Week 34 Spelling Words

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Printable Texas Word Jumble Worksheet - Interactive US Geography Game

This morning…

Printable Texas Word Jumble Worksheet - Interactive US Geography Game

And the afternoon fun…

Persuasive Arguments

1. Persuasive Arguments

Let's revisit a somewhat familiar topic: Persuasive Arguments.  As you can see in the definition to the left, this is the art of getting what you want.

Now I know that all of you are good boys and girls, so it's probably not that difficult to persuade your parents to get the things you need or want.  However, ……..from time to time it may be necessary to use some creative language and a good solid argument to change your parents mind.

Let's see how creative or crafty you can get with language to persuade them.

Throughout the week, each of you has done a little bit of research about a particular country. You've looked into the history, culture, food, dance and geography of those places.  Now, try your skills at persuading your parents to take you to this country for a vacation or an exploration mission.

Here are some helpful questions to guide you along:

For Beginners:
1) Why do you want to visit this place?
2) What is so interesting about the place?
3) Is there something neat about the geography of the country?
4) Is there something historical or famous about the country you want to visit?

Paragraph 2

1) Introduce your parents to something special about the culture of your country.
2) Describe something that is popular in the country, such as art, outdoor activities, or fun stuff.
2) Now mention some of the awesome foods that are available in this country.
3) You can describe some types of music or dance that your parents might enjoy seeing.


Paragraph 3

1) Give some interesting facts and details about your country.
2) What sea, ocean or other countries are nearby?
3) What is the population of your country?
4) What are the three largest cities?
5) Name 3 or 4 types of industry or work in your country.

Paragraph 4

1) Describe some famous actors or actresses from your country.
2) Who are some famous musicians from your country?
3) Give an example of something important that happened in the history of your country?

Paragraph 5)

Now give a small summary of the biggest reasons why you want to visit your country and why your parents would enjoy the trip. This is only two or three sentences.

Root Words, Prefixes, Suffixes

1. Root words are an essential part of our language and communication.  These important words represent the patterns and connections between things we say each and everyday.  A quick example is the word mico, which means smalls.  So words such as microscope, microphone, microcosm all indicate something small.

Root Words, Prefixes, Suffixes



2. Math

This is the same chart that you will receive on the day of the Math STAAR test.

We have used similar reference charts in the past to help learn about the process of converting one amount to another.
Conversion of numbers and figures is essential for adding, subtracting, multiplying or dividing similar numbers.

Remember that you can only subtract gallons from gallons, or multiply quarts by quarts.
When the problem presents you with 2 yards, but asks you to add that amount to 14 feet, you know that you have to change the yards to feet so that the addition problem is possible.

Let's practice!!

Problem 1

Wilson is learning to play the piano and he plays a lot of short songs that are 120 seconds long.  If he place 10 of these songs everyday, how many minutes is he practice each day?


Problem 2

Charlie is learning to skateboard and he practices Monday, Wednesday and Friday every week.  Imagine if he did this every single week for an entire year. How may total days of practice would that be for the year?


Problem 3

Phillip has to serve 8 ounces (oz) of grape juice to each of his 10 little cousins.  How many cups of grape juice will he need to purchase?

Now that he knows the amount of cups he will need to purchase, can you figure out  how many pints he would need?


Problem 4

Brenda purchases 4 yards of ribbon to make bows for her granddaughters.  If each bow takes 2 feet of ribbon, how many bows will she be able to make?


Problem 5

Brian is buying hamburger for his family picnic.  If he buys 5 pounds of hamburger, how many ounces (oz) will he have?

If he makes hamburgers that take 4 ounces (oz) of meat each, how many hamburgers will he be able to make?


Problem 6
Sara buys a toy that weighs 23 grams. How many milligrams does the car weight?

