Title:  5-3  The Empty Pot  retold by: Demi

Photo Credit: YoungDoo Moon via Compfight

Summary:  This is a Chinese folktale about courage and honesty.  The emperor of the land is looking for someone to become his successor.  He has all of the children in the land given one seed to tend and return in one year’s time.  Ping tries unsuccessfully to get his seed to grow, but with encouragement from his family he bravely attends the palace with his empty pot and the truth.  All the other children have beautiful flowers. Using wisdom and love, the emperor finds his new successor.

Photo Credit: Kalyan Chakravarthy via Compfight

Spelling Words:  Contrasting sounds of ough and augh.

Words:  cough, dough, fought, though, thought, rough, although, tough, ought.

Challenge Words:  thoughtful, thorough, sourdough.

Vocabulary Words: 

Transferred (v):  to move something from one place to another.    Sprout (v):  to begin to grow.  Courage (n):  the strength to overcome fear.  Tended (v):  to take care of something or someone.  Blossom (v): to bloom.  Kingdom (n):  a country ruled by a king or queen.  Emperor (n):  a ruler.

Grammar Concept:  I can use commas correctly in dialogue.  Commas are used before the opening quotation marks or before the ending marks at the end of the speaker’s words.  Joe said, “I need to buy some milk.”   “I am so happy you came,” I said.

Title:  5-2  The Hole in the Dike  retold by: Norma Green

Photo Credit: Luke Ma via Compfight

Summary:  This is a retelling of a Dutch legend.  A young boy hears water trickling out of the dikes that are holding the ocean back from his small village.  He tries to call for help, but no one can hear him.  Knowing the hole will only get wider, the brave boy spends all night with his finger plugging the hole until help arrives.

Spelling Words:  Words with the /aw/ sound spelled augh, ough, all, and al.

Words:  walk, overall, bought, call, always, sought, taught, caught, halt, small.

Challenge Words:  daughter, chalk.

Vocabulary Words: 

Trickling (v):  flowing drop by drop.    Flooded (v):  to cover with water.  Rumbling (v):  making a heavy, deep, rolling sound.  Numb (adj):  having no feeling.  Dikes (n):  a thick wall built to hold back water.   Windmills (n):  a machine that uses the power of the wind to turn sails.

Grammar Concept:  I can use quotation marks to set off a speaker’s words.  I can also use quotation marks to show titles of stories poems, and songs.  No matter whether writing fiction or non-fiction, exact words spoken are indicated by quotes.  “I need help!” yelled Dan.    I am reading “The Hole in the Dike.”   

Title:  5-1  Dragons and Giants  by: Arnold Lobel

Summary:  A classic fictional tale of friendship and courage in the “Frog and Toad” series.  The two are reading a book about brave knight and want to test their courage.  Frog and Toad set out to prove their valor as they hike a mountain, face a hawk and snake, and encounter an avalanche.  Students explore what the true meaning of bravery is.

Spelling Words:  Words with the /aw/ sound spelled aw and au.

Words:  hawk, sauce, thaw, draw, launch, crawl, yawn, author, cause, vault.

Challenge Words:  lawyer, daunting.

Vocabulary Words:

Trembling (v):  shaking.    Avalanche (n):  stones or snow rolling down a mountain.  Leaping (v):  jumping.  Puffing (v):  breathing in short breaths.  Afraid (adj): feeling fear.  Brave (adj):  not afraid.

Grammar Concept:  I can use proper capitalization and punctuation in a letter or note.  The first word in a greeting and the name should be capitalized and then followed by a comma.  In the closing, the first word in the closing should be capitalized, followed by a comma after the word or phrase, then the writer’s name should be capitalized.  Dear Rosa,     TEXT OF LETTER   Yours truly,     Bob    

Title:  4-5  I See Animals Hiding  by: Jim Arnosky

Summary:  This story beautifully summarizes all that we have learned in the camouflage unit.  The children get to review the animals that they have seen, check to see if they can find a few new ones, and discuss what they know.

Spelling Words:  Review lessons 4:1-4.

Words:  blue, rude, frown, cookie, plow, count, duty, cool, scout, books.

Challenge Words:  looser, snowplow.

Vocabulary Words: 

Unaware (v):  not watchful or mindful.    Protective (adj):  keep out of danger or away from harm.   Coloration (n):  the way something is colored.  Imitator (n):  one who copies something or someone.  Available (adj):  being in the area and ready to use.  Natural (adj):  acting on information one is born with.

Grammar Concept:  I can identify when punctuation is used correctly.  This is a review week where we will go back over using commas in a series, but we will also add using colons in time.  Colons are placed between the hour and minutes when writing time.  7:15 and 12:30.

Title:  4-4  How the Guinea Fowl Got Her Spots 

by: Barbara Knutson

Photo Credit: Martin Heigan via Compfight

Summary:  This is a Swahili folktale about how the guinea fowl became spotted in order to protect itself from predators.  Many folktales explain how something came to be the way they were.  In this story we explore why the bird needs camouflage and how animals can adapt.

Spelling Words:  Words with /ow/ sound spelled ow and ou.

Words:  ouch, hour, now, loud, crowd, down, sound, town, howl, round.

