Homework for The Ugly Vegetables October 5 October 9, 2015 (Return this sheet, initialed, on Monday, October 12 th.) Name: One of Grace Lin's more popular books, The Ugly Vegetables shares timeless themes of community and cultures. A neighborhood comes together to share flowers and ugly vegetables soup, and the young gardener learns that regardless of appearances, everything has its own beauty and purpose. Complete with a guide to the Chinese pronunciation of the vegetables and the recipe for ugly vegetable soup! Monday tough. Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Practice spelling words. (Find fun ideas for practicing listed on our website.) Practice target vocabulary shovels, blooming, scent, nodded, wrinkled, plain, muscles, Review sounds and past high-frequency/sight words on skill sheet. Read or be read to. Minutes read: (Books, fluency passages, etc.) Practice spelling words. Practice target vocabulary words if not yet memorized. Read, The Ugly Vegetable Math review page: (Look in green folder Tuesday) Read or be read to. Minutes read: Practice spelling words. Practice high-frequency/sight words if not yet memorized. Read, The Ugly Vegetable Math review page: (Look in green folder Wednesday) Read or be read to. Minutes read: Practice spelling words. target vocabulary words if not yet memorized. Read, The Ugly Vegetable Read or be read to. Minutes read: The spelling test and reading/vocabulary word test will be on Friday, October 9 th. + Minutes of reading on: Friday:Saturday:_Sunday:_ Total minutes read this week: (Please total all minutes read during the week.) Research has shown that the single most influential factor in creating successful readers is the amount of time they spend reading. Reading is a skill that improves only with repeated practice. The more children read, the more they are able to read. Make it a goal to read for at least 15 to 20 minutes every day.
Spelling/Phonics Pattern for The Ugly Vegetable October 5 October 9 Rather than memorizing a specific list of words, focus on learning the spelling rule so that your child can spell any word that fits this rule. Use the week s fluency passages to help you study, as well as the ideas listed on our website. Help your child become a problem solver when it comes to spelling by asking questions such as, If you can spell ring, how do you spell sing? That s right! You just change the first letter because they rhyme! This week s spelling / phonics pattern: Double Consonants & ck Spelling words for test (Plus the two review words and two optional challenge words): dress spell class full add neck stuck kick rock trick black doll Your child should also be able to spell these Review Words. off will Please take the cat off the table. Will you go with us? Your child will be given the opportunity to write one more word that follows the spelling pattern and harder High-Frequency words. This is optional for those students who are interested in a challenge. Do not worry about studying these words unless the cvc words are easy and automatic for your child. There is no grade penalty for trying Challenge words: These words follow the same rule as above. Examples of the kinds of challenge words your child may see: across pocket
Skill Review Sheet The skill sheet reviews previously learned sounds, sight words, contractions, inflections, etc. This week s new sounds, words, etc. will be reviewed on next week s skill sheet. Please study any parts of this skill sheet that are not yet automatic and easy for your child. If the sight words are still difficult for your child, focus on mastering those before moving down to the contractions, color/number words, etc. Letter/Sound Relationships: ank ink ang ing ong ung ck = k Letter/Sound Long Vowels a_e (cage, game, rake, skate, tape, vane) i_e (kite, mice, nine, prize, slide, vine) o_e (globe, hose, nose, note, rope, stone ) u_e (cube, flue, mule, tube, ) Initial and Final Blends: Practice reading these consonant blends. mp (as in lamp) sl (as in slide) cl (as in clock) nk (as in bank) fr (as in frog) fl (as in flag) cr (as in crab) nd (as in land) pl (as in plant) bl (as in block) br (as in brown) tr (as in truck) nt (as in tent) ft (as in gift) dr (as in drum) st (as in nest) sk (as in desk) gr (as in grass) gl (as in glad) pr (as in present) lk (as in milk) Sight Words: Students should be able to read these words automatically, without sounding them out. air car cried funny he pictures pretty told try windows both cold eat green little long we by cheer could hello hundred mind play see today other this children eat could family comes want right don t put buy now are day got walk was every grows your friends make was when be good help she night saw said from our down out use oh people gone
Fluency Passages for Ugly Vegetables Rereading the same passage increases fluency. Reading fluently allows students to focus their concentration on comprehension. Emphasize reading naturally and accurately rather than speed reading. Color copy of the story with picture is available on our classroom web page: http://berkeleycountyschools.org/domain/3034 Ugly Vegetables By: Grace Lin In the spring I helped my mother start our garden. We used tall shovels to turn the grass upside down, and I saw pink worms wriggle around. It was hard work. When we stopped to rest, we saw that the neighbors were starting their gardens too. Hello, Irma! my mother called to Mrs. Crumerine. Mrs. Crumerine was digging too. One that fit in her hand. Mommy, I asked, why are we using such big shovels? Mrs. Crumerine has a small one. Because our garden needs more digging, she said. I helped my mother plant the seeds, and we dragged the hose to the garden. Hi, Linda! Hi, Mickey! I called to the Fitzgeralds. They were sprinkling water on their garden with watering cans. Mommy, I asked, why are we using a hose? Linda and Mickey are using watering cans. Because our garden needs more water, she said. Then my mother drew funny pictures on pieces of paper and I stuck them into the garden. Hello, Roseanne! my mother called across the street to Mrs. Angelhowe. Mommy, I asked, why are we sticking these papers into the garden? Mrs. Angelhowe has seed packages in her garden. Because our garden is going to grow Chinese vegetables, she told me. These are the names of the vegetables in Chinese, so I can tell which plants are growing where. One day I saw our garden growing. Little green stems that looked like grass had popped out from the ground. Our garden s growing! I yelled. Our garden s growing! I rushed over to our neighbors gardens to see if theirs had grown. Their plants looked like little leaves.