3. Short Stories

The Fir Tree

The Red Shoes

The Moonlit Road


4. Statistics

Data Collection 

Biased and Unbiased Questions 

Idioms

1. Idioms

Idioms are fun expressions that we use everyday.  When we make an idiom, we take a familiar part of our daily speech and use it in a silly, awkward or odd way.  For example, a common idiom where I grew up is to "my ears are burning." We're all familiar with our ears, we know what they are for, we know what they do, we know how they look and we know where they are placed on the human body. However, it wouldn't be a particularly good thing if our ears were actually on fire. 

So what does this idiom really mean.  It means that our ears are alert, attentive and attuned to receive some important news.  We are so excited inside and so hunger to hear the news that we say, "my ears are burning."  It sounds pretty simple, logical and sill all at the same time; that's the beauty of an idiom.

Click here to expand our lesson and get some more examples of common idioms.

2. Quick Math Drills

Click here…

Quick Math

3. Week 20 Compound Words

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Words, Words, Words

1. Let us review our word choices and definitions.

Word-O-Rama

Homophones








2. Short Story

King Grisly-Beard

The Happy Prince

The Frog Prince

3.  More Math Word Problems

Problem 1

Ms. Schultz bought 24 school supply bags and put 12 pencils into each bag.

How many pencils does Ms. Schultz have?

Problem 2

Ms. Schultz had 152 pencils that she needed to split equally into four school

supply bags. How many pencils will be in each bag?

Problem 3

Coach Berkman had 240 baseballs. He sorted the baseballs into bags with

eight baseballs in each bag. How many bags did Coach Berkman fill?

Problem 4

Coach Berkman had 14 bags of baseballs. If there were

20 baseballs in each bag, how many baseballs did he have?

Problem 5

Ms. Schultz bought 16 boxes of pencils and each box contained

36 pencils. How many pencils did Ms. Schultz buy?

Energy Sources

1. Energy

While energy is all around us, we can rarely touch it or feel it or touch it.  Try to reach out and grab a handful of sunshine, can you feel the heat and the energy? However, to really capture the really power of this energy you would have to go inside your body to see how the skins cells are reacting.

The only way to capture the true potential of any energy source is to have to right way to process that energy. If you have gasoline, it's basically worthless unless you have an engine to process it and use it. You need the proper way to break that energy down and produce motion.

For a nice website that explains the many forms, dynamics and uses of energy, click here.  

2. It is important for us to understand the two types of energy that exist around us.

Some types of energy are renewable meaning that they are natural and can will always be present. The wind and sun are examples of renewable energies that are always available to us. Other forms of energy are non-renewable which means that they could be here one day and gone the next.  Two examples of non-renewable energies are oil and coal.  We must be careful how we use these forms of energy because one day they could completely disappear from the face of the earth.

3. One important part of understanding the things we read is to know what particular words mean in the context of the story.  Think about some of the vocabulary words that we are studying this week. For example the word 'shoulder' can have different things depending on the context.  In one story, shoulder can mean a part of the body between the neck and the upper arm. However, in another sentence the word shoulder can mean to carry or haul a load. Therefore, we must pay attention to all of the words in a story so that we will understand the entire context of the story.  Try this interactive website about Context Clues

Spring Has Sprung

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Spring has sprung

Week 26 Spelling Words

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Human Genes

1. Our science lessons will now switch from ecosystems and animal interactions to the make up of the human body.

Let's think for just a minute about what is inside our bodies that makes us unique and individual. Each and everyone one of us has a similar arrangement of body parts, organs, systems and functions.  However, there is one special thing inside our bodies that sets us apart from others.

This special thing that gives us our own character is our genetic make up.  So just want are the genes inside of us that make us different from our neighbors.

Click on the follow link about Genes to begin our new scientific investigation of the process of discovering how we may all be human beings, yet distinctly different from each other.

2. Week 25 Spelling Words

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Paying Attention to Detail

1. Grammar Quiz

Some of the smallest words can cause some of the biggest errors in our writing.  One little mistake can signal to others that we really aren't very good writers, or show that we don't pay close attention to details.

