Pumpkin Life: Show Not Tell

 As my students continued to practice the concept of Show Not Tell in their writing, they became a personified pumpkin a couple of weeks before Halloween.  Their job was to write a story about the last day of their life, with an emphasis on Show Not Tell writing styles.  How would it feel to be carved?  Baked?  Dropped?  Forgotten?  My students did such an amazing job with this that one of my students said, "I will never carve a pumpkin ever again after this assignment!  I feel too bad!"

Enjoy these entertaining stories!

The Dirty and Rotten Day I Die, by Zivah (5th grade)

        Here I am, sitting on a counter, ready to be carved by despicable humans.  I am wasting my life to be carved for this "fun" holiday called "Halloween."  It is like humans have no common sense at all.  Life is boring.  It always will be.

        As I grumble on the counter, a dwarf human approaches me.  "Look, a pumpkin!" 

        "Oh wow, how surprising," I say with obvious sarcasm.  It doesn't matter though.  No one can understand me.

        The tall and annoying human comes up to me.  "Time to carve this little pumpkin!" I say.  Don't call me "little," you hairy giant!  She smiles.  I start to ponder if humans have brains.

        With the sharp blade on the evil knife, the giant slices my head off.  The pain rushes to my face.  I see my sticky orange guts splatter on me.  My heart hurts even more than my head.  I feel my life has been snatched out of me.

        Once the despicable giant is done scooping my guts, they put some useless candle inside me.  Did I really lose my life to have a candle put inside me?  I want to say no.  The giant puts me on a crowded porch.

        The giant lights the candle in me.  Something happens.  I feel a change in my heart.  I smile.

        Halloween arrives, and everyone loves me.  I finally feel special.  "Look at the pumpkin!" says the dwarf kid.  Maybe life isn't boring.  Maybe you have to change the way you see it.

December 25: D-day, by Audrey (5th grade)

        At least I survived Halloween and Turkey Day. I’m glad that I wasn’t the big orange kind of pumpkin that everybody wanted to carve. On Turkey day, I was relieved when I wasn’t made into pie. Life would be fine if not a little bit boring. I was safe unlike my cousin, the squash, who got made into an appetizer.

        The living room table. Tell me about it. Uhhh! That navy blue color is so ugly, I would do anything to not be stuck there. Day after day, month after month, the children running by, the mother telling them to stop running. 

        The worst part was when the family started decorating for “red and green day”. They got it totally wrong! Nothing could go even worse.

        Dang it! I probably jinxed it. They started putting up a pine tree right in front of my eyes. It didn’t even look real! Even worse, they were putting red, green, and gold balls on the tree. For heaven's sake, gold. Seriously? GOLD out of all colors. 

        Interrupting my misery, suddenly horribly cheerful music blasted out of the kitchen. Oh, this day couldn’t get any worse! I tried to zone out but the music was just too loud. 

        Wait, did I just wake up from a nap? The sky was already dark. Now the family was eating ham and mush. That same cheerful music was playing again. That was definitely not music to my ears. 

        One moment later the children were up and running again. I think they were playing tag. They were running around the ugly blue table that I was on. Three short minutes later, the children were running so fast like the wind, I was afraid I was going to meet my death. I was right! The next thing I knew, I was tumbling off the table. 

        Those mere three seconds seemed like eternity. Oh the pain! I was pretty sure I broke 17 of my bones. All of my orange and gooey insides had become outsides and the children were screaming. Then the mother came over and picked me up and tossed me into an endless hole. I got quite dizzy when the mother tossed me into the pit of doom. When I finally hit the ground I was actually surprised I was cushioned by some rotten lettuce. I asked them where we were and they said something that sounded like smash jam. What?!

         Then I felt quite different. My brain was getting really fogged up. The last thing I comprehended was that I was in a smash jam which could also be called the endless hole of misery and death. At least I can get my boring life published in a journal. 

        Well, maybe.

(Check back for some younger author's stories!)

The Monster/Pumpkin Draw Game!

 This Halloween-time game is always a favorite of my returning students!  Here's how you play:

Step 1:Each student draws a monster.  (My younger students drew creative pumpkins.) They should include a background and many different colors to practice using adjectives in their writing.

Step 2: The students write a detailed desription on their monster.  Adjectives are crucial, for every single noun!  Size, shape, color, number.

