Monster Draw Game!

This writing game is a favorite of my students!  It's a fantastic lesson in on-demand and descriptive writing.  I teach my students that their job is to create the perfect picture in their readers' minds of exactly what they want them to see.  If a writer misses ONE adjective, the picture is altered!

Here is how this game is played:

Step #1: Draw a monster.

Step #2: Write about your monster with vivid and descriptive language.  Size, shape, color, number!  These types of adjectives were our theme of the day.

Step #3: Trade papers with a partner, and try to draw each other's monster with zero talking!  The only assistance I offered was if someone's handwriting was a little challenging to read.  Othewrise, the students were on their own with reading and drawing their partner's twin monster!

These usually have a few that turn out hilariously different, but of course, the closest ones (voted on by the class) make the blog.  Check these out!

Ian's Monster (4th grade)

        My monster is a mix of a dinosaur, dragon, and a little squirrel, too!  It is a shape or a body of a T-rex.  Its wings are like a bendy rectangle shape.  It has six spikes, and it also has a squirrel tail that's blue.  One of the wings are yellow and has striped patterns.  The other wing is half red and half green.  It has 24 spikes on its body.  Its legs are wide apart.  Its whole body is purple, except the spikes are red.  Also the hands are small and black and they make claws.  It has a shark-like head with sharp teeth, and its eyes are round with a pupil.

Ian got instant feedback on the importance of directional words like "right and left" when he saw that Vivian (3rd grade) drew his monster facing the opposite way.  However, the rest of the details are there, and the class voted theirs the winners!

Jojo's Monster (4th grade)

        My monster is really cool.  He has a circular turqoise head.  He has two big white and black eyes on his head.  He also has a cute smile.  On top of his head, he has two fat red antennae.  On the top of the antennae, there is a circular shape with another black and white eye.

        He has two yellow arms with paws, an dfour claws.  He has a blue body with a circle of green.  He has a striped silver fat white tail.

        He has two magenta legs and two striped blue feet.  I hope you can picture my monster!

Jojo wrote so carefully with all those color adjectives that her partner, an awesome 6th grade reader Adeline, was able to produce this!

Cho's Monster (6th grade)

        My monster has a wolf's head, upper body, and front legs.  He also has a horse's back legs, body, and tail.  He has a wolf's nose and mouth, pointed ears, one having a pink inside. There is a scar running through his eye.  My monster is facing your right.  He is rearing, his front legs bent, one of them behind the other.  His wolf part of the body is gray.  Eyes, nose, and mouth are black.  His scar is red.  His horse's side is just a horse's two legs with a tail.  The wavy tail is magenta.  The legs are gradient of dark purple, to dark blue, to light blue.  There is no background.  Realistic, not cartoonish.  It takes up half the page, and is right in the middle.

Cho nailed the size, shape, color, number, and direction adjectives, so Laila (5th grade) could produce this!

Congratulations to our Fall 2023 winners!

Point of View Creative Stories

 My 3rd-6th grade writers took what they knew about their backwards animal, and wrote a story focusing on POV (point of view).  My younger students chose to either write as the animal, or the human, as they described their encounter.  My older students did BOTH, switching back and forth between voices; a difficult task for sure!  Enjoy these entertaining samples!

The Tibbar Story

BY: Sara (4th grade)

One sunny afternoon, I was walking next to my house. My brother was at a soccer game so I had some alone time for a few hours. A trail next to my house was in the woods, and it was my favorite.

    As I trudged down the path, the sun was shining down on my face. As I got deeper and deeper into the forest, I approached a sparkly lake. I loved to dip my hands and feet into the water, so that was what I did. I walked over to the lake, sat on the rocky dirt, took off my shoes, and dipped my feet in.

The freezing cold water felt good on my skin as the hot sun shined down on me. I’m thirsty. I jerked my head behind me to grab my water bottle.

“Ahhhhhhh” I screamed in horror.

