Valtena G. Brown, Region V Superintendent

Barbara Mendizabal, Administrative Director

Eileen Broas, Science Curriculum Support Specialist Elois Cooper, Language Arts/Reading Curriculum Support Specialist

Shauana Hughes, Language Arts/Reading Curriculum Support Specialist Linda Walker, Mathematics Curriculum Support Specialist

FOURTH GRADE SPRING BREAK PACKET

DIRECTIONS

Complete each activity in the Spring Break packet. Write your responses in the places provided.

Students are to return the packet and reading log to their teachers on March 22,2011.

Parents are encouraged to assist in the following ways: ../ Make a plan to complete the activities during the Spring Break . ../ Provide quiet space and time for your child to work on the

assignments . ../ Help you child with completing the assignments, if necessary . ../ Review and discuss your child's responses. Provide positive feedback

and praise for sincere effort and independence . ../ Encourage daily reading for 20-30 minutes of a self-selected book.

Read to your child, listen to him/her read, or share the reading . ../ Ensure that the packet is completed and in their bookbag on March

22,2011, so that it may return to school on time!

Students Ask yourself these questions.

1. Can my teacher tell that I read the passage?

2. Did I answer the question? 3. Did I make a relevant inference or

interpretation when answering my questions?

4. Did I remember to use the correct punctuation in my writing?

Thank you for helping your child succeed!

Region V

Talking in Their Sleep by Edith M. Thomas

"You think I am dead," The apple tree said, "Because I have never a leaf to show­Because I stoop, And my branches droop, And the dull gray mosses over me grow!

But I'm still alive in trunk and shoot; The buds of next May I fold away-But I pity the withered grass at my root."

"You think I am dead," The quick grass said, "Because I have parted with stem and blade! But under the ground, I am safe and sound With the snow's thick blanket over me laid.

I'm all alive, and ready to shoot, Should the spring of the year Corne dancing here-But I pity the flower without branch or root."

"You think I am dead," A soft voice said, "Because not a branch or root I own. I never have died, but close I hide In a plumy seed that the wind has sown.

Patient I wait through the long winter hours; You will see me again-I sha II la ugh at you then, Out of the eyes of a hundred flowers.

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---------------------- ----------------- ---------ID: AName: Class: Date:

Talking in Their Sleep 4th grade Spring Break 2011

Multiple Choice Identify the choice that best completes the statement or answers the question.

o Which sentence below uses the word bud the same way as the poem?

® The picnic was nipped in the bud by the inclimate weather. @ He is a Shakespeare in the bud. © Spring invities the garden lilies to bud . @ My bud is ce lebrating her birthday next January.

D What is the author ' s purpose in writing this poem?

® To convince the reader that the flower has the best spring plan. © To share a light hearted poem about nature. ® To complain about harsh winter conditions. CD To explain how nature enjoys competing.

II How does the author communicate the thoughts of nature?

® Providing the sounds that nature makes. @ Comparing nature ' s feeling and thoughts. © Exaggerating the thoughts and feel ings of nature. @ Giving nature human like qualities.

D What do you think would be another good title for this poetn?

® Winter Wonderland © Spring Anticipation ® Sibling Rivalry CD The Sneaky Seeds

IJ What word would best describe the flower?

® beautiful @ vam © mild @ deceitful

Writing

Below is an example of an acrostic poem. Write an acrostic poem using the word SPRING.

Poetry

Perhaps you have a wonderful idea to share, Or you may dream in colors mankind has never seen. Everyone else has no idea That you live in the crevices of brilliance. Revealing your vision can shake the world You simply must put it into words.

Region V

The Anything Art of Jimmie Lee Sudduth By Carolyn W. Ezell

W hat would you do ifyou had a pile of sand, a chunk of clay, a piece of plywood, and a handful of leaves?

Perhaps you would build a sand castle and decorate it with bits of the clay and leaves. Maybe you would use your imagination to create something else wonderful and unique.

Jimmie Lee Sudduth is an artist who uses his imagination to paint pictures with the many things he finds in nature.

Unlike most artists, Sudduth rarely uses canvases, paints, or brushes. His favorite painting surface is plywood. Instead of using paint, he uses clay, sand, soot, and such things as leaves, pine needles, and berries.

Sudduth has been painting since he was young. He is well known as a folk artist. Instead of going to art classes to learn their skills, most folk artists teach themselves their art fonns and learn through years of

expenence. When Jimmie was young, he would

sometimes draw pictures in the dirt if he could - not find a board or a piece of

cardboard to use. When he wanted to make a picture but didn't have any paints, he made his own from the colored materials he saw in his yard and around his hometown of Fayette, Alabama.

Many folk artists choose to show rural life through their art, but some also choose subjects from the city. Sudduth paints both kinds of scenes, and portraits, too. But he especially enjoys painting pictures of log cabins, flowers, and animals. "I can paint anything I can dream," he says. "Painting takes me anywhere my imagination goes."

