What Do Authors Do?

This week in reading we will read What Do Authors Do? This is a great story teaching the students the steps of the writing process. There are steps to be taken, and they must be done in a certain order. So, appropriately, our skill for the week is "steps in a process."

Following the steps in a process usually means doing or making something. A process is a number of steps that follow a certain order, from start to finish. When authors write books, they follow certain steps from beginning to end, although all authors do not work in exactly the same way. One may do research in a library; another may not need to do research. One may plan the whole book before writing; another may make up the story while working.

Vocabulary Words:

1. authors - people who write books, poems, stories, or articles
2. difficult - hard to do or understand
3. information - knowledge given or received of some fact or event
4. libraries - collections of books, magazines, films, or recordings
5. museums - buildings or rooms in which a collection of objects is kept and displayed
6. suggestions - things brought to mind

Please make sure your child has read the story and studied the vocabulary words by Thursday. We will take our selection test on the story Thursday morning.

I look forward to a wonderful week!

Charlotte's Web Unit

We finally finished our Charlotte's Web unit. We actually finished it a couple of weeks ago. We have already started a new chapter book. Mrs. Johnson had a copy for all of us, and we read Charlotte's Web together. She did the voices of the animals as she read. Our favorite was the sheep! After we read the book, we all took an AR test. Guess what! It was worth 5 points!! Most of us made a 100 and earned all 5! Yay!

We also did a project on the story elements. We folded manilla paper to look like a reading fair board. Mrs. Johnson had us to draw the setting in the middle of our project. She drew on the board to give us ideas. We loved to watch her draw! We would call out guesses before she finished each character. Mrs. Johnson had way too much fun with that! Ha!

Mrs. Johnson's art

After we drew the setting of the story, we added the other story elements. Our projects included the author, illustrator, characters, plot summary, setting, author's purpose, and genre. We also made spiders. We wrote descriptive paragraphs on the spiders to describe Charlotte. Then, we glued them to white string. We wanted the spiders to look like they were spinning a web. The string had to come out of the back of the spider because the spinnerets are found in the back.

October bulletin board in House B

Mrs. Johnson was very glad to have these finished projects. It was her turn to put up the October bulletin board in our house! She owes us, don't you think!?

Haunting Homonyms

Yesterday, Mrs. Johnson had a fun lesson planned for us. While we worked on our morning work, Mrs. Johnson drew a huge pumpkin on orange chart paper. We wondered what in the world she was doing. Mrs. Johnson is always drawing for us. Some of us make fun of her drawings, but most of the class loves to watch her draw. Anyway, after we went over morning work, Mrs. Johnson began talking about "-Nym Words." She drew a tree map for the "-Nym Words." We listed synoNYMS, antoNYMS, and homoNYMS. After reviewing synonyms and antonyms, Mrs. Johnson began a discussion about homonyms.

Homonyms are two words that sound the same, but have different meanings.

Mrs. Johnson gave us squares of manilla paper with a bridge map on them. We were to come up with a pair of homonyms. We wrote the meaning for each and drew a picture of each. For example: Hare is a rabbit, and hair grows on your head. After everyone finished, we presented our homonym pairs to the class and added it to our homonym circle map (the pumpkin).

Our final display

It is important to know the meanings of the various homonyms so that our sentences will make sense when we are writing. Can you imagine what we would look like if we said, "I have long brown hare!?" Everyone would think we have a long brown rabbit!

Fun Fall Phonics

In phonics this week, we are studying the sounds of "ow." We began our reading lesson with a tree map. Mrs. Johnson wrote the word "slow," and asked what sound the "ow" makes. Then, she did the same with the word, "cow." We talked about the different sounds found in these words. Then, we sang a song about an owl. It was fun! Mrs. Johnson always makes us stand up and do motions to these songs. It helps us wake up on Monday mornings. We had a fun morning! After we sang the song, we had to find "ow" words and tell which vowel sound we heard: 'slow' or 'cow'. We listed those words on our tree map.

After the short lesson, Mrs. Johnson had a fun activity planned for us! We made our own owls out of paper bags. On the feathers, we wrote words that have 'ow' making the same vowel sound as 'owl.' They were so cute! It helped us remember the vowel sound because we were doing a hands-on, fun activity. Mrs. Johnson made sure we understood WHY we were doing this art activity.

Hoot!

Dwinesha did a great job on her owl.

After we finished our owls, Mrs. Johnson made us use them in the song. One line says that the owl flies up high. So, we made our owls fly up high.

Our finished display

Friday's PTA Program

Friday night's PTA program was a huge success!!! Thanks to all the parents and students who came and participated. Mrs. Johnson's class had 11 students participate! WOW! The students who sang with the group are Dwinesha, Jaylin, Arrion, Jendaya, Charles, Joneshia, Selicia, Antasia, Lyric, Sherrina, and Sharnecia. Thanks for your hard work!!!

Ms. Edwards and the students did a tremendous job getting this together. I have attached a few highlights from the evening!

Dwinesha, Jendaya, Charles, Selicia, Jaylin, Joneshia, and Sharnecia are listening to Britton say his line.

Sherrina found her mom in the crowd!

Antasia did an awesome job on her speaking part! Lyric and Sherrina look nervous!

Ms. Strum and the students did a great rendition of "What's A Teacher to Do?" It was so cute!!