The Write Weblog

Too cool!

The Write Weblog

Ok, this is too cool. Some 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders are in a weblogging class!!!! I wish I had gone to school there!

The above was written by a the author of a blog called Lindsay's Life. Isn't that awesome?

Writing Rocks!

Today was a lot of fun! Students created Wacky Web Tales and were cracking up! The practice with the different parts of speech was just what we needed.  Review the Parts of Speech help section, especially the verbs section.

Verbs

• A verb is a word that can show action. When a verb tells what people or things do it is called an action verb.
• A present tense verb shows action that is happening now.
• A past tense verb shows action that has already happened.
• A future tense verb shows action that will happen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Present Tense		Past Tense	Future Tense
Bats hunt at night.		The bats hunted last night.	The bats will hunt tonight.
The bats fly quickly.		The bats flew overhead.	The bats will fly later.

Then the tips about writing were very timely, like Tara's tip on the web site Tips for Young Writers.........

The best writers use an active writing voice as much as possible. So instead of saying: “She picked up the pencil,” say instead, “She grabbed the pencil.”

I saw some good tips on your posts today. Here are a few:

Paulina provides this excellent tip:
Another good tip is to always check your work. It is a good idea to use a dictionary while you are checking it. You may also change words to make it more exiting. You can look up words you're not sure about and it will help you write a good story. It will also help to read it aloud. That way you can hear how it sounds.

Alejandra notes this bit of advice:
You should reread EVERYTHING you write !!!!!!!  Why?   If you don't you might miss spell something. You should think about it.

Patrick follows with his good thoughts:

I also have a good tip. My tip is that when your"re writing you can't just write what your teacher would like. Instead put yourself into the story. You must be the words. You must understand the story. That's my tip and it's one of my favorites.

You were really producing some good work today and the pace has really picked up! I am amazed and so pleased with your efforts. Remember your homework is to come up with three good writing tips. We'll do some brainstorming next week about our project. I think we have some good beginnings. This journey is going to be cool! Writing is fun!

Here are a couple of writing tips I've been thinking about that I'd like to share.

• Keep the five senses in mind when you write. Make your descriptions come alive by including references to what you see, hear, touch, smell, and taste. A pepper can be red and can be very hot, but make your writing come alive by saying that a pepper is the color of a thousand little red sparks in a flaming fire and  can make your mouth feel like it will explode. This makes sense, right?
• Action words keep the reader hangin on! Words like scurried, tumbled, tossed, hurled, charged, howled. Get the picture? Better yet, are you getting your readers to make pictures in their heads? Action words help so keep your readers attention riveted on your writing by using them!

I am really excited about our up and coming project. Have a wonderful week!

Links about Writing

Today you are going to have some fun being writing explorers. Here are the assignments:

First, click on Wacky Web Tales. Everyone will pick a different topic. Now use creative adjectives, names of your friends, unusual but fascinating nouns, and things related to blogging and weblogs. When you finish we will copy the story and paste it into our blog and then laugh hilariously as we read each others "Wacky Web Tales."

OK, that warmed us up and got us ready to think some more about writing.  Go to "Tips for Young Writers"  It's a good site but you can come up with even better tips. Blog about one, then add a well-written and very thoughful yet relevant tip of your own.  Think about introductions, closings, details, your voice, descriptive words, sentences that grab you and make you want to keep reading, good vocabulary, word choice, punctuation, good grammar, sentences and thoughts that flow well, expressions, action words, proofing and anything else you can think of that relates to writing and blogging. Hey, it's OK if you throw in a little "Blooms" writing also.  You can do it!

Then we are going to brainstorm about the special project I talked about last week. It's going to be a great day in Georgia at J. H. House Elementary School!

Georgia/New York Connection

Wow! We're off and going with the Georgia/New York Connection!  You're going to enjoy reading some nice comments from the students in Mr. Brune's fourth grade class at Mamaroneck Avenue School. I wonder where the school name originated? Maybe they will tell us that story.

Isn't it exciting to think about  all the connections we have made since the beginning of the year? Here is their class web page.  On News Blog you can find all the student blogs. Next Thursday we will respond to their comments and add a few more of our own! What fun!

You did a good job on your news reports. Remember to proof your work and even have one of your friends proof it, also. Remember, two heads are better than one!

Don't forget your homework assignment. Use your new writing tools we discussed Thursday.

It's a beautiful day. Hope the weekend turns out the same - enjoy it!

One Week Off & Raring to Go!

I hope you all have had a great week off! I know you'll come back raring to go! I have a surprise for you that will provide you a lot of fun! You're going to make some more connections! No more, remember, I said surprise so you will have to wait! I will share in the morning!

Today we will be blogging our news reports. You need to share all that learning J. H. House students get each and every morning from CNN Student News!

