Thursday, August 25, 2011
More Pronouns and Cross out the Sentence that Doesn't Belong!
Today, students in Mr. Polk's classes are beginning to understand what a wonderful tool the "Polkinator" blog will be for their language arts and science classes. I am making it a goal to utilize the blog each day. I use it in the class to review previous day's material and homework, and to discuss what we will be doing the current day. I also use it to show educational videos the students will learn from and enjoy.
Yesterday, we discussed interrogative pronouns. The interrogative pronouns are who, which, whose, and what.
Example 1) __________ books are on the floor?
Out of the four choices above, whose is the correct answer. You cannot say who because it is singular and the question is asking a group of people. Which in this sentence would not be grammatically correct, and what is the answer for another question. Also, it is important to note that you should not write the answer as who's. Who's literally means "who is" and the sentence "Who is books are on the floor" does not make sense.
The students are doing grammar bell ringers each day for participation. They must correct their answers in class to get the participation points. They also get Polk Pride tickets for volunteering at the Promethean board.
In writing, we continued looking at the components of a paragraph. Their homework from the Tuesday night was to read a paragraph and underline the correct topic sentence. They also need to remember the difference between a topic sentence and the main idea of a paragraph. The main idea is only a phrase, not a sentence. Their homework for Wednesday night was to complete a three page packet. In the packet, they were to cross out the sentence that did not belong with the rest of the paragraph.
Until next time!
~Mr. Polk
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Possessive Pronouns, Topic Sentence, and Main Idea
Today, we discussed possessive pronouns for our bell ringer. Students receive "Polk Pride" tickets if they volunteer to write on the Promethean board. I have a drawing every Friday for each class to win prizes (pencils, erasers, candy, etc.). Our classes do a pretty nice job with staying engaged during this time.
Examples from bell ringer...
- Dana put on (her hers) hat. The correct answer is her. Since Dana is a singular noun, we need a singular possessive pronoun.
- We went for a picnic with ___________ cousins. (Add a suitable pronoun from the list of possessive pronouns).
Technically, for agreement, we would choose "our." But, as I said in class, you could say, "We went for a picnic with your cousins." But, we would not have agreement if we said, "We went for a picnic with yours cousins."
Monday night, students had homework to complete one paragraph about their summer. Many students completed this, but there was a good number of students who did not. We need to make sure students are writing their homework in their agenda books daily.
In class, students peer-edited other students' paragraphs. I kept a checklist to give credit to the students who completed the assignment.
Then, we spent time looking at paragraphs and finding the topic sentence and discussing how the main idea is not the same thing. The main idea is not a sentence; it is rather a phrase that tells us what the paragraph is about.
For example...
- Topic sentence: My favorite memory from this summer was our day at Holiday World.
- Main idea: "Favorite memory from summer"
That's all for today! ~Mr. Polk
Monday, August 22, 2011
Mr. Polk's 4th grade Blog: Take 1
Today, I was inspired by Mrs. Esparza, math teacher at Lodge Community School, to begin (or continue) my blog. Instead of this being a blog about sports and Mr. Polk, I would like to post information on some of the neat things we are doing in 4th grade language arts and science at Lodge.
Now, I'm just a beginner at this, so I probably won't have cool videos uploaded like my colleague, Mrs. Esparza. However, I will share what we are doing in class in a written format for now. This week is a "language arts" week and next week will be a "science week."
In science, I am very excited to share that we will be working with the Indiana Science Initiative to do engaging science activities, in which the students will make many discoveries working in cooperative groups.
Today, in language arts, we discussed personal pronouns (4.L.1). For example, we discussed 1st person singular (I, me), 2nd person singular, (you), and 3rd person singular (she, he, him, her, it). We then discussed the 1st person plural (we, us), 2nd person plural (you), and 3rd person plural (they, them).
REMEMBER: A pronoun is a word that takes the place of one or more nouns.
Example 1) "Susie brought her apple to lunch today. She ate it and thought it was delicious." Notice how "She" replaces "Susie" and "it" replaces "apple."
Example 2) "Susie brought her apple to lunch today. Susie ate the apple and thought the apple was delicious." Doesn't it sound repetitive to say her name again and to use the word apple two more times? (YES)...this is why we use pronouns.
Today, in writing, our homework assignment was to write one paragraph on the subject: "My Summer." Students took home a "Preparing a Paragraph" checklist to use with developing their paragraph. They were instructed to write the paragraph in their language arts notebook, and to have someone at home proofread their paper, and to get a signature. Tomorrow, in class, the students will share their paragraph with a peer, for one more proofread, and they will then write their final draft in their best cursive writing on a separate sheet of paper.
Until next time...I am going to try to make this blog more exciting!
Mr. Polk
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