Structured Literacy: (phonological awareness, phonics, handwriting, spelling, and decoding)

This week, students will learn about the digraphs ck, ng, and ph. A digraph is two letters that come together to make a single sound. These lessons help students recognize common spelling patterns and become more confident readers and writers.

Heart Words: Each week, students will also learn irregularly spelled words, known as “heart words.” These are words that students must learn “by heart” because part of the word doesn’t follow regular spelling rules. This week’s heart word is “nothing.”

Reading:

This week in reading, we will read “The Important Book” as we learn about the central idea. Then we will read the text, “Many Kinds of Matter.” We will learn the comprehension strategies of “Making Inferences” and learning about “Content Area Words.”

Central Idea: This week, students will learn how to identify the central idea of an informational text. The topic of a text is the person, place, or thing it is about. The central idea is the most important point the author wants to make about that topic. Students will first figure out the topic, then look for supporting evidence—facts or examples that explain the author’s main point—and think about what that evidence has in common.

Make Inferences: This week, students will practice making inferences while they read. Making inferences means using clues from the text and what you already know to figure out something the author doesn’t say directly. This helps readers understand the story or information more deeply and think about the author’s message.

Content Area Words: Sometimes, authors use science and social studies words that they may not know. These are called content-area words. Students will discuss context clues using text features, pictures, and words to figure out an unknown word’s meaning.

The Important Book by Margaret Wise Brown uses a repeating pattern to share facts about everyday objects while highlighting the single most important thing about each one. Through simple language and vivid imagery, the book encourages children to notice details and think about what makes something special, while also recognizing that every object has one key characteristic that stands out above the rest.

Many Kinds of Matter by Jennifer Boothroyd introduces young readers to the concept that all things are made of matter, which can exist in different forms—solid, liquid, and gas. Using clear explanations and real-world examples, the book helps children understand how matter changes states and why these changes happen.

Our vocabulary words for these texts are:

• amount
• material
• space
• example
• easily
• forms
• planet
• tasty

Vocabulary and Language Development
This week, students will learn how to identify and discuss the meanings of the suffixes -er and -est. A suffix is a word part added to the end of a base word that changes the meaning of the word. The endings -er and -est can be added to many adjectives to compare. For example, tasty/tastier/tastiest.

Students will also be learning the vocabulary strategy of using synonyms. Identifying synonym word relationships can be useful. Thinking of a synonym for a word you read and replacing it in the sentence to make the whole sentence mean the same or almost the same thing is a good way to make sure you understand the word’s meaning.

Writing: 

This week, students will continue working on their personal narratives. We will draft middles and endings to our stories and then begin revising and editing their work! 

Grammar:

This week, students will continue learning about sentence types. Students will analyze another piece of writing to see how different kinds of sentences are used to make the writing more varied and engaging.

On Wednesday, students will learn that nouns are people, animals, places, and things. Students will analyze another piece of writing to see how using exact nouns creates a picture in the minds of the reader.

Structured Literacy: (phonological awareness, phonics, handwriting, spelling, and decoding) 

This week, students will learn about the digraph ck. A digraph is two letters that come together to make a single sound. For example, ck as in rock. This digraph follows the “short-short rule”- it is used in short words after a short vowel, much like the floss rule we have talked about in class before. We will also discuss the digraph ng as in swing. These lessons help students recognize common spelling patterns and become more confident readers and writers. 

Heart Words: Each week, students will also learn irregularly spelled words, known as “heart words.” These are words that students must learn “by heart” because part of the word doesn’t follow regular spelling rules. This week’s heart word is “nothing.” 

Reading: 

This week in reading, we will read the text, “Picture Day Perfection,” working on the comprehension strategies of “Creating Mental Images,” “Central Idea,” and thinking about the characters in the stories. 

Characters: Students will learn that characters are the people or animals a story is about. Authors give clues about characters through external traits—what they look like on the outside—and internal traits—what they think, feel, or do. By paying attention to these traits in both the text and illustrations, readers can better understand a character’s perspective and why they react the way they do. 

Create Mental Images: This week, students will practice creating mental images while they read. Creating mental images means making a “movie in your mind” using the details from the text. This helps readers better understand and remember what they read. 

Central Idea: This week, students will learn how to identify the central idea of an informational text. The topic of a text is the person, place, or thing it is about. The central idea is the most important point the author wants to make about that topic. Students will first figure out the topic, then look for supporting evidence—facts or examples that explain the author’s main point—and think about what that evidence has in common. 

Picture Day Perfection written by Deborah Diesen, illustrated by Dan Santat, is the story of a boy who is determined to have the worst school picture day ever. From making silly faces to wearing a messy shirt, he plans every detail for a perfectly bad picture. But when the big moment comes, things don’t go quite as he expected—leading to a surprising twist. 

Our vocabulary words for this text are: 

• planned 

• perfect 

• hamper 

• disaster 

• scowl 

• mood 

• queasy 

• fiddled 

Vocabulary and Language Development 
This week, students will learn how to identify and use the inflections -ed and -ing. They’ll practice adding these endings to verbs to show past actions (-ed) and actions happening now (-ing), and use them correctly in their speaking and writing. Examples include jump/jumped/jumping, play/played/playing, and cook/cooked/cooking. 

Writing:  

This week, students will work on their personal narratives about a time they did a good deed. We will work on pre-writing, including identifying characters, a setting, and a beginning, middle, and end for their story, along with a conflict and resolution. Then, we will begin the process of drafting and revising their stories.  

