Writing Week 1:  September 20, 2023

ELEMENTARY

ELEMENTARY CLASS WRITING HOMEWORK:
  • In your journal (or on a piece of paper if you don't have a journal yet) create a story from the sentence we did in class: "The fluffy gray mouse chased the frightened cat."  You can use the sentence at the beginning, middle, or end of your story.  Think about: What is the rest of the story?  What does the cat look like? Why is it scared? Where are they? What happens if the mouse catches the cat? Remember to use words to paint a picture for someone to "see" your story.
  • Use your best spelling, but don’t let it slow you down too much.
  • OR let your Mom, Dad, or older sibling write the story as you create it out loud, like Miss Lori did for you in class.  Your helper can ask you questions to make more out of the story, but it should be your words.
  • Add a drawing or glue on an image or picture of some kind.

Here is the story we wrote in morning class (we will fix up and edit it another time) to help you remember:
It was a cool but not cold morning on a sunny Saturday.  Fred the grasshopper went to go to much for brunch on Miss Lori's Cosmos forest.  Fred loved the dark purple flowers with the soft yellow centers. He decided he would invite his six brothers and six sisters to eat brunch with him, so they hopped along in a train of grasshoppers to Miss Lori's house.  As soon as they got there, there was only one big flower and nobody wanted the little ones. They were all greedy. Since Fred was the oldest he got the ginormous flower and everybody was mad. They were jealous. He ate the whole thing before anyone could get to it. So the brothers and sisters had a secret meeting.  While Fred was sleeping off his giant brunch, they toilet papered him. Fred woke up and struggled so much that he fell off the leaf and landed on his back. He didn't notice a seven foot giant named Caleb coming toward him.  Suddenly a huge goat tie-r shoe came down with a big splat.  Fat splat! Fred was dead.  Before his brothers and sisters could do anything, a barn swallow swooped down and grabbed Fred in its beak. The siblings tried to rescue dead Fred and all they could save were his legs.  They decided to take the legs home to Fred's parents. Fred's dad and mom were so mad that they kicked out the kids. The kids were so hungry. They pulled out a frying pan and cooked up dead Fred's legs.  Right as they were about to eat, the same barn swallow dropped a load of TP on the kids and they got squished and twelve birds came and ate them.  THE END

Here is the story we wrote in afternoon class (we will fix up and edit it another time) to help you remember:
One perfect sunny morning Sweetie Honey the butterfly, who had purple top wings and pink bottom wings and blue spots, came to Miss Lori's house. She saw all the beautiful flowers and she tasted all of them, but her favorites were the purpley-pink, white, violet, and light purple Cosmos. They tasted sweet, just like her favorite Cosmos from across the street. She was so happy drinking her nectar from the flower  that she didn't notice the medium sized black cat name Whiskers creeping up on her.  Then she turned around and he was almost pouncing on her and she flew away just in time. Since that day she's always keeping an eye out because sometime Whiskers would strike again. THE END

HIGH SCHOOL

HIGH SCHOOL CLASS HOMEWORK
  • Write something inspired by If You Give a Mouse a Cookie/If You Give a Pig a Pancake by Laura Numeroff
  • "Ideas" are the key writing trait
  • Length and expectations--long enough to be a children’s book, so not super long.  If typed then double spaced, 14 point font size for my old eyes, choose a normal font style like Times New Roman or Arial. (You don't need to illustrate it, just writing.)
  • Do your best with spelling and grammar (if you choose to revise into another draft it at some point, I will help you edit).

RESOURCES
Source:  https://www.smekenseducation.com/mastering-the-6-traits-with-a-c/