Here is a small quiz about the use of 'a' and 'an' in a sentence.  This quiz will ask you when to use each one properly, or perhaps you don't need to use either.

A, An or Nothing Quiz


2. Let's get ourselves ready for the upcoming achievement test.

Practice these questions. Record your answers in your math journal.

Now look at these pattern questions.

3. Reading Comprehension

Ecosystems

    An ecosystem is all the things that interact in a specific area, whether they are living, or non-living.  Some examples of non-living things that support life in an ecosystem are light, air, soil, and water. 

     Living things are the organisms (plants and animals) that use those resources. Each of the specific 

ecosystems in the world has its own conditions created by the non-living things. These conditions determine what kinds of living things will be able to thrive there. Organisms can only thrive where their needs are being met. Everything in an organism’s environment has an effect on it. A temperate zone 

is an area where the conditions never become too hot or too cold, allowing many different kinds of organisms to thrive.  

     All the living things in an ecosystem are called a community. All of one specific kind of organism living in a community is called a population. All the tree frogs in a rainforest community are one population within the community. All the white birch trees are another population within the same 

community.  All the jaguars are yet another rainforest community population. 

     

     All living organisms perform certain life processes. They take in nutrients like air, sunlight, water, and food. They use energy from those nutrients to grow and develop. They release energy by doing work and moving. They release waste products. They react to things in their environment.  They 

reproduce, producing offspring (babies) that are similar to themselves.  

Answer the following questions based on the reading passage. Don’t forget to go back to the passage 

whenever necessary to find or confirm your answers.  

1) What would happen to the living organisms in an ecosystem if some of the non-living things were removed? Why? 

_____________________________________________________ 

_____________________________________________________ 

2) What are some of the life processes that living organisms do? 

_____________________________________________________ 

_____________________________________________________ 

3) What would happen in an ecosystem if one population grew 

too large for its needs to be met?  

_____________________________________________________ 

_____________________________________________________ 

4) Explain how the living and non-living parts of an ecosystem 

work together. 

_____________________________________________________ 

_____________________________________________________ 

5) Why does a temperate zone support the greatest variety of 

organisms?  

_____________________________________________________ 

___________________________________________________

Transition Words and Phrases

1. Making writing better
One important tool to help make our writing better is the use of transition words.  It would be boring to read sentence after sentence without some words to help move things around.

Transition Words and Phrases (Reference)

Extra Word Game

2. Reading Comprehension

Stay-At-Home Cow

By: Chantele Langley

“I just put in about nine hours at the design firm today,” Molly Sheep told the gals before she sipped her coffee.

“Oh nice,” Mrs. Duck said. “My job has been hard, too. The Floffertown Hospital has been swamped with flu patients.

“Yeah, I am now working two jobs,” Cindy Chicken bawked. “In addition to the egg business, I have a day care for mothers that have to work away from the farm.”

Mama Cow started to feel like she wanted to hide under the table. She didn't have even one job. She wondered if the other ladies would think bad things about her since she was just a mother. She liked it, though. Just that morning she got excited about finding out you could use lemon oil to polish wood. 

Her house smelled so clean. It also made her smile so big when she got compliments from her family on her grass and wheat omelet. Moopers, her son, told her it was what helped him get through his day and Bertha, her daughter, kissed her on the cheek and told her she was the best cook on the farm.

“What about you?” Molly Sheep turned towards her. “Well...” Mama Cow started. “Oh no! Is that a fly in my tea?” She tried to distract them with a little white lie. “I will be right back ladies. Let me take this to the counter and get a new drink.”

“Sure thing.” Cindy Chicken said and started telling the ladies about a new headache medicine her husband gave her.

Mama Cow walked back up to the counter and ordered a different type of tea from a young girl goat.

“Aren't you Bertha's mom?” she asked. “Yes, I am.” “She tells us all the time what a great mom you are. She also let me try your yummy sugar cookies. She's a lucky calf. My mom travels a lot for work so we don't get to spend much time together.”

