SPELLING AND VOCABULARY
Spelling
At the end of the week, there will be a spelling quiz on these spelling words.
prairie
blight
monopoly
foreign
excel
diminish
havoc
devastated
fatal
Vocabulary: Base Words and Suffixes
A suffix is a letter or group of letters added to the end of a word. You have already studied prefixes, which are added to the beginnings of words. Just as adding a prefix changes the meaning of a word, so does adding a suffix. Example:
wonderful
· wonder is the base word
· ful is the suffix
You can create many adjectives by adding a suffix to a base word.
Suffix
Meaning
Examples
-ful
full of, or having qualities offullness of
cheerful, graceful
-able
worthy of, able to be
breakable, agreeable
-less
without
fearless, penniless
-y
having, or being like
dusty, smelly
-ly
like
loudly (loud-like)
-ous
turns the word into an adjective
dangerous
-ed -ing -s -es
these common word endings are also suffixes
walking, tasted, laughs, watches
Assignment
1. In the following sentences, identify the words that have suffixes and list both the base word and the suffix.
Johnny Appleseed was a remark-able man.
He slept on a lump-y mattress.
He often had a care-less appearance.
In spite of all this, he was very thought-ful.
He enjoyed sitting quiet-ly.
Plural Noun Practice
2. Write the plural of each of the following nouns.
Books
leaves
lunches
wharves
churches
Classes
dresses
clocks
selves
Boxes
coats
roofs
3. Now compose five of your own sentences using base words with suffixes. Try to think of your own words - if possible; don’t repeat any of the words that have been used as examples so far.
“Ooh, sorry,” I said sarcastically, “I didn’t know it was a rule to not be hungry.”
His eyes bugged, and you could almost say there was something cartoony about him.
That was the tackiest paint job I’d seen in my life.
“You did extremely well!”
She clicked the mouse loudly.
4. Can you think of some prefixes and suffixes not mentioned here or in the last lesson? There are many more! List at least five more examples.
-ly
-y
pre-
post-
-ologist
LITERATURE
Free Verse
You've now had the chance to read and write a few poems. How did this go? Did you think long and hard about what you were going to write, or did the poem just come out? You will probably notice that you used fragments of sentences to make your poem, and that each line wasn't a complete sentence, and didn't necessarily begin with a capital letter. And you know what? You got a pretty good poem out of it anyway! Poetry doesn't follow the same rules as prose (non-poetic writing). Let's take a look at "Spring is Like a Hand" by e.e. cummings (this isn't a typo, but how the poet wanted his name to appear):
Spring is like a perhaps hand (which comes carefully out of Nowhere)arranging a window,into which people look(while people stare arranging and changing placing carefully there a strange thing and a known thing here)and
changing everything carefully
spring is like a perhaps Hand in a window (carefully to and fro moving New and Old things,while people stare carefully moving a perhaps fraction of flower here placing an inch of air there)and
without breaking anything.
This poem is filled with sentence fragments that only help the reader to better understand the poem. Spring is like a hand that moves and shifts according to its own will. The poem doesn't have any set rhyme scheme (repeated rhyming pattern and/or rhythm) either. This lack of a rhyme scheme or regular beat is called free verse. A poet writing in free verse creates his or her own rules. These rules take the poet's patterns of thought or breath patterns into consideration (in other words, the line may break at the end of a thought or where one would pause to breathe when reading the poem aloud). The poet might also be very aware of how he or she wants the poem to appear on the page. We'll look at this more in a little while. In free verse, it doesn't matter whether the lines are long or short. What does matter is whether the line looks, sounds and feels right. In free verse, a poet will follow hints that come from the poem itself as it evolves. The most famous poet to write free verse is the American poet Walt Whitman. Find a copy of Leaves of Grass and read a small section. Other American poets who write free verse include Galway Kinnell, William Stafford and Denise Levertov. You can see examples of their work at http://www.poets.org/.
Assignment
1. Read two examples of free verse poetry. Read the poems (or portions of the poems if they're long - at least 20 lines), then write what your impression of the poems were. What do you think they were about? How did you feel about the lack of structure such as rhyming and regular verses? How did reading them make you feel?
Spelling
At the end of the week, there will be a spelling quiz on these spelling words.
prairie
blight
monopoly
foreign
excel
diminish
havoc
devastated
fatal
Vocabulary: Base Words and Suffixes
A suffix is a letter or group of letters added to the end of a word. You have already studied prefixes, which are added to the beginnings of words. Just as adding a prefix changes the meaning of a word, so does adding a suffix. Example:
wonderful
· wonder is the base word
· ful is the suffix
You can create many adjectives by adding a suffix to a base word.
Suffix
Meaning
Examples
-ful
full of, or having qualities offullness of
cheerful, graceful
-able
worthy of, able to be
breakable, agreeable
-less
without
fearless, penniless
-y
having, or being like
dusty, smelly
-ly
like
loudly (loud-like)
-ous
turns the word into an adjective
dangerous
-ed -ing -s -es
these common word endings are also suffixes
walking, tasted, laughs, watches
Assignment
1. In the following sentences, identify the words that have suffixes and list both the base word and the suffix.
Johnny Appleseed was a remark-able man.
