's probably already happening without the kids realizing it! :)
HOMEWORK - Moms - help your kids read and write their KWO if they didn't copy the one in class. Use the checklist on page 130 to include as many dress ups as your child is able to do. Remember EZ+1!
Kids - read the source texts, highlight or underline for your KWO, fuse your KWOs together and write that paper! You can do it!
PASSWORD - Adjectival clauses have who/which; Adverbial clauses have www.asia.wub
Have a great week! See you on Wednesday! :)
