Our classes have entered the last couple weeks of school! In science, they are reviewing some of the meatier lessons from the year. Today, they reviewed different types of landforms and made flip books to help them study. These kids have learned so much this year, and it is exciting to pull it all together and take a look back!
In history, the class continued through the wild west with a lesson on the Lewis and Clark Expedition. They learned the reasons behind the adventure, the people who made up the Corps of Discovery, and the importance of the expedition for science as well as for our history. Because Lewis and Clark documented hundreds of new plant and animal species, our class donned their coon-skinned caps, grabbed a pencil, and made their own observations! We discussed the importance of adjectives and vivid verbs to help your reader get a clear picture of what they see. The children could only write about an animal or plant that they were actually observing, and they could not use the name of the animal! It was a great lesson that integrated history, science, and language arts!
In addition to our journal activity, the class learned about compound words and syllables today. We broke down words into syllables to help make it easier to sound things out! Parents, there are some great "rules" that help with spelling that use syllables. For instance, if a syllable ends with a vowel, it is usually a long vowel sound. If a syllable ends with a consonant, that syllable usually has a short vowel sound. Of course, there are always rule breakers, but these little tricks can help! Because each student is working on their own spelling/phonics curriculum at home, I did not attempt to address these in class! We did use our time today to discuss suffixes, prefixes, and root words. The students did an awesome job of recognizing these, and we worked on building some words using different suffixes. Again, there are some spelling/phonics "rules" that you can use to help with spelling that involve suffixes. We touched on some of them today, such as doubling the final consonant (in short vowel words) before adding a suffix that begins with a vowel. The class practiced dropping the silent "e" before adding suffixes that begin with a vowel, as well. They thought it was really funny that a single "p" can turn "hoping" into "hopping"! With practice, these skills will really help them with their spelling!
The class read their journal entries out loud before jumping in to our chapter book read-along. They have done an absolutely amazing job with their journal entries, but I think I am most impressed with their enthusiasm and the fluidity of their reading out loud! The kids have been listening to a few chapters from our chapter book on The Frontier. I love that the book casually discusses the things that they have been learning about in class: covered wagons, settlements, the railroad, Native Americans, and more! 
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