        It was a rainbow creature, with soft fur and a tail with gray spikes poking out of the tail. It crept closer and closer to my body, staring at me with its ferocious blue beady eyes. Without any hesitation I launched up from the rough floor.

I started backing up and getting farther and farther into the woods. Suddenly, something rough and hard banged against my ankle, and I fell backward with rocks stabbing into my arms and legs.

My eyes fluttered open. Granola bar smells drifted into my mouth. A pink tongue was hanging out of the strange animal's mouth, along with brown chocolate bits from my granola bar.

As my eyes adjusted to the scenery, I suddenly realized what the strange animal was. “A Tibbar” I said out loud. It cocked its head to the side like it recognized what I said.

“You know, you don't look that mean anymore!'' I exclaimed. “I'll call you Lucy.”

Lucy bent down like she wanted me to pet her. I pulled my body up from the ground and stuck my hand out to stoke the velvety rainbow fur.

As I stroked it the third time, squishy stuffies started appearing! I immediately knew what they were. “Squishmallows!”  I yelled happily. Upon shouting those words, more and more started appearing out of nowhere on the soft green grass around me. I picked up as many as I could and stuffed them in my pocket and arms no matter how big they were.

“Follow me,” I said directly to Lucy. She started skipping toward me, so I skipped around with her. We were at my house in no time.

I sat down on the half dry yellow-green grass and the Tibbar stepped forward and rubbed its fur against me. I immediately knew we were friends.

My Human and Me, by Mira (4th grade)

“Oh my gosh,” I said to myself as I looked through a small crack in my wooden house. “The field is probably a really nice place to go explore in, and the lakes won’t be frozen, since it’s April!” 

Sorry, I forgot to introduce myself! My name is Revaeb, and I live in Ainrofilac, Acirema! You might not know who I am, because I don’t think there are many more of Revaebs, but if there are more in the world (which there are hopefully not), I am probably the only Revaeb with a horn and dark brown fur with a light brown patch in the middle of my chest!

 Soo… where was I? Oh, I quickly pushed open the door and saw the beautiful landscape. As I trudged across the bright green grass, my paws hit the mud that was underneath. I looked up and saw the sky. It was the brightest it had ever been. 

Suddenly… I tripped on the petite rocks surrounding the sparkling blue pond. Everything got blurry as I fell into the pond. The trees looked as pink as the flowers, and the grass looked brown. Then I felt a splash of water, and I started shivering. When I was in the water, my eyes were burning red and I couldn’t breathe. I struggled against the water, and my furry brown tail hit the edge of the pond. 

“Ouch!” I mumbled in pain. I would have screamed, but the fresh pond water got trapped in my mouth. I accidentally swallowed some water, but it wasn’t as salty as I thought it would be. Well… pond water isn’t salty!

I had finally spit out the water, when a giant, warm, fur-less paw with five attachments broke through the layer of water that was surrounding me. Frightened, I tried to jump away, but the paw was way too fast. A moment later, I felt a harsh tug at my pastel rainbow horn, but surprisingly, it didn’t hurt. I guess my horn is not the most sensitive!

The paw started slowly lifting me out of the water, and soon, half of my body was out of the pond, and another of those fur-less paws came and held my bottom. 

The paws started bringing me closer to the matching  face, like it was going to eat me. “Hi,” the head whispered mysteriously. The animal was big, and the only fur it had was long and on top of its head. I whimpered, and it curved its mouth into a big and calming smile. 

“Oh my gosh,” The animal said. "You look like a Revaeb! I read about them a couple days ago!” I wondered how this animal knew about me. My ears twitched, and I leaned closer to listen.

“I am Mira! You probably don’t know me, but I am a human girl,” she continued, flicking her black hair away from her pretty face. “It’s technically not a species, and even though you can only speak “Naissur” and understand English, and I can only speak and understand English, we will find a way to communicate!” Ok! I thought. So she’s a human girl. I think I have heard of that before! I nodded my head in agreement, and we shared a loving smile! 

