Super Sentence Writing!

It has been another great session of "Authors and Artists" classes!  The "Budding Authors and Artists" are in 1st-3rd grade, and the "Awesome" class includes 3rd-6th grade.  I love starting every session with a strong sentence writing activity.  This year, as summer was coming to an end, the students took the base sentence:
"The sun shines."
and turned it into a sentence that had adjectives, adverbs, where's, and when's!  The "Awesome" class even learned how to correctly start a sentence with "Because," as they learned the difference between phrases and clauses.  It was also fun to do art to match!  Enjoy these samples.

The shiny burning sun shines warmly at lunch in the middle of the day.

by Matthew, 1st grade

 by Audrey, 2nd grade

by Kayla, 3rd grade

 by Kalea, 4th grade

by Drew, 4th grade

The bright, beautiful sun shines joyfully over the muddy-grassed park during a dramatic soccer tournament.  By Lia, 5th grade

Super Sentences!

A new session of Writers' Workshop began last month, and I have 47 wonderful students with whom I am working.  Some are returning students, some are new, and all are working hard and doing a great job!  It will be hard to pick the best of the best when it comes to the blog, that's for sure.

We started off our session with a lesson in how to write a detailed, vivid sentence, with imagery that creates a picture in the reader's mind.  We started off with a base sentence:

The snowflake falls.

We then proceeded to add to it, to make the sentence more exciting.  We added:
- 2 adjectives
- 1 adverb
- a phrase that tells "where"
- a phrase that tells "when"
- We even had a lesson in how to correctly start a sentence with "Because."  Only my returning students knew that they were "allowed" to do that!  Many teachers simply tell their students not to start with "Because," for fear of sentence fragments.  I always teach how to do it correctly-- it can add a beautiful effect to the sentence, to begin with a "why" phrase.

After we experimented with the placements of our clauses and phrases, as well as our "because" clause, we came up with two of our best attempts, and had our classmates vote on their favorite.  It was an excellent opportunity for peer teaching and teamwork.  When the final decision was made, each student got to cut a beautiful snowflake, glue it on blue background paper, and add designs if they wanted.  Here are just a few samples of great work!

On a freezing winter night, a crystal clear snowflake falls swiftly and softly on the end of a swan's white tail.
- Claire, 4th grade

Because it's a cold winter day, the unique, white snowflake gently falls on my warm gloves.
- Haley, 3rd grade 

Because it wanted to be melted, the fragile white snowflake swiftly fell on a warm hot dog in AT&T Park while Buster Posey was batting.
-Loren, 5th grade 

While the graceful ballerina is performing, the beautiful white snowflake falls daintily on her pink ballet shoe.
-Meghna, 3rd grade 

The amazing and graceful snowflake falls gently at 12:00 on New Year's Eve.
-Riley, 4th grade 

On Christmas Eve, the white unique snowflake falls softly in the snowy park because it's December.
-Sophia, 3rd grade (Notice how Sophia moved her "because" clause to the end of her sentence, where she thought it sounded better.) 

I had the pleasure of visiting my daughter's kindergarten classroom and doing a mini Writers' Workshop with her class.  I adjusted the expectations for the assignment and did more of a fill-in-the-blank style, while teaching the little ones about descriptive words and "where" a snowflake could fall. 

You know how 5 and 6 year olds love glitter and stickers!  Here is how they turned out!

 The big pretty snowflake falls on my cold little nose.


Here's how they all looked on the bulletin board.  Fun!

Good sentence writing can and should be taught at all ages!

Super Sentence Writing

The sentence is the backbone to wonderful stories, essays, reports... you name it!   Lesson #1 started with  a boring base sentence, "The sun shines."   We started our lesson with placing adjectives and adverbs in our sentence, which added a lot of necessary description.  After a lesson on adjectival and adverbial clauses and phrases, as well as experimenting with starting sentences with "Because" (Yes, you can, if you follow the rules!), we created fabulous sentences that painted beautiful summer scenes.  For fun, we added an element of art, writing our sentence on a sun with a lovely blue sky background.  Here are just a few fabulous examples!

Annika (4th grade) wrote a beautiful sentence with many vivid descriptive words.  I love how her adverb ends the sentence.  Her classmates helped her fine tune it until she decided on her best option.  We did a lot of peer helping this day, giving advice on what we thought sounded best as each student read their ideas. 

In the prickly field, the laughing children plant vegetables while the wonderful, amazing sun shines brightly.


