Google

The key phrase that has caught on to the world , " Google it".  Google is the every growing empire of internet search engines.  The creators of Google were Sergey Brin and Larry Page who designed the perfect formula for success.  Google is most widely known for looking up information on the web. In addition to gauging a phrase's appearance on a Web page, as other engines did, it assessed relevance by counting the number and importance of other pages that linked to that page. This makes looking up information easier and more accurate.  Google is a growing empire that is continuously expanding. It has multiple uses whether it be email, google translate, calendar, map, documents, and much more.  This free website allows users to use web services that they may not have had access to before. Google is great for companies because it allows email connection, google chat, and easy access to shared documents.  Google also provides great access to multiple teaching tools such as google earth.  Google processes more than 150 million searches a day and its statistics continue to rise.    Google not only has success on the web but in stocks as well.  Google launched in 2002 and is now one of the leading companies in todays market.  Google has changed many peoples way of life as well as social media.  Remember if your not sure of something, google it! 

Vocabulary :  
Google It - phrase look something up on google 
empire - a strong business 
search engine - get information from online 
web - internet 
gauging - appraise the cost of something 
relevance - relation to a matter at hand 
google earth - virtual globe 
stocks  - shares of a company 


Fill in the sentences below with the vocabulary words from above.  


1.  Google has built up an _____________. 
2.  One should buy some _________ and invest in Google.  
3.  To look information up on the web, one would use a ___________. 
4.  Google is apart of the world wide _________.  
5.  If you don't know a word then you should _______ _______.  
6. If you want to see where you live then you should check out __________ __________.  






Grammar Point: 
Parts of the Sentence - Pronouns

Pronouns take the place of nouns. Pronouns can be in one of three cases: Subject, Object, or Possessive.

Subject pronouns are used when the pronoun is the subject of the sentence. You can remember subject pronouns easily by filling in the blank subject space for a simple sentence.

Example:
______ did the job.
I, you, he, she, it, we, and they all fit into the blank and are, therefore, subject pronouns.

Subject pronouns are also used if they rename the subject. They follow to be verbs such as is,are, was, were, am, and will be.


Example:
It could have been them.

Object pronouns are used everywhere else (direct object, indirect object, object of the preposition). Object pronouns are me, you, him, her, it, us, and them.

Examples:
Jennifer talked to him.
Are you talking to me?

Instructions: Choose the correct form of the pronoun and tell why you chose it.

1. (I, Me) went to the movie.

2. (Him, He) is my best friend.

3. (They, Them) will be here soon.

4. (She, Her) ran happily down the street.

5. There (we, us) went.

6. (Who, Whom) is it?

Extra Help: You can check out BrainPop to get more information on pronouns.  BrainPop Pronouns

Easter

It's that that special time of the year when the Easter Bunny makes his way to all good little boys and girls houses.  The Easter Bunny has been a symbolic image of Easter.  Its important to remember though that Easter is more than bunnies. baskets, treats, and egg hunts.  Easter is a time to remember the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Jesus is the real reason we celebrate this sacred holiday.  Many holidays have become commercialized due to social media and advertising. Easters more than coloring eggs and getting chocolate. Easter is a very important time to remember to specifically celebrate Jesus' death and resurrection. As a Christian, I believe this should be taught and celebrated throughout the year, not just Easter.  I'm all about having fun on holidays, but its important to remember the true meaning of the holiday.  When I was little, I would always be excited for the Easter Bunny to come.  When I think back on past Easter's, I remember fun time with my family around the table and running around the backyard looking for eggs.  Its family that makes this holiday so special. Easters more than getting chocolate rabbits and eggs, its being with your family that matters the most.  So this April 8th, 2012 take time to remember the true meaning of Easter.

Vocabulary:
symbolic - something important

egg hunts - plastic eggs filled with candy 

sacred - holy 

commercialized - to make money off of  

social media - web based and mobile technology 

advertising- calling products to attention 

specifically - varying from others 

resurrection - rising from the dead 

Easter Bunny - brings gifts

Activity:  Math the correct vocabulary word with the correct definition.  