 

Mira touched her light brown forehead against mine, and carefully put me on the grass. As if we could read each other’s minds, we raced each other across the field! 

“Up” Mira suddenly said, but I had already put my paws to her waist! She picked me up like a baby, and carried me back to her brick house as I snuggled in her arms.

A few minutes later, we got to her house and I heard the door handle twisting open as she pushed the door open. Although I thought it would be covered in bricks too, I saw that the door was wood painted in white! When we got inside the house, Mira put me down and I immediately started inspecting every corner of the house to make sure we were safe. She sluggishly went to the couch, and I came to snuggle in her armpit! She grabbed the remote and turned the TV on to watch a show that was apparently called  “Bluey.” Mira thought I knew what “ Bluey” was, but even though I didn’t, it was still pretty good! 

As we were watching “Bluey” together, I remembered the time when I first felt her paw  in the ice cold pond! Ever since that day, there has been so much more happiness for Mira and me, and I hope it will never stop!

My older students experimented with Point of View stories writing in both the animal's and the human's points of view!

The Beach Encounter

By: Sasha (6th grade)

After the long car ride to the beach, I was happy to finally be able to get out and move around. 

“I’m hungry,” my little sister complained, as I got out the pizza and spread out the blanket on the sandy beach.

How I loved the weekends! The weekends were the time of week where there were crowds and crowds and more crowds! 

And people means probably PIZZA!!!!! I slowly slithered out of my sand bed as my stomach growled loudly. I think it’s because I only eat on the weekends. 

Suddenly…my fantastic nose caught a splendid smell. Ahhhh…PIZZA!

“Come on, lets go change into our swimsuits,” I said to my sister. How I loved the beach, with the wind in my hair and the water washing in around my feet. 

Suddenly, I felt the wet sand underneath my feet move slightly. I looked around but no one seemed to notice. Oh well. I should just enjoy the is sunny Sunday afternoon.

 I quickly glided through the sand, letting my nose lead me (I go under the sand because the humans would be so scared if they saw me). Now, this is my least favorite part of the weekend. Every time I crawled through the sand, I risked getting stabbed by a plastic shovel. But every time I get the pizza, it is all worth it!

Suddenly, I feel the sand beneath my feet move again, but this time others felt it too… and the sand also moved up! Some of the parents took their children to another part of the beach while others grew curious and started to dig. I quickly walked toward my family’s picnic blanket where my mother and sister were. 

OUCH! The shovels stabbed down into my back as I made my way toward lunch. Then, I burst out of the sand and thrashed around. So scary!  But I knew If I scared everyone I’d get all the pizza for myself!

Just as I was about to start digging, something burst out of the sand and started wiggling around adorably! I squealed. It was so CUTE! I quickly grabbed it before someone else could. It started wriggling toward the pizza, so I put it down and it gobbled it all right down!

As soon as I showed up, someone with soft skin grabbed me. Then I started to launch myself toward the pizza, and the girl who was holding me quickly put me down. She must be so scared!

After it ate all the pizza, my mom said it was time to go home.“Oh can’t we please take it home with us? Oh pleaaaase?”

“Sure,” my mom replied, smiling at it. I was so excited! How I loved my new pet! I took care of it by giving it a box of pizza every day! It looked so happy!

Ahh. This was the life! I couldn’t believe I had scared the girl and her family into feeding me pizza EVERY DAY! Because I didn’t have to hunt anymore and always had my belly full, I was getting big and taller. This probably makes me even more intimating! 

Powerful Paragraphs: Backwards Animals!

 After mastering parts of speech and parts of a sentence, it was time to write powerful paragraphs.  When teaching writing to young students, I always make sure to include a lesson on how to vary one's sentence patterns.  To avoid lulling your reader to sleep, a good writer wants to vary sentence patterns, throw in some strong vivd verbs, and make sure there are descriptive words like adjectives.  Of course, it is also important to remember that a paragraph should be about ONE topic.  No rambling and getting off topic allowed!

