New Directions A 2 Level 4 Curriculum
Writing Exercises
by Megan Beck illustrated by Rebekah Henry
Copyright © 2017, New Directions for Academic Achievement, New Directions A 2 ISBN-13: 978-1979141437 Authored by Megan Beck Formatted and Edited by Megan Beck Illustrated by Rebekah Henry Published by New Directions for Academic Achievement, New Directions A 2
No part of this book may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from New Directions for Academic Achievement.
New Directions for Academic Achievement P.O. Box 1429, Carlsbad, CA 92018, USA
www.newdirectionsacademics.org, www.newdirectionsa2.com Dr. Linda Gonzales, Director, Educator: drlindagonzales@me.com Megan Beck, Author, Curriculum Writer: megan@newdirectionsacademics.org
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Table of Contents Unit 1: The Start of Many Adventures Unit 2: Jim and Glowing Plural Spellings Unit 3: Jim and Flying Plural Spellings Unit 4: Mat and Some Stormy Possessives Unit 5: Mat and Some Windy Contractions Unit 6: Mat and Tense-Switching Suffixes Unit 7: Prisha and Colorful Suffixes Unit 8: Prisha and the Greatest Suffixes Unit 9: Prisha and Suffix Admiration Unit 10: Gwen Unlocks Prefix Insights Unit 11: Gwen Enjoys Prefix Discoveries Unit 12: Gwen Hits Homographs Unit 13: Jen and Odd Opposites Unit 14: Jen Investigates Idioms Unit 15: Kordell and Six Silly Syllables Unit 16: Kordell Digs for Roots of Words Unit 17: Olivia’s Parts-of-Speech Puzzle Unit 18: Olivia Composes Poetry Unit 19: Shay and Picky Punctuation Unit 20: Shay and the Keys of Writing Well
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10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
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Unit 21: The Start of Many Adventures Unit 22: Jim and Glowing Plural Spellings Unit 23: Jim and Flying Plural Spellings Unit 24: Mat and Some Stormy Possessives Unit 25: Mat and Some Windy Contractions Unit 26: Mat and Tense-Switching Suffixes Unit 27: Prisha and Colorful Suffixes Unit 28: Prisha and the Greatest Suffixes Unit 29: Prisha and Suffix Admiration Unit 30: Gwen Unlocks Prefix Insights Unit 31: Gwen Enjoys Prefix Discoveries Unit 32: Gwen Hits Homographs Unit 33: Jen and Odd Opposites Unit 34: Jen Investigates Idioms Unit 35: Kordell and Six Silly Syllables Unit 36: Kordell Digs for Roots of Words Unit 37: Olivia’s Parts-of-Speech Puzzle Unit 38: Olivia Composes Poetry Unit 39: Shay and Picky Punctuation Unit 40: Shay and the Keys of Writing Well
25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44
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Unit 1: The Start of Many Adventures
Remember! When a noun is plural, it means that there are more than one. Firefly helped us learn how to spell plural nouns.
Observe: Did you circle the plural nouns in Unit 1?
Practice: Write a shopping list with 10 plural nouns.
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Unit 2: Jim and Glowing Plural Spellings Remember! When a word ends in F, change the F to V and add ES to form the plural. When a word ends in Y, change the Y to I and add ES to form the plural, unless there is a vowel next to the Y.
Observe: Did you circle the plural nouns in Unit 2?
Practice: Write a three-sentence story about a family. Use the plural form of ‘wife’ and ‘baby.’
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Unit 3: Jim and Flying Plural Spellings
Remember! Some English words change completely when they become plural. Other change completely!
Observe: Did you circle the plural nouns in Unit 3?
Practice: Write a three-sentence story about a farm. Use the plural form of ‘goose,’ ‘man,’ ‘ox,’ ‘fish,’ and ‘sheep.’
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Unit 4: Mat and Stormy Possessives Remember! To form a possessive to a singular noun (where there is only one), add an apostrophe (’), then the letter S. If a plural word ends in S, just add an apostrophe.
Observe: Did you circle the possessives in Unit 4?
