Weekly Update ELA Grade 3 Week of 3/27 Part 2!
Dear Third Grade Families,
Your readers and writers were hard-working warriors on the state test. Everyone pushed through and appeared to be doing their personal best. Whatever you did this morning, do it again tomorrow and the next day!
My Book Needs a Title!
As you may know, I have written a picture book (just the words, not the pictures) that is slated to be published by Greenwillow Books in the winter of 2018. My editor just contacted me to say that they want me to think of a new title. I figured, since I had so many creative minds in my midst, I would ask the students to help me brainstorm a new title. I read them my manuscript yesterday, and they came up with a bunch of ideas. I will make a short list and present it to my editor. Who knows? Maybe one of the BSI third graders will write the title of my book! I thank you for their help.
Vocabulary Celebrity
We have been looking closely at the parts of words, learning about prefixes and suffixes and syllables. We have also learned how to figure out unknown words from context — the words and pictures around the words. But it can also help to simply study words. Especially words that will help them better write and talk about content areas.
I was trying to think of something active, fun and rigorous to do after the state test. I thought up a vocabulary game, based on one of my favorite party games: Celebrity. I’m calling it Vocabulary Celebrity. I’ve put words (with definitions for the first few times we play) that we have encountered in read alouds, poems, study and science. Each list of words has been cut into slips and put in a bag.
I’m going to give you the vocabulary lists and directions here, in case you want to play at home. These are what I have for today, but I will be making new lists to support their understanding of the meanings of their spelling words, as well as new content words.
How to Play Vocabulary Celebrity
- Words from a topic are put into the bag.
- Round one: A person pulls a word. The person who pulls the word can say anything except the word. (The word is the bold word. The rest is the definition.) Everyone tries to guess the word, while a volunteer timer keeps an eye on the clock. (They get one minute.) Each time a word is guessed, a new teammate gets to come up and try to give clues about the word. The class gets one point for every word they successfully guess in one minute.
- Round two: Put all the words back in the bag. This time, the clue giver can only say one word, the same word over and over as a clue. Obviously, it can’t be the bold word.
- Round three: Put all the words back in the hat. For this round, the clue giver can only pantomime the words. That means, they can’t talk, they can only act it out.
- At the end of each round, we count the words they guessed within one minute. Each word is one point. We can play multiple rounds and see if we can get better than we were the last time.
You can also play this with teams. Look up the directions here, but use vocabulary words instead of celebrity names.
Animal Adaptation
prey– animals that get eaten
hibernation – a deep sleep to escape cold weather
camouflage – body marks or shapes that help an animal hide from predators
adaptation – a change in a plant or animal that makes it better able to live in a particular place or situation
habitat – a place where an animal or plant normally lives or grows
predator – an animal that lives by killing and eating other animals
mimic – to copy or look like something
estivate – a deep sleep to escape hot weather
burrow – an underground home
markings – patterns on an animal
climate – the normal long-term weather conditions of an area
Words from Where the Mountain Meets the Moon
indignant – angry because something is unfair
grueling – very difficult, requiring great effort
drought – a long period of time during which there is little or no rain
covet – to want (something that you don’t have) very much
emissary – a person sent on a special mission
coax – to persuade someone to do something by talking in a gentle way
subordinate – someone in a position of less power than someone else
famine – a situation in which many people do not have enough to eat
flailing – to move or swing your arms in a wild or uncontrolled way
exhausted – completely tired out or completely used up
scoff – to laugh at and talk about someone or something in a way that shows disapproval or lack of respect
New Colossus AND Words About Words
noun – a person, place or thing
adjective – a describing word
verb – an action word
adverb – a word that describes a verb
subject – the part of the sentence that performs the action of a verb, the predicate
predicate – the part of a sentence in which the subject does something or is described
metaphor – a word or phrase for one thing that is used to refer to another thing in order to show or suggest that they are similar
simile – a phrase that uses the words like or as to describe someone or something by comparing it with someone or something else that is similar
astride -with one leg on each side of something
beacon – a strong light that can be seen from far away and that is used to help guide ships, airplanes, etc.
brazen – bronze, or acting or done in a very open and shocking way without shame or embarrassment
pomp – the impressive decorations, music, clothing etc., that are part of some formal events
exiles – people who were forced to leave their country
tempest – storm
Reminder — This week there are no spelling words, poems to memorize, or required writing entries. Enjoy!