December 17

Homework
    -Writing Minutes
   - Finish Ancient Rome Outline
   - Begin Ancient Rome Essay

December 10

Homework
    -Writing Minutes
    - Freewriting (I took a wrong turn on the Yellow Brick Road....)
    - Take notes on Ancient Rome. You may begin to write if you have time.

November 5

Homework

• Writing Minutes
• Freewriting (The seven dwarfs were in my closet....)
• 2nd Draft of Sign of the Beaver
• Continue taking notes on volcanoes (we didn't have too much time in class today, so don't worry if you get stuck.  We can work on it in class next week if we have to!)

October 29

Homework

• Writing Minutes
• 2nd Draft of Sign of the Beaver (Typed!)

October 22

Homework

• Writing Mintues
• Freewriting (Trapped in the Great Pyramid!)
• Summary of Sign of the Beaver  (Remember your dress-ups AND openers!)

October 15

Homework

• Writing Minutes
• Freewriting (I was a WWI flying ace)
• Outline for Call of the Beaver

October 1

Homework

• Writing Minutes
• Freewriting (Science experiment)
• Write your Cinderella summary (Remember to underline a strong verb and a quality adjective in each paragraph!)
• Goombaw outline (You should have time to do this!)

September 24

Homework

• Writing Minutes
• Freewriting
• Create an outline for Cinderella

September 17

Homework

• Writing Minutes
• Freewriting (Write a poem about your breakfast.)
• Choose a fairytale and use it to fill in a plot diagram

September 10

Homework

• Writing Minutes
• Freewriting (Suddenly my arms became tentacles....)
• Use your Inca outline to write a paragraph.  Remember to use a strong verb and a quality adjective!

September 3

Homework

• Writing Minutes
• Freewriting ("My pet hippo got lost today....")
• Outline the Inca paragraph  (Use the Scorpionfish as an example.)

Writing expectations for the year can be found here.

May 14

Homework

• Writing Minutes
• Use your outline to write a 5 paragraph essay on the subject of your choice!  (Remember we added a new dress-up:  Adverbs!)
• AFTER your 5 paragraph essay is finished, begin writing your story based on your picture.  Use the prewriting you did last week.  You may write more than three paragraphs, just make sure you include all three sections!

Please note:  All report cards will be mailed as soon as possible.  Before I can give you a report card you will need to complete a final draft of your 5 paragraph essay (and/or other assignments).  Some of you may need extra time, and that’s OK.  Any missing/incomplete/in-progress work can be emailed to me anytime.  As soon as I receive your final assignment, I’ll send your report card as soon as possible!

May 7

Homework

• Writing Minutes
• Use your outline to write a 5 paragraph essay on the subject of your choice!  (Remember we added a new dress-up:  Adverbs!)
• AFTER your 5 paragraph essay is finished, begin prewriting your story based on your picture.  Use the following to continue organizing your thoughts before you write.  You may write more than three paragraphs, just make sure you include all three sections!

Setting

Time:

Place:

Character

Plot

Paragraph 1: What happened before the picture?

Paragraph 2: What happened in the picture?

Paragraph: 3: What happened after the picture?

April 30

 

Homework

• Writing Minutes
• Freewriting (Today I woke up in Ancient Egypt)
• Use your outline to write a 5 paragraph essay on the subject of your choice!  (Remember we added a new dress-up:  Adverbs!)

April 16

Homework

• Writing Minutes
• Freewriting (A recipe for invisibility)
• Begin working on a 5 paragraph essay on the subject of your choice!

1. Choose subject

Typically choose something you are interested in or have encountered before the paper was assigned. This way you have a framework, however scanty, with which to interact with the material.  If you know you have a paper due for another class, I have no problem with you using that paper for this class as well.

2. Ask yourself questions

This helps you determine what aspects of your subject interest you, and they may be used for brainstorming topics later on.

3.  Skim source

Determine what information is contained in your source.  You may be interested in how to train elephants, but your source may not mention that topic.  This way you have some idea about what information is available to you before you create your outline. 

4.  Brainstorm topics

Always come up with some extras.  If you need three body paragraphs, brainstorm at least 5 options just in case.

5. Create outlines

Decide on topics. And create your note-taking outline.  It should look like this:

I.  Topic 1

1.

2.

3.

4.

(5).

(6).

II.  Topic 2

1.

2.

3.

4.

(5).