Practice: Write a 3-sentence story about a friend’s birthday party. Use at least 3 possessives in the story.
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Unit 5: Mat and Windy Contractions
Remember! Contractions combine two words into one, putting an apostrophe where one or more letters were left out.
Observe: Did you circle the contractions in Unit 5?
Practice: Write three sentences describing a job you would like when you grow up. Use at least three contractions.
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Unit 6: Mat and Tense-Switching Suffixes Remember! A suffix on the end of a word changes the meaning of the word. Adding “ED” often makes a verb past tense and adding “ING” often makes a verb progressive.
Observe: Did you circle verbs with suffixes ed or ing?
Practice: Write three sentences describing something you enjoyed doing last summer. Use at least 2 verbs that end in ‘ed’ and 2 that end in ‘ing.’
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Unit 7: Prisha and Colorful Suffixes Remember! A suffix on the end of a word changes the meaning of the word. The suffix “FUL” means full of and if often found on adjectives. The suffix “LY” often makes an adjective an adverb.
Observe: Did you circle verbs with suffixes ful or ly?
Practice: Write two sentences describing your classroom with three words that end in ‘ful.’ Write two more sentences that describe how you do schoolwork with three words that end in ‘ly.’
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Unit 8: Prisha and the Greatest Suffixes Remember! Adding a suffix to a word changes its meaning. The suffix “ER” can make an adjective refer to more of something, while “EST” can make adjective refer to the most of something.
Observe: Did you circle words with suffixes er, ar, or est?
Practice: Write three sentences about how being able to read helps you in life. Use the words great, greater, and greatest.
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Unit 9: Prisha and Suffix Admiration
Remember! Adding a suffix to a word changes its meaning. The suffix that sounds like “shun” can be spelled several ways.
Observe: Did you circle words that end in a “shun” suffix?
Practice: Write three sentences about topics you enjoying studying at school. Use three words that end in a ‘shun’ suffix.
Musician: Someone who plays music Politician: Someone who makes decisions to make a nat ion safe and good for everyone Fashion Designer: Someone who makes things to wear Computer Programmer: Someone who does coding to
make a computer work as it should!
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Unit 10: Gwen Unlocks Prefix Insights
Remember! Adding a prefix to a word changes its meaning. The prefixes un, dis, im, in, and il can mean ‘not.’
Observe: Did you circle words have a suffix that means not?
Practice: Write 4 sentences about how you can avoid bad choices. Use at least four words with prefixes that mean ‘not.’
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Unit 11: Gwen Enjoys Prefix Discoveries Remember! Adding a prefix to a word changes its meaning. The prefix ‘re’ means ‘to do again,’ ‘en’ means ‘cause to,’ and over means ‘over.’
Observe: Did you circle words that begin with a prefix?
Practice: Write 4 sentences about a game you like to play. Use at least one words with each prefix: ‘re,’ ‘en,’ and ‘over.’
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Unit 12: Gwen Hits Homographs - and - phones Remember! Homographs are words that are spelled the same but have different meanings. Homophones that sound the same have different meanings and spellings.
Observe: Did you circle and draw lines connecting word pairs that are homographs or homophones in Chapter 12?
Practice: Write a 4-sentence story about a child getting confused about at least 2 sets of homophones and homographs.
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Unit 13: Jen and Some Odd Opposites Remember! Synonyms are words with similar meaning. Antonyms are words with opposite meaning. There are be words with shades of meaning in between.
Observe: Did you circle and draw lines connecting word pairs that are synonyms or antonyms in Unit 13? Practice: Write a 4-sentence story about types of weather in your hometown, using at least 2 sets of synonyms and antonyms.
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Unit 14: Jen Investigates Idioms
Remember! An idiom has a meaning that is different than the literal meaning of each of the words on their own.
Observe: Did you circle all the idioms in Chapter 14?
Practice: Write a 4-sentence story about a crazy trip to the zoo using at least 3 idioms.
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Unit 15: Kordell and Silly Syllables Remember! A syllable always has one vowel sound, with or without consonants before or after it. Words can have one or more syllables.
