FIFTH GRADE L.A. CHEAT SHEET

KEEP THIS SHEET ALL YEAR!!

Homophones you should know:

·  They’re = they are

·  Their = belongs to them

·  There = location (opposite of HERE)

·  Your = belongs to you

·  You’re = you are

·  Its = belongs to it

·  It’s = it is

·  To = location

·  Two = 2

·  Too = also; OR extreme amount (too much, too small, too big)

Genres = types of books

FICTION (not true) / NON-FICTION (true)
Comedy – funny / Biography – true story about a real person’s life written by someone else
Realistic fiction – not true but could really happen / Autobiography – true story about a real person’s life written by that person
Science fiction – story that has made-up scientific things like outer space, time travel, mixing chemicals, mutations, space creatures, etc.
Historic fiction – made-up story about a real event in history (like a story with fake characters in World War 2, fake story about slavery or the Indians, etc.)
Suspense – story that makes you nervous & a little scared
Horror – scary story that has a lot of violence and death
Romance – love story
Mystery – a crime has been committed and we have to solve it; who did it?
Adventure- a story where the characters are out in nature and must survive
Fantasy – a made-up story with magic, talking animals, flying people, or anything that couldn’t really happen

PARTS OF A STORY (Fictional story):

·  Setting = where & when ( TIME & PLACE)

·  Point of View= who is telling the story? (* IGNORE QUOTATION MARKS WHEN YOU’RE TRYING TO FIGURE OUT WHAT P.O.V. A STORY IS*)

o  1st person = a character IN the book tells the story

o  3rd person = someone OUT of the book tells the story

·  Mood – the feeling a story gives you as you read it

·  Foreshadowing – clues an author gives you that something bad may happen later

·  Flashback – when an author flashes back into the past to tell you about something that happened earlier.

·  Dialogue -- conversation; talking

·  Protagonist -- main character

·  Angagonist – against the main character

* Dialect- when a character talks in an accent

·  Plot – what happens in the story (the roller coaster)

o  Introduction – the beginning of the story; introduces characters & setting

o  Rising Action – the main part of the story that starts after the problem starts

§  Conflict – the problem of the story

o  Climax – part of the story when the problem ends

o  Falling Action – how the story gets back to normal after the problem has ended

o  Resolution – the very end of the story; characters have learned a lesson by now

* Theme – lesson they learn

TYPES OF WORDS:

·  Homophone – words that sound alike but are spelled differently (there/their)

·  Antonym – opposite meaning

·  Synonym – same meaning

·  Root Word—the main part of a word (unhappiness à root word is “happy”)

·  Prefix – letters attached to the beginning of a root word that change the meaning (unhappiness à prefix is “un”)

·  Suffix – letters attached to the end of a root word (unhappiness à “ness”)

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE – when you don’t really mean what you say

·  Simile – type of figurative language where you compare 2 things by using “like,” “as,” or “than” (She is as mean as a snake OR She is meaner than a snake)

·  Metaphor – type of figurative language when you compare 2 things by saying one thing IS the other (She IS a snake.)

·  Personification – type of figurative language where a THING is doing a HUMAN action (something a PERSON would do): The tree danced in the wind.

FACT= what someone SAYS or DOES (actions or words) à can be proven

OPINION= your personal beliefs, feelings, or thoughts that cannot be provenTYPING

·  Bold – when words are typed extra dark (This is bold typing.)

·  Italic —when words are typed slanted (This is italic typing.)

·  Bullets – use bullets to make a list of things that don’t have to be in order (dots)

·  Footnote – when you see a * after a word or sentence in a story, you are supposed to look at the bottom (FOOT) of the page for a NOTE from the author.

TITLES

UNDERLINE / QUOTATION MARKS
Book Titles (name of the whole book) / Short stories (inside a book)
Magazine Titles (name of whole mag.) / Magazine articles (stories inside mag.)
CD names (the whole CD with all songs) / Song names (songs on the CD)
Movie Titles / Poems (inside a book)
TV Shows

COMMON MISTAKES

·  a lot = two words

·  here = location

·  hear = with your EAR

o  You’re right here but I can’t hear you.

·  breathe = (sounds like BREETH) action à inhaling & exhaling

·  breath = (sounds like BRETH) noun à the air that comes out of your mouth/nose

·  lose = (sounds like LOOZE) to misplace something (I don’t want to lose this.)

·  loose= (sounds like LOOSE) not tight (My shirt is loose.)

·  quit = to stop (Quit it.)

·  quite = very (It’s quite cold.)

·  quiet = not loud (It’s very quiet in here.)

·  then – time passing (First I walked to the store, and then I bought candy.)

·  than – comparing (I am taller than you.)

·  a = use “a” when the next sound is a consonant sound (I want a cookie.)

·  an = use “an” when the next sound is a vowel sound (I want an orange.)

·  Indent every paragraph (thumb-space between the margin & first word)

·  Touch the margins when you write (except the first line).

·  Capitalize the first word of every sentence.

·  End every sentence with punctuation (NO Run-Ons!!)

** Inference = using clues to figure out things while you’re reading (present guess)

** Prediction = using clues to guess what will happen later (future guess)