  1.  egg hunts     ______                                        A. to make money off of

  2.  resurrection _______                                       B. something important 

  3. commercialized _______                                  C. calling products to attention 

  4. specifically ____                                               D. rising from the dead

  5. sacred ____                                                       E.  varying from others 

  6. symbolic ____                                                   F.  plastic eggs filled with candy

  7. Easter Bunny ____                                           G. web based and mobile technology 

  8. advertising _____                                              H.  brings gifts 

  9. social media _____                                             I.  holy

For some extra fun listen to the song Peter Cotton Tail.
 Peter Cotton Tail

Grammar Point:  

Parts of Speech - Adverbs

Adverbs are words that modify (1) verbs, (2) adjectives, and (3) other adverbs. 

They tell how (manner), when (time), where (place), how much (degree), and why (cause). Why is a common one-word adverb that tells why. Adverbs that tell us how, when, where, and why always modify the verb. Adverbs that tell us how much modify adjectives or other adverbs. These adverbs are also called qualifiers because they strengthen or weaken the words they modify.

Examples: 

He threw the ball solidly. (how)

 He threw the ball immediately. (when)

He threw the ball forward. (where)

He threw the ball too hard. (how much).

Instructions: Find the adverbs in the following sentences and what they tell us.

1. John answered the question quickly.

2. The response was given too softly.

3. I soon understood what he said yesterday.

4. Fran and Liz wanted to know then and there.

5. Why do we misunderstand others so often?

 Extra Practice:  How many sentences can you make using adverbs correctly?

Bullying

        

  Bullying has become a world wide issue.  In the United States each day a child faces bullying either at school or over the internet.  Bullying can be seen in verbal, physical, or transmitted actions through cyber space.  The victim of the bullying is labeled as a target.  There are three basic kinds of bullying - emotional, verbal, and physical.  It typically involves subtle actions that are meant to intimidate the "target".  Bullying has been characterized as a way for a person to gain power through the fear and intimidation of others.  I recently came upon the book One by Kathryn Otoshi.  This book had a powerful message about bullying.  One is a book in which all the characters are different colors, red, blue, green, yellow, purple, green and orange.  The problem of the book was that blue was getting picked on by red.  Red was the proclaimed bully in the story.

The problem was that blue had many friends but none of blue's friends would stand up to red.  That is until one came along.  The concept of this book was that it only takes one person to make a difference. Kathryn Otoshi made such a great example of bullying without using people and nationalities.  She stuck to the basic's colors and numbers.  An easy concept to understand but had a very deep and powerful message.  A quote that I think sums up this whole book is " If someone is mean and picks on me, I, for One, stand up and say, No".  After that one number came along and stood up to red, the other colors joined and made the bully feel very small.  I think the significance of this story is that you should always say no to bullying. Bullying is a very important conversation that we have to have with many children and adults.  This book contains the simple message that it only takes one person to make a difference and put an end to bullying.

If you want to read the book One by Kathryn Otoshi check out the link below for the full online version of the book.  (It contain audio as well)
One by Kathryn Otoshi Online Edition



Vocabulary:

bullying: someone keeps doing or saying something to have power over another person
transmitted : to pass from one to another
cyber space: internet
target: someone picked on
emotional : emotions like happy, sad, fear , hate
verbal : use of language when speaking to another person
physical : when put your hands on another person
intimidation : fear , to be scared of someone
proclaimed : to say something out loud


What are some ways you can prevent bullying? If you saw someone bullying someone, what would you do?



Fill in the blank with the correct vocabulary word.

1.  _______________ bullying occurs when another person touches another person.

2.  Many bullies use _______________ tactics to try and scare other people.

3. A person who is being bullied is known as the _________________.

4. Many teens are bullied through the ___________________ because often the bully type whatever he or she would like without being face to face with the victim.

5.  The most known form of bullying is _________________ bullying because something say what they think without realizing it might hurt another person.

6.  The messages in the book One, ________________ that bullying is wrong.

Grammar Point 
Parts of Speech - Conjunctions

A conjunction is a word that joins other words, phrases (groups of words), or clauses (groups of words with a subject and verb). Conjunctions are words used as joiners. Different kinds of conjunctions join different kinds of grammatical structures. Today we will be taking a look at Co-ordinate conjunctions and subordinate conjunctions.  

