November 30-December 4 Assignmnets

Welcome back students! I hope that your Thanksgiving holiday was restful.

We have three weeks until the end of the semester and we need to be focused on our writing abilities. This season is a time for reflection of the past eleven months and a dawn for the coming year.
In the last fourteen weeks, we have covered out six traits of writing. We have practiced out leads, used transition words and focused on the endings or conclusions of our writing. Next we worked on the making our stories better by re-writing them.
There is a saying (idiom) that "practice makes perfect". Well, that is not completely true. We should all be saying, "PERFECT practice makes perfect!" Most of the time it is in our failures that we improve the most.
Think of Thomas Edison. How many times did it take him to create a filament for the light bulb? Thank goodness, he never gave up, or our world would be much darker now.

This weeks prompts are:
1. Imagine you found a strange bottle in your backyard. When you uncorked the bottle, a Christmas fairy popped out. What happens next? (Use 5 Five spelling words from all year)
2. Ms. Lines has been called to a meeting and she needs you to fill in. What would you teach in class? Remember she teaches both Language Arts and Social studies. What would the students be graded on? (Use 5 five spelling words)
3. Imagine you believe in Christmas and you get three wishes that would effect the WHOLE world. What would your wishes be and why? (Use 5 spelling words from all year)
4. Finish the story: "How terrifying!" said the inventor as he or she climbed the creaky staircase, in the snow. (Use 5 spelling words from all year)

Remember that you need to complete 2 (two) of the 4 (four) writing prompts by Friday. Be sure to leave me a comment so that I know you are ready to have me correct and log your grade in my grade book!
have a great week bloggers!
Ms. Lines

November 23-27 Assignments

Dear Students,

We need the students to take a short quiz. This quiz is part of our Future. We would like our students to graduate with a better attitude toward life, themselves, and learning. We consider this creating hope. We need your opinions to move toward these goals and objectives. Please click on the link below to start your study:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=1nmscQeZ3xH9sy28_2f_2fdj6w_3d_3d

It will take about 30-40 min. Completing this will count for one blog assignment.

This weeks assignments are:

1. " Has anyone seen my wedding ring" said the pirate as he/she took the turkey out of the oven.

(Use any 5 spelling words from units 1-11) Remember I will be grading on your use of the 6 traits of writing.

2. Imagine you have a time machine, and you have landed yourself at the very first Thanksgiving dinner. What foods are they serving? Why is everyone speaking a strange language? Write a dialogue of the conversations that you would have with all the Pilgrims. How would you explain your strange language. Be sure to use a play format or quotes. (Spelling words from Unit 1-11 and 2 Thanksgiving day related vocabulary words.)

I hope you all have a safe and happy Thanksgiving weekend!

Ms. Lines

P.S. I am thankful for each and everyone of you!

Assignmnets for November 16-20

Happy Monday Students!
This week we are focusing on Conventions. NO, it is not where you dress up in crazy costumes and meet at a convention center. We are talking about the ones on our six traits of writing. Conventions are the simple little things, such as spelling, punctuation, and spacing issues with words. Did you forget to title your work? If a stranger read my post, would he or she know what I am talking about?!?!?!

This week we will have two prompts. You may choose these two or pick one or two posts from earlier this year and correct the conventions. Either way you should have TWO (2) posts by Friday.

1. Write a letter to a friend, relative, or teacher about the following: "What are you thankful for and why?" Be sure to use the "friendly letter style" when writing your letter.
2. Finish the following story: "I can explain" said the student as he or she tripped on the box that stuck out of the closet.

Happy Blogging!
Ms. Lines

November 9-13th Assignments

Hey there my super excellent writers! Since we have a short week, I would like us to continue on our focus of sentence fluency. This week, I need you to re-write ONE post from earlier in the year. You are going to cut and paste into a "new post". Then you need to bring it to life. Revision is a part of the writing process. Remember that everyone, even famous writers have editors. Here is your chance to make a story, narrative, expository or persuasive writing piece better!

Here is what you will be graded on:
1. Use the previous spelling words and try to ADD this weeks words. (FIVE from Unit 10).
2. Creating a complex sentence. (using a conjunction to combine two smaller or like sentences together.)
3. A strong introduction (LEAD)
4. Variety of transition words
5. One or more Idioms
6. A strong conclusion

Happy Blogging everyone!
Ms. Lines

November 2-6 Assignments

OK my eager beaver students, here is this weeks assignments.

This week we will be focusing on Sentence Fluency. Just like learning a new language, using words, connecting them the correct way is important too.

Why?
~looks around~
Well, I am glad you asked!

Sometimes ya just gotta go with the flow...at least that's the situation most readers find themselves in.

When we write, sentences it is important to start the beginning with a capital letter. Then we wind our way over words and phrases until we’ve expressed a complete thought, and then finally, we mark the endpoint with a period, question mark, or exclamation mark.When we read out loud we practice the shape of each sentence.
The writer starts with a topic sentence and then from beginning to end, takes the reader to understand what the author/writer is expressing.

In order to move phrase to phrase, word, to word and sentence to sentence, we practice what is called "sentence fluency". This means that the writing flows smoothly. A picture should begin to form in your mind.

Some examples are from our fiction novels. We read out loud about a painting. The sentences then goes on to describe it. Some readers jump to favorite painting in art class while another is thinking of a Van Gogh exhibit at the fair.
This week, you are going to practice your grammar and sentence fluency. We have the following prompts. You pick TWO of the four. Be sure to leave me a message when you are ready for me to grade it!
1. Imagine that you are Principal for the day. Ms. Gaitens had an important meeting and needs you to fill in. What three(3) school rules do you think are important to enforce? Why? What consequences would there be for the students who broke those rules? (USE FIVE SPELLING WORDS)
2. Pretend that a producer for a famous TV show is coming to our school! The producer is looking for script ideas for the show. Sadly there is a buzz in Hollywood to end the popular show "The O.C." Create and write a drama/reality based dialogue (script) that could get picked for the replacement show. Remember you might be the next reality TV show. What would you want all of America to watch? (USE FIVE SPELLING WORDS)
3. Finish this story: "Run for your lives" said the store owner as he or she stood in the store aisle. (USE FIVE SPELLING WORDS)
4. Write a MEME about yourself and then "tag" some of your friends in the post. You should have 10-20 questions about you. These questions should help us to get to know you better. IF you are the person being named in the post. You need to cut and paste the questions, change the response to be about you, then tag others. REMEMBER this is part of your school project and should be school appropriate. (USE 5 SPELLING WORDS)

Let's have a great week blogging and having fun learning!
~waves hands~
Ms. Lines