He slept on a lump-y mattress.
He often had a care-less appearance.
In spite of all this, he was very thought-ful.
He enjoyed sitting quiet-ly.
Plural Noun Practice
2. Write the plural of each of the following nouns.
Books
leaves
lunches
wharves
churches
Classes
dresses
clocks
selves
Boxes
coats
roofs
3. Now compose five of your own sentences using base words with suffixes. Try to think of your own words - if possible; don’t repeat any of the words that have been used as examples so far.
“Ooh, sorry,” I said sarcastically, “I didn’t know it was a rule to not be hungry.”
His eyes bugged, and you could almost say there was something cartoony about him.
That was the tackiest paint job I’d seen in my life.
“You did extremely well!”
She clicked the mouse loudly.
4. Can you think of some prefixes and suffixes not mentioned here or in the last lesson? There are many more! List at least five more examples.
-ly
-y
pre-
post-
-ologist
LITERATURE
Free Verse
You've now had the chance to read and write a few poems. How did this go? Did you think long and hard about what you were going to write, or did the poem just come out? You will probably notice that you used fragments of sentences to make your poem, and that each line wasn't a complete sentence, and didn't necessarily begin with a capital letter. And you know what? You got a pretty good poem out of it anyway! Poetry doesn't follow the same rules as prose (non-poetic writing). Let's take a look at "Spring is Like a Hand" by e.e. cummings (this isn't a typo, but how the poet wanted his name to appear):
Spring is like a perhaps hand (which comes carefully out of Nowhere)arranging a window,into which people look(while people stare arranging and changing placing carefully there a strange thing and a known thing here)and
changing everything carefully
spring is like a perhaps Hand in a window (carefully to and fro moving New and Old things,while people stare carefully moving a perhaps fraction of flower here placing an inch of air there)and
without breaking anything.
This poem is filled with sentence fragments that only help the reader to better understand the poem. Spring is like a hand that moves and shifts according to its own will. The poem doesn't have any set rhyme scheme (repeated rhyming pattern and/or rhythm) either. This lack of a rhyme scheme or regular beat is called free verse. A poet writing in free verse creates his or her own rules. These rules take the poet's patterns of thought or breath patterns into consideration (in other words, the line may break at the end of a thought or where one would pause to breathe when reading the poem aloud). The poet might also be very aware of how he or she wants the poem to appear on the page. We'll look at this more in a little while. In free verse, it doesn't matter whether the lines are long or short. What does matter is whether the line looks, sounds and feels right. In free verse, a poet will follow hints that come from the poem itself as it evolves. The most famous poet to write free verse is the American poet Walt Whitman. Find a copy of Leaves of Grass and read a small section. Other American poets who write free verse include Galway Kinnell, William Stafford and Denise Levertov. You can see examples of their work at http://www.poets.org/.
Assignment
1. Read two examples of free verse poetry. Read the poems (or portions of the poems if they're long - at least 20 lines), then write what your impression of the poems were. What do you think they were about? How did you feel about the lack of structure such as rhyming and regular verses? How did reading them make you feel?
Poems are a waste and do not give me any feeling, picture, or interest. So STOP ASKING ME. Any future questions on poems I will ignore.
Here is a free verse poem by Carl Sandburg:
Fog
The fog comeson little cat feet.It sits lookingover harbor and cityon silent haunchesand then moves on.
Other poems by Carl Sandburg:
Buffalo Bill
Upstairs
Wilderness
Young Bullfrogs
Laughing Corn
Here are some more Internet resources for free verse:
Walt Whitman Poems:
There was a Child went Forth
A Farm-Picture
Warble for Lilac-Time
The Torch
A Clear Midnight
Poetry for Kids
Poems by Pablo Neruda
In the Night
Lost in the Forest
You Sing
Poems by e. e. cummings
because it's
Little Tree
Spring Is
Visual Poetry
Another poetry form that we will look at is called visual poetry (this is sometimes also called concrete poetry). Visual poems create a picture using the space on the page. Every picture tells a story. Instead of letting words stand for something else (the way the word "tree" might refer to an actual tree outside), the words in the poem actually take the shape of what they're describing. So for a tree, you might sketch an outline of a tree then use words that describe the tree to outline and/or fill in the shape of a tree. There are even some computer programs that allow you to use different typefaces, colors and shapes to make the poem more interesting to read and look at.
In a concrete poem, the words are used to create the picture, and the picture itself strengthens the meaning of the poem. Can you see what this says? Right! "I love fishing." The letters and symbols form the image of a fish.
Here are some links to other visual poems:
Acrobats
Untitled
Chicken or the egg?
