Eight Cousins

Teacher's Note: As your student completes this lesson, choose skills from the Review Activties that he needs. The Review Activities follow this lesson.

At his cry of rapture, the other lads looked up and smiled involuntarily, for the little kinswoman standing there above was a winsome sight with her shy, soft eyes, bright hair, and laughing face. The black frock reminded them of her loss, and filled the boyish hearts with a kindly desire to be good to "our cousin," who had no longer any home but this.

Eight Cousins by Louisa May Alcott

l. a. Take the literature passage from dictation. Proofread, looking for any spelling or punctuation errors.

b. Make a spelling list to study this week or use the following suggested list: rapture, involuntarily, winsome, reminded.

Often words with the /cher/ sound at the end of a root word is spelled -ture.

c. Write the following words and underline -ture. Say the words aloud as you write them.

d. Why do you think quotation marks are used around our cousin?

e. How did you do with the commas in your dictation? Look at the first sentence of the literature passage. Write a rule explaining why a comma separates the words shy and soft.

Spelling Tip

Often, suffixes with a /cher/ sound at the end of a  root word will be spelled -ture.

d. Quotation marks can be used to show that a word or phrase is used in a special way.

e. Separate two or more adjectives with commas.