More on Gooseberry Park

I'm doing my second read this week taking detailed notes. 

This is hands-down the best book I've read to review how to punctuate items in a series. There are numerous examples of separating nouns, predicates, and even prepositional phrases. When predicates are separated, it provides practice with parallelism. There is a special rule, not noted in my current punctuation chart, about using semi-colons to separate items in a series when they have internal commas. Cynthia Rylant's writing provides some stellar examples.

Kona looked back at his good friend staring anxiously through the glass, at Professor Albert snoring peacefully on the sofa, at his own warm bed in the corner, and at the inviting flames of the fireplace. pg 50

When Professor Albert finally woke up, it was four o’clock in the morning. Gwendolyn was waving her antennae like an inspired conductor; Kona could be heard rattling around down in the basement; some bits of . . . egg roll? . . . lay on the carpet; and the world outside was nothing but solid, unyielding ice. pg 62

Halloween Read Aloud Freebie

The lack of even a thank you for all of the freebies I have up is honestly, very discouraging. Despite that, I uploaded a 4-page grammar freebie on Ramona the Pest. Chapter 6 is titled The Baddest Witch in the World. Since I was working on the book in its entirety to add to several different packets, I decided to put one more freebie out there. 

It's encouraging to me to see that my work is being downloaded because that means that students out there somewhere are practicing grammar in context. When is this idea going to catch on? I did a portion of this worksheet with my third-grader, and I could clearly see how much more fun it is to do a language arts worksheet when it ties into a story you enjoyed. And he enjoyed the Ramona books all summer long!

The Best Halloween Ever

To be honest, I'm not sure what I think of this book. Maybe I'm thinking too deeply about it, but I felt sorry for the Herdmans! My 3rd grader is enjoying this Read Aloud right now though.

The story centers around six siblings, the Herdmans, who cause chaos wherever they go. All year long, their capers frustrate the people in this town until eventually, the mayor cancels Halloween. Here are a few dependent adverbial clauses which can be structured into a worksheet to help students practice writing complex sentences and identifying subjects and verbs. They all belong to the Time and Sequence category.

Whenever the Herdmans were around,

After the Herdmans switched the sardines for guppies,

While the bank guard kept watch over the fish tank,

When Imogene overheard about “Herdman-free” Halloween,

While the lights were out at the school,

As soon as Alice plugged herself into the socket,

After the lights went out at Woodrow Wilson on Halloween night,

The Sign of the Beaver

My fifth-grader is currently participating in the Read-A-Thon for his school, and his teacher has assigned a Battle of the Books challenge for the month of October. Students will read 4 out of 6 books, write questions and answers about the books, and compete in teams at the end of the month. This was one of the books assigned for the battle. Elizabeth George Speare also authored The Witch of Blackbird Pond which I must have read when I was in school.

For this sensational tale of the friendship that develops between a white boy and an Indian boy in Maine in the 1700s, the author won a Newbery Honor. 

Matt's father purchased land in Maine and travels up north with his son. Together, they build a log cabin and plant a corn field. By mid-summer, Matt's father leaves him alone in the cabin to return to Quincy, Massachusetts to collect his mom, sister, and the new baby.

Matt has never met an Indian, but he soon does. His experiences challenge what he has been told about the Indians and force him to think about what it means for the Indian when the white men begin to settle in "unsettled" areas of the country. Although he perceives of the Indians as savages, he quickly learns that they know more about how to survive on the land than he does.

I am going to add this novel to my collection of possessive noun worksheets; it will be included as well in some error analysis exercises.

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

I'm certain I read this back in elementary school, but I didn't remember many of the details. I ordered it from Scholastic about two years ago and began reading it to my now-fifth grader. He showed ZERO interest. But this morning over breakfast I caught his attention with the part about the Hershey bar that Jamie found in its wrapper. I've asked his teacher to promise me that she will make it one of his Literature Circle books this year.

