Week 16

 Hello everyone, we will start a new story that is related to the geology and geography of the Earth. 

It is the last of the three readings that will be included in the Final Exam.

The major point of conventions and phonics will be related to homographs.

A homograph is a word that is spelled the same, but has two or more vastly different meanings.

Homo= same and Graph= to write 

So, those words are written in the same way, but have two or more totally different meanings.

For example, a bank could mean the side of a river, and it can also mean a place to store your money.

Week 16 Vocabulary

1 destroy (v.): to break or damage something badly

 2 environment (n.): the air, land, and water where people, animals, and plants live 

 3 reaction (n.): what you do or feel because of something that happened 

 4 balance (n.): a state where things are equal or in the right amount 

 5 resource (n.): something we use that comes from nature like water or trees 

 6 coast (n.): the land next to the sea 

 7 plain (n.): a large, flat area of land 

 8 desert (n.): a very dry place with lots of sand and little rain

 9 canyon (n.): a deep valley with steep sides 

 10 volcano (n.): a mountain that can erupt with fire or smoke 

 11 landform (n.): a natural shape on Earth’s surface like a mountain or river 

 12 continents (n.): one of the seven large land masses on the earth's surface, surrounded, or mainly surrounded, by sea and usually consisting of various countries 

 13 Asia (n.): the largest continent in the world, where countries like China, Japan, and India are. 

 14 Africa (n.): a large continent south of Europe, where many wild animals like lions and elephants inhabit and countries like Egypt, South Africa and Kenya are. 

 15 Australia (n): a big country and continent with many animals like kangaroos and koalas. It is surrounded by ocean and has lots of deserts and forests. 

 16 Oceania (n.): a group of islands in the Pacific Ocean 

 17 Antarctica (n.): a cold continent at the bottom of Earth 

 18 ocean (n.): a large body of salt water

 19 steep (n.): (of a slope) rising or falling at a sharp angle 

 20 movement (n.): the act of changing place or position 

 21 shallow (adj.): not deep  

22 graze (v.): to eat grass

 23 dune (n.): a hill of sand made by wind 24 oasis (n.): a place in the desert with water and plants

Introducing Landforms Summary

This story is an informational text, and there are no characters in this reading as it is about the geology of various areas of the Earth. (Terra)

It has various settings as it covers several different continents which include a lot of different types of environments and landforms like forests, deserts, oceans, cliffs, coasts, lakes, mountains, valleys, plains, mesas, canyons, and volcanoes. 

The reading starts out by introducing the seven continents in this order: North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, Oceania, and Antarctica. 

Yes, seven, because Australia and Oceania are often combined together to make a single continent.

Oceans surround the seven continents on various sides.

Next, landforms are introduced as different shapes of land on Earth.

Some landforms are flat and others are steep.

Landforms are shaped by wind, fire, water, and ice.

They can also be shaped or influenced by the movement of the Earth as well as actions of people or animals.

One type of landform is coasts. It is the edge of the land where it meets the ocean.

However, coasts can vary as some coasts have rocky cliffs, and others have beaches.

Rivers and lakes are bodies of water that are on continents.

Rivers are long streams of water, and lakes are bodies of water that have land all around them.

The water found in rivers and lakes is usually fresh water with no salt.

Many lakes form from melting glaciers.

The water in lakes often comes mainly from rivers and streams flowing into them or from rain.

A mountain is a very high area of rocky land.

It has steep sides and is narrow at the top.

Mountains that are small and not steep are called hills.

A group of mountains is called a mountain range.

Valleys, however, are low landforms that are between two or more mountains.

Some valleys have a curved U-shape, and other valleys have a steep V-shape.

Another major landform are the plains.

Plains are huge areas of nearly flat land, and some plains are covered by forests.

Other plains are covered mostly by grasses and flowers with a few trees.

Those plains are called grasslands or prairies, and some people start farms and grow crops there.

Deserts are dry areas that get very little rain, but there are hot deserts and cold deserts.

In the story, we see examples of hot deserts with huge sand dunes and an oasis or two where some trees can grow.

In hot deserts, people can see mesas which are hills and mountains with flat tops and steep sides.

Canyons are landforms that are also found in dry areas and are much deeper than the land around them.

One famous example is the Grand Canyon in Arizona, USA.

Over time, the rivers change the shapes of the canyons.

A volcano is an opening in the Earth's surface which might shoot lava onto the Earth.

However, some volcanoes are dormant and will be unlikely to erupt or explode hot lava.

Lava can build up and make the volcano larger and more like a mountain.

That's the end of the summary!

Week 16	Homework 回家功課
Monday December 15th	1. Week 16 Vocab #9-16 x 3 + definitions x 1 2. Write 3 sentences
Tuesday December 16th	1. Week 16 Vocab #17-24 x 3 + definitions x 1 2. Write 4 sentences
Wednesday December 17th	1. Grade 3 Shared Worksheet
Thursday December 18th	1. A2 Worksheet
Friday December 19th	1. Write Week 17 vocab #1-8 x3 + definitions x1 2. Write 3 sentences 3. Sensay