Co-ordinate conjunctions join words, phrases, or clauses of equal rank. The co-ordinate conjunctions are the following: and, but, or, nor, for, and yet. An easy way to remember them is FANBOY.

Subordinate conjunctions join dependent clauses to independent clauses. Some common subordinate conjunctions are after, although, as, as if, because, before, if, since, so that, than, unless, until, when, where, while.

Example:  
Co-ordinate conjunctions
                     Mary likes Christmas, but Erin likes Halloween.
                     They tried but did not succeed.
                     
Subordinate conjunctions 
                     We watched as the plane took off. 
                      I arrived before the stores were open.
                     Since you are here, you can help me.  
                     He is taller than you are. 
                     After the movie was over, we went home.


Look at the examples below.  The co-ordinate conjunctions are joining words in the following sentences.


1. Joan and I cleaned all the dishes.
2. Grandma is a slow but strong person.
3. Our guest will be Jen or Bobby.
4. I did not like nor appreciate your actions.
5. You or I must do the dishes.




Instructions: Find the co-ordinate conjunctions which are joining phrases in these sentences and the phrases that are joined.
1. The girls ran up the stairs and into the room.
2. I became ill by eating the food and getting a stomach ache.
3. Meet me by the statue or near the park.
4. He should have arrived or will be here soon.
5. Jane had promised to come but did not keep her promise.

Instructions: Find the subordinate conjunctions in these sentences.
1. If you don't mind, I will return in a few days.
2. I am working hard because I want to succeed.
3. I will not be going south until the weather changes.
4. Unless you are correct about the bus, we will be lost in these streets.
5. She can do this work better than I can.





Extra Practice:  See if you can write 5 sentences using different conjunctions.

For more information on conjunctions, check out these sites below.
BrainPop Conjunctions
YouTube : School House Rock Conjunction

Hunger Games

The Hunger Games

The movie that is sweeping box offices all across the country is Hunger Games.  Based off of the widely popular book written by Suzanne Collins. The main character is a sixteen year old girl named Katniss. The book is set in the future and plays out the lives of twelve participants. Katniss lives with her mother and sister in the poorest districts of Panem.  There was many wars and battles that took place between the Panem district and the Capital.  Unfortunately the district was defeated.  As a part of the surrender deal, each district would have to select a girl and a boy from the twelve districts to fight to the death on live television.  The televised event would be known as the “Hunger Games”.  There are various rules and game changers in this difficult journey that the participants have to undergo.  Its a battle to stay alive or be killed. In order to find out who goes into the games, the system is chosen by a lottery.  When Katniss sister is chosen, Katniss steps up to go in her place. I don’t want to spoil the ending for you but lets just say you’ll be wanting more.  Go to your local bookstore and get your hands on this book. You won’t want to put it down.  Get ready to become addicted to this book just like I did.  Read the book first and then go see the movie. Trust me you'll love it.

Check this out :  Want to know more about the Hunger Game movie.  Watch this trailer to see some clips of the movie.  Movie Trailer

Vocabulary

sweeping - to move / have a big effect
box office - movie theaters
participants - person who partakes in an event
districts - an area
defeated - beaten
various - many
undergo - to go through
addicted - liking a particular thing

Use the vocabulary list  above to help you with the word search.

1 2 3 4 5 6

ACROSS3. many 4. to go through 5. beaten 6. to move

DOWN1. liking particular thing 2. movie theater

Hunger Games Vocabulary

Find the vocabulary words in the puzzle below.  

g f d t d o o s a n d e f e a t e d i i t i f r c s o p f c f e v u e x e c i f f o x o b e s d r i f n o a w d d r e c d u o s f a n x g e e e d v u n d e r g o

addicted sweeping box office various undergo defeated

Grammar Point Future Tense 
Seeing that this movie and book both take place in the future, I thought that it would be appropriate to work on the future tense for the grammar point. Future tense can be expressed in a number of ways but the most common are with will and be going to.  
Example :  I will finish my homework in an hour.  I'm going to finish my homework in an hour.  