To teach Paragraph Writing, we brainstormed the names of animals forwards and backwards.  We then got our creative juices flowing thinking about the animal's appearance, diet, habitat, and even personality.  Depending on the age of the writer, the goals for the project were different.  My 1st graders filled out a very simple fill-in-the-blank style, while my older writers were given sentence style challenges.  Enjoy these samples from across the grades, and see if you can challenge your brain and read backwards to see what the animal's original name was!

The Ynnub, by Skylar (1st grade)

The Adnap Der, by Emily (2nd grade)

        My animal's name is Adnap Der.  Her colors are purple, blue, pink, green, dark blue and light blue.  She has light purple fur, dark purple eyes, and a violet tail.  She eats berries, seaweed, and leaves.  My animal lives in the rainforest and the water.  My creature can turn into a mermaid.  My animal is like a dove because it is graceful.

The Igroc, by Natalie (3rd grade)

        The igroc lives in the wild forest called Target.  It can shape shift into whatever it wants.  Its enemy, the child, is a foe, not a friend.  The igroc is actually not cute.  It is actually scary.  Igrocs come in all different colors.  They usually sleep, break dance, and hide in the restroom.

The Nihcru, by Grayson (4th grade)

        The nihcru hunts by rolling up into a ball and rolling over prety with its sharp spikes.  It thrives in jungles near the beach.  Its diet consists of snakes, monkeys, and sometimes bamboo.  Whenever someone passes one and it hisses, it means it is protecting a young one.  It's cute, but nut cuddly.

        The nihcru has black spikes for hands and all along its back.  It has green fur on its back, but under the fur is a hard shell.  It resembles a watermelon.  When it touches a shadow, it glows.  It may look delicious, but don't eat it!

The Hateehc, by Laila (5th grade)

        The Hateehc is very unique-looking.  It has yellow spots on a black coat of fur.  When the hateehc runs, it looks like a black and yellow blur.  When it jumps, its huge vivid yellow hat weighs it down.  Clearly, the hateehc attracks a lot of attention.

        The hateehc has a couple of abilities.  Its first ability is awesome.  While the hateehc runs, it can shimmer out of sight.  When a passerby looks at it, all they see is a puff of smoke; that is how fast it is!  All in all, the hateehc has amazing abilities.

The Ruasonid, by Ben (6th grade)

        The reasoned is a surprisingly fast runner.  It can run at speeds of sixty miles per hour, so it can escape from other ferocious creatures.  As you speculate how the ruasonid runs so fast, you will realize that it is almost running on the air.  Whenever it starts voraciously eating coconuts, you will discover that its two heads are asynchronous; it has two completely different brains always contradicting each other.  Ultimately, the ruasonid is regarded as slick and mysterious.

Noun Poems!

 Nouns are such an important part of speech that we spent a whole day with them!  In this "mystery fill-in-the-blank" style game, my 1st-3rd grade students were directed to write down examples of  the following types of nouns:

~common noun        ~proper noun        ~a person        ~a place        ~a thing

Once they had this list, they filled in the blanks to write a poem that they had no idea they had been creating all along.  Enjoy these humorous poems!

Ashley, 1st grade

Joon, 3rd grade

Super Sentence Writing!

 My younger authors started the session off with a very important lesson in grammar, and how we can use the various parts of speech to make our writing more interesting to read.  Through adjectives, adverbs, clauses, and phrases, we can paint the perfect picture in our readers' minds of exactly what we want them to see.  And that is what good writers do!

We started off with learning that a sentence just needs 5 things to be a sentence:

1. A capital at the beginning

2. A mark of punctuation at the end

3. A noun

4. A verb

5. A complete thought

Once we learned that, we looked at this boring sentence:

The sun shines.

It's a sentence, but it's boring!  It lacks detail.  So we added two adjectives, an adverb, a "where" phrase, and a "when" clause or phrase.   Look at the improvements across the grades!

by Autumn (1st grade)

by Brandon (1st grade)

by Iris (2nd grade)

by Vedant (3rd grade)

by Sara (4th grade)