Penguin Chick Author: Betty Tatham Illustrator: Helen K. Davie Genre: Expository Nonfiction Skill: Main Idea/Details

Question of the Week How have animals adapted to solve the problems of their environment?

Build Concept Vocabulary This week's Concept Web of vocabulary words relates to the theme of animal adaptations. Do you have any words or categories to add?

Preview The title of the next selection is “A Day's Work.” Which Concept Web words might apply to the new selection based on the title alone? Let’s put a star next to these words on the web.

Small Group Read leveled readers. Assess blue group.

Main Idea & Details Remember: Main Idea = the most important idea Details = little bits of information that support the main idea. Work in pairs to identify the main idea and one supporting detail on p. 161.

Main Idea Finding the main idea is an important tool in helping you understand and remember what you read. The topic is the subject, what the selection is all about. The main idea is the most important idea about the topic. The main idea can be stated in a sentence. Supporting details are small pieces of information that tell more about the main idea.

Plan for finding the Main Idea First, find the subject. Look for these clues. The first sentence. Names, repeated words, or important words. The title or heading above the paragraph.

Second, decide what the author is saying about the subject Second, decide what the author is saying about the subject. Ask yourself these questions. What does the author say about the subject in the first sentence? What does the author say about the subject in the last sentence? What do the details tell me about the subject?

Third, put together the subject and what the author is saying about it Third, put together the subject and what the author is saying about it. In your own words tell the main idea. Last use a simple organizer like the one on the next slide to keep track of what your paragraph is about.

Graphic Sources Graphic sources are any graphic—charts, graphs, diagrams, time lines, scale drawings, and so on—that accompanies a selection. They can strengthen our understanding of the text.

Graphic Sources Look at the time line on pp. 164–165. What information does it contain? How can it help you understand the selection better? Let’s create a timeline that shows the growth of a human from 1 month to 5 years.

Context Clues You do not need to look up every word that you don’t know. Be a detective when you find a new word. See if you can figure out what a word means from context clues. These are words, phrases, and sentences around the word you don’t know.

From Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle by Betty McDoanld At dinner that night, Allen cut his meat into such small pieces that his father looked over at him and said, “Perhaps you would like to borrow my magnifying glass? I am sure you are going to need it to see those infinitesimal bits of meat.” You can tell that infinitesimal means “very, very small” from using context clues.

Synonyms You can also use synonyms to help find the meaning of unfamiliar words.

Penguin Chick Day 5 Grammar Objectives: Define and identify common nouns. Define and identify proper nouns. Use common and proper nouns in writing. Become familiar with noun assessment on high-stakes tests. Day 5 Grammar

9. Can birds build they're nests on ice. Can birds build their nests on ice? 10. The mother fish for food and the father watches the egg. The mother fishes for food, and the father watches the egg.

Common and Proper Nouns A common noun names any person, place, or thing. A proper noun names a particular person, place, or thing. Proper nouns begin with capital letters. In proper nouns of more than one word, the first word and each important word are capitalized. The names of days, months, and holidays are proper nouns.

Additional Practice pp. 80–83 in The Grammar and Writing Book.

Penguin Chick Day 5 Spelling Objective: Spell words with syllable patterns V/CV and VC/V.

Test Day! Hooray