Week 5 of First Six Weeks Update

We have been learning about plays!

Interact with your student:

Ask your student what a synonym for a play is.
Answer: Drama

Ask your child what a play is.
Answer: A story that is acted out, usually on a stage.

Ask your child what dialogue is.
Answer: Talking (the conversation between characters in a play)

Your child will be working in a group to create their own play and perform it for the class.
Their plays will include the elements of a drama:
• A cast of characters
• A setting (or settings) (where the story takes place)
• Action (what the characters do)
• Dialogue (what the characters say)
• Plot (what happens at the beginning, middle, and end of the play)

As students act out their plays, the rest of the class (the audience) will be responsible for taking notes on the dialogue they heard and the action they saw. They will make inferences about the characters and their traits.

For example: ________ (character) said ________ and did ______________. I infer that ___________ (character) is _________ (character trait, such as sad, happy, surprised) because I know that ___________ (what I know from real life).

Example filled out: Bullfrog said "Yikes!" and jumped away. I infer that Bullfrog is scared because I know that when people jump away that means they are probably scared.

Our standards:

2.8 Reading/Comprehension of Literary Text/Drama.

Students understand, make inferences and draw conclusions about the structure and elements of drama and provide evidence from text to support their understanding.

Students are expected to:

(A) identify the elements of dialogue and use them in informal plays.

2.18 Writing/Literary Texts.

Students write literary texts to express their ideas and feelings about real or imagined people, events, and ideas.

Students are expected to:

(A) write brief stories that include a beginning, middle, and end.

Note: We have also been reading informational selections (non-fiction that informs, or teaches us about a topic). We have been learning how to analyze an informational selection to determine what the topic and main idea is (the most important thing the author wants us to know about the selection). We also used our knowledge of main idea and supporting details to write our own paragraphs. For example, we wrote a paragraph about our favorite type of animal:

My favorite animal is a dog. (Main Idea) I adore dogs because they are cute and cuddly. (supporting detail) Also, I like that they protect me. (supporting detail) In addition, I love that they learn lots of cool tricks! (supporting detail)

Students should be able to write a paragraph, with one main idea as the first sentence, and three to four supporting details following it. They should capitalize the beginning of each sentence, and use correct punctuation. We are also learning to indent our paragraphs.