Literature Circles

Post a comment to let me know how you are enjoying the literature circles so far. What is working and what isn't? Do you like the book you picked?

Poet - tree Leaves

Don't forget to write or share a poem on a leaf for our "poet-tree". Here's one that celebrates April, National Poetry Month that is.

April
by Marcia Masters

It’s lemonade, it’s lemonade, it’s daisy.
It’s a roller-skating, scissor-grinding day;
It’s gingham-waisted, chocolate flavored, lazy,
With the children flower-scattered at their play.
It’s the sun like watermelon,
And the sidewalks overlaid
With a glaze of yellow yellow
Like a jar of marmalade.

It’s the mower gently mowing,
And the stars like startled glass,
While the mower keeps on going
Through a waterfall of grass.

Then the rich magenta evening
Like a sauce upon the walk,
And the porches softly swinging
With a hammockful of talk.

It’s the hobo at the corner
With his lilac-sniffing gait,
And the shy departing thunder
Of the fast departing skate.

It’s lemonade, it’s lemonade, it’s April!
A water sprinkler, puddle winking time,
When a boy who peddles slowly,
With a smile remote and holy,
Sells you April, chocolate flavored, for a dime.

Descriptive Language

You had some excellent examples of descriptive language which we posted around the room last week. Post a comment with another example of interesting and descriptive language...you may find it in a book or create it yourself.

Here's my example: "The first week of August hangs at the very top of summer, the top of the live-long year, like the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning." from Tuck Everlasting, by Natalie Babbitt

Congrats on Long Comp!

Great job to all of you today...I loved seeing you work so hard on your long compositions. You should give yourselves a hand.

Science Poems

A Seed
By William Allingham

See how a Seed, which Autumn flung down,
And through the Winter neglected lay,
Uncoils two little green leaves and two brown,
With tiny root taking hold on the clay
As, lifting and strengthening day by day,
It pushes red branchless, sprouts new leaves,
And cell after cell the Power in it weaves
Out of the storehouse of soil and clime,
To fashion a Tree in due course of time;
Tree with rough bark and boughs' expansion,
Where the Crow can build his mansion,
Or a Man, in some new May,
Lie under whispering leaves and say,
"Are the ills of one's life so very bad
When a Green Tree makes me deliciously glad?"
As I do now. But where shall I be
When this little Seed is a tall green Tree?

An Aquarium
By Amy Lowell

Streaks of green and yellow iridescence,
Silver shiftings,
Rings veering out of rings,
Silver -- gold --
Grey-green opaqueness sliding down,
With sharp white bubbles
Shooting and dancing,
Flinging quickly outward.
Nosing the bubbles,
Swallowing them,
Fish.
Blue shadows against silver-saffron water,
The light rippling over them
In steel-bright tremors.
Outspread translucent fins
Flute, fold, and relapse;
The threaded light prints through them on the pebbles
In scarcely tarnished twinklings.
Curving of spotted spines,
Slow up-shifts,
Lazy convolutions:
Then a sudden swift straightening
And darting below:
Oblique grey shadows
Athwart a pale casement.
Roped and curled,
Green man-eating eels
Slumber in undulate rhythms,
With crests laid horizontal on their backs.
Barred fish,
Striped fish,
Uneven disks of fish,
Slip, slide, whirl, turn,
And never touch.
Metallic blue fish,
With fins wide and yellow and swaying
Like Oriental fans,
Hold the sun in their bellies
And glow with light:
Blue brilliance cut by black bars.
An oblong pane of straw-coloured shimmer,
Across it, in a tangent,
A smear of rose, black, silver.
Short twists and upstartings,
Rose-black, in a setting of bubbles:
Sunshine playing between red and black flowers
On a blue and gold lawn.
Shadows and polished surfaces,
Facets of mauve and purple,
A constant modulation of values.
Shaft-shaped,
With green bead eyes;
Thick-nosed,
Heliotrope-coloured;
Swift spots of chrysolite and coral;
In the midst of green, pearl, amethyst irradiations.

Outside,
A willow-tree flickers
With little white jerks,
And long blue waves
Rise steadily beyond the outer islands.

Grammar Gorillas

Have you tried Grammar Gorillas? Click on the Grammar Gorillas link to the right (under "LINKS") and test your knowledge of the parts of speech!

