Mrs. Huff's Stuff: Authors and Artists Writing Club!: October 2014

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Paragraph Writing: Backwards Land!

My older students had fun with paragraph writing by creating an imaginary place and writing about its landscape, people, climate, customs, animals, and more! How did they come up with the name? They spelled a real place backwards! We had fun trying to pronounce the new name, and picturing the type of place that would match a fancy, silly, or adventurous kind of name. Enjoy these paragraphs, and decide if you'd like to visit!

Eohat Ekal, by Jerry (5th grade)

If you're a fan of hats, then Eohat Ekal is the place for you! The people there are really nice, and there are many great sights to be seen. But beware, if you don't have a hat, you'll get a hat superglued right on to your head when you set foot there! You'll also probably want to wear t-shirts and shorts because it's really hot there. There are many wacky animals called hat animals. These are animals with unremovable hats on their heads. If you're lucky, you'll encounter either a gorillaphant, giraffken, or a cird. You'll also probably want to bring a camera, because you'll want to show your friends the wonderful sights! So remember, if you plan on going to Eohat Ekal, be sure to wear a hat!

Do you know what Jerry's backwards land is forward? And do you know why he focused so much on the hat theme? Well done, Jerry!

Sarah (4th grade) couldn't stick to just one topic for Napaj. So she wrote a mini essay on her Backwards Land. And if you are wondering how to pronounce "Napaj," try saying it "Nuh-pahj." It's much fancier than "Nap-ij!"

Napaj is a very posh place with very posh people. The women usually wear dresses and the men usually wear tuxedos. They are never messy in town. Only a few people farm, and the only thing they grow are carrots. They get all the rest of their food from Japan. All the people love ballet dancing.

All around Napaj it is very beautiful. Napaj has a very clear area all around. For some reason, there is only one mountain in sight. There are lots of small rose patches dotted around the clear, flat area with other flowers. Napajians say that the sunsets there are gorgeous. They also say that it looks magical when it snows in winter. It looks really moist, even though it is really sunny.

The rulers are very rich, and they live in a palace. The king's name is Norobo. The Queen's name is Elizabeth the Fourth. Finally, the princess' name is Laura.

Napaj is the fanciest place in the world!

Thursday, October 9, 2014

Paragraph Writing: Summer Vacation

The "Budding Authors and Artists" learned that a paragraph is all about ONE topic. Since summer was still fresh in our memories, we wrote about a fun summer memory we wanted to share with the class. The students were encouraged to use a descriptive adjective in at least two sentences. Enjoy these samples of beautiful writing and art! It sounds like these girls had really fun summers!

Alyssa, 1st grade

Chloe, 2nd grade

Noun Poems!

As we continued our study of parts of speech, the "Budding Authors and Artists" wrote Noun Poems. These are a Mad Lib style, fill-in-the-blank activity, where the students choose common and proper nouns when prompted by the teacher. The end result is a poem they didn't know they were creating. They often times turn out quite humorous! The underlined, bold words are the nouns the children chose as they were being prompted. Enjoy!

A Noun Poem

By Kaden (1st grade)

My video game, my video game

I love it! It's cool.

I'd like to buy one for Nicky at school.

I bring mine with me wherever I go,

From Legoland to home to Colorado.

My friends Nick and Alex

Say a star is more useful.

But I feel that I must remain truthful.

I will hold my video game close to my heart.

And hope that we never, ever must part!

A Noun Poem

By Danika (2nd grade)

My desk, my desk,

I love it! It's cool.

I'd like to buy one for Rayne at school.

I bring mine with me wherever I go,

From Disneyland to New York City to Colorado.

My friends Chloe and Daniella

Say a book is more useful.

But I feel that I must remain truthful.

I will hold my desk close to my heart.

And hope that we never, ever must part!

Having Fun with Adjectives with Name Poems

My younger students are still learning the value of adjectives. So, our next assignment was to describe ourselves using the letters in our names. Enjoy these fabulous Name Poems!