(6).

III.  Topic 3

1.

2.

3.

4.

(5).

(6).

Remember, an outline is a guide and may be altered at any time before the final draft!

6.  Read your source thoroughly and take notes.  Try not to copy unless you plan to use the words as a quote!

April 9

NO! NOT A SNOW DAY?

Snow days afford us an opportunity to catch up on assignments.  The current unit has included the following assignments.  This week is a good time to finish and turn in anything that may be missing!
     3 Paragraphs
          ~ Ancient Greece
          ~ Ancient Rome
          ~ Celts (with topic and concluding sentences)
5 Paragraph Essays (3 body paragraphs, 1 introductory paragraph, and 1 conclusion paragraph)
          ~ Ulysses S. Grant
          ~ Tree Frogs
          ~ Ghana (This was due today)

Please feel free to email any assignments once they’re completed.

April 2

 

Homework

• Writing Minutes
• Freewriting (Frankie the world’s fastest slug)
• Finish rewriting the Grant paragraph.  (We started this in class.) Remember to think about the sequence of the sentences.  Find or add dress-ups and openers. Add topic and concluding sentences.
• Use your outline to finish writing about Ghana. Keep in mind the sequence of your facts.

March 26

 

Homework

• Writing Minutes
• Freewriting (Finish this AFTER your outline and notes!)
• Create Outline, take notes and write an essay on Ghana (Because of its length, this week’s source will require you to choose which pieces of information you want to include and which you don’t.  You will have two weeks to complete the whole assignment.) 

March 19

Homework

• Writing Minutes
• Add a strong verb and a quality adjective to each sentence from the board.  You’ll need to finish the last sentence.  Choose two to rewrite with a prepositional opener.
• Create an outline for an essay about Tree Frogs from the source provided*
• Write 5 paragraph (1 intro, 3 body, 1 conclusion) essay from your outline on Tree Frogs*
• 2nd or 3rd draft of narrative summary (Choose “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs” OR “Rikki-tikki-tavi” OR “The Rescue of Maid Marian") Many of you have completed this assignment.

* Some of the class was given extra time to complete previous assignments and are not required to complete this assignment.

March 12

Homework

• Writing Minutes
• Writing Exercise
  • 5 adjectives to describe water
  • 5 verbs to replace run
• 2nd or 3rd draft of narrative summary (Choose “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs” OR “Rikki-tikki-tavi” OR “The Rescue of Maid Marian")  Some of you have completed this assignment.
• Add an introductory and concluding paragraph to your Ulysses S. Grant essay

 

Note:  The class has now been introduced to all the structures necessary to write an essay or any other piece of non-fiction writing.  The rest of the year we will be focusing on style.  This includes not sounding like your source, sequencing, and flow.

March 5

Homework

• Writing Minutes
• In the following sentences add a strong verb and a quality adjective.  You’ll need to finish the last sentence.  Choose two to rewrite with a prepositional opener.
• The gnome was in the garden.
• A bird made a nest.
• The gnome did not like the bird.
• The gnome _______________________.
• Outline Ulysses S. Grant
• Write your essay about Ulysses S. Grant (Remember to use topic & concluding sentences, strong verbs & quality adjectives, subject & prepositional openers!

February 26

Homework

• Writing Minutes
• 2nd or 3rd draft of your narrative summary (Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs OR Rikki-tikki-tavi OR The Rescue of Maid Marian)
• Add topic and concluding sentences to the paragraphs on the worksheet
• Add topic and concluding sentences to your Ancient Celts paragraphs
• Freewriting (Last night the toaster moved)

February 12

Homework

• Writing Minutes
• Write one sentence for each
  • Subject opener
  • Prepositional opener
  • Subject opener + Quality Adjective
  • Subject opener + Strong verb
• Finish your outline and write your three paragraphs about the Celts
  • choose subject (we chose Celts)
  • ask questions (we did this in class)
  • skim source (you did this in class)
  • brainstorm topics (you brainstormed at least 5 topics in class)
  • choose topics ( you chose 3 in class)
  • take notes (you began this process in class but need to finish it before you write)
  • write (remember to mark your dress-ups and openers!)

January 29

Homework

• Writing Minutes
• Fix the following paragraph.  Add your dress-ups (strong verb and quality adjective) and openers (subject and prepositional).  You may also change the sequence and make other improvements.