Read Across America Day

Today is Read Across America Day. I encourage all of you to grab one of your favorite books, whether it be something you are reading now or a book you loved as a kid and READ! Post a comment with the name of one of your favorite books for extra credit. Better yet, pick a passage from a book and post it!

CRYPTOGRAM

Can you solve this cryptogram?

How long does it take? (Hint, F=T)

J TJNNHHI FH SHS: FZH-FPHCDJIKFPD HR J DYHIK.

Irony

Extra Credit Words

Extra credit if you bring in definitions for the following words from our "Boy" story today: malignant, loathsome, elaborate, jaunty, flourishing.

Also, post a comment telling us of your favorite kind of candy when you were a little kid...or now! I love Sour Patch Kids and I think I have destroyed the roof of my mouth eating them in the past.

Hello

Hello all,
I will see you tomorrow since I was home with two sick children today. I hope you are all staying well since there is so much sickness going around. Wash your hands and get good rest!

I guess I have not been very good at keeping this updated this week....sorry. Soon I will send you to the blog for a quiz or homework assignment to two!

The tale of Mendel and his peas...

See Steph, I am keeping this updated...

Genetics And Mendel

View more presentations from jamiehworkman. (tags: mendel biology)

LOVE......

LOVE..according to these kids ages 4-8...
Post your "Love is..." as a comment...

'When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails anymore.
So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That's love.'
Rebecca- age 8

'When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different.
You just know that your name is safe in their mouth.'
Billy - age 4

'Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs.'
Chrissie - age 6

'Love is what makes you smile when you're tired.'
Terri - age 4

'Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen.'
Bobby - age 7 (Wow!)

'If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate,'
Nikka - age 6

'Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well.'
Tommy - age 6

'During my piano recital, I was on a stage and I was scared. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling.

He was the only one doing that. I wasn't scared anymore.'
Cindy - age 8

'Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day'
Mary Ann - age 4

'I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones.'
Lauren - age 4

'When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you.'
Karen - age 7

Send me your writing...

If you have your essay on the computer, I would love it if you could e-mail it to ascott@lunenburgonline.com. I want to show some of the great examples you have come up with!

Bet on Dr. Suess

Interesting tid-bit for today:

After Dr. Suess wrote "The Cat in the Hat", which used just 225 words, his editor bet him that he couldn't write a book using 50 words or less. Not one
to back down from a challenge, Mr. Geisel (Dr. Suess) started writing and came up with "Green Eggs and Ham" -- which uses exactly 50 words.

The 50 words, by the way, are: a, am, and, anywhere, are, be, boat, box, car, could,
dark, do, eat, eggs, fox, goat, good, green, ham, here, house, I, if, in, let, like, may, me, mouse, not, on, or, rain, Sam, say, see, so, thank, that, the, them, there, they, train, tree, try, will, with, would, you.

Such a classic book - and only 50 words! I have it in our classroom right now if you want to check it out. (Remind me to ask you in class tomorrow for the story about Dr. Suess and you will get extra credit if you know. See, it pays to check the blog!)

I Pledge Video

It all starts with us and YOU are all the future. Think about the pledges you will make....

Osmosis Jones and Drix

Now that we are learning about osmosis, some of you may have made the connection to the cartoon and movie, Osmosis Jones and Drix.

In the movie, the man, Frank Detomello, catches a cold. The inside of his body is known as the "City of Frank" to its inhabitants, two of whom - white blood cell cop Osmosis Jones, and cold tablet Drixorial - team up to fight the invading viruses intent on taking over the city.

And you didn't think you would use this 7th grade science!

Spelling Bee

After a heated spelling bee today, we are down to four finalists: Olivia Cringan, Jackie Ordway, Nicholas Salvaggio and Shivangi Pandey as alternate. Great job to all of our final nine including...Maya Benson, Abby Bingham, Tarah Crowe, Brandon Haugland, and John Pimentel!

Preposition Songs

Don't forget to sing the two preposition songs Mr. A came up with in order to help learn the list of commonly used prepositions. "About above across after...."

If you would like to make up your OWN song using the prepositions, feel free and we can sing it as a class tomorrow!

Obama as 44th President

Today's inauguration of our 44th President, Barack Obama, was beyond inspiring. As he addressed the nation, he pointed out that, "a man whose father, less than 60 years ago, might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath."

He also added, "Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time.
But know this, America -- they will be met."


You will never forget sitting in the THMS cafeteria and watching this inauguration and I won't forget watching it with you. This is your history.