The simple future tense indicates an action that will take place after that current moment, and that has no connection with the current time.  For example:  He will walk home.  Which means that some time in the future, after now, he will walk home.  He will exercise.  
To form the simple future tense :will + verb will + walk = will walk will + read = will read will + run = will run will + cook = will cook will + study = will study 

Using the five simple future tense examples above, create sentences using for each using the future tense.  
1. 2.3.4.5.

Reflection: Pick from the following questions below and incorporate the future tense verbs that you just learned.  *  In the coming weeks, are you making any plans for the summer?*  Are you booking any vacations or any work opportunities coming up?  * What are your future plans? 
  

Baseball

Playing Catch

by Liana Mahoney

She tosses me the ball. I toss it back to Sis.

She throws it really high: “Let’s see you catch this!”

The sun is in my eyes! Where IS that ball now?            

I’ve got to spot the ball and catch it somehow.

I’m waiting and I’m waiting. My glove is waiting, too.

I’m looking up, not looking down. I trip on my left shoe.

I’m diving toward the ground. My arms are stretched out straight.

I open up my glove, but I’m afraid that I’m too late.

I can’t believe my eyes. I think I see the ball!

It’s nestled in my glove; I caught it after all!

I hear my sister cheering. She saw my super catch.

But Fido stole the ball from me. He thinks we’re playing fetch

My favorite time of the year had begun. Spring is here at last! Seeing that spring training has started up, I did this poem with my class last week. Many of my students love baseball so I thought it was a fun piece of writing to incorporate into the classroom.  This poem was very age appropriate for my class and was a simple task for them to read.  Many of the students caught on right away at the rhyming words at the end of the sentence.  After reading through the poem we had a class discussion about baseball and having a catch with a friends or family member.  Many of the students  made a self-connection to the poem.  The students found the end of the story to very humorous about the dog catching the ball.  I thought that this was a good teaching tool to use with the class to teach them how to create a rhyming poem.  By using this relatable poem many students were able to grasp the concept of the lesson.  I myself am a big baseball fan so I felt pretty intrigued throughout this mini lesson.  I felt that the kids were able to take a lot of out the lesson because it was such a relatable topic. The poem let many of the students think of a similar scenario that may have happened to him/her.  This was a great resource to use with the class because got many students in spirit of spring fever.    

Vocabulary:  

spring training - preseason training during the spring  
Baseball - a ball game played with a bat and ball
Incorporate - include
appropriate - right
rhyming words - a word agreeing with another word in sound
self-connection - relate to something
humorous - funny
scenario - a what if example
spring fever - feeling of excitement

Use the words above to fill in the sentences below.  

The Mets play in Florida for their ________________.  

When two teams versus each other with nine players on the field is called ____________.

After reading the book, The Vanishers, I made a ____________________ to the book.  

Before showing the movie to the class, I had to make sure it was ___________________ for their age.  

It’s important to ________________ healthy habits like excerise and dieting into one’s daily routine.  

Many baseball fan’s experience ___________________ in February through April.  

Many poets and artist will use __________________ in many of their works.  

The possible _____________ would be that we go to the movies if it rains.  

The poem was  ________________.  




Grammar Point: Rhyming Words

Rhyming Words are words that sound alike by having the same ending sound.  Rhyming words are helpful because they can be used to remember other words.  Ryhme helps people learn about language.  Rhyming deals with word families and putting them together.  You will begin to learn about the patterns, rhythms, and structure of language through these simple rythms.  If you take a look at the list below you will see that the words that rhyme have the same/similar endings.  

Example of Rhyming Words:

Cat   Hat                  Back   Pack                 at         bat              bell    yell          found    ground
See  Be                    Lack   Black                at         mat             well   sell          mound   round
Hip   Dip                   an       can                   at         rat               in       chin         fun        run
Bat   Mat                  an       man                   at        that              thin   begin        done    none


Matching Column:  

Match the pictures below so that the pictures words rhyme.  






Look at this Brain Pop Video.  It will help you understand more about Rhyming Words.  
Brain Pop - Rhyming Words Demo


If you wanted to make up a name for this poem what would you make it.  From the poem above list all of the rhyming words you found.  

Additional Help:
http://www.rhymezone.com/  : This site will help you if you are stuck on some rhyming words and will provide you with extra help.  This site provides examples of rhyming words by just typing in a word you want to rhyme with.