We use the 5-A-Day Language Review, weekly spelling/grammar tests, and poetry memorization. For spelling, we use My Catholic Speller Level C by Nancy Nicholson. We do about a lesson a week, so we usually end around lesson 27-29. Suggestions: Practice. Practice. Practice. We are also building vocabulary from the roots up with Latin and Greek roots and their English derivatives. Talk about interesting and unknown words. Investigate their meaning by looking up words in a dictionary or online at etymology.com/dictionary.com and discussing them.
Literature
We’ll read a few short stories and at least three core lit books. We’ll work on various comprehension strategies and analyze story elements. Currently, we are reading and discussing “The Stars in the Sky” together as a class. I’m hoping to begin Mr. Popper’s Penguins by the 3rd week in September. Suggestions: To improve fluency: practice reading out loud at home. To improve comprehension: (1)encourage child to read as much as possible (especially good and enjoyable literature), (2) reread parts that don’t make sense, (3)read to your child, as well as having her read silently & to you, (4) talk to them about the reading, ask questions, have him/her predict what will happen next, visualize, or describe what they sees in her mind, discuss the characters, setting, problem, and solution. To improve vocabulary: have child read as much as possible at her independent reading level, use context clues or a dictionary to figure out the meanings of words.
Writing and Cursive
We will be working on paragraphs (topic & supporting sentences), summaries, and narratives.
Suggestions for improvement: reread out loud to self/parent asking “Does this make sense?” Add more details to “paint a picture in your mind.” Use the Mini-Thesaurus to make sure all the dress-ups are used. Once finished writing, check for correct punctuation, spelling, and reread what was written to check for silly mistakes. Students learned cursive in second grade and will continue practicing this year.
We will be working on paragraphs (topic & supporting sentences), summaries, and narratives.
Suggestions for improvement: reread out loud to self/parent asking “Does this make sense?” Add more details to “paint a picture in your mind.” Use the Mini-Thesaurus to make sure all the dress-ups are used. Once finished writing, check for correct punctuation, spelling, and reread what was written to check for silly mistakes. Students learned cursive in second grade and will continue practicing this year.