It is Word Work Wednesday! We used the word “optimistic” to focus on today. We found the definition and part of speech in a dictionary packet, the guide words on the top of the dictionary page, identified a synonym (hopeful) and antonym (hopeless), and used the word in a sentence. We reviewed guide words and discussed how the first guide word is the first word on the page and the last guide word is the last definition on the page. For literature, we began with informational passages about mustangs and also cowboys. We discussed the terminology of stallion, mares, foals, lasso, and soothe as well. We then read the final three chapters of our novel, Ghost Town at Sundown. Our follow-up comprehension and critical thinking activities with each chapter also included a compound words hunt and providing evidence from the text to support the compliments the children had received. Jonathan scored a 100% on our follow up assessment for this novel which included sequencing 6 events from the book and completing a vocabulary-based crossword puzzle. One thing we are focusing on during oral reading is sitting still. Jonathan has recently demonstrated rocking while reading aloud. He is able to stop this motion when given a simple reminder to sit still. Jonathan worked on his novel based spelling words and has improved from 5/12 to 9/12 and got the bonus word “enchantress”! To continue our study of the literary device of similes, Jonathan took the easy and hard quizzes for the Brain Pop Jr. learning video we watched yesterday. He scored 5/5 on both quizzes. Finally, we began a secret Mother’s Day writing project involving the use of similes.