Hello Book Bums families!
This week we are getting curious about squirrels. Did you ever notice the word squirrel can be used for more than that furry gray rodent playing in the trees? As a verb, or action word, squirrel means to store up for future use - just like the animal stores nuts for winter. As an adjective, the word squirrelly means restless or nervous- just like those busy, running rodents. We hope the newsletter today helps you squirrel away some new knowledge. Enjoy!
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Word of the Week
cache (cash) 1. noun/person, place or thing - a secure place for storage, a hiding place; 2. verb/action word - to store something in a hidden place for safety
Squirrels spend the autumn months filling their caches with nuts for winter.
Literary Calendar
• September 8 is National Ampersand Day.
• The & character is a logogram, a word symbol, standing for and.
• It sits above the number 7 on your keyboard.
• See how many ampersands you can spot out in the world today!
From our Bookshelves
Scaredy Squirrel by Melanie Watt & Gray Squirrel by G. G. Lake make a great fiction/nonfiction pairing, and this adorable stuffed squirrel can transform a couple of great, fall-flavored books into a delightful gift! Since the first official day of fall is on September 23rd, we thought you might just enjoy these autumnal books with your younger readers. While Gray Squirrels is a fact-filled book with gorgeous photos, Scaredy Squirrel is about a squirrel who is afraid of venturing into the world around him until he discovers that he is perfectly equipped for adventure. Whether you would like to promote appropriate risk-taking with a timid child or simply enjoy a good book (that features lots of colons), we think you’ll thoroughly enjoy Scaredy Squirrel.
Tips for Teaching Readers and Writers
Is it a gray squirrel or a grey squirrel? Well, that depends on where you’re from. The color word gray is also spelled grey, however gray (with the A) is used more frequently in America while grey (with the E) is used more frequently in other English-speaking countries.
At Book Bums, we teach our readers that both a-y and e-y can represent the long a sound.
We share that “When you have two vowels together, the first one says its name.” Then we explain that the letter y represents the consonant sound /y/ as in yes, but it can also act like a vowel. When it’s following an a or an e, the y is the second vowel that can make the first one say its name.
Example:
a-y words—play, stay, daytime, Payday
e-y words—key, honey, monkey, Hershey’s
When we’ve got that, we note that sometimes e-y says /ay/, too.
If we make the short e sound and then the consonant y sound, we end up with /e/+/y/--and that sounds just like a long a sound /ay/, so (even though you may be rolling your eyes right now because this language of ours isn’t so easy to navigate) kids get it. With a little practice decoding words and determining which sound the e-y is representing, decoding these words is manageable— even for young readers.
Have you spotted one of these stick and leaf clusters toward the top of a tree? It’s called a drey and it is home to a squirrel. Squirrels can have more than one drey and, when it gets really cold, sometimes two squirrels snuggle together in the same one. When the leaves have fallen and dreys are clearly visible, you’ll see squirrels busily “squirreling away” food for the winter months.
Tips for Families
If you have a child who’s still learning letter sounds, you might want to invest in these Alphabet Acorns. They were a big hit at Book Bums! The caps pop off the acorns, and inside each one is an item whose name begins with the sound represented by the letter featured on the nut. The uppercase letter is on the brown part of the acorn and the lowercase letter is printed on the underside of the acorn cap. This set a steal at right around $30.
Wordology Workshop
• There are a few Latin roots that mean to search or seek.
• Two of those are quesit and quisit.
• You can find these roots in seeking words like question, inquisitive, inquisition.
• Another Latin root for search or seek is quir, as in inquire.
• It might seem like quir is the root for squirrels; but it turns out the word squirrel actually comes from two Greek roots that mean tall and shadow, probably because of the shadow cast by squirrels' tall tails.
Practical Grammar
As I was learning about squirrels I came upon this sentence:
Squirrel nests are called “dreys”.
Does that look right to you?
Let’s address the “Does the period go inside or outside the quotation marks?” question.
Here’s the scoop:
If the framing sentence is a question or an exclamation, the end mark goes outside the quotation mark.
Example:
I just love the way three-year-old Easton whispers under his breath, “My will do it myself”!
Since what was quoted was not an exclamation the punctuation goes outside the quotation marks.
Did you hear Justin say, “She slapped my face and then she slapped my ‘nother face”?
Since what was quoted was not a question the punctuation goes outside the quotation marks.
So, we use a question mark or exclamation point within the quotation marks if that punctuation applies to the quotation itself. We place punctuation outside the closing quotation marks if the punctuation applies to the whole sentence.
So, what about this one?
Squirrel nests are called “dreys”.
It’s a statement and the period would fall within the quotation marks.
Now, let’s address those quotation marks. When placing individual words within quotation marks, it often signifies that the validity of the word is questionable. (Think: Air Quotes with an eye roll) In this case, the writer was simply trying to draw attention to the word, and the widely accepted way of doing that is to write the word in italics. Therefore, no quotation marks are needed.
Just for Fun
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