Seeing the World With a Poet's Eyes

In class we have been writing short free-verse poems about the things we see and feel.  We've talked about experimenting with different voices to add interest to our poems.  We've made comparisons (both metaphors and similes) between objects and feelings to help our reader see our subjects in new ways.  We've also played with the physical layout of our poems - adding line breaks and punctuation in intentional ways to create rhythm and highlight special words and phrases.

Our poems are still in the rough draft stage, but we've already figured out how important it is that poetry be read aloud and often by others, even when it is still in progress.

Writers, please share your favorite work-in-progress poem in the comments section.  Don't forget to include your first name only!  You should also feel free to offer observations or compliments on others' poems.

Visitors to our blog should feel free to offer compliments as well - our young writers love the encouragement!

Thesis Statements

Since we came back from winter break, our class has been working on personal essays - expository pieces that teach, explain, or persuade.

We have learned that the heart of any essay is the

thesis statement,

a sentence that sums up the central argument or idea of the writer.  Everything else in the essay directly supports the thesis statement.

Because they are so important, writers in our class have worked hard crafting strong theses that say exactly what we want to say.  Writers, in the comments please tell us your thesis statement!

Our First Author Celebration!

Last Friday our class had our first Author Celebration for our Personal Narratives!  We invited our kindergarten buddies to listen, and proudly read our stories.

Authors, in the comments please tell us what you liked about the Author Celebration!

Writing Descriptive Details

In order to make our personal narratives stronger, we have been talking in class about adding descriptive details to our writing. Descriptive details include:

• Adjectives (words that describe, like enormous, green, freezing, outstanding, etc.
• Interesting verbs (powerful action words, like sprinted, leaped, rushed, twirled, etc.
• Telling the "who" - who was there with you?
• Telling the "where" - where were you?
• Telling the "why" - why did events happen the way they did?

Let's focus on adjectives in this post. What adjectives could you use to describe the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery? Use the photos below to give you ideas. List as many adjectives as you can think of in the comments!

What colors do you see?


What textures do you see?


What shapes do you see?


What temperatures do you imagine?

True Stories from Our Lives

In class we have been writing in the genre of personal narrative - true stories from our lives. The wonderful thing about this genre is that the ideas for our stories are already here for us - we just have to remember them and write them down!

One strategy for thinking of ideas is to notice an object, then let that object spark a memory. For example, I might notice the tape dispenser on my desk:

I'm going to let that spark a memory for me... hmm... I remember when I was 10 and my brothers discovered that they could use tape to make crazy faces, taping their noses up, their eyebrows down, etc. I could write a story about that memory!

So now writers, you try it! Here are some objects to get you started. Spend a moment on each one, and write down any memories that get sparked!

Introducing: Popology

Introducing the very first comic in Henry and Gavin's new series, Popology. Please leave compliments and suggestions for future adventures in the comments. Enjoy!

Book Release: Our Golden Words

Yesterday was a big day for writers in Room 241! For the last few weeks we've been working hard on our realistic fiction stories. We took our stories and turned them into a class book, and yesterday we had our book release party!



We invited the writers from Ms. DeTolla's class to come, and gave each of them their own copy of our book too.



While we read our stories aloud, our audience could read along!



Afterwards, authors autographed books for lucky guests!