November 15, 2010

Section 6 narratives are graded.  The grades are updated on HAC.  
I will have section HB narratives done tomorrow... I hope.

Homework:  PTA Reflections Contest is due next Tuesday.  I collected the proposal today.

Here is what we covered in class today:

Lesson 3: Simple Predicates, or Verbs (page 10)

The simple predicate, or verb, is the main word or words in the complete predicate.

Prairie pioneers lived in sod houses.
Few trees grew in the prairie grasslands.

A verb is a word used to express an action, a condition, or a state of being.
Linking verbs- am, is, are, was, were, appears, seems, feels, and others

He is the president.
He was happy to be alive.
Pioneers made sod bricks.

Practice and Apply
1. My great-grandparents lived in a sod house, or soddy, on the great Kansas prairie.
2. They traveled west from their home in Tennessee.
3. The men used nearly and acre of sod for the house.
4. The home had only two windows and one door.
5. My family built their soddy in the side of a hill.
6. Sometimes the cows ate through the roof of the house.
7. Once, a cow fell through the roof into the house.
8. Heavy rains at times soaked through the sod.
9. The dirt floor turned into a giant mud puddle.
10. Still, sod houses protected my family from the harsh winters.

Lesson 4: Verb Phrases (page 12)

A verb phrase is made up of a main verb and one or more helping verbs.
A “smart house” may cook your food for you.

Main verb and Helping Verbs
A main verb can stand by itself as the simple predicate.
Computer networks run smart houses.
The network is the brain of the house. (linking verb)

Common helping verbs
Forms of be- am, is, are, was were, be, been (sometimes a linking verb)
Forms of do- do, does, did
Forms of have- has, have, had
Others- may, might, can, should, could, would, shall, will


Practice and Apply
1. The first “smart house” was developed in the early 1980s.
2. Its appliances could communicate with each other.
3. Suppose you were running the vacuum cleaner.
4. The noise might keep you from hearing the phone.
5. In that situation, the house would stop the vacuum cleaner automatically.
6. Those with disabilities may benefit the most from a smart house.
7. The house will perform some of the tasks beyond their capability.
8. For example, meals could be brought to a person’s bed.
9. The food will have been prepared by a smart kitchen.
10. Surely, you can imagine other uses for a smart house.

Lesson 5: Compound Sentence Parts

A compound subject is made up of two or more subjects that share the same verb.

Salyut 1 and Skylab were the first space stations.
American astronauts or Russian cosmonauts lived aboard the stations.

A compound verb is made up of two or more verbs that have the same subject.

The Skylab crew worked and slept in close quarters.
They worked hard but slept little.

Practice and Apply (page15)
1. Space stations and orbiting platforms are our first step away from Earth.
2. In the future, we may design and build outer-space cities.
3. Several nations or international groups could pool (consolidate) their resources.
4. They could create and manage a colony on the moon.
5. Minerals and other raw materials would be shipped to colonies in space.
6. We already design and plan model cities.
7. In one design, two huge cylinders and their solar panels form the main body of the space city.
8. The cylinders rotate and create an artificial gravity.
9. Special greenhouses shelter and sustain the city’s food.
10. These cities or other space colonies could bring is closer to the stars.