Grammar: 

This week, students will learn about run-on sentences, statements, questions, commands, and exclamations. They will practice identifying and using each sentence type correctly. For example: 

• Statement: The dog is sleeping. 

• Question: Where is the dog? 

• Command: Please feed the dog. 

• Exclamation: The dog ran away! 

• Run-on sentence: The dog is sleeping he is tired. 

• Corrected run-on: The dog is sleeping because he is tired. or The dog is sleeping. He is tired. 

Students will also analyze another piece of writing to see how different kinds of sentences are used to make the writing more varied and engaging. 

Structured Literacy: (phonological awareness, phonics, handwriting, spelling, and decoding)

This week, students will learn about the FLOSS spelling rule. This rule helps them remember to double the final f, l, or s in one-syllable words that end in a short vowel followed by those letters (like bell, fluff, or pass). We'll also be working with word families that follow similar patterns, including –all, –oll, and –ull. These lessons help students recognize common spelling patterns and become more confident readers and writers.

Heart Words: Each week, students will also learn irregularly spelled words, known as “heart words.” These are words that students must learn “by heart” because part of the word doesn’t follow regular spelling rules. This week’s heart word is “been.”

Reading:

This week in reading, we will read “The Great Puppy Invasion” as we learn about the comprehension strategies of “Monitor and Clarify” and “Author’s Purpose.” Then we will read the text, “Being a Good Citizen,” as we learn the comprehension strategies of “Summarizing” and “Author’s Purpose.”

Monitor and Clarify: It’s important for readers to check for understanding, or monitor, as they read. If something doesn’t make sense, they need to clarify. This means to try to fix up what they don’t understand.

Author’s Purpose: Authors have a specific reason for writing a text. Identifying the author’s purpose helps readers understand the text and what the author wants the reader to learn. The author’s purpose can be to persuade, inform, or entertain.

Summarize: Informational texts include many important ideas. To make certain readers understand them, they should summarize the text. When summarizing, readers should retell the central idea and relevant details in their own words or paraphrase.

The Great Puppy Invasion by Alastair Heim, illustrated by Kim Smith, is about a town where pets are not allowed. One day, dozens of puppies mysteriously appear, causing confusion and excitement. A young boy named Teddy tries to figure out what to do as the town responds to the unexpected arrival.

Being a Good Citizen by Rachelle Kreisman is a nonfiction text that explains what it means to be a good citizen. It describes ways people can help their communities, follow rules, respect others, and take responsibility for making the world a better place.

Our vocabulary words for these texts are:

• panicked
• ridiculous
• prohibited
• cautiously
• elected
• local
• mock
• compliment

Vocabulary and Language Development
This week, students will learn how to identify and use adjectives to describe nouns. They'll practice using descriptive words to make their speaking and writing more detailed and interesting.

MAPS Testing: Our MAPS test was postponed to this week. Students will now take the Reading MAPS assessment on the morning of Tuesday, August 19. 

Writing: 

This week, students are learning about the steps of the writing process—planning, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing. As they become familiar with each step, they’ll begin using a variety of prewriting strategies to plan their own narrative stories. This will help them organize their thoughts and set a strong foundation before they begin drafting.

Grammar:

This week, students will learn how to identify and use complete simple sentences in both speaking and writing. We will review that a complete sentence has two parts: a subject (who or what the sentence is about) and a predicate (what the subject does). Understanding these parts helps students write clearly and communicate their ideas effectively.

Structured Literacy: (phonological awareness, phonics, handwriting, spelling, and decoding)

Last week, students learned about closed syllables. A syllable is a word chunk with one vowel sound. In a closed syllable, there is one vowel letter followed by a consonant, and the vowel makes its short sound. Examples include cat, dig, ham, and job. On Friday, students learned about closed syllable exceptions. These are words that look like they follow the closed syllable pattern—one vowel followed by a consonant—but instead of making the short vowel sound, the vowel makes its long sound. Examples include cold, most, bolt, and wild.

Each week, students will also learn irregularly spelled words, known as “heart words.” These are words that students must learn “by heart” because part of the word doesn’t follow regular spelling rules.

This week’s heart words are into and two.

This week, students will learn about open syllables. In an open syllable, there is only one vowel sound, and the syllable ends with that vowel—meaning it’s not “closed in” by a consonant. The vowel makes its long sound. Examples include go, we, and hi.

Reading

Last week in reading, students focused on identifying the central idea of a text. We read a personal narrative, We Are Super Citizens; an informational book, Meet the Dogs of Bedlam Farm. This week, we are starting a fantasy story, Clark the Shark. Our vocabulary words will be:

• munch
• bellowed
• rough
• handle
• cool
• bounce
• grinned
• might

This week, we will continue reading Clark the Shark as we learn about asking and answering questions and the setting. Our vocabulary work will focus on verbs, and we will also practice using antonyms as a vocabulary strategy.

Writing and Grammar: 

Last week, students learned about subjects and predicates. A sentence has two main parts: the naming part, called the subject, and the action part, called the predicate.

This week, students will connect what they’ve learned about subjects and predicates to their writing. They will practice combining two simple sentences to create compound subjects. For example, instead of writing, “The boys ate the cake. The girls ate the cake,” students would write, “The boys and girls ate the cake.”

Students will take a writing assessment on Monday morning and the Reading MAPS assessment on Tuesday morning.