Unit 4 - Week 1

1. By Paul
Fleischman
RS 4.1
WESLANDIA

2.  Video –
 p. 20 – 21
 People can meet
physical challenges in
their environment. How
does this stone bridge
help people deal with a
physical challenge in
their environment?
 What challenge does
the diver face in his
deep-sea exploration?
 How have the young
men in the gymnasium
photo adapted to having
a disability?
DAY 1 – HOW DO PEOPLE ADAPT
TO DIFFICULT SITUATIONS?

3. CONCEPT MAP
Read Aloud: Birdsong on a
Summer Evening
Amazing Words: discovered,
courage, determination,
practice
In “Birdsong on a Summer
Evening,” The narrator needed
determination to play baseball
again. How can you use context
clues to determine or clarify
the meaning of the word
determination?
Discuss with a partner:
What goals do you think take
the most determination to
achieve?
How people adapt to difficult situations?
Physical
change
New
situations
Inventing
new things

4. COMPREHENSION SKILL: DRAW CONCLUSIONS
COMPREHENSION STRATEGY: QUESTIONING

5. THE GO-CART

6.  Use and online dictionary to define the words below.
VOCABULARY
blunders civilization complex envy

7.  Check your vocabulary definitions with the definitions above!
VOCABULARY

8. Spelling – Take your pretest on SpellingCity
Conventions – Finish WS 16 after reading
groups
Handwriting – Work on the next two pages in
your cursive packet

9.  How do people adapt to difficult situations?
 “One hot afternoon, I badgered Ben to go swimming. I’d
discovered that I could still swim with one arm, and I dragged
Ben off to the lake every chance we had.” – Birdsong on a
Summer Evening
 What does badgered mean?
 The author could have written the narrator “asked Ben to go
swimming.” Why did she choose the word badgered instead?
DAY 2 – CONTENT KNOWLEDGE
ORAL VOCABULARY

10. CONCEPT MAP
Amazing Words: customize,
exploration
What might lead someone
to an exploration of a new
skill or idea? How does the
exploration of our own
abilities help us grow?
Discuss with a partner:
What exploration would you
like to take part in?
How people adapt to difficult situations?
Physical
change
New
situations
Inventing
new things

11. VOCABULARY
fleeing inspired rustling strategy

12.  Check your vocabulary definitions with the definitions above!
VOCABULARY

13.  The endings –ed, -ing, and –s, can be added to words to
change how the words are used in sentences.
 Practice working with base words and endings using the chart
below in your reading spiral.
WORD ANALYSIS: ENDINGS –ED, -ING, -S

14.  Nouns and verbs
can end in –s.
Verbs ending in –
ed and –ing show
time or tense.
Nouns ending in –
ed and –ing are
adjetives. When
you read a word
ending in –s, -ed,
or –ing, identify
its base word.
VOCABULARY SKILL: ENDINGS –ED, -ING, -S

15.  Read “Long-Ago
Lives” on page 25.
 Words to know:
civilization, complex,
fleeing, blunders,
envy, inspired,
rustling, strategy
 When you are
finished imagine that
you are living in an
ancient civilization.
Write a paragraph in
your reading spiral
about what you see,
Use words from the
words to know list.
VOCABULARY SKILL

16.  Fiction tells stories of
imaginary people and events.
Fiction many contain
characters and events that
are realistic or one s that
seem odd or dreamlike.
 Preview Weslandia by looking
at the title and illustrations.
Make a prediction.
 Read page 26 – 33

17. Spelling – Practice your words on Spelling City
Conventions – WS 250

18.  How do people adapt to difficult situations?
 “He was an outcast from the civilization around him. He alone
in his town disliked pizza and soda, alarming his mother and
the school nurse.” - Weslandia
 What does civilization mean? What context clues can help you
understand the meaning?
 What does it mean to be an outcast from civilization?
 Can you think of any movie or book examples where there is a
character who is an outcast?
DAY 3 – CONTENT KNOWLEDGE
ORAL VOCABULARY

19. CONCEPT MAP
Amazing Words: Flexibility,
transformation
Yesterday, we learned that a
person can undergo a
personal transformation
that leads to success. What
does transformation mean?
How did Wesley undergo a
transformation?
Discuss with a partner:
Has someone you know
recently undergone a
striking transformation?
How people adapt to difficult situations?
Physical
change
New
situations
Inventing
new things

20.  An idiom is a phrase or expression whose meaning cannot be
understood from ordinary meaning of the words that form it.
Context clues can sometimes be used to figure out the
meaning.
 Let’s look back at “The Go-Cart” on page 23. I see the phrase
set about In paragraph 5. What could set about mean?
 Jeff is starting to work on the go-cart. So set about seems to
mean “begin doing something”
 Figurative Language foldable
 Interactive Notebook page 93
LITERARY TERMS: IDIOMS

