Friday, February 12, 2021

Rm 116's Stories of the Day

Someone (me) forgot that Ms. Veyera's class was ahead of the other 3rd grades and didn't prep the Fibbonaci poetry lesson that was supposed to be today. (It's a fun lesson! Look for a post in a couple of weeks.) The kids asked if we could write another "Fortunately / Unfortunately" story. So we did. You may notice some themes with this class...


image credit: basementrejects.com
One day, a man was going to a party.

Unfortunately, he was the only person at the party.

Fortunately, it was actually a surprise party.

Unfortunately, it started raining sharks.

Fortunately, they had a machine to turn the sharks into kittens.