S is for sweet, stupendous, and spectacular
A is for awesome and A-OK
V is for very cute and crazy
I is for impressive and intelligent
A is for amazing
N is for nice, noisy, and nifty
A is for absolutely fabulous

~Saviana, 1st grade
(Notice how well Saviana dealt with tricky V, plus having three A's in her name!)

N is for nice
A is for awesome
T is for terrific
H is for handsome
A is for amazing
N is for neat

~Nathan, 2nd grade
(Great job with two N's and two A's!)

S is for a super soccer player who has silky hair
A is for an awesome animal lover
M is for having a marvelous mommy
A is for being an amazing friend
N is for nice and neat writing, and eating nectarines
T is for being on the terrific Tigers soccer team
H is for having a happy heart
A is for drawing wonderful art

~Samantha, 3rd grade
(I love the rhyme at the end, and the compliment to her Mommy!!)

Fabulous Sentence Writing

No matter what age I teach, we start every workshop off with a lesson in detailed sentence writing. All students, grades K-5, were given this base sentence:

The sun shines.

From there, we added:

~adjectives

~where phrases or clauses

~when phrases or clauses

The older students added:

~adverbs

~And they also learned how to start a sentence with "Because."

I always enjoy posting all grade levels for this particular assignment. You can see how the students improve year to year! Enjoy these samples:

The light, bright sun shines in the sky next to a cloud in the morning.

~Tyler, Kindergarten

The hot, yellow sun shines next to a rainbow in the summer.
~Nikolas, 1st grade

The bright, yellow sun shines next to the rainbow in the summer.

~Daniella, Grade 2

While the brown baby fawn is going to sleep, the sparkly and hot sun shines brightly over her. ~Jessica, Grade 3

Because the glowing bright sun shines flamingly, the ocean glistens at sunset. ~Morgan, 4th grade

On top of the magnificent snow-capped mountains, the gold and yellow star-shaped sun shines sleepily when the sky starts turning orange. ~Kaitlyn, 5th grade

About the Teacher

Mrs. Huff has taught Language Arts for over 20 years. After being a classroom teacher for 12 years, she chose a new career path in teaching writing workshops and tutoring in order to stay home with her young children. She loves teaching creative writing, reading, and grammar. She specializes in teaching elementary school grades, but enjoys assisting older students with their writing as well. She offers both in-person and online workshops and tutoring sessions. Mrs. Huff is Barton trained and certified, and has experience tutoring dyslexic students. She loves to see their growth and improvement in reading, writing, and spelling.

Mrs. Huff's hobbies include coaching volleyball, photography, scrapbooking, writing, and spending time with her family. She has a daughter and a son, both "graduates" from the "Authors and Artists" program!

Thanks for visiting our blog!

What Parents and Students have said about the workshop:

"The small group environment allowed for lots of personalized attention and immediate feedback. My daughter loved the workshop and came home raving about the creative writing assignments which included group, partner, and individual writing."

"It amazed me how my son was excited to stay after school for an academic-style club. Mrs. Huff made the classroom environment comfortable and light after a long day's work at school, yet encouraged hard work and focus and got the kids to produce great things. We loved the program!"

"I loved Mrs. Huff's teaching style and enthusiasm."

"I never thought I'd hear the words 'awesome' and 'writing' in the same sentence from my son, but that's what he said after the first class."

"My daughter absolutely loved the workshop. It made her think, and challenged her to write something different. She loves writing, and this gave her a scheduled time to do what she loves best with a teacher's guidance. Plus, she loved her teacher!"

"Authors and Artists is my favorite part of the day."

"This workshop is hard work..... but it's fun work!"

"I was very impressed with Mrs. Huff's manner with the children. There was a sense of mutual respect in the classroom between the teacher and students. The students were comfortable and worked hard, but had fun!"