21.  Personification is a figure of speech in which a thing, an idea,
or an animal is given human characteristics. The non-human
objects are portrayed in such a way that we feel that have the
ability to act like human beings.
 For example, When we say, “The sky weeps” we are giving the
sky the ability to cry, which is a human quality. So we can say
that the sky has been personified.
 Figurative language foldable
 Interactive Notebook page 92
LITERARY TERMS: PERSONIFICATION

22.  On what page do we learn
about Wesley’s diet? What is
Wesley eating and drinking?
 Turn to page 28 and find
words with –ing, -ed, and –s
endings. Determine the
meaning of each word using
its word structure.
 Read pages 34 – 39

23. Think Critically – Answer the think critically
questions on page 38
Conventions – WS 189
Type to Learn – Practice your typing for 15
minutes

24.  How do people adapt to difficult situations?
 “His school mates were scornful, then curious. Grudgingly,
Wesley allowed them ten minutes apiece at his mortar,
crushing the plant’s seeds to collect the oil.” – Weslandia
 Examine the word parts in scornful. What do they mean? What
does the word scornful mean?
DAY 4 – CONTENT KNOWLEDGE
ORAL VOCABULARY

25. CONCEPT MAP
Amazing Words:
advancement, dynamic
We read about how a
civilization shows
advancement when it grows
staple crops. What word
ending, or affix, helps me
understand this word?
What does grudgingly
mean?
Discuss with a partner:
When have you grudgingly
done something?
How people adapt to difficult situations?
Physical
change
New
situations
Inventing
new things

26.  You can use the structure of words
to leave more about what a word
means. The –ed and –ing endings
are from Old English. The verb
ending –ed shows actions. The
ending –ing can show that a word is
being used as an adjective. The
noun ending –s shows that a noun is
plural.
 Find at least three words in
Weslandia that end with –ing or –
ed.
 Find atleast three nouns that end
with –s.
 How does understanding the
endings help you understand these
words.
VOCAB AND LISTENING
• With a partner demonstrate one
of Wes’s projects for the class.
• Try the project first to make sure
it works.
• Make sure you have all the
materials you will need for your
demonstration.
• Break the project down into steps
and prepare and explanation for
each step.
• Then present it on seesaw.

27. Spelling – Practice your spelling words quietly with
a partner and a dry erase board
Conventions – WS 257
Vocabulary -

28.  Amazing words
 Use the concept map
and what you have
learned from this
week’s discussions and
reading selections to
form and
– a realization or
big idea about
adapting.
 In your spiral write
down a few sentences
about your
beginning with,
“This week I learned…”
DAY 5 – CONTENT KNOWLEDGE
ORAL VOCABULARY
How people adapt to difficult situations?
Physical
change
New
situations
Inventing
new things
Practice
tasks
dynamic
changes
must have
flexibility
have
courage
undergo
transformation
helps with
exploration
Have
determination
personal
advancement
helps customize
world
discovered new
ways to live
achieve
success
invents
solutions

29.  A conclusion is a decision you make after thinking about the
details of what you read.
 Reasonable conclusions are supported by evidence in a text
and sometimes inferred from their own prior knowledge.
 Work with your table group to draw conclusions based on
events and information in Weslandia.
 WS 191 extra practice
REVIEW: DRAW CONCLUSIONS
COMPREHENSION SKILL

30.  Look at word structure, work affixes in particular, to
determine or clarify the meanings of unknown or unfamiliar
words.
 Work with a partner to write sentences containing words with
the endings –ing, -ed, and –s.
 Trade sentences and identify the word endings that help you
determine each word’s meaning.
REVIEW: ENDINGS –ED, -ING, -S
VOCABULARY SKILL

31.  Endings –ed, -ing, and –s can be added to base words to
change how the words are used in sentences.
 Frolicked
 I know frolic means to play or move cheerfully. Adding -ed
makes the verb past tense. The new word means “played for
moved cheerfully.”
 Use the above strategy for the following three words.
 trampled
 disturbing
 investigators.
REVIEW: ENDINGS –ED, -ING, -S
WORD ANALYSIS

32.  An idiom is a group of words that cannot be understood by
their literal meaning.
 For example, pulling your leg is an idiom that means “to make
a joke.”
 Look back at Weslandia on page 31.
 Find an example of an idiom with a partner. Explain why the
author uses that idiom.
REVIEW: IDIOMS
LITERARY TERMS