30 The History of the Earth: Supplemental Guide 1B | Our Home, Earth
Syntactic Awareness Activity^5 minutes
Conjunction and
Note: The purpose of these syntactic activities is to help students
understand the direct connection between grammatical structures
and the meaning of text. These syntactic activities should be used
in conjunction with the complex text presented in the read-alouds.
There may be variations in the sentences created by your class.
Allow for these variations, and restate students’ sentences so that
they are grammatical.- Conjunctions are a kind of word we use to connect words and
phrases. - We use the conjunction and to join words and phrases that
share similar ideas, or have ideas that are alike. - Listen to Gerry the Geologist’s sentences about the formation
of the earth from the read-aloud. I will emphasize the word
and as I read:
Some scientists believe the history of the earth begins a little
over four-and-a-half billion years ago. That’s a long time—a very,
very, very long time—ago. Before that, some scientists believe
the materials that now make up Earth were orbiting, or fl oating
around, our newly formed sun as billions of little bits and pieces.
Over many, many years, it is believed by some scientists that these
fl oating bits and pieces gradually stuck together until they made
up Earth, as well as its neighbor, the moon, and the other planets.
When it was newly formed, Earth was basically one big ball of hot,
melted rocks. Over time, however, some of these materials cooled
and hardened, allowing the planet Earth to become what it is
today. - Notice that in this paragraph, Gerry the Geologist uses
the word and when he talks about two facts or ideas that
go together. For example, he uses and when he says that
the materials cooled and hardened. If he did not use and,
he would have said, “The materials cooled. The materials
hardened.”