Houghton Mifflin Fourth Grade Reading

1-1

Akiak

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1-2

Grandfather's Journey

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1-3

Finding The Titanic

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1-4

By The Shores of Silver Lake

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Common Nouns

2-1

Tomás and the Library Lady

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2-2

Tanya's Reunion

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Singular & Plural Nouns

2-3

Boss of the Plains

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2-4

A Very Important Day

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Singular & Plural Possessive Nouns

3-1

The Stranger

3-2

Cendrillion

3-3

Heat Wave!

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4-1

My Name is Maria Isabel

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4-2

Marven of the Great Northwest

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Other Irregular Verbs

4-3

The Last Dragon

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4-4

Sing to the Stars

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Comparing with Adjectives

5-1

Happy Birthday, Dr. King!

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5-2

Gloria Estefan

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5-3

Lou Gehrig: The Luckiest Man

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6-1

Salmon Summer

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Adverbs

6-2

Salmon Summer

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6-3

Skylark

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Sentences

 
A sentence is a group of words that tells a complete thought.  A sentence always tells who or what (subject) and what is or what happens (predicate).

Kinds of Sentences

·        A statement tells something.  It ends with a period (.). Sometimes a statement is called a declarative sentence.

·        Tom McCall Elementary School is an elementary school.

·        A question asks something.  It ends with a question mark (?).  Sometimes a question is called an interrogative sentence.

·        Why is Tom McCall considered an elementary school?

·        A command tells someone to do something. It ends with a period (.).  Sometimes a command is called an imperative sentence.  

·        You should just repeat what I said.

·        An exclamation shows surprise, excitement or fear.  It ends with an exclamation point (!).  Sometimes an exclamation is called an exclamatory sentence.

·        Hurry!  Let’s get out of here!

Run-on Sentences

A run-on sentence has two or more complete thoughts that run into each other. 

Example: I went to school this morning it was cold and wet.

·        Correct a run-on sentence by writing each complete thought as one sentence. 

·        I went to school this morning.  It was cold and wet.

·        Another way to correct a run-on sentence is to ad a comma (,) and the words and, but, or or to join the sentences. This is called a compound sentence.

·        I went to school this morning, but it was cold and wet.

Subjects and Predicates

The easiest way to think of subjects and predicates is to think of nouns and verbs. A noun is a person, place, thing or idea.  A verb is an action word.

The COMPLETE SUBJECT includes all of the words that tell whom or what the sentence is about (noun and adjectives describing the noun).

Many students / walk to school.

All of the girls / tried out for the dance squad.

The whole student body / was present for the flag gathering.

The SIMPLE SUBJECT is the main word or words (noun) in the complete subject.  Sometimes the simple subject and the complete subject are the same.    For example:   Mrs. Parsons /typed this page.

The COMPLETE PREDICATE includes all of the words that tell what the subject does or is (verb or action)

 Many students / walk to school.

All of the girls / tried out for the dance squad.

The whole student body / was present for the flag gathering.

The SIMPLE PREDICATE is the main word in the complete predicate (verb).

Every correct sentence should have a subject and a predicate.  If you pull out just the subject and predicate you can still get an idea of what the sentence is about.

students walk

girls tried

student body was

Without the subject or predicate the sentence does not make sense. 

Many students / to school.

All of the  / tried out for the dance squad.

The whole / was present for the flag gathering.

Compound Sentences

When two sentences are combined it becomes a compound sentence.  Just like a compound word is made up of two separate words, a compound sentence is made up of two separate sentences that are joined together.

When a writer uses lots of short sentences the result is a story that sounds choppy like a children's book. 

I see the dog. The dog is big. It is friendly.

You can put short sentences together to make them sound more interesting.  To do that, you insert a comma (,) and a connecting word like and, but, or or.

I see the big dog, but it is friendly.

Common and Proper Nouns

A noun is a word that names a person, place, or thing (and sometimes ideas like love and hate)

For example: girl, park, or bear

A common noun is just a regular noun.  It names a person, place, or thing like the example above. 

A proper noun names a particular person, place, or thing and must be capitalized.

Action Verbs

An action verb is a verb that shows action. 

1. A cool breeze blows across Farmer Bailey's face.

2. Mr. Bailey speaks to the man.

3. The doctor listens to the man's heart.

4. The man eats the delicious hot food.

5. The two rabbits hop toward the man.

6. They look back at the man.

7. The man pitches hay very well.

8. He never rests from the work.

9. A flock of geese flies overhead.

10. The stranger watches the geese in the sky.

Main Verbs and Helping Verbs

Look at these sentences:

1. I live on a tropical island.
2. I have lived on a tropical island.

When a verb has more than one word, the main verb shows the action.

The helping verb works with the main verb.  The verbs am, is, are  help other verbs show action that is happening now.   

For example:  Cendrillion is going to the ball.

The verbs was, were, have, has, had  help show action that happened in the past.

For example:  The prince has looked everywhere for the slipper's owner.

For example:  Madame and Vitaline were acting rudely.