Today we met another one of Mrs. N’s relatives, her Auntie, Dr. Editor! She sure does remind us of Mrs. N. and her cousin, Mrs. DNA. They all have so much in common!

Dr. Editor came to our class today to help us learn how to take two words and put them together into one word that means the same thing. We had to wear special masks while we did surgery.  We used “stitches” (glue), “gloves” (mini mitts), “scalpels” (scissors), and “band-aids” (….they were really band-aids) to perform surgery on words to make them into contractions.  Dr. Editor had us listen very closely (she said that in order to be good doctors we had to follow directions) as she explained the rules of how to perform surgery on our “patients” (words).

Dr. Editor told us that there are many other word combinations to make contractions and that maybe she would visit another day to help us learn about them, but for today we performed surgery on contractions using the word “not.” She didn’t talk about the word “won’t” or any other contractions that don’t follow the normal rules (We know that there are so many rule breakers in the English language, we love to find them in our reading!) perhaps next time Dr. Editor visits she will help us to understand the word “won’t”!

were + not = weren’t        have + not = haven’t        should + not = shouldn’t         could + not = couldn’t

has + not = hasn’t        had + not = hadn’t        is + not = isn’t        would + not = wouldn’t

We all were good medical students today and we made great beginning doctors. Hopefully with more practice we will be able to use more contractions in our stories and writing!

* Some of our “patients” didn’t get photographed today due to medical complications and the need for follow up surgeries.

Check in again soon, Tuesday is the 100th day of school and Mrs. M has some really great learning activities planned!

Mrs. N.