Observe: Write the number of syllables in this word: syllable.
Practice: Describe what you think the world’s greatest food is in 4 or more sentences. Use at least 2 words that are 3 or more syllables long.
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Unit 16: Kordell Digs for Roots of Words Remember! English uses Greek and Latin to form some words. Knowing the common root meanings will help you know more words!
Observe: Did you circle all the words with Greek or Latin roots that you know in Chapter 16 of the Reading Textbook?
Practice: Define a prefix in 4 sentences. Use at least one word with a Greek root and one with a Latin root as examples.
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Unit 17: Olivia’s Parts-of-Speech Puzzle Remember! A noun is a person, place, or thing. A pronoun takes a noun’s place. A preposition shows one word’s relation to another. A verb is an acting or being word. An adjective describes a noun.
Observe: Write the number of prepositions in this sentence.
Practice: Think of four great hiding spots at your school. Describe them in at least four sentences. In each sentence, underline the nouns and pronouns, double underline the verbs, circle the adjectives, and box the prepositions.
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Unit 18: Olivia Composes Poetry Remember! Poems can use rhythm, a pattern of accented and unaccented syllables. They can use rhymes, same ending sounds.
Observe: Did you underline the accented syllables in Olivia’s poem? Did you circle and connect syllables that rhyme?
Practice: Write four poetry lines with rhymes at the end.
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Unit 19: Shay and Picky Punctuation Remember! There are many kinds of punctuation marks with different uses. Commas separate words in a list, colons are used in time, and periods are used in abbreviations.
Observe: Did you circle all the punctuation marks in Chapter 19, except for periods after sentences?
Practice: Write a letter including at least 4 commas, 1 colon, 1 question mark, 1 exclamation point, and 1 period for an abbreviation.
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Unit 20: Shay and the Keys of Writing Remember! Words that need a capital first letter are the first word of a sentence, the pronoun “I,” the days of the week and months, names of people, holidays, places and titles.
Observe: Did you circle all the capital letters in Chapter 20, except ones that start sentences?
Practice: Write a flyer about an event at your school. Give the time and place.
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Unit 21: The Start of Many Adventures (2)
Evaluate: Give 1-sentence answers to each question: 1) Who was in the story?
2) Where was the story set?
3) When did the story happen?
4) Why did it happen?
5) How did it happen?
Journal: In 2-4 sentences, write about how you felt after you did or learned something exciting like the kids did at camp.
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Unit 22: Jim and Glowing Plural Spellings
Evaluate: A character is a person or animal in a story. Write 3-4 sentences that describe the character Jim.
Journal: In 2-4 sentences, write about a time you felt nervous or needed help, like Jim did before school started.
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Unit 23: Jim and Flying Plural Spellings Evaluate: A setting is the place and time in which a story happens. Describe this Unit’s setting in 3-4 sentences.
Journal: In 2-4 sentences, write about a time you talked with someone about what you did or learned.
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Unit 24: Mat and Stormy Possessives
Evaluate: A plot is what happens in a story with its problem and solution. Write 3-4 sentences that describes this Unit’s plot.
Journal: In 2-4 sentences, write about a time someone helped you with their words or actions, like Mat’s sister helped him.
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Unit 25: Mat and Windy Contractions Evaluate: Look at the two pictures, or illustrations, in this Unit. How did they help you understand the story? Write a 3-4 sentence answer.
Journal: In 2-4 sentences, write about a time that you helped someone with your words or actions, like Mat helped Carlos.
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Unit 26: Mat and Tense-Switching Suffixes Evaluate: Characters can respond to a story’s events. Write 3-4 sentences describing how Mat responded to seeing Prisha.
Journal: In 2-4 sentences, write about how you responded to something difficult, like Mat learning suffixes.
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Unit 27: Prisha and Colorful Suffixes
Evaluate: A topic is the main idea. Write at least 3 sentences about the topic of the first paragraph on page 31 of your Reading Textbook.
