In Other Words ... Test Yourself

How good is your synonym knowledge? Can you identify the following fairy tales and Christmas songs? Post your answers to the comments section.

Fairy Tales 

1. The Trio of Diminutive Porkers 
2. Tiny Scarlet Hooded Female 
3. Boy and the Rampantly Growing Vegetable Vine 
4. The Small Half Fish Female 
5. The Royal Damsel and the Puny Pod Vegetable 
6. Snoozing Gorgeous One 
7. The Lad Who Yelled Canus Lupus 

Christmas Songs 

1. Bleached Yule 
2. Small Young Male Percussionist 
3. Embellish the Interior Passageways 
4. Allow the Frozen Precipitation to Commence 
5. The Arctic Quadruped with the Vermillion Proboscis 
6. Nocturnal Time Span of Unbroken Quietness 
7. Singular Yearning for the Twin Anterior Incisors

In Other Words ...

Fifth graders are practicing their paraphrasing skills. Their assignment was to put the following sentences into their own words:

During my earlier years, I experienced much strife with my male and female siblings who were born before me. Now that we are more mature, we have overcome some of our differences and have the ability to interact pleasantly.

Here are some of the new sentences the students came up with. I have to say that I was quite impressed with Room 12's contributions ... they are the champions of my four 5th grades!

When I was younger, I always used to fight with my older siblings. Now that we are older, we get along. - M.Q.

When my older siblings and I were young, we were trouble, but now we get along well. - S.F. & O.G.

When I was younger, I fought with my older siblings. Now we can be friends. - E.F.

When I was little, I fought with my older siblings. Now that we are older, we have become closer. - A.T.

When I was younger, I fought with my brothers and sisters. Now we can be more friendly. - G.R. & M.V. & A.T.

Me and my two siblings never got along. Now that we are more mature, we are more friendly. - N.B. & M.K.

When I was younger, my older siblings and I had a hard time getting along. Now that we are older, we have found a way to get along. - G.S. & B.S.

When I was little, I had trouble with my older brothers and sisters. Now that we are older, we deal with our differences and know how to be nice to each other. - O.T. & N.N.

When I was younger, I went through difficult times with my older brother and sister. Now that we are older, we can talk pleasantly and not fight. - M.A. & J.W.

Mock Caldecott: Round 2 Results

We have two more books approved as finalists in our Mock Caldecott:

source: goodreads.com

Exclamation Mark
Author: Amy Krouse Rosenthal
Illustrator: Tom Lichtenheld

As a grammar and punctuation nerd, I am excited to have the kids see that such things can be FUN.

What's My Mark? game - easiest
Rags to Riches game - easier
Rags to Riches game - harder

source: peachtreepub.
blogspot.com

Tiger in My Soup 
Author: Kashmira Sheth
Illustrator: Jeffrey Ebbeler

Super bold artwork shows how a boy's imagination works overtime as he begs his older sister to read him a story. Cool perspectives and visual treats (like the T I G E R cascading into his bowl of alphabet treats as she serves him lunch) make for a striking book.

pbkids.org has an alphabet soup riddle game you can play. I wonder if you'll get "R O A R"?

Bark, George!

harpercollins.com

As a follow-up to the previous lesson about animal sounds, I read Bark, George to K. Students got a huge kick out of this story about a dog who doesn't bark ... instead, he meows, quacks, oinks, and moos!

To support their retelling skills, students colored and cut out the characters so they could bring them home and share story to their families. (You can click on the link to access and download more copies.)

The official video of the book - voiced by John Lithgow - sometimes pops up on Youtube, but then is promptly removed because of copyright violation. Instead, you can watch this puppet-show version of the story: