Download Unit 4 Vocabulary and Skills

“Cook-A-Doodle Doo!”
Janet Stevens and Susan Stevens Crummel
Story Overview:
In class this week, I’m reading Cook-a-Doodle-Doo, a story about a rooster who is
the great-grandson of the Little Red Hen. Unlike the folk tale about the Little Red
Hen, Rooster has animals that want to help him bake a cake. It’s fun to keep seeing
how the stories are alike and different. Many pages in the story are like a recipe
book. They teach how to bake. It’s fun to compare the real recipe with what the
animals do.
Genre:
Humorous Fiction is a made-up story written to make the reader laugh.
Vocabulary:
1. magnificent – something very beautiful or wonderful
2. masterpiece – a great work or very good example of something
3. ingredient – any one of the parts of a mixture
4. recipes – lists of ingredients
5. tasty – when something has good flavor
Strategy: make inferences and analyze
To make inferences, good readers use what they know, as well as clues in
the story, to figure out what is missing. When readers make inferences, they can
better understand the characters and events.
Skill: compare and contrast
To compare ideas, characters, or events, a reader tells how they are alike.
To contrast ideas, characters, or events, a reader tells how they are different.
Grammar: Verbs be, do, and have
Spelling List: /Ô/ - The letters aw as in paw, au as in fault, and a as in tall stand
for the /Ô/ sound.
yawn
hauls
drawing
taught
hawks
caused
salt
squawk
paused
lawn
bought
crawled
halls
bawls
coughing
Review words: joyful, coins, spoiled
Challenge words: walrus, autumn
“Seven Spools of Thread”
Angela Shelf Medearis
Story Overview:
In Seven Spools of Thread, a father who loves his seven sons is disappointed. The
brothers argue all the time. When the father dies, they find out they will not inherit
their father’s money unless they turn seven spools of thread into gold. I can use
two clues. The father loved them, and he wanted them to stop arguing. These clues
help me draw a conclusion. The father’s strange instruction will bring peace to his
children.
Genre: fable
A fable is a short story that teaches a moral.
Vocabulary:
6. beamed – shined brightly
7. argued – disagree loudly with someone
8. possessions – things people own are called
9. fabric – cloth that is used for making clothes
10.purchased – something you get by paying money
11.quarreling – arguing
Strategy: make inferences and analyze
To make inferences, good readers use what they know and clues in the story
to figure out what is missing.
Skill: draw conclusions
Readers often use two or more story details and their own experience to
explain characters’ actions or events so they can come to a new understanding of
the story. When readers do this, they draw conclusions.
Grammar: linking verbs
A linking verb does not show action. It connects the subject or a noun or an
adjective in the predicate. It tells what the subject to a noun or an adjective in the
predicate. It tells what the subject is or is like. Example: The girl is my friend. The
day is sunny.
Spelling List: words with /ou/
found
round
couch
bow
ground
crowd
proud
owl
bounce
town
plow
clouds
scout
louder
shout
Review words: drawing, lawn, hauls
Challenge words: snowplow, outline
“Washington Weed Whackers”
Time For Kids
Story Overview:
“Washington Weed Whackers” is about a harmful plant and a group of kids at an elementary
school. The plant is killing other plants and animals on the northwest coast of Washington. The
plant is good for other plants and animals in the Northeast. The article tells me how the effects of
the plants are different in the two environments.
Genre: Nonfiction Article
Nonfiction Articles give information about real people, places, or things
Vocabulary:
12.native – something/someone that grows, lives, or was born in a place
13.shouldn’t – should not
14.research – careful study of a particular subject
15.sprout – if a seed begins to sprout, it grows
16.clumps – groups or clusters of something
Strategy: monitor comprehension
Good readers monitor comprehension as they read. This means they regularly stop to
check that they understand what they have read. They also stop when they do not understand
something. If they are confused, they can reread, read ahead, paraphrase, visualize, summarize,
adjust their reading rate, or seek help to understand what they are reading.
Skill: compare and contrast
Authors use the compare-and-contrast text structure to show how two things are alike
and different.
Compare – use signal words like, just as, similar, both, also, and too.
Contrast – use signal words different, but, and on the other hand.
Grammar: main and helping verbs
Main verb – tells what the subject is or does.
Helping verb – helps the main verb show action. Helping verbs must agree with the
subject
Spelling List: words with soft c and g
cell
changes
space
city
age
gentle
giant
price
gyms
Review words: crowd, clouds, found
Challenge words: giraffe, celebrate
gems
pages
nice
cents
place
message
“Here’s My Dollar”
By Gary Soto
Story Overview:
Angel Arellano is my age and has been in the newspapers and on TV. Here’s My
Dollar tells how Angel learned that the zoo in Fresno was running out of money.
Angel wrote to newspapers, talked at different schools, and appeared on talk
shows. She asked everyone to donate a dollar to save the zoo and the animals in it.
I think the author wants to tell about Angel, but he also wants to show how one
person can make a difference.
Genre: Nonfiction article give information about real people, places, or things.
Vocabulary:
17.tour – short trip to a place of interest with a guide
18.volunteers – people who do a job willingly without getting paid
19.community – a group of people
20.thrilled – to be excited or happy
21.slogan – an easy-to-remember phrase that is used in advertisements or by
special groups or organizations
22.grownups – adults
23.deserve – something you have a right to
24.interviewed – a person who is interviewed gives answers to questions that
someone else asks.
Strategy: monitor comprehension
Good readers monitor comprehension as they read. This means that they
stop to check that they understand what they have read. They also stop when they
do not understand something.
Skill: Author’s purpose
Author’s purpose is the reason an author writes something. Authors write
to entertain, to inform, or to persuade.
Grammar: irregular verbs
Irregular verbs have a special spelling for the past tense.
Spelling List: Homophones
sale
road
you're
there
beet
its
it's
peace
rode
Review words: city, gems, space
Challenge words: seen, scene
sail
they're
your
rowed
beat
piece
“My Very Own Room”
Amada Irma Perez
Story Overview:
In My Very Own Room, a young girl is sharing a room with five brothers. What she
wants more than anything is to have her own room. Because of the title, I think the
girl will get her room in the end. I keep making predictions as I read. They are
good guesses about what will happen next, and they’re based on clues the author
has given. Making predictions is fun—it’s like solving little mysteries. The
predictions also keep me involved in the story.
Genre: Realistic Fiction is an invented story that could have happened in real life.
Vocabulary:
25.separate – to keep things apart
26.determination – to have a firm purpose
27.storage – things that people don’t need every day are put in storage
28.crate – a box made of wood
29.exact – something correct or precise
30.ruined – something you can no longer use
31.luckiest – the luckiest person has more luck than anyone else.
Strategy: monitor comprehension
Good readers monitor comprehension as they read. This means that they
stop to check that they understand what they have read. They also stop when they
do not understand something.
Skill: make predictions
To use story clues, including the title and illustrations, and your won
knowledge to tell what you think will happen in a story.
Grammar: contractions with not
A contraction is a shortened form of two words. An apostrophe takes the
place of one or more letters.
Spelling List: Plurals
years
foxes
bunches
alleys
trays
flies
cities
cherries
ashes
Review words: sale, rode, you’re
Challenge words: heroes, libraries
twins
lunches
ponies
inches
states
daisies