Feb. 18, 2008 - wk 18 (O-4 & S-2)
2/4-8/08
In view of the elections in California this week, we read a book entitled The Voice of the People: American Democracy in Action by Betsy and Giulio Maestro. This was a great book for an overview of how our American government is run, the three branches of the federal government, and the voting system for our national elections. I got the book from Love-to-Learn.
Monday, Part 1
We completed a reading in McCall-Crabbs today.
Monday, Part 2
WARM-UP The children reviewed all 70 phonogram cards in unison, sounds only. Next, they took a review quiz of five multiletter phonograms and the words from Section S-2, which they covered last week.
Monday, Part 3
REINFORCEMENT We added words from both O-4 and S-2 to the following Reference Pages: ER, SH/TI, Numbers, Y's, 1-1-1, and Abbreviations.
Wednesday, Part 1
We started with a McCall-Crabbs reading today.
Wednesday, Part 2
REINFORCEMENT I dictated the words from Section O-4 to the children in a quiz format, having them write them down the left column of their spiral notebooks. After each word was dictated, I wrote it on our white board so they would have instant feedback and could immediately correct their work. Next, I wrote at the top of the white board the prefixes and their meanings which are listed in the WG on page 124. After giving some examples with the first few words, the children wrote a list of derivatives by adding appropriate prefixes to their spelling words.
Wednesday, Part 3
REINFORCEMENT Later in the day: Due to being short on time, I had each of the children take a quiz on the words from list S-2 with the Companion CDs. Again, they wrote the words down the left column of their spiral notebooks. After everyone had taken the quiz independently, I wrote the words on our white board for them to self-correct. Then, I added the prefixes and their meanings which are found in the WG on page 179 at the top of the board. Again, they created derivatives from the spelling words by adding appropriate prefixes.
How wonderful that the same activity was found in both of our spelling lists this week. Toward the end of their work on this second list, the children were having a lot of fun discovering new vocabulary by mixing prefixes with their spelling words.
Another terrific benefit of this activity is that they could see for themselves why a word such as irregular has two R’s, but yet disappear only has one S but two P’s. We discussed how prefixes are simply added to the root word at the beginning, but suffixes require careful attention to rules when added at the end of a word. I could have explained that to them fifteen times, and it would have made no sense. However, building the words themselves in this way made the process come alive, and now they have a better understanding of how words are build in the English language.
Thursday, Part 1
END-OF-THE-WEEK TEST The children took their test on O-4 and S-2 using the Companion CDs. All did very well.
