FROM THE BOOK SING DOWN THE MOON BY: SCOTT O’DELL The Coming of Long Knives Patti Burroughs, Greensboro West Elementary

Objectives: Students will recognize antonyms to help them determine the meaning and increase vocabulary. Students will recognize and read words, demonstrating knowledge of levels of specificity among words from a variety of categories. Patti Burroughs, Greensboro West Elementary

Students will recognize and read words that change f or fe to v in their plural forms. Students will recognize and spell words with the ending –tion. Students will understand the selection vocabulary before reading the story for the first time. Patti Burroughs, Greensboro West Elementary

Genre: Historical Fiction The story is set in the past. The plot includes events or problems from that time. Characters act the way people of that time would have acted. Patti Burroughs, Greensboro West Elementary

Details relating to clothing, homes, speech, modes of transportation, or tools are correct for that time and place and help make the story more realistic. Though the story is made up, the characters may include real people, and the plot may include actual events. Patti Burroughs, Greensboro West Elementary

Read the following words and tell me what they have in common. harm help strength weakness fast slow These words are antonym pairs. Patti Burroughs, Greensboro West Elementary

What is an antonym? An antonym is a word whose meaning is the opposite or nearly the opposite of another word. Patti Burroughs, Greensboro West Elementary

Read the following words and tell me what they have in common. people Americans Navaho vegetable plants corn The first three words demonstrate levels of specificity. Americans and Navaho are both specific kinds of people. Patti Burroughs, Greensboro West Elementary

Look at the next three words again…. Vegetable Plants corn Who can name a word that would come next in the level of specificity. kernel Patti Burroughs, Greensboro West Elementary

Read the following words and tell me what they have in common. knife knives life lives leaf leaves The first word in each pair is singular. The second word in each set is plural. You had to change the f or fe to v before making it plural. Patti Burroughs, Greensboro West Elementary

Read the following words and tell me what they have in common. direction destruction starvation duration These words review the word ending –tion. Patti Burroughs, Greensboro West Elementary

Read the following sentence: I worked to help homeless animals. What would happen to the sentence if I replaced help with harm? The meaning of the sentence changes because help and harm are antonyms. Patti Burroughs, Greensboro West Elementary

Read the following sentence: Bright Morning, a fourteen-year- old Navaho girl, lives with her family in what is now Arizona. Using the word Arizona, what other words can we use in the sentence that is less specific or maybe more specific. United States Phoenix Patti Burroughs, Greensboro West Elementary

Read the following sentence: The leaves are gone from the trees. What are the two plural words in this sentence? leaves trees How were these plurals formed? Patti Burroughs, Greensboro West Elementary

Name some other words that end in f or fe that we have to change to a v to make plural. half / halves shelf / shelves wife / wives Patti Burroughs, Greensboro West Elementary

Read the following words and tell me what they have in common. I lost my sense of direction while in the woods. Who can identify the word in this sentence that contains the suffix –tion? Who remembers the meaning of this word? direction Patti Burroughs, Greensboro West Elementary

Use your context clues.

hogan The Navajo family lives in a hogan on the reservation. “We will build new homes,” he said. “When the Long Knives leave we will go into the forest and cut timber. We will build hogans that are better than those the soldiers burned.” Patti Burroughs, Greensboro West Elementary

a traditional Navaho house noun: hogan (p. 447)

abandon When the gold mines dried up, many people abandoned the towns that no longer had a reason to exist in that location. I would have gone with them if I had thought that in a few days the Long Knives would leave and we would come back to our village. I would never have abandoned them. Patti Burroughs, Greensboro West Elementary

to leave something behind forever (p. 449) abandon verb

deserted The tall weeds in the yard, the broken windows, and the hole in the roof was a sign to us that the building was deserted. Once they got off their horses and two of them climbed up to Rainbow Cave where cliff dwellers had lived long ago. But they found the houses deserted. Patti Burroughs, Greensboro West Elementary

not lived in, abandoned (p. 450) deserted adjective

secure Our liberty is secure because many brave people have fought to defend our civil rights. The white soldiers had searched the canyon and found no trace of us. We felt secure. Patti Burroughs, Greensboro West Elementary

secure safe from harm or danger (p. 452) adjective

captivity Douglas Wood, an engineer who lives in California with his American wife, is being held in captivity by terrorists in Iraq where he has been working. With the Long Knives at their backs…all the Navahos were marching into captivity. Patti Burroughs, Greensboro West Elementary

noun captivity the state of being held as a prisoner ( p. 449) Fort Sumner

Websites of interest: eatures/immig/native_america n3.html eatures/immig/native_america n3.html g/links/pages/articles/Expose _Part_1.html g/links/pages/articles/Expose _Part_1.html Patti Burroughs, Greensboro West Elementary