Now on a personal note, I thought you might enjoy seeing a picture of my kids and grandkids. They had a great time at the circus! Any of you get the chance to go? I hope so.

I want to share a great link with you. The link is "If I Were a Carpenter: The Tools of the Writer." It is good food for thought. I think we can perhaps adapt it to fit writing on blogs by elementary students? Up to the challenge?

See you tomorrow! It's going to be a great day!

Ashley the Author!

Last week I  learned that we have another author in our midst! Not only has Yessenia's writing  been published, but Ashley submitted a poem that was also accepted for publication! Wow! Let's hear that drum roll! See, I was right in my prediction that other blooming bloggers will follow in her footsteps. I wonder who will be next?  Ashley's poem will be in the  Anthology of Poetry in the 2005 edition of Anthology of Poetry by Young Americans.  I love celebrating your good work, students!

Kudos to Ashley!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Diligence, Dialogue & Donuts!

It was fun celebrating last week. We celebrated you, our students. You have been so diligent and you always come in to the lab ready to blog! Your writing continues to improve and you are soaring with your thinking. We wanted to take a little time out to just enjoy some special treats and have a little time to talk and enjoy each other's company. The donuts were delicious! The dialogue was great! Your manners were exemplary! We were so happy Mrs. Hooper could join us in the KCAASE station! For those of you who don't know, the K Station is the technology trailer where great things are always going on. This week Mrs. Meeler is conducting the Quiz Bowl about current events in that very station. I can't wait to hear the winners names. I can't wait to hear all the participant's names because you know, you are all winners!  I can recall  when we had the very first one at J. H. House. I am glad that the tradition continues. You are the smartest, the coolest, and  the best thinkers ever!

Spill the Beans!

Ashley posted about Spill the Beans and she has gotten lots of comments about her writing. Why she is the first one to hear from author Pat Street. Wow! I'm going to have Ashley read Pat Street's comment so everyone can enjoy it.

Now we all know that the meaning of spill the beans is to give away a secret to someone who is not supposed to know it.  Pat Street shared the origin of "letting the cat out of the  bag" but was not sure of the origin of "spill the beans".

I checked in our favorite dictionary, the Scholastic Dictionary of Idioms by Marvin Terban. Here it is straight from the book:

A popular theory about the origin of this idiom goes back to the ancient Greeks and their secret societies. People voted you into these clubs by putting a white bean or a black bean into a jar (white = yes; black = no). The beans were supposed to be counted in secret, but if somebody accidentally (or purposefully) knocked over the jar and spilled the beans, the secret vote would be revealed. Another theory holds that this is an example of American slang from the early 1900s that combined two old words, "spill" (meaning "talk," from the 1500s) and "beans" (meaning "information," from the 1200s), into a new phrase.

See how much we learn by blogging!

Ashley News Flash!

Wonderful, wonderful news!  I just got this comment from Ashley:

Dear Mrs. Davis,
        I am alot better now. I feel ok. I will be in weblogging class tomorrow. see you there!

Now I said I was having a good week - let's make that a perfect week!  We will celebrate many things tomorrow! Yahoo!!!!!!!!!!!

Welcome back, Ashley!!

Read! Link! Think!

Hello boys and girls! I hope you have had an outstanding week so far! Mine has been great and I am topping the week off by seeing all of you again!

Today we are going to

READ..........LINK.........THINK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We have been focused on blogging and becoming good readers, thinkers and writers. You have been working hard and we plan to celebrate that today! Now that sounds like fun, right? Mrs. Meeler and I will surprise you so meanwhile you have to keep wondering! That's half the fun!

Today think about the topic you want to write your persuasive piece on and go on a search for information. Then blog about it! You probably will need to make a link to the information so you can refer back to it later.

I also want you to enjoy responding to your friends' blogs and even the GSU student blogs. They are going to do some good thinking today and I'm sure they would welcome your comments. Tell them how much you are learning and what you like about reading, learning, thinking and blogging!

I hope this post finds Ashley back in our midst as we have certainly missed her.

I found a comment on my GSU weblog about Yessenia's publication. It was from Amy Bowllan who has a weblog entitled K-F Libra/Tech Blog: "Teaching in the 21st Century."

Here is her post called "The Write Way" on her blog.
Here is her comment on my blog:

Congratulations to Yessenia! I share your support for our students who achieve such notable successes.

Amy Bowllan

Isn't that cool? Thank you Amy Bowllan!

I like her blog and really love the title! Her school is The Kew-Forest School. It is located in Forest Hills, Queens. That's in New York. Her blog serves as a resource for parents, teachers, students and school administrators.

Isn't it grand expanding our community and meeting all these nice people? Hey, if you're reading this now, leave us a comment! We love hearing from others!