What did explorations of North America reveal?

LITERACY

Focus on informational texts and biographies of explorers and conquistadors that explored North America.  Compare and contrast these explorers including their journeys, their motivations for exploration, and their successes.  Read to identify information to help them form an opinion for their formal writing of the unit.

WRITING

Focus on opinion writing throughout the unit to complete graphic organizers and a formal writing assignment explaining who they think was the most successful explorer discussed.  Keep an exploration journal throughout the unit with daily entries answering a variety of questions and topics.

KNOWLEDGE

Learn about:

• Motivations for European exploration of North America and how they changed over time.

• How European explorers interacted with the Native Americans living in North America.

• Various explorers and conquistadors, including

Christopher Columbus

Juan Ponce de Leon

Hernando De Soto

Francisco Vasquez de Coronado

John Cabot

Henry Hudson

Samuel de Champlain

GRAMMAR & MORPHOLOGY

• Introduce linking words for example, in the same way, and in contrast

• Introduce regular and irregular comparative and superlative adjectives using suffixes -er and -est, as well as the words more and most.

• Students will learn the prefixes pro- and anti-.

SPELLING

Review words with spelling patterns of

• /ue/ spelled 'u', 'u_e', and 'ue' 

• /oo/ spelled 'oo', 'ew', 'o', and 'o_e'

• /f/ spelled 'f', 'ff', 'ph', and 'gh'.

 List 1 Test will be on 5/8

Unit 9 Notes:  Explorations of North America

• An opportunity to learn about the explorers and conquistadors the explored North America.  Further connect with Unit 8: Native Americans as it references the encounters of these explorers with the Native Americans, both good and bad encounters.  Learn about the lure of gold and spices for many of these explorers and why these items were so valuable.

• Prefixes are added to the beginning of a word, can add a syllable, and can change the meaning of the word as well as the part of speech.

  pro-     forward or before (progress = movement forward)

  anti-     against or opposite (antisocial = opposite of social, not friendly toward others)

• Reading every single night is crucial for reading success!

DEFINITIONS

schwa: unstressed central vowel (as in a moment ago), represented by symbol /ə/

possessive: shows ownership

internal traits: character traits determined by a character’s actions and words (i.e. kind, loving)

external traits: character traits seen physically (i.e. brown eyes, red dress)

conquistador: one that conquers; a leader in the Spanish conquest of America

comparative adjective: adjectives comparing two things (i.e. she is taller than her sister)

superlative adjective: adjectives comparing three or more things (i.e. tallest in his class)

HOME PRACTICE

• Read a book each night

• Research one of the explorers from the unit and create a map of his exploration in North America.

• Practice forming an opinion on any topic that interests you and supporting that opinion with facts using books, internet sources, or magazines. (i.e. Thin Mints are the best Girl Scout cookie because they have both chocolate and mint!)