January+24,+2012+-+family+letter

Dear Families,

Thank you for your hard work on our comprehension work involving DETERMINING IMPORTANCE and SUMMARIZING! The kids brought their “thinking” to the table and we shared our insight and together we developed a summary topic sentence showcasing the summary verb – DESCRIBES. As you can tell, summarizing is the next step beyond a retell when your child tells you EVERRRRRYYY detail that they remember from the passage, text, or story. I’d like for the kids to complete the same activity this week stopping on page 54. As you can tell, this is a challenging book, and thus, your guidance is much appreciated – allowing us time to discuss new concepts, participate in guided practice and focus on new vocabulary; which takes me to the next point. Today Miles brought to our attention two new words for our BFG Dictionary.

noun - a long step verb - to walk with long steps
 * S- STRIDE **

noun - a comparison that uses LIKE or AS to help the reader understand something more deeply or to "see" something in their mind's eye
 * S- SIMILE **

We had a lot of fun discovering the author’s use of similes throughout his tale. And so it was, that through inquiry, we recognized that the author uses similes to “paint a picture” of something in our mind’s eye. Please delight in their discoveries with them.