Challenge Words:  birdhouse, outside, shower.

Vocabulary Words: 

Delicate (adj):  not strong.    Reeds (n): tall grasses.  Bank  (n):  the land along a stream.  Admired (v):  a to think well of someone or something.  Temper (n):  mood.   Glossy (adj):   bright and shiny.

Grammar Concept:  I can identify synonyms and antonyms.  Synonyms are words that have the same meaning.  To help remember this, I encourage students to think S words:  Synonyms=Same.  Antonyms are words that have the opposite meaning.  To remember this, we think vowels:  Antonyms= Opposites.   Cold-  (synonyms) chilly, nippy, and cool… (antonyms)  warm, hot, stifling.

Title:  4-3  How to Hide an Octopus and other Sea Creatures  by: Ruth Heller

Photo Credit: Richard Ling via Compfight

Summary:  This is a rhyming non-fiction poem about underwater creatures that use camouflage.  Children get to learn about red sea dragons, cuttlefish (seen above), sargassum fish, decorator crabs (below), and more.  By changing to an underwater world, students get to see camouflage in a whole new way.

Photo Credit: Klaus Stiefel via Compfight

Spelling Words:  Short /oo/ sound spelled oo.

Words:  look, good, soot, shook, stood, foot, brook, wood, hoof, hook.

Challenge Words:  uncooked, childhood.

Vocabulary Words: 

Delay (v):  to take a longer time.    Glides (v):  moves in a smooth way.  Design (v):  to plan or make.  Proceeds (v):  moves on or continues.  Fade (v): to lose color or brightness.  Creatures (n):  living things.

Grammar Concept:  I can identify conjunctions in a sentence.  Conjunctions bind together two simple sentences into a compound sentence with a word like and, or, when, however, and but.  Watch “Conjunction Junction” by School House Rock.  I like chocolate ice cream, but I do not like strawberry ice cream.

Title:  4-2  Hungry Little Hare  by: Howard Goldsmith

Photo Credit: davejdoe via Compfight

Summary:  In this fictional story a little snowshoe hare is looking for something delicious to eat.  While hunting down the smell of raspberry plants, he continues to run into several animals hiding in the forest.  This story continues to strengthen students understanding of camouflage in a fun and accessible way.

Spelling Words:  Long /oo/ spelled u, u_e, and ew.

Words:  clue, blew, lure, June, student, dew, grew, due, ruby, overdue.

Challenge Words:  blueberry, salute, fluid, newsroom.

Vocabulary Words: 

Meadow (n):  a flied of grass.    Pond (n):  a small lake.  Scent (n):  a smell.  Disguise (n):  something that hides the way one looks.  Hare (n):  a kind of rabbit.   Stump (n):  the part of the tree that is left after the tree has been cut down.

Grammar Concept:  I can identify that possessive nouns end with an apostrophe and “s,” or if they already end in the letter s, they just have an apostrophe added.  I can also pick out possessive pronouns like: mine, yours, and ours.    Angela’s doll had brown hair.  Mine had red.

Title:  4-1  Animal Camouflage  by: Phyllis Limbacher Tildes

Photo Credit: mariusz kluzniak via Compfight

Summary:  An expository text with beautiful pictures to help children understand the concept behind why animals camouflage.  Some hide to hunt, others to hide from being hunted.  Children get to see the a fascinating look about animals in their environments.

Spelling Words:  Long /oo/ spelled oo.

Words:  hoop, tooth, mood, igloo, soon, bloom, food, room, pooch, pool.

Challenge Words:  noodle, rooster, school.

Vocabulary Words: 

Camouflage (n):  a disguise that makes something look the same as the area around it.    Mimicry (n):  the act of copying.  Patterns (n):  the order of colors, shapes, or lines.  Surroundings (n):  the area around a person or thing.  Pretenders (n): things that make believe it is something else.  Blend (v):  to mix together.

Grammar Concept:  I can identify pronouns that replace nouns.   A pronoun takes the place of a noun and should agree in number and gender it replaces.  Tyler took his dog to the park to play.  The pronoun he would replace Tyler.    

Title:  3-5  Grandpa’s Corner Store  by: DyAnne DiSalvo-Ryan

Photo Credit: Orange County Archives via Compfight

Summary:  In this realistic fiction story, a little girl tries to keep her grandpa from selling his corner grocery store when a large supermarket is opened.  She comes up with solutions to encourage those in her community who love grandpa’s store to help save it.

Spelling Words:  Words with long /u/.  Open and closed syllables.

Words:  open, humid, until, person, cancel, fuel, begin, wagon, number, minus.

Challenge Words:  continue, dial, united, radio, moment.

Vocabulary Words: 

Arrangement (n):  a plan.    Tingle (v):  to have a slight stinging feeling.   Huddled (v):  to crown together.  Sharp (v):  exact.  Construction (v):  the act of building something.  Aisles:  the space between two rows or sections of something.

Grammar Concept:  I can identify the words that make up contractions.  Contractions are commonly used combinations of two words in which an apostrophe replaces letters dropped from one or both words.   Examples:  do not—don’t   they are—they’re   she will—she’ll