March Reader's Workshop

Character Journey 

Purpose:

In this unit, students learn to follow their main character’s journey across a book by following their character from place to place. This helps them keep track of the key events in the story.  Students will learn in this unit that, when their character goes to a new place, something important is going to happen.  Students will be using a timeline to keep track of scenes and the important events that happen there.  Our ultimate goal is for students to internalize the reading strategies in this unit, so that they no longer need to write every part down. 

Goals: 

∙      Students will be able to stop when their character goes to a new place (or same place but time has passed) and name the place.

∙      Students will be able to name the important thing that happens each place.

∙      Students will be able to represent their character’s journey on a timeline.

February/March Word Study

In the month of February, we will be working on making longer words by adding suffixes

 (s, es) to the basewords.  Students have to remember that by adding those suffixes, words become plural; meaning more than one.

There are two kinds of suffixes: vowel suffixes(they begin with a vowel like -es) and consonant suffixes (they begin with a consonant like -s).   The suffix -es is used when the base word ends with a ch, sh, s, x or z.  The suffix -s is used with all other base words.

Another way to think about this rule is to ask yourself:

When I say the plural form of the word out loud did  I add a syllable?  If so, then remember to use -es as your suffix.

For example, bench becomes benches, dress becomes dresses, etc.

The way we mark the suffix -es is the same way as we mark suffix -s. We underline the baseword and circle the suffix -es.

Remember - WE DO NOT TAP SUFFIXES!!!  tap out your base word and then say your suffix at the end.

    In the month of March, we will learn about how to add suffix -ed and suffix- ing to action words.

    We add suffix -ed to show that something already happened. For example: kick - kicked. We circle the suffix -ed and underline the base word.

    We add suffix -ing to the baseword when we want to show that something is happening .  For example : kick- kicking.  We circle the suffix -ing and underline the base word as well. 

     **IMPORTANT**

     When we tap out our words to read or spell, we never tap out the suffix.  Simply tap out the base word and then add the suffix as a whole.

Trick words: never, another, day, words, look, through

Words of the day: wishing, rented, blended, slashing