School-wide Poetry Month: Day Four (Andrew)

I chose "Magical Eraser" because this poem is a rhyming poem that is more than just a rhyme.  Most rhyming poems fit rhymes and only one more thing into the poem.  But Shel Silverstein was able to fit much more than another poet would be able to do.  Shel Silverstein was able to mix rhyme with laughter; he even fit some fiction into the poem.  I think that's why it makes it one of my favorite poems.

Magical Eraser
She wouldn't believe
This pencil has
A magic eraser.
She said I was a silly moo,
She said I was a liar too,
She dared me to prove it was true,
So what could I do---
I erased her!

Poem ©Shel Silverstein. All rights reserved. 

Writing Mentor Texts (by Alec and Andrew)

Today 4-324 worked on mentor texts in writing. The mentor texts were: Chicken Sunday, Sam and the Lucky Money, and Our Gracie Aunt. A mentor text is a book that a writer would look at to inspire the examples writers or to see what the writers liked.

Some of the examples for our work is: describe, describe--pointing out different areas that really describe the character. For example in Sam and the Lucky Money when Sam thought "for once I am glad to follow my mother."

Another example is clear visions. Which is when you can see what's happening in your mind very clearly. An example from Sam and the Lucky Money when Sam saw: "The colorful lion wove down the street like a giant centipede. Teased by a clown wearing a round mask, it tossed its head up and down."

This is what we worked on today in writing. Remember! You can find a mentor text anywhere!

What did you learn from studying the mentor text? Leave your comments here!

Buzz

In our class we've been working on a game called Buzz.

In this game instead of counting by 2s, 5s, and 3s, we counted by what's called a prime number. A prime number is a number is a number were you can only multiply it by one and its own number (such as 7, 5, or 3).

The way you play this game is you count by 1s and when ever you get to the chosen prime number or one of its factors you say buzz. For example, if the prime number was 7, you could say: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, buzz, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, buzz, etc. 

If you chose to do this game a little more difficultly you can count by more than 1 prime number (your limit is 3 numbers). This time if you get to any of the factors of your numbers you can say buzz for the first, fizz for the second, and jazz for the third.

To know when the game ends 1 person either says the number instead of saying buzz or if somebody says buzz at the wrong time.

Special thanks to Sam's dad (John) for teaching us this game.

This entry is written by Mayu and Andrew!

(Update: 11/1/10: Here is a picture from our morning with John!)