Step 3: Students exchange written work and attempt to draw each other's monster with no talking or asking for clarification!

Winners are voted on by the class.  Congratulations to our winners below!

Angela's Monster (6th grade)

        My monster has a gorgeous smile with peach colored teeth.  His eyes are drawn using a pencil, with the pencil lead coloring in the whole eye, which is a little smaller than a pinky finger.  Furry the Monster only has one eye because it's facing the left, so it's only showing one side.  The whole body is yellow-green.  There are dark pink bunmy ears on the head.  To be specific, it is considered a dinosaur.  

        Next up, we have the body.  As I mentioned in the first paragraph, it's yellow-green.  There are peach colored spikes along the back and all the way to the tail, the same color as the teeth.  There are pink polka-dots near the spikes.  It has a spiky tail.  It's standing upright.  There are two arms sticking out of the belly.  There are two feet on the bottom of the dinosaur, or polka-dotted monster.

        In the background, use the same green as the dinosaur's whole body for the grass, not too tall.  Make a brown stem, one-side green leaf on the right of the steam, yellow center, and red petals around the center.  Draw the type of flower I just described on the left side of the monster, and one on the right side.  Draw a blue cloud on each side of the dinosaur, making the right one a lot bigger than the left.  When drawing the clouds, make the base flat and three bumps on the top of each cloud (not bumps all over the place like a regular cloud.)

Angela wrote so clearly, from the cloud styles and location, to the flowers, to the direction the monster was facing, that her partner Allison (6th grade) drew this twin picture!

Adelynn's Monster (5th grade)

        My monster has a pumpkin-shaped body, two ovals overlapping an oval in the middle.  The body is orange and medium-sized.

        There is a mushroom on the pumpkin.  The mushroom has a stubby stem that is a light yellow color.  The stem of the mushroom is located where the stem of the pumpkin would be.  The mushroom cap is wide and almost covers the length of the whole pumpkin.  It has a wavy bottom and is bright red with three white spots, one on the left, one on the bottom right side, and one on the top right side of the mushroom.

        There are two eyes, one on the top left side of the pumpkin and one on the top left side of the pumpkin.  They are oval-shaped with points on the ends.  There are two lines coming from the top to the bottom of the eye.  They are slightly curved and there are diamonds for the pupils.  The pupil is black and the iris is dark purple.  The eyebrows are really small compared to the eyes, and are thin black lines that are slightly curved.  They are as wide as your nail, the white part of your nail to be specific.

        The mouth is in the bottom middle part of the pumpkin.  It is the shape of an almost-full moon, with a tongue that is an oval in the bottom of the mouth.  It is a magenta color, and the rest of the mouth is black.

        The legs are almost to the end of the paper.  They are slightly curved lines.  There are four of them on each side of the pumpkin.  On the end of every leg, there is a purple foot.  It is a small circle.

        Under the pumpkin is a wavy line that goes across the paper.  All of the space under the line is a mahogany color.

        There is a sun on the top left corner of the paper.  It is a yellow circle with two little black circles for eyes and a small U-shaped mouth in between the eyes.  There are nine black rays that are just a line, and all of them are spaced evenly.

Wow! Adelynn put a LOT of time and effort into her writing, so her partner Mabel (5th grade) drew this!

Vivia's Pumpkin (4th grade)

        My pumpkin is a large round orange pumpkin with dark orange lines.  It has two dark pink triangle shaped eyes, a dark pink upside down triangle shaped nose, and a dark pink smiling mouth with two fangs hanging off the bottom of the mouth.  It has three long blue straight whiskers on the left and right side of it.  It has a medium blue headband with cat ears attached to it.  It has a sort of thick pencil gray stem that is slightly tilted to the left.  The stem is not that long.  My pumpkin sits on tall green grass that goes almost halfway up the page.  Above it, there is a blue sky.

Wow!  Look at this twin that Ella (4th grade) drew!  Great writing, Vivia, and great reading, Ella!

Show Not Tell!

 What began as a warm-up exercise for my 5th grade class turned into sentences so fantastic that I had to put them on the blog!  The lesson was writing in a style called "show not tell."  The idea is to take a simple sentence or scenario, and make it so the reader can see and hear a fantastic picture in their minds of what the author was trying to convey.  Adjectives, adverbs, strong verbs, similes and metaphors, and onomatopoiea can all be used to achieve this challenging-yet-rewarding style of writing!

