But! But! But!

In our guided reading groups this week the word “but” keeps coming up! We said that when “but” is in the middle of a sentence it often means that what comes after it will be the opposite of what came before it. For example: Mark was really tired, but he read his chapter book anyway!

This afternoon, Pablo gave me a great example of the use of “but” as well as an idiom! Here’s what happened:

Bit Off More than He Could Chew

Pablo loves going up stairs, but he’s not very good at coming back down. Looks like he’s bit off more than he can chew!

Can you figure out the idiom in that sentence?

Make your Writing more Interesting! Similes and Metaphors

This week we have been looking at figurative and literal language. We said that reading English text can be confusing because writers like to “spice up” their writing by adding in special language like similes, metaphors, personification, idioms, and more! Here are some examples of figurative language we discovered while reading this week!

figurative language

 

Writing Biography Essays

I am currently writing my biography essay on inventor Thomas Edison. I have found some great internet research on Edison but I don’t know how to summarize it in my own words! Help me put this information into notes that I can use for the middle paragraphs of my essay.

More Amazing Amazon Book Reviews!

Cameron and Jamari’s  persuasive book reviews have been published on Amazon.com! They are helping recommend their favorite books to readers around the world! Check out their book reviews and get a copy of their favorite books!

Biography Research

Yesterday, we researched our entrepreneurs and inventors on the internet. We found some valuable information, but internet research is never as easy as it seems. Let’s take a step back to see what we did well and where we need support.

1. What key words did you use to do your search?

2. How many websites did you visit?

3. Did you stay on websites that were too hard to read?

4. How much research were you able to do?techies 5

techies 6 techies techies 2 techies 3 techies 4

Internet Book Reviews!

We have switched from writing narrative fiction to writing persuasive opinion pieces. When you give your opinion it’s important to:

1. Get your readers’ attention.

2. Provide your reader with evidence.

3. Remind your reader what you think or what you want them to do!

Check out Nancy’s great book review that is live for the world to see on Amazon.com
!

Cesar’s Narrative Story

Cesar, from Miss Dietly’s class, has written a very descriptive short story! Check out his engaging lead, his details, and the lesson he learned that day! Click on the picture below to visit Miss Dietly’s blog and leave a comment for Cesar!

Screen shot 2013-11-04 at 9.26.49 AM

Cesar’s writing is so descriptive because of his use of adjectives. Adjectives helps us describe nouns.

Make it Interesting, Make it Detailed!

We are writing stories around the theme of “Holidays.” A theme is a big idea that groups things together. If “Holidays” is our theme then everyone in the room must be writing about a special holiday or celebration. We picked this theme because our writers were getting stuck so frequently in their brainstorming and saying, “I don’t have any good ideas in my life!” But, when we started thinking about holidays everyone had two or three good ideas to pick from! Below are the engaging beginnings from two of our writers. Look at how they are putting in details to make their work more interesting for their readers!

Shannallie’s Engaging Lead

photo 1

Amorie’s Halloween Lead

photo 2

Brainstorm, Plan, and Keep Planning

Just like our favorite author,Barbara O’Connor and Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, when we write our narrative stories we start by making a plan. Below, some of our class authors are showing off the fantastic plans they are using to write a story. Notice the way they have planned for the beginning, middle, and end of their stories as well as a climax, or big moment. The students have also included what their secondary characters will be doing at certain points in their stories.

Kyan’s Plan:
photo 2
Ixell’s plan and her engaging lead:
photo 3
photo 4
Antwan’s plan and his engaging lead: photo 1
photo 5

Complete that Sentence with a Subject and Predicate!

If you want your reader to understand your story, then you have to write in compete sentences. Complete sentences contain a subject (noun) and a predicate (verb-what the subject is doing.)

Which of these sentences are complete?

The dog barked at the cat.
Each boy had a doughnut.
That man.

That man, what? What did the man do? To complete the sentence, tell the reader what the man did.