Concrete Poems
Alphabet Poems
A third form we will look at is the alphabet poem. Letters of the alphabet are used as the subject for an entire poem, as e.e. cummings shows us with the small i:
who are you, little i
(five or six years old) peering from some high
window at the gold of November sunset
and feeling: that if day has to become night
this is a beautiful way
The letters a through z can be used to form a 26 word poem (a different letter for each word). Another alphabet poem might have every word in a line beginning with the same letter (you don't necessarily need to have 26 lines). Or, you can have 26 lines (a-z) with each line introducing a letter or having the letter say something about itself. See Edward Lear's "The Alphabet."
The poem below combines both the visual form and the alphabet form:
Notice how each line begins with the letter that begins each color (ROYGBIV) of the rainbow. See how much fun this can be?
Tips for Writing Poetry
When writing poetry, you may not want to follow any specific rules, yet there are a few helpful hints that are good to know.
Pay close attention to the subject of your poem. Remember how important it is to keep a picture in focus. You need to focus upon the subject so that you don't lose your reader’s interest.
The reader should be able to tell what happened.
Remember to use figurative language.
Make each line interesting.
Make the poem reflect a mood that lets the reader feel something.
Make every word count towards the poem's meaning.
Remember that the best poems come from a poet’s personal experience. Sometimes it's hard to think of a topic, but sometimes the simplest or most common experiences work really well. Subjects that you might choose to explore in your poetry might be:
the experience of eating something
your happiest time
the time you were most afraid
the impressions you get from taking a walk
friendship
When writing concrete (visual) poems, remember the following:
Your topic should be very simple and concrete, for example: something that makes you happy, something funny, an important event or moment, something simple from nature.
It should be a visible concept.
Create the shape by considering the object's shape, outline, or movement through space.
Brainstorm ideas for your poem - write down a list of words and phrases that come to mind.
Remember that your poem doesn't need to rhyme.
Assignment
Choose one of the forms mentioned above and write your own free verse, concrete (visual) or alphabet poem (or some combination!).
Okay, here is my Concrete Poem
I love the idea of using symbols as text.
If you choose free verse, you may want to write a prose paragraph, then break it up into lines that have meaning for you as you write about your subject. You can do several versions. One with long lines, one with short lines, one mixed, and see which is better. You might also change things as you go.
If you choose to make a concrete poem, check to see whether you are using an identifiable visual image (Will the reader be able to tell what it is?). Does the image match the poem and add to the pleasure of the poem? Think about these things as you go.
If you choose an alphabet poem, decide what type you will use, then stay within the form. (It's okay if your poem is funny and provokes a laugh or two).
Have fun!
GRAMMAR
Prepositions
A preposition is a word that relates the noun or pronoun of a sentence to another word in the sentence. A preposition, in keeping with the meaning of its root word, is a word that usually shows position in time or space. Examples:
Let's go to the movie matinee.
I bought the tickets before lunch.
My keys must be around here somewhere.
We can park near my friend's house.
Let's buy popcorn during the intermission.
Can I sit beside you?
Hey, I can't see over that person's head!
Can we get ice cream after the movie?
Sure, we can stop by the mall.
Notice how these prepositions from the sentences above show position in space: beside, over, around, near, by, to. Notice how these propositions show position in time: before, during, after.
Here is a list of commonly used prepositions:
above
about
across
after
against
along
among
around
at
before
behind
beside
between
by
during
except
for
from
into
near
of
off
on
over
through
to
toward
upon
under
with
Prepositional Phrases
A prepositional phrase is a group of two or more words that begins with a preposition and ends with a noun or pronoun. Examples:
The clouds gathered in the sky. (in is the preposition; in the sky is the prepositional phrase)
Let's go home before the storm begins. (before is the preposition; before the storm begins is the prepositional phrase)
The macaroni salad is in the refrigerator. (in is the preposition; in the refrigerator is the prepositional phrase)
Object of the Preposition
The noun or pronoun that follows the preposition is called the object of the preposition. In the above sentences, the words sky, storm, and refrigerator are all objects of the prepositions.
Assignment
1. Write five to ten sentences using each of the following prepositions:
He jumped across the pond.
The person behind him fell into it.
After that, he was spluttering and coughing.
His friend was among the people to help him.
Around bedtime, his cat yowled mysteriously.
All thought this was funny, except him.
During the night, someone knocked at the door, but nobody heard it.
The visitor was beside himself with cold, and needed shelter.
Near 1:00 AM, the visitor picked the lock.
He crept up behind our boy, and took him.
2. In each of the following sentences, identify:
the prepositions (P)
the prepositional phrase by italicizing it
the object of the preposition (OP)
Will tossed the frisbee across (P) the road (OP).
Ben ran into (P) the water (OP) and swam across the river.
After (P) he went to France (OP), he traveled around (P) the countryside (OP).
He was an important leader during (P) the war (OP).
Among other talents, Ben had a good sense of humor. (Where is it!?)
Ben was kind, and people liked being near (P) him (OP).
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