The students were presented with the following simple scenarios involving personifying a piece of paper, and their job was to improve them with show-not-tell styles of writing.  I hope you enjoy this "warm up" activity as much as I did!

Scenario 1: The paper is getting written on.

Max: I feel like I'm being pushed, the hard lead tip smashing through my skin.  The sharp graphite is putting colors on me, and the pain is coming at me like a bullet train.

Zivah: The sharp pencil piereces my thin skin.  The bold graphite stains me.  It hurts me so badly, but nobody can hear me cry.

Scenario 2: The paper is getting cut by scissors.

Sara: The unforgiving, ruthless points cut right through my life.  I am speechless, and only the pure thought of despair can bring me away from the violent rip.

Mabel: Snip, snip.  "Ouch!" I yell.  I feel the scissors cutting me into thousands of pieces, and the sharp pain makes my paper eyes water.  I am ripped into jagged pieces, falling to the floor.

Leo: The unforgiving, cold metal scissors cleave through my unfortunately thin, delicate skin, and I hear the screech of the multiple blades ripping me apart.

Scenario 3: The paper gets thrown away.

Aria: After the aimless marks stop, I am suddenly being gripped by a pair of giant hands.  My feet touch my nose, and my mouth touches my elbow as they crumple me.  Suddenly, I am being whisked away, soaring high-- "I am flying!" I thought.  I land in a musty gray bin.

Grayson: I am lifeless as I feel myself turn into a ball with many holes.  I hear the crackle as I fall into the "basketball hoop."

Adelynn: Crumple, crumple, crumple.  I feel the cold strong hands shrivel me up into a worthless ball.  They throw me into the pit of darkness where all the useless things go.  I have no more purpose anymore.  I feel myself being sucked into the half-drunk soda, which makes me soggy.... or is it just my own tears?

Kaia: I feel the pain as two big hands squash me into a small, wrinkly ball.  I start to fall and soon I am drowning in tears as I have been thrown into the dark, unforgiving, inescapable hole.  A trash can.  The place for unwanted things; disappointments.

Backwards Land Paragraphs and Postcards

 Our second and third assignments blended beautifully together.  Assignment #2 was Paragraph Writing.  The students spelled various places forward and backwards to create a new imaginative land.  They then constructed five unique sentences, to give their paragraphs a nice flow and to avoid sounding "boring" by using the same formats.

Assignemtn #3 took the students on an adventure to their backwards land.  They wrote a 1st person story with a clear beginning, middle, and end about their journey to their imaginative place.  I have included both the paragraphs and the postcards, so you can see how nicely the students used what they had written in Assignment #2 to make Assignment #3 beautifully connect.

Can you read backwards and figure out what these places were originally?  And would you like to vacation here yourself?  Enjoy!

Aidni, by Vivia (4th grade)

Rendrag, by Leo (5th grade)

Super Sentence Writing!

 My budding and awesome authors classes 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 puppy licks.

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

by Cora (3rd grade)

by Bella (3rd grade)

by Marlo (4th grade)

by Mabel (5th grade)

New Olympic Sports!

 Since the Olympic Games will be coming up this summer 2024, I decided to do this project that I usually save for my summer sessions.  In order to teach persuasive writing, my students were given the assignment to create a new Olympic sport by combining two real sports into one.  This new sport would of course be a bit crazy, silly, or even dangerous, making it even more difficult to persuade our imaginary "Olympic Board of Commissioners" to adopt it in the next Olympic games.  Our goal was to write a letter that was so persuasive, that anyone could picture it in their minds and of course, say "yes" to our proposal!

Our outline went as follows:

Paragraph 1: A really pleasant and compliment-filled introduction to butter them up (it's much easier to persuade people when you start off being super nice!!)

Paragraph 2: A brief introduction to the new sport

Paragraph 3: Great detail, including rules, scoring, uniforms, etc.

Paragraph 4: All the benefits to adding this new sport.  Think money, opportunities, and a bunch of pathos!

Paragraph 5: A conclusion with a "sell-it" sentence so convincing, the reader would of course say "YES!"

Enjoy theses samples.  Could YOU picture these sports really happening?  Would you give them a try?!

To the Olympic Board of Commissioners:                                        

First of all, I want to mention that you are the best Olympic Board of Commissioners there ever was! Also, congrats on  another successful Olympic games. The 2022 Olympics were awesome! You brought pride, accomplishments, and awesome opportunities to the world!

