Of Dictionaries and Dance Parties!

Dictionaries
We have had another busy week.  The focus of language arts this week was vocabulary and dictionary skills.  As adults, we often take our dictionary skills for granted.  We flip through the pages and find the word we are looking for in a matter of seconds.  This is not the case for 3rd and 4th graders.  Dictionary work can be tedious.

I have noticed that many students have difficulty just flipping to the section of the dictionary in which the word appears. They want to go page by page.  So some of the kids and I practiced flipping through large chunks of the dictionary.  It was kind of fun to see them let go and flip through the pages.  Initially, they were worried that they might miss the word, but we always found it.

After flipping through the pages, we talked about alphabetizing and the guidelines we follow.  For most students this was merely review.  Occasionally, I heard someone say, "Oh yeah! I had forgotten about that!"  This review helped to speed up the dictionary work. 

"What are those two words at the top of the page?" Guide words: these always pose a challenge.  The students know that they are there to help, but some are not sure how they can help.  We talked about the purpose of guide words and then helped each other to find the words we were looking for, using the guide words.

Finally, we got down to the business of vocabulary.  Using words we find interesting, from the class and individual readings, the students were successful in using the dictionaries.

Vocabulary is such an important part of a learner's life.  It is one of the building blocks of comprehension.  It is what makes our writing come to life with action, heart, and voice.  It helps us to understand our study of volcanoes and the Hawaiian Islands.  We will be spending much more time working on vocabulary.  The students are discovering that words can be both fun and interesting!

Dance Parties
Most Friday afternoons, as a reward for hard work and great community effort, we have a dance party. All week the kids work to complete their work, be kind to others, and get outstanding reports from the Specials Classes.  As a reward, we dance to a couple of songs.  The kids love it!  Today, a conga line snaked its way through the classroom, and many students surfed to the song Wipeout.

Thank you!
Today we celebrated CK's birthday with a yummy treat of brownies!  Thank you for the delicious birthday treat.

Box Tops for Education
Please do not forget to clip your box tops.  We are still collecting them.

 

Posted on September 26, 2008 2:42 PM | Permalink