Mommy, I asked, why do our plants look like grass? The neighbors plants look different. Because they are growing flowers, she said. Why can t we grow flowers? I asked. These are better than flowers, she said. Soon all the neighbors gardens were blooming. Up and down the street grew rainbows of flowers. The wind always smelled sweet, and butterflies and bees flew everywhere. Everyone s garden was beautiful, except ours. Ours was all dark green and ugly. Why didn t we grow flowers? I asked again. These are better than flowers, Mommy said again. I looked, but saw only black-purple-green vines, fuzzy wrinkled leaves, prickly stems, and a few little yellow flowers. I don t think so, I said. You wait and see, Mommy said. Before long our vegetables grew. Some were big and lumpy. Some were thin and green and covered with bumps. Some were just plain icky yellow. They were ugly vegetables. Sometimes I would go over to the neighbors and look at their pretty gardens. They would show the poppies and peonies and petunias to me, and I would feel sad that our garden wasn t as nice. One day my mother and I picked the vegetables from the garden. We filled a whole wheelbarrow full of them. We wheeled them to the kitchen. My mother washed them and took a big knife and started to chop them. Aie-yow! she said when she cut them. She had to use all her muscles. The vegetables were hard and tough. This is a sheau hywang gua, Mommy said, handing me a bumpy, curly vegetable. She pointed at the other vegetables. This is a shiann tsay. That s a torng hau. I went outside to play. While I was playing catch with Mickey, a magical aroma filled the air. I saw the neighbors standing on their porches with their eyes closed, smelling they sky. They took deep breathes of air, like they were trying to eat the smell. The wind carried it up and down the street. Even the bees and the butterflies seemed to smell the scent in the breeze. I smelled it too. It made me hungry, and it was coming from my house! When I followed it to my house, my mother was putting a big bowl of soup on the table. The soup was yellow and red and green and pink.
This is a special soup, Mommy said, and she smiled. She gave me a small bowl full of it and I tasted it. It was so good! The flavors of the soup seemed to dance in my mouth and laugh all the way down to my stomach. I smiled. Do you like it? Mommy asked me. I nodded and held out my bowl for some more. It s made from our vegetables, she told me. Then the doorbell rang, and we ran to open the door. All our neighbors were standing at the door holding flowers. We noticed you were cooking. Mr. Fitzgerald laughed as he held out his flowers. And we thought maybe you might be interested in a trade! We laughed too, and my mother gave them each their own bowl of her special soup. My mother told them what each vegetable was and how she grew it. She gave them the soup recipe and put some soup into jars for them to take home. I ate five bowls of soup. It as the best dinner ever. The next spring, when my mother was starting her garden, we planted some flowers next to the Chinese vegetables. Mrs. Crumerine, the Fitzgeralds, and the Angelhowes planted some Chinese vegetables next to their flowers. Soon the whole neighborhood was growing Chinese vegetables in their gardens. Up and down the street, little green plants poked out if the ground. Some looked like leaves and some looked like grass, and when the flowers started blooming, you could smell soup in the air. Comprehension Questions to Discuss Together: 1. What is the first thing the girl and her mother do at the beginning of the story? 2. What is the girl s problem in the story? 3. What steps could she take to solve the problem? 4. What are some description words in this story? (adjectives) 5. What do you think the girl s mother will do with the vegetables next? How do you know? 6. What steps does the girl s mother take to prepare the vegetables? 7. Tell what happened in the beginning, middle, and end of the story.
How We Made Reading Fun This Week: My loved-one read this story to me. I told them my favorite part! We echo-read this story. (Parent reads sentence, child reads the same sentence) We took turns reading! (Parent reads one sentence, child reads the next!) I circled all of the words that I knew how to read without help. We counted them up together. I founds all of my need to know words in the story and read those sentences perfectly. I put rectangles around the words I didn t know. I practiced reading those words! I read this story all-by myself to my family or friends. I read this story all-by-myself to my pets, dolls, or toys. I read this story in a sill way (e.g. baby voice, monster voice, upside-down, singing it, etc.) I played Hide and Seek story! (Write story on 3x5 cards. Hide them. Find and read them. Put them in order) (Other)
Target Vocabulary/ Sight Words Target vocabulary words, and sight words, are words that students need to recognize automatically as they read the story. They may/or may not fit standard spelling rules. The more words children recognize automatically, the better they understand what they are reading because they can focus on the meaning of the text rather than trying to sound out every word. Students need to be able to say each word on this list, within 3 seconds, without trying to sound it out. Words for last week Animals Building Homes Words for this week The Ugly Vegetable shaped branches pond breaks deepest blooming shovels scent tough wrinkled break hang winding plain muscles nodded In addition to playing memorization games, use the suggestions below to study the meaning and usage of any of the new words your child doesn t already know (not checked off): Cut out the words above or, for more practice, have your child write them on index cards. Ask your child to make up original sentences using the new words. Ask your child to say at least one word that rhymes with each of the new words. While you study next week s new words, please continue to study any words from previous weeks that are not yet memorized and review words from past stories.