I am writing to you in the hope that you will consider adding a new sport into the 2024 Winter Olympics. It is called “Figure Soccer.” It will combine Figure Skating and Soccer. Even though  Soccer is a Summer Olympics event, I think it would be a great idea to combine winter and summer sports! 

Let me explain how this sport is played. It would have the same aspects as soccer, only it would be played on an ice rink. This sport is both for women and men, but it’s only allowed for people ages 16 and up to participate. Each team will have eleven people, including the goalie. The athletes try to kick the ball into the goal. However, they have to do a trick while kicking the ball. If the athlete does a very hard trick, (for example a spin with one leg off the ground for 10 seconds) their team gets five points. If they do an easy trick, (for example stand on one leg for 2 seconds, which is easy for figure skaters), their team gets one point.  If an athlete forgets, or doesn't want to do a trick, they either get a penalty, or the referee takes 2  points from that team, because the athlete didn't want to do the trick or forgot to do it. Also, while the athletes are performing a trick before kicking, no one is allowed to steal the ball. The opponent gets a penalty if they do that.

Uniforms will be normal ice skating clothes. For practices, athletes can wear any kind of flexible clothing. For performances or competitions, women have to wear special ice-skating skirts and a t-shirt on top. Under that, women will wear tights and a  white long sleeve shirt. The ice skates will be shaped and will look like cleats. For men, they have to wear shorts and also, a t-shirt on top. They will also wear tights and a white long sleeve shirt. They also have ice skates that are shaped like cleats. However, you might be thinking, “How will we tell the teams apart?”For that, you don’t have to worry. Each team will have a different color t-shirt, skirts, and shorts. The ice skates shaped like cleats will also be a different color.

Imagine the possibilities! Ice skaters on a soccer field covered in ice. The tickets will sell faster than any other event! This could lead to greater money given back to the city, and more jobs resulting from referees needed. Countries around the world would start playing this sport too, and it would become more popular! Jobs, such as Referees, judges, janitors, ticket sellers, food court helpers, will all be filled because this is a very good sport, and lots of people will be willing to help out.

I hope you will consider “Figure Soccer” to become one of the most popular sports. If you accept this idea, thousands of people will be inspired.

Best Regards, 

Acey (4th grade)

WARNING: THIS SPORT CONTAINS VIOLENT ACTIONS AND CAN CAUSE SERIOUS HARM TO FANS WHO ARE OUT IN THE OPEN-ONLY EXPERIENCED PLAYERS ARE ALLOWED TO PLAY

To the Olympic Board of Commissioners:

To kick things off, I just want to facilitate your 2022 Summer Olympics! Your outstanding games really left the fans bursting for you to host another round of competitions. And for the 2024 Olympics, I have a sport that will stun the crowd furthermore than they already are!

First off, my sport is called Cricker. It consists of two popular sports: soccer and cricket. These are the most well-known sports around the globe, having billions of supporters for their teams.  As you can already tell, combining these two will create an eye-popping sport that all people can enjoy.

My description of my sport is precise, but accurate. The first part of the game is like cricket: you hit a baseball-like ball with a stick, then proceed to run to a soccer goal. After hitting the ball, you will anticipate a soccer ball being hurled at you, thrown from the sideline. Defenders will attempt to stop you and your four other teammates that appear. The rules are simple. You correctly hit the cricket ball, and you get three points. A hit leading up to a goal is 5 points. Going onto equipment descriptions, both the cricket bat and ball are VERY hard, and you will suffer a severe injury if hit by it. The soccer ball has a panel (nobody knows which one, as it changes) that ejects a strong wind that pushes it in every direction (including up and down) that the panel is facing. 

The number of players on the field resembles both soccer and cricket quite a bit. There will be one hitter for each team, one goalie, seven players playing outfield and pitcher, and four defenders for the goal, so fourteen players for each team. The team will have to wear a tank-topped shirt and shorts, any color that they choose, and in the winter or when it’s cold, an undershirt will appear under the tank top.  There will also be shin guards and cleats. Of course, stadiums will have to be constructed for this sport.. Cricker is played on a baseball field, except instead of a full diamond, there will be a cut at the top point, as the goal will go there. The field is surrounded by spikes that point inward to the field. For professional athletes, family members will have box seats and will be protected from harm.

