Welcome!

    We have had a very busy first two weeks.  We set up our classroom and school rules and routines, we read and learned about Kahalaopuna (Ka U`i O Manoa), started planning our recycling work, started a new math program, read and wrote poetry, shared about our summers, and had a lot of fun while we were doing it.
    This week, we will be adding two new things to our homework routine; recording of our reading and vocabulary study.  As you may have noticed, or heard, we will not be doing Wordly Wise this year.  This was a school-wide decision which I whole-heartedly support.  There were many good things about Wordly Wise, but I think that we can do a much better job of teaching vocabulary by integrating it into the reading, writing, and speaking that we already do.  This also makes much more sense in a multi-age classroom.  Your child will have a vocabulary "notebook" which will be a section in their language arts folder so that they always have access to it while they are writing.  In this "notebook" they will collect words that they find in their reading.  During their reading at home the students should  collect 5 words that they do not know.  In their vocabulary "notebook" students will define each word, record the sentence they found it in, write their own sentence, identify the part/s of speech, identify synonyms and antonyms, and draw a picture. I put a copy of a vocabulary sheet in the homework section so you can take a look or you ever need an extra.  If your child does not already have access to a child-friendly dictionary and thesaurus, they will need one to complete their vocabulary homework.  Our vocabulary work will go on a two week rotation.  The first week, children will collect their five words, and the second week they will write a story or piece using all 5 words.  I'll send home more specific instructions when it is time to do that writing.  As the year progresses, we will also be adding specific curriculum vocabulary to their 5 words a week like "stewardship" or "factor."  We will also do specific word studies like investigating commonly used prefixes, suffixes, and root words.  I am really excited about this.  I have been doing a lot of reading on this topic and one thing that I was reminded of is that language growth starts orally (Bromley, 2007).  Much of children's vocabulary comes from what they hear.  This gives us, as the adults with larger vocabularies (I hope), wonderful opportunities to share and help our students expand their vocabulary.  Here are some things we will do in class and you can do at home.  Read quality books to or with your children and stop to talk about interesting words.  Third and fourth graders are not too old for this.  Use adult language with your child and encourage them to ask about words they don't know. Play word games with your children.  In general, display interest and enthusiasm for language and words.  In addition to these everyday behaviors, have your child share their vocabulary words with you so that you can talk to them about the words and their meanings and maybe even incorporate them into your conversations!  Have fun with it!

Posted on August 23, 2007 6:36 AM | Permalink