Under the Royal Palms

1. Under the Royal Palms By Alma Flor Ada

3. Strategy Focus: Predict • When you predict you are making an educated guess about what will happen next. You often do this when you are watching TV and you try to guess what will happen next. • While we are reading this story, you will predict what decisions the family needs to make about their store.

4. Comprehension Skill- Problem Solving • You have to problem solve everyday. • Some common problems: • I didn’t finish my homework. What am I going to do? • Two of my friends are fighting. How should I handle this? • I don’t understand what we are studying in math. What should I do about this? • My friends want me to do something that could get me in trouble. What am I going to do? In this story the characters also face problems that they must solve. We are going to look at those problems, how they solved them, and how they could have solved them.

5. Spelling: Plurals • We will be learning how to make nouns that end in “o” or “f” plural. • Here are some basic rules that will help you: • If the noun ends with “ff”, like “staff”, you add an “s” to the end to make the noun plural • If the noun ends with “f”, you will add an “s” (ex: chiefs) or change the “f” to a “v” and add “es” (ex: wolves”) to make the noun plural • If the noun ends with a vowel and an “o”, like “stereo”, you add “s” to make it plural • If the noun ends with consonant and an “o” you will add “s” (ex: pianos) or add “es” (ex: potatoes)

6. Vocabulary Skills: Multiple Meaning Words • Many words have more then one meaning • For example, the word “watch” has more then one meaning. • When you use it as a noun (ex: I bought a new watch.), you are talking about a small clock. • When you use it as a verb (ex: Sam wanted to watch his favorite television program.), you are talking about looking closely at something. Can you think of any other multiple meaning words?

7. Grammar: Possessive and Indefinite Pronouns • Possessive pronouns replace specific nouns. For example, “Bob” is replaced by “he”. • Indefinite pronouns do not replace a specific noun. We learned about indefinite pronouns a few weeks ago. Examples of indefinite pronouns are everyone, something, someone, everywhere, etc.

8. Grammar: Using Who, Whom, and Whose • The pronoun “who” is used when it is the subject of the sentence (ex: Who wants to go outside?) • The pronoun “whom” is used when it is the direct object of the sentence (ex: Whom does Sally like the best?). Sally is the subject, and whom is the direct object. • The possessive pronoun “whose” is used to show ownership (ex: Whose backpack is this?)

9. Writing • We will look at how to use pronouns clearly so that your reader can understand who or what you are referring to. • We will also learn how to write a “How-to” paragraph. In this type of paragraph you are explaining how to do something. You should put each step in order and give clear directions.

10. Now onto the vocabulary…

11. accessible • Easy to get

12. accountant • Someone trained to keep the financial records of a business

13. certified • Officially recognized as qualified to do something

14. figurines • Small molded or sculpted statues

15. humble • Not rich or well-known

16. ledgers • Books in which financial records are written

17. makeshift • Used as a substitute for something

18. meticulous • Extremely careful and exact

19. relegated • Put in a less important place

20. Trinkets • Small items of little value