Although playing this sport will be beneficial to everyone’s happiness, it also exploits the economy. When fans spend money to go to the host’s city for competitions, fans will improve businesses by going to restaurants and by staying in hotels, ultimately making money to support the economy.  Additionally, importing a new sport will create more economical opportunities for people, some examples being referees, security guards and announcers. And most importantly, it will benefit all the athletes who have dreams of becoming professional sports players, and the kids who desire to play both sports.

In conclusion, this sport, when you put it next to some of the greatest sports in Olympic history, will change the foundation of the Olympic Games, and improve the lives of many people to come!

Sincerely, Cho (6th grade)

Ode Poems

An ode is simply a lyrical poem, written in regular or irregular verse, that pays tribute to the love you have for one specific person, experience, or object.  In honor of Valentine’s Day, my classes attempted to write an English Romantic Ode. It could be 4-30 lines long, and the topic would be anything they loved, from a favorite pet, to a stuffed animal, to a pencil that brings them luck on your math test.  The only "no no" was it could not be about an electronic item or superficial things they owned or wanted to own.

~Fun Fact: Odes are usually dedicated to monumental heroes or ideas.  Pablo Neruda, however, revolutionized the form of odes to everyday things.

~Another Fun Fact: “Ode” is a Greek word for “sing,” or “chant,” so this poem is meant to be read aloud!

~Yet another Fun Fact: An ode has been called a “Celebration of a Subject!”  So if you ever have an ode written about you, you know you’re pretty amazing!!

It was fun for me to get to know my students even more by reading their poem about something or someone they truly loved.  Enjoy these samples!

My Family, by Kaia (4th grade)

I love this tribute to Kaia's family-- her love shines through!

My sister is very kind!

But she's moody all the time.

She helps me whenever I need it,

Evem when I can't see it.

My mom is smart and very loving.

Inspring and sometimes touching!

She works super hard

And I love her with all my heart!

My dad is calm and fun,

And teaches me a ton!

He is bright and relaxed,

Just like a star!

There's no need for a test,

My family's obvioulsy the best!

My Sister, by Aarushi (4th grade)

I love Aarushi's use of flowery poetic language and style!

Apurva, Apurva, Apurva, my dear sister,

The one that has always been there for me.

Apurva, Apurva, very sweet, yet teasing and rude,

Which matters not,

Hair of brown, eyes of brown

Never would I let you down!

Apurva, Apurva, overprotective and hard-working,

Yet quite clingy, which matters not,

I will love you with every moment I've got.

Apurva, Apurva, gorgeous dark brown hair,

Luscious and gracious

I love you every day!

No matter what anyone would say!

Chocolate, by Ian (4th grade)

Ian, what a great topic for an ode.  I love chocolate, too!!

Chocolate tastes like a crunchy gooey dream

Kit Kat, milk chocolate, chocolate ice cream.

You taste good no matter when or what is going on.

You come in squares, you come in shapes of coins.

No matter what you look like, melted, crushed,

I always feel the delicious love

No matter the moment,

No matter the time,

Your sweet sweet goodness makes me feel fine.

If I'm sad in my room,

All I need is the taste of you.

You are crunchy and so creamy

And you are so dreamy!

Math, by Luke (5th grade)

Sorry, Luke, I can't agree with you on your love for math!  But it's a great, passionate poem!

Math, how mysterious you are, you confuse me.

But you make me happy.

You are complicated

But yet so simple.

You make me think hard

And think simple.

Oh, you shan't be my enemy

But not muy love,

Your variables look impossible

Your integers are boring and effortless,

You shock my body with complication.

You are always there for me

On a piece of paper.

You give answers, but not always,

Your numbers and equations are always there.

Some equations don't look related,

But they're the exact same thing as others.

You are my passion and life,

And tease every brain cell in my brain!

My Bed, by Ben (6th grade)

This descriptive ode made me want to take a nap!  Love the rhyme and rhythm in this poem!

To my soft, soft bed,

I love you so much!

Enlightened by your feel and touch,

You are as white as the snow I sled!

Through day and night,

You linger on my mind,

My pillow and blanket, I am pleased to find.

Sleep in more-- sure I might!

To my soft, soft bed,

I would take you on a walk!

Day after day, we'd talk and talk

"You soothe, calm, and relax me," to my bed, I said.