With paint pens, Addison practiced words with ew and oo. She read a Black Lagoon book.

Christopher watched the movie about Temple Grandin, and we discussed the comparison and contrast with the book.

Kellan dictated a story for me to type for him.

I read about Temple Grandin, and we discussed the book. In his journal, Kellan wrote what we can learn from Temple.

Richard dictated a paragraph about what we can learn from Temple Grandin's story. He identified the genre of the book we read.

With Silly Putty and paint pens, Richard practiced his spelling words and words with ou and the long o sound. He read books with words he can read.

Richard worked on the MAP testing today.

Kaitlin took her spelling test. We read the rest of The Witch of Blackbird Pond and discussed it. In her journal, Kaitlin wrote a paragraph about how the lives of different characters were resolved at the end of the book.

I showed Quinn a chart showing the Latin and Greek roots of words and explained that it's important and helpful to understand word origins, or roots, in order to better understand the meanings of words. We reviewed prefixes or suffixes and recalled that they are groups of letters that come before or after words that change the meaning of the words to which they're attached and that a root is a word part that provides the basic meaning of a word. I showed Quinn some root words and asked him to figure out the meaning of several words (e.g. bicycle). I also asked Quinn to name some words using the root word shown and to identify the words with common roots. For another exercise, Quinn was asked to pick the odd word out of a group of words and we made some words with common roots. We watched a short video to reinforce and consolidate gains. (www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWyX8vl6kMs).

Pierce and I continued reading "Who Was Isaac Newton?" Pierce learned about Newton's work with the Royal Mint, specifically the "Great Recoinage." Newton was responsible for re-designing England's coins to prevent counterfeiting and stabilize England's monetary system. Newton finished his career as head of the Royal Society. He was buried at Westminster Abbey. His work changed the way we understand the world. Unfamiliar vocabulary from the text included divine, counterfeiter, and tyrant. After finishing the book, Pierce immediately wanted to choose another biography from the series. He chose Dr. Seuss, expressing that his favorite book is "Oh, the Places You Will Go." We purchased the book on my Kindle and found a related writing activity we will begin next week.