L 1976 Sudduth's paintings

took him to Washington, D.C., where he joined in a huge folk art festival during our nation's two-hundredth birthday celebration. While he was there, he was delighted to meet the

President of the United States. Sudduth has taught art classes to both grown-ups and children. Usually he begins with a piece of plywood, which he holds in his lap while he works. Sometimes he uses other surfaces. In his studio you can find paintings on cardboard, old wooden shingles, and on pieces of floor tile. When he begins a picture, he surrounds himself with containers holding sands, soils, and clays. He likes to use white, gray, and brown sands as well as brown and black soils. He also uses white, gray, and red clays. He prepares these by adding sugar and a little water to the sand, and syrup to the dirt and clay to help them stick to the board.

Through the years Sudduth has collected many different colors of sand, dirt, and clay, most of them from the Alabama countryside. But people have also brought him unusual sands and soils from all over the United States. When he finishes a painting, he can point to the different colors in it, as though he were reading a map, explaining where he got each color.

Sudduth paints by dipping his fingers into the containers and then skillfully applying nature's "paints" to the board. He uses one fmger to paint thin lines, and two or three fingers to paint wide lines and large areas.

He makes the color green for trees, grass, and flower stems by crumpling leaves and

rubbing them back and forth in designs across the plywood. In the winter, when it is hard to find leaves, he uses fallen pine needles. To add purples, pinks, and blues to his work, he presses berries against the board. Soot from his fireplace is sometimes used when he needs black. Clouds are made by dabbing white sand or white clay into his skies. Some of the lines are drawn with colored rocks.

Sudduth paints every day. As Sudduth works, he experiments with materials he has not used before. But he warns against

getting close to poison ivy, poison sumac, or poison oak when collecting materials.

Sudduth's bright and colorful paintings are shown in folk art galleries from Washington, D.C., to Berkeley, California. Each fall he takes part in an Alabama folk art festival called Kentuck. During this two-day festival, he shows hundreds of people how to paint using nature. He says the most important parts of painting with nature are to explore the world with our imaginations and to have fun with creativity. His paintings make us aware of many things in nature that we often take for granted. "1 taught myself to paint with mud," he says. "Dirt is free, and it never wears out." Neither, it seems, does Jimmie Lee Sudduth's imagination.

"The Anything Art of Jimmie lee Sudduth" by Carolyn W. Ezell, copyright to 1991 by Highlights for Children, Inc., Columbus, Ohio.

------------------------Name: Class: ______ _ _ Date: ____ ID: A

The Anything Art of Jimmie Lee Sudduth Grade 4

Multiple Choice Identify the choice that best completes the statement or answers the question.

D Read this sentence from the article. Many folk artist choose to show rural life through their art, but some also choose subjects from the city. Which words have almost the same meaning as rural life? ® An artistic life @ a practical life © life in the country @ life in a foreign land

D What was the author's purpose in writing this article? ® to describe the work of a famous artist © to teach readers how to make their own paints ® to encouare artists to attend folk art festivals Q) to inform readers about the creation of folk alt

D What would be another good title for this passage? ® A Brush and a Canvas @ A Typical Artist at Work © A V isit with the President @ A Little Earth and Imagination

II What caused Jimmie Lee Sudduth to use colored materials to create his artwork? ® He loved the colors in his backyard . © He didn't like using regular paint. ® He didn ' t have any paints or supplies. Q) He wanted to be creative and unique.

o How does the author mostly explain how Jimmie Lee Sudduth's creates art? ® The author provides a list of steps in order of difficulty. @ The author describes compares Sudduth to other artist. © The author describes how Sudduth creates art from the material collection to applying

the paint. @ The author describes how Sudduth, collects materials, paints and sells his art.

II What is the purpose of the illuslration at the end of the passage? ® To illlustrate what Jimmie Lee Sudduth art supplies would look like . © To illustrate what Jimmie Lee Sudduth looks like in person. ® To illustrate how poular Jimmie Lee Sudduth was. Q) To illustrate how strange Jimmie Lee Sudduth was an artist.

Writing

Every school offers an art class.

Think of your favorite artwork that you produced in art class.

Write to explain why that artwork is your favorite.

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Title Author Genre _fantasy - historical fiction

_mystery - realistic fiction

realistic fiction nonfiction - -poetry biography

_fantasy - historical f iction _mystery - realistic fiction

realistic fiction nonfiction - -poetry biography

Reflection I

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_fantasy -_mystery -

realistic fiction- -poetry

historical fiction

realistic fiction nonfiction

biography

_fantasy - historical fiction _

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mystery realistic fiction

poetry

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realistic fict ion

nonfiction biography

- - - - - -

_fantasy -_mystery -

realistic f iction - -poetry

historical fiction

realistic fiction nonfiction

biography - - - - - -

Student's Name: ___________ Parent/Guardian's Signature : _______________

Comments:

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