Spring Break

How's Your Spring Break?

I hope you are all having an entertaining vacation. I have been savoring every second of it. Some of the things I did included celebrating a holiday called Passover with my family. We ate scrumptious food and spent hours conversing about many different topics.

I have also been pretty busy watching these guys...

Four Boxers is very time consuming. Since they enjoy chewing my shoes, I have had to be very careful to not leave them unattended!

 

 What have you been doing over your vacation? Did you celebrate any holidays? Have you had a chance to see any of your friends over the break?

Write 3 to 5 sentences telling us about your vacation. How many high vocabulary words can you use?

Perfect Polygons

Perfect Polygons

Geometry is a fascinating area in math. Many people wonder how learning about shapes and lines help us be better mathematicians. 

Maybe after today's lesson you may have an answer. 

Today we talked about polygons. 

We compared and contrasted the features of polygons and non polygons and created educreation videos to help us classify shapes around the room. Watch some below. 

 

 

We also created videos to help us understand what shapes are NOT polygons.  

 

 

 

Write three to four sentences answering the following:

How do you think learning about shapes helps you be better at math? Why do you think learning about geometry is important? How do you use it in your life? 

Dependent Clause

The Laws of a Clause 

Since we are such excellent writers, we have been practicing creating compound sentences. Usually compound sentences have two parts, an independent and dependent clause. 

Independent clause : has a subject and verb and can be a complete sentence. It can stand alone, or is independent.

Dependent clause : Is not a complete thought and depends on the independent clause to "earn" or be part of a complete sentence. 

 You will have to follow certain laws when you use these clauses. Click on the link below the BrainpopJr. picture to watch Moby explain one of the important laws. 

 
Brainpopjr. Clauses

When writing a compound sentence, you will most likely use a conjunction. Here is a list of some great conjunctions.   

 

Please write a comment using a compound sentence. Ask a friend to identify the independent clause, dependent clause and the conjunction. As a challenge try starting your sentence with a dependent clause.

Compound Sentences

Simple to Complex with Badger Claws

Writer's use many different techniques to improve their writing. We have been working hard at two different strategies. One thing writer's do is use extensive vocabulary. Using high or strong vocabulary words add detail and can draw your reader's into your writing. 

Today, we brainstormed a few words to describe how Badger Claws must have been feeling and some character traits. Here is an example.

 Badger claws was feeling melancholic. He missed his dad. 

This sentence is a great example of using vocabulary. However, it is also an example of a simple sentence.

What is a simple sentence you ask? 

Badger Claws was feeling melancholic.

Badger Claws is the subject and was feeling melancholic is the predicate.

Another way a writer can improve their writing is by changing simple sentences into complex sentences. These sentences elaborate on ideas by answering where? why? what? when? or how?

Here is an example.

Badger Claws felt melancholic when the memory of his father came to him. 

Not only am I combining two shorter sentences, but I am elaborating by adding why and when he felt melancholic.

Writers can also enhance their writing by making simple sentences into complex sentences by adding a conjunction.

Badger claws was feeling melancholic when the memory of his father came to him.

Badger claws was feeling melancholic is the independent clause. That simply means it is a complete sentence. 

 Badger claws was feeling melancholic when the memory of his father came to him.

when the memory of his father came to him is not a complete sentence. It is considered a dependent clause because it "depends" on the independent clause to be a complete sentence.

What conjunction did I use in the sentence? 

 Badger claws was feeling melancholic when the memory of his father came to him.

Some other conjunctions writers use are:
because, since, if, so, although, and, but, when, unless, even though,  and after.


Find two simple sentences in chapter 1-4 of Badger Claws. Copy them into your comment. Then, enhance the sentences by adding vocabulary or making a complex sentence. Be sure to use a conjunction. Look at the examples for help.

Classy Quotations

Dialogue, or a conversation between people, is a phenomenal way to enhance our writing. We have been working on writing personal narratives about events in our own lives. We converse, or talk, to people everyday, so it is important to include dialogue in our writing.

When adding dialogue to our stories it is important we punctuate correctly. Otherwise our stories and sentences can be confusing. How we punctuate is all based on where the tag, or person's name is.

If the speaker is named at the end of the sentence it can end with a comma an exclamation mark or a questions mark. The punctuation goes inside the quotes. A period ends the sentence. 

"Brutus, don't even think about eating my decadent chocolate cake!" exclaimed Mrs. Broussard.

 A speaker can be named before the quotation marks as well. That would mean the punctuation is at the end of the sentence inside the quotes. You must also place a comma before the quotes start. 

Mrs. Broussard shrieked, "Tank, why did you eat my delicious dinner?"

Sometimes the speaker can be named in the middle of the sentence. In that case, commas are placed at the end of the first quotation and after you name the speaker. 

"You two behave so awfully," Mrs. Broussard said wagging her finger, "I can never leave you alone."  

 

Can you write a blog comment using dialogue and compound sentences? Tell me about an entertaining conversation you may have had with a friend, your parents, or even a teacher. You must use proper punctuation!

Let's Go Shopping

Let's Go Shopping!

Have you ever taken a trip to Costco, the supermarket or even Target?  

Have you ever bought a pack of items like pencils, notebooks, t-shirts or socks? 

Did you ever try to determine the cost of each item in the pack? 

That is division! 

Today in class we went shopping. The price for these spectacular classroom items was per pack. Consequently, we did not know the cost of each individual item? 

How can we figure our the price of each item in the pack?

First, we took the items out of the bags and spread them out across the tables.

Then, we divided the amount of money equally for each item. 

Then we counted the amount of money for each item! That told us the cost of each item.

In some cases we had to work around a challenge. Some items had to be paid for with a mix of $5 and $1 bills. We quickly realized that it is best to divide up the larger bills first.

Here is a real life example that illustrates how important division is.
 Kimia is obsessed with the movie Frozen. When she went to Target with her brother, she was ecstatic to see a pack of Elsa themed notebooks that would be perfect for her goody bags. 

Kimia found  a pack of 4 glistening notebooks costing a total of $12. She quickly grabbed them from the shelf and pleased her brother to purchase them for her. Kiano curiously asked her how much each notebook would cost. 

Can you help Kimia find the cost for each individual notebook? 

Write a story problem as a comment. Tell us where, when and what you were purchasing in a pack. How much did the entire pack cost? How many items were in each pack? 

Ask a friend to solve your problem! Be sure to write expanded sentences using adjectives or even adverbs!

Cause and Effect

Cause and Effect

 

This week's comprehension skill is "Cause and Effect".

While reading it's good practice to ask yourself "why did this happen?" or "what is going to happen?"

Identifying the cause and effect can help you better understand the text or story!

Often sentences will have signal words that can help you identify the cause and effect.

Some words include:

so 

as a result

because

therefore

consequently

since

Can you write a sentence and ask a friend to identify the cause and the effect. Remember our strategy! Break the sentence apart. 

When Raana sneakily stole her tasty popcorn Mrs. Broussard began to cry . 

Ask yourself "What makes most sense?"

Raana stole her popcorn BECAUSE Mrs. Broussard began to cry. 

or

Mrs. Broussard began to cry BECAUSE Raana stole her popcorn.

Whichever part of the sentence follows the "because" can be identified as the cause! 

Whichever part precedes, or comes before the "because" is the effect!

Can you write a cause and effect comment? Identify which part of the sentence is the cause and which is the effect. 

Challenge yourself by writing a sentence that does not use because as a signal word!