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.

“Great use of dialogue Oscar!” Mrs. Felter said.

Oscar jumped right in and added dialogue into the first sentence of his story. He grabbed the readers’ attention by saying, “Wake up sleepyhead!” He went on the use dialogue throughout his story to make his trip to the beach seem more realistic. 

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During our writing conference, Oscar noticed that he was saying, “And then…and then…and then…” way too many times! So we brainstormed a list of other transition words he could use to help move his story along. Can you think of any other words he could use?

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“More dialogue!” she exclaimed!

Antwan did a nice job using dialogue in his “From the heart” story about the day his brother Takyi was born. He wrote:

I shouted so loudly. I said, “Oh my gosh he’s so sweet!”

When he added in that dialogue to his story it made it come alive to the reader! I feel like I’m there seeing Takyi for the first time. What a special story.

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Thank you for sharing with us Antwan!

Video Game Tales

In third grade we love to go home, play with our friends, read books, work on some math, have a healthy dinner, brush our teeth, and go to sleep! But sometimes, we also play video games. Sometimes these games are violent, but we know that the violence is fake and we would never ever put our hands on someone else or use our words to hurt someone. Mrs. Felter doesn’t really love these games. She does love Mario Cart.

This week two of our all-star writers wrote very detailed stories about video games. We are very proud of their hard work!

Amorie’ did a great job getting my attention with his first line: “Stop! They’re coming!”

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Francisco filled the middle of his story with so many details, I feel like I’m playing the game!

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Adding Details!

Today, we tried to view narrative writing done by Ruby, a student in Room 4 at the Upper Moutere School in New Zealand (that’s on the other side of the world), but our internet at school won’t let us view Blogspot! Grrr. So I took screenshots of Ruby’s story so that we can enjoy it! Check out the wonderful way she included extra details into her work to make her story come alive! Visit Ruby’s work, on her class blog, and leave her a positive comment! Remember to write in a complete sentence and only leave your first name!

Ixell, in our own class right here in America, finished her story today! She spent a lot of time thinking about a special memory in her life. Check out how she uses repeated lines in her story to make the suspense grow!

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I just love her last sentence! “And I felt so Proud.” It gives me chills. 🙂

P.S Last night, while we were sleeping, the students from St. Vincent Room at Auckland Point School, in Nelson, New Zealand visited our blog and read Ixell’s story! Check out their comment above. They have an awesome blog that you can visit at home. It looks like they are adding details to their writing as well. Check out Ralph’s descriptions about the sun! Now, when we look at the sun, we are going to think about cheese! Great writing Ralph!

Antwan’s Completed Tale!

Antwan completed his story today! He used the different the different strategies we discussed in our writing mini-lessons:

1. Brainstorm and plan before jumping into writing.

2. Start your story by grabbing the reader’s attention!

3. Add in juicy details as you stretch out the action in the middle of the story.

4. End your story with feeling! Make your reader remember your words!

Antwan has not begun editing and revising his work yet so this is his “Sloppy Copy.” Leave Antwan a positive comment or some sweet advice. 🙂

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Fire Safety

The Charlotte Mecklenburg Fire Department has challenged all of Charlotte’s third grade students to become fire safety professionals! To do this we need to learn:

1. How to Prevent Fires, and

2. How to stay safe if there is a fire.

Today we are going to write “How to’s” that teach our readers how to prevent and stay safe if there is a kitchen fire!

 GET AN ADULT or CALL 911!

Descriptive Writing!

This week we are working hard to write descriptive personal stories. A descriptive story is full of details that make the story more interesting for the reader. Our current read aloud, Roxie and the Hooligans, is incredibly descriptive! We can see Roxie’s big, round, sugar bowl ears! We can hear the hooligans as they laugh because the author, Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, tells us that they sound just like crows, mice, and donkeys!

Check out Antwan’s personal story below. He puts in so many exciting details that make it easy to picture the action as you read!

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What is your favorite part of his story so far?