Louis XIV built Versailles. He liked the arts and liked to dance. Anne of Austria ruled for 8 years when he was too young. He died in 1715. He canceled the Edict of Nantes and made being a Huguenot not legal. Versailles took 47 years to finish. He fought lots of wars. When his mom ruled there was a revolt, and he had to leave the city, and it collapsed, and he wouldn’t let it happen again, and he reorganized taxes and laws. He was the most powerful ruler in Europe. When he was older he became more strict. He was called the Sun King.

• Use your outline for Ancient Rome to compose three paragraphs.  Remember your dress-ups and openers!

January 22

Homework

• Writing Minutes
• Improve the following paragraph by adding and marking your dress-ups (strong verb and quality adjective) and openers (subject and preposition).
• The Lego Movie is a good movie.  It is about Lego characters who are going to be glued.  Emmet tries to keep that from happening.  It ends with the dad saying he won’t glue the Legos.
• 2nd draft of “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” OR “Rikki-tikki-tavi” OR “The Rescue of Maid Marian”
• Complete your outline of Ancient Rome that you began in class.

I.  Religion

1.

2.

3.

4.

(5).

(6).

II.  Lifestyle

1.

2.

3.

4.

(5).

(6).

III.  Building

1.

2.

3.

4.

(5).

(6).

January 15

 

Homework

• Writing Minutes
• Add (or find) one strong verb and one quality adjective in each sentence.  (You may have completed this in class.)
  • The worm crawled.
  • A tall building fell.
  • A fish went through the water
• Use your outline to finish (we wrote the first paragraph in class!) writing your three paragraphs about Ancient Greece. (Our class outline is below just in case you lost yours, couldn’t finish it in class, or can’t read it!)  Notice that we added Entertainment to the Sports section, so that we would have enough information for a paragraph.

I.  Military

1.  occasionally/city-states/rivalry/warfare

2.  defense/city/port Piraeus

3.  Mercenaries/ recruited/ army

4.  Long Walls/ not cut off/ port

(5). strongest/ survive/ weak/ die

(6).  boys/ 7/ leave/ home/ army

II.  Sports & Entertainment

1.  Olympic games

2. Pentathlon/discus/jumping/wrestling/sprinting

3. heroic/ battles/ Olympic/ games

4. theatre/ open /air/ popular

(5). parts/ played/ men/ masks/ costumes

(6).

III.  Building

1.  $/ building/flourished

2.  wealthy/ helped/finance/ buildings

3. built/ theatres/ gymnasiums

4.  stone / buildings/ marble

(5). temples /acropolis/ center/ city-state

(6).

 

We composed our first paragraph in class.  Notice that we changed the order of our facts.  You are not required to do that right now, but you certainly may if you want too!

     Ancient city-states occasionally had rivalry and warfare.  (2)At age seven boys would leave home and join the army.  (1)Mercenaries were recruited to the army.  It was important for the city to defend the port of Piraeus.  The Long Walls kept the port from being cut off.  Only the strong would survive; the weak would die.

Don’t forget to mark your openers (subject and prepositional) and dress-ups (strong verb and quality adjective) just like we did in the first paragraph above!

January 8

Homework

• Writing Minutes
• Make sure the following paragraph has all its dress-ups (strong verb) and openers (subject and preposition).  Add them if necessary and mark them appropriately:
  • Marco Polo was an explorer.  He went to China.  He served the emperor.  He returned to Europe a rich man.  His travels began trade between Europe and China.
• Using the source you were given in class, finish taking notes on Ancient Greece.  We have chosen our subject and our topics now we need to use our source to find information and put it in the correct section on our outline. You may have more information on a topic then will fit in the outline.  That’s ok.  You don’t have to include everything.  Notice that we place the topic on the line with the Roman Numeral.
  • Here’s out outline so far!

I.  Military

1.  occasionally/city-states/rivalry/warfare

2.  defense/city/port Piraeus

3.  Mercenaries/ recruited/ army

4.  Long Walls/ not cut off/ port

(5).

(6)

II.  Sports

1.  Olympic games

2. Pentathlon/discus/jumping/wrestling/sprinting

3. 

4.

(5).

(6).

III.  Building

1.  $/ building/flourished

2.  wealthy/ helped/finance/ buildings

3. built/ theatres/ gymnasiums

4.  stone / buildings/ marble

(5). temples /acropolis/ center/ city-state

(6).