K5 Learning Blog

What is persuasive writing?

Persuasive writing intends to convince readers to believe in an idea or opinion. It’s a form of non-fiction writing the writer uses to develop logical arguments, making use of carefully chosen words and phrases. Reviews, editorials, proposals, advertisements and brochures are some examples of pieces of writing that use persuasion to influence readers.

Our book reviewer, Sheila Welch, highlights the must-read award-reading children's books for 2018.

By Sheila Welch

Hello Universe

This year, the Newbery Award, the highest honor for children’s literature, went to HELLO, UNIVERSE by Erin Entrada Kelly. It’s an excellent choice for readers in third grade through fifth, making it a solidly “middle-grade” novel. The story unfolds at a leisurely pace, chapter by chapter, as readers learn important information about each of the five major characters.  The suburban setting will feel like familiar territory to many readers while their attention will be captured by the various backgrounds and traits of the characters –  one is deaf, two have Japanese-American parents, one has a story-telling, live-in grandmother from the Philippines, and one is an unrepentant bully. As the plot unfolds, it offers many thought provoking  elements that will lead to questions such as: What is fate?  What role do stories play in our everyday lives? Why do people say, “There are no coincidences?”

This article is part of a series. It starts with a summary of the 100 most important multiple meaning words elementary school students should learn. Following will be a grade by grade set of Flashcards for those multiple meaning words.

Multiple meaning words flashcards for grade 3-5

Here comes our next set of multiple meaning words for grade 3 to 5 students. The words covered in this set are:

leaves – light – log – mine – mold – note – paste – pitcher – plain - organ

The intention is to print the pages, then fold each page in half down the vertical line. Then cut out the words and definitions as one card, so that you show the word to your child and hide the definition from your child.

We have created a wide selection of grade 3 math word problem worksheets in our free worksheet center. Our word problem worksheets cover addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions, mixed word problems, measurement and word problems with variables.

We understand that this is an area that many students struggle with and we’ve put quite a bit of thought into this section.

Third Grade Math Word Problems that Make Students Think

We intentionally include superfluous data or information in many of our word problems. That means, students will need to read and think about the questions carefully, rather than simply mechanically recognizing and applying a computation pattern to solve the problems.

We suggest students attempt these worksheets once they have studied the underlying skills. For example, students should not try the mixed addition and subtraction word problems before they have understood, and are comfortable with, mixed addition and subtraction.