Journal: In 2-4 sentences, write about a story that you have enjoyed reading or hearing in the past, like Prisha enjoyed reading the story about a princess on a journey.
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Unit 28: Prisha and the Greatest Suffixes
Evaluate: A story’s structure is its beginning, middle, and end. Write two sentences for each of those parts of Chapter 8.
Journal: In 3-5 sentences, describe what you hope to be when you grow up.
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Unit 29: Prisha and Suffix Admiration Evaluate: Every story has an author, the person who wrote it. Write 4 sentences about how the author taught about good learning methods, suffixes, or father-daughter relationships.
Journal: In 2-4 sentences, describe someone you admire.
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Unit 30: Gwen Unlocks Prefix Insights
Evaluate: In 4 sentences, write how this story’s events connect.
Journal: In 2-4 sentences, tell which path you choose and why.
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Unit 31: Gwen Enjoys Prefix Discoveries Evaluate: In Chapter 11, the author wrote that Gwen was taking steps down a bright path towards success. Write four sentences that give four reasons from this Unit that support that point.
Journal: In 2-4 sentences, write about a trick, game, or picture you used to help you learn something.
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Unit 32: Gwen Hits Homographs - and - phones Evaluate: Characters have different voices and points of view in stories. Write a 4-sentence dialogue that Gwen and Jen might have had. Partner with another student and read your dialogues aloud, using different voices for each character.
Journal: In 2-4 sentences, write about something new that you tried and what made it challenging and/or rewarding.
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Unit 33: Jen and Some Odd Opposites Evaluate: Sometimes you can guess the meaning of a word based on the words around it. Define 4 words that were unknown to you before figuring them out in Chapter 13 of the Reading Textbook.
1)
2)
3)
4)
Journal: In 4 sentences, write what you did or will do if teased.
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Unit 34: Jen Investigates Idioms Write: A narrative is a story. It can be real or fiction. Write a story about someone helping someone else. Use details to describe actions, thoughts, and feeling. Use at least 2 sentences for the beginning, 2 for the middle, and 2 for the end.
Journal: In 4 sentences, write about a time when you spoke kind words to help someone who was feeling sad, hurt, or angry.
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Unit 35: Kordell and Silly Syllables Write: Your opinion is what you think about something. Write a 6- sentence opinion paragraph about what you think the best vacation is. Start by writing your opinion, then give at least 3 reasons why you think it is the best.
Journal: In 4 sentences, write about a difficult change for you.
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Unit 36: Kordell Digs for Roots of Words
Write: An informative text explains something. Write an informative paragraph describing your hometown in at least 6 sentences.
Journal: In 4 sentences, write about an event in your life that you think happened for a reason or let you help someone.
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Unit 37: Olivia’s Parts-of-Speech Puzzle
Write: Recall the project that Olivia did with her cousins and write numbered instructions for how to do with at least 3 steps.
Journal: In 4 sentences, write about a special time that you have spent with a person or people in your family.
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Unit 38: Olivia Composes Poetry Write: Write six sentences about Olivia’s poem or another poem. Describe how it uses rhythm or rhyme (if it does at all) and its meaning.
Journal: In 4 sentences, write about a time that teamwork helped you and others do a project.
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Unit 39: Shay and Picky Punctuation
Write: To edit text is to correct its mistakes. Edit a classmate’s paragraph from Unit 16 (or ask for a teacher’s sample). Use the symbols below when you edit.
1. Three lines under a letter means capitalize it. ( ) 2. A carat mark between two words means you. ( ) have something to add. 3. Draw a loop through a word or letter that should be deleted. ( ) 4. Draw an arrow pointing to a line in front of a sentence if an indent should be inserted. ( )
Journal: In 4-5 sentences, write about a friend you are lucky to have.
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Unit 20: Shay and the Keys of Writing Write: Write a research paragraph. Choose an animal, read 2 books or web sources about it, and write what you learn in 6-8 sentences.
Title:
Sources:
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Journal: In 4-5 sentences, write about something you are doing now to help your future later.
Congratulations! You finished NDA 2 Level 4 Building Blocks of English!
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