First I reread the book to see if I enjoy it, and then I do a careful reading/notetaking so that I can decide which grammar to include and how to present it. Below are a few examples which stood out as I read From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. 

She decided that she would go to the ladies’ room, and Jamie would go to the men’s room just before the museum closed. pg 35

Mrs. Frankweiler’s residence on East 63^rd Street was long a Manhattan showplace for what many considered the finest private collections of art in the Western Hemisphere. pg. 59

Students need "real" examples of the grammar in use. They often rush through the reading and would hardly take the time to notice the grammar.

I am currently putting together a packet of Possessive Noun Worksheets for several 4th and 5th grade novels. This award-winning book about a brother and sister's week-long adventure in the Metropolitan Museum of Art will be included in that packet.

Number The Stars by Lois Lowry

This award-winning book provides great context to study grammar and is a wonderful read for fourth-graders. From here, students can move on to books by David Kherdian about the Armenian Genocide. This is especially relevant to students living in Southern California where many Armenians have made their home.

Lois Lowry was inspired by the true stories her childhood friend, Annelise, told her about her life in Denmark during WWII. She read through historical accounts of Resistance fighters and learned about one in particular whose letters inspired the character Peter. The stories takes place in 1943, in the middle of the German occupation of Denmark. In October of that year, the Nazis began to address "the Jewish question," and the Danes protected their neighbors and friends, smuggling out on fishing boats to Sweden which was neutral during WWII. Lowry intricately weaves true details from those years into a fictional tale about two Danish families, neighbors who protect and care for one another. 

I have had Grammar Worksheets up for some time now reviewing homophones, possessive noun forms and more recently, coordinating conjunctions. A fourth-grade teacher whom I work with is going to be field-testing a DLR, Daily Language Review. I created a chapter-by-chapter list of sentences which pertain to the story and contain an error. The types of errors range from punctuation to spelling to capitalization and really hone in on fourth-grade Common Core skills. I've included recognizing the correct order of adjective, using a semi-colon to separate two closely related independent clauses, correct forms for both verbs and nouns. After reading each chapter, these worksheets can be assigned as classwork, in pairs or small groups. As students progress and gain confidence in identifying and correcting the errors, the worksheets should be assigned for homework.

While pouring over the details of the text, I was led to the library to reread some of Hans Christian Anderson's fairy tales. Lowry makes mention of him as one of the most famous Danish storytellers, and I had vague memories from my own school years of reading his stories. So far, I've read The Little Match Girl and The Fir Tree, both of which made me think that fourth-grade teachers should begin reading this book in the fall, just as the Jewish New Year comes around. As the Christmas and New Year holidays approach, the fairy tales can be read and explored with their book buddies or during library time. Visiting the Museum of Tolerance would be the perfect field trip to accompany this work of historical fiction. 

Grammar Worksheets (Current Freebies)

Here is a list of my current freebies on TpT! This will give you an idea of how I present most grammar in the packets I have up for sale. Freebies are eventually reworked and combined into larger packets which cover either a particular grammar point or a novel. If you follow me, you'll be notified when I put something new in my store and in this way, can get some of my work before it goes up for sale. 

Henry Huggins: Using Conjunctions to Avoid Run-Ons, Proper Nouns, Combined Skills (A Review of Chapter 2)

Howliday Inn: Chapter 1: Vocabulary and Expressions, Parts of Speech, Homophones, Common and Proper Nouns, Identifying Subjects and Verbs. Possessive Noun Forms, Compound and Complex Sentences, Punctuation, Adverbial Clauses, Transitions

Island of the Blue Dolphins: Verb Forms (Simple Past Tense)

Lunch Money: Chapters 1-4: homophones, vocabulary, parts of speech, proper nouns, subjects and verbs, possessive noun forms, conjunctions and dependent clauses

Number the Stars: Homophones

Superfudge: Homophones

The Whipping Boy: Error Analysis

Tuck Everlasting: Writing Complex Sentences