Here is Arushi's (5th grade).  I love the picture that this sentence creates in my mind.  (And Arushi's nice artwork definitely goes along with it very well!)

"On a breezy summer day, the hot vibrant sun shines brightly on all of the dogs splashing in the bright blue swimming pool."


As I mentioned, I taught the students how to start with "Because "and still avoid sentence fragments.  Many of them like doing it so much, that I am now seeing this very mature style of writing in their other assignments.  Here are two beautiful examples of what the students learned.  Here is George's (4th grade) fabulous sentence:

"Because it is hot and big, the bright yellow sun shines warmly in the middle of September in the nice blue sky."


Here is Jacqueline's (3rd grade).  Again, she starts with "Because" beautifully, and has some super art work to match!

"Because the angry animals are cold, the jolly red sun shines brightly so the animals can lie in the sun."


Next we move on to..... PARAGRAPHS!

Super Sentence Writing

The sentence is the backbone to wonderful stories, essays, reports... you name it!   Lesson #1 started with  a boring base sentence, "The sun shines."   We started our lesson with placing adjectives and adverbs in our sentence, which added a lot of necessary description.  After a lesson on adjectival and adverbial clauses and phrases, as well as experimenting with starting sentences with "Because" (Yes, you can, if you follow the rules!), we created fabulous sentences that painted beautiful summer scenes.  For fun, we added an element of art, writing our sentence on a sun with a lovely blue sky background.  Here are just a few fabulous examples!

Crystal (4th grade next year), experimented with a "because" phrase at the beginning but decided she liked it better after the "when" phrase instead.  We did a lot of peer helping this day, giving advice on what we thought sounded best as each student read their ideas.

At noon, because it's really hot, the fiery, beautiful sun shines very nicely on a cute family of mallard ducks in a pond.


Here is Laura's (entering 3rd grade).  I love her beautiful descriptive words, as well as her detailed artwork!  (I especially loved how the entire group helped her glue on her numerous sun rays!!)

On July 11th, the yellow round sun shines on the kittens playing with a red ball in the yard.


Here is Nicole's (entering 5th grade).  During our lesson, we talked about how adverbs can modify other adverbs, and Nicole did so beautifully here.

On July 11th, during the volleyball game, the sun shines very boldly on the glittering sand.


Here is Deven's (entering 6th grade).  He used every tool he possibly could, with a beautiful "Because" beginning and great adverbial and adjectival phrases.

Because the beautiful summer season has arrived, the bright sparkling sun shines brilliantly through my sunroof, brightening my family room.

Turning a Boring Sentence Into an Exciting one!

Our very first assignment in Session II was turning a boring sentence into an exciting one!  We talked about how great words make great sentences, great sentences make great paragraphs, and great paragraphs make great book reports, essays, and stories!

We all started off with the same base sentence: "The snowflake falls."  Then we added in one element at a time:
~ 2 adjectives describing the snowflake
~ an adverb describing how the snowflake falls
~ a phrase that tells "where"
~ a phrase that tells "when"

After that, we experimented with the placement of our phrases and read a few ideas aloud, while our classmates gave their opinions on what sounded best.  It was a wonderful exercise in teamwork and peer teaching.

We then had fun creating a snowflake with white paper and scissors.  (Who DOESN'T love making snowflakes?!)  We curved our sentences all around the paper, so twirling and spinning our snowflake would be a necessity in order to read the sentence.  Gluing it on blue paper and adding some art to match the sentence were the final touches.  Before long, the sentence that started out the same for every student turned out beautifully unique.  Here are just a few outstanding samples:

On a cold, snowy December afternoon, the delicate cold snowflake falls slowly in the huge, beautiful, white park.
- Maya, 3rd grade


On a chilly Christmas Eve, the gentle, light snowflake falls merrily on a white wooden park bench.
- Reeya, 3rd grade


After a freezing blizzard on a snowy January day, the cold, soft snowflake falls gracefully on a snow covered cottage in Canada.
- Abby, 3rd grade.


On a freezing winter day, the unique white snowflake falls softly on to the crisp cold snow.
- Arushi, 4th grade


The shimmering white snowflake lightly falls on to Cody's head while he is sprinting into the classroom.
- Clark, 4th grade


The sparkly, white snowflake falls beautifully on the tip of the snowy mountain after a freezing snowstorm.
- Miyuki, 4th grade


On the 15th day of Chinese New Year, the beautiful soft snowflake falls gently on my white bunny's cute little feet.
- Lillian, 3rd grade


I just love how different every sentence turned out!  They are all unique, just like real snowflakes!