“Well you're welcome to come over any time, sweetie.” Mama Cow took her tea back to the table. She didn't feel embarrassed anymore and told the ladies since she didn't work she had time to make them dinner on Saturday.

They were all grateful for the invite and when Saturday came, they had a lovely time. They said many nice things about her house and food and Mama Cow went to bed thinking that being a house-mom was the best job of all.

Questions

1. How many animals were at the table at the coffee shop? 

A. 2

B. 3 

C. 4 

D. 5

2. Who worked at the Floffertown Hospital? 

A. Mrs. Duck

B. Cindy Chicken 

C. The Young Goat

D. Mama Cow

3. What breakfast did Mama Cow make for her children that morning? 

A. Bacon and Eggs

B. Sugar Cookies 

C. Hot Tea 

D. Grass and wheat omelet

4. Why did Mama Cow feel bad about herself? 

A. She had tea not coffee 

B. She was a house-mom and didn’t have a job 

C. She was a bad cook 

D. Her children behaved badly

5. Mama Cow felt even worse about herself at the end of the story. 

A. True

B. False

3. Adverbs, again

Click on this tutorial for a review of Adverbs.

Now take this QUIZ.





4. Extra Credit

Click on the following link for a grammar correction quiz.  You must write down the incorrect word that was given and the correct word that you choose as the replacement.

Follow this link for a quiz on choosing the proper verb and verb form for each sentence.

They're...Their...There

They’re/Their/There •  •  •  •Rules to Remember

The easiest way to learn which of these words to use is to memorize when to use they’re and their. Then you know that you must use there in every other case.

Rule: The word they’re is always a contraction. Use it only when you can substitute they are.

  **Why don’t frogs live very long? . . . because they’re always croaking

  

  **Father: “What are your grades like this term?” Son: “They’re underwater.” Father: “What does that

  mean?” 

  Son: “Below C level.”

  

  **Why don’t elephants like computers? . . . They’re afraid of the mouse.

Rule: The word their is always a pronoun. Use it to show ownership.

  

 **Why are male deer always smiling? . . . to show off their buck teeth

  

   **Why did they open the first drive-through restaurant? . . . so people could curb their appetites

  

   **Why were the elephants thrown out of the water park? . . . They couldn’t keep their trunks up.

Rule: The word there is used as an adverb or pronoun. It is used to show a place or a position, to tell of the existence of something, or when the verb comes before the subject in a sentence.

   

  **Boy: “That bank won’t let my dad withdraw any money.”

       Girl: “Why not?”

       Boy: “He doesn’t have any in there.”

   • Explanation: “there” shows place in this example.

   

   **Girl: “What caused your flat tire?” Boy: “There was a fork in the road.”

   • Explanation: “there” shows existence in this example.

   

   **Boy: “Why did you laugh when the teacher asked you what W-A-L-R-U-S spells?”

       Girl: “Because there is no such thing as a walrus that spells.”

   • Explanation: the verb “is” comes before the subject “thing.”

Directions: Finish each punchline by writing they’re, their, or there. Remember to capitalize the first word in a sentence.

1. How do you know that grandfather clocks are shy? . . . They always have _______________ hands over _________________ faces.

2. Why do people consider flowers lazy? . . . _____________________ always in beds.

3. What kind of animals are the easiest to weigh? . . . Reptiles; they always carry around _____________________ scales.

4. What’s the longest word in the English language? . . . “Smiles”; ____________________ is a mile between the first and last letters.

5. Why do the numbers one through twelve make the best guards? . . . because they spend all of _____________________ time on the watch

6. If six copycats sat on a fence and one jumped down, how many would be left on the fence?

. . . None, _____________________ all copycats! 

7. Do doctors get a big charge out of their work?

. . . No, but _____________________ patients surely do! 

8. Why is winter the best time to purchase a thermometer?

. . . because in summer _____________________ higher 

9. Why were the baby strawberries upset?

. . . _____________________ parents were in a jam. 

10. When does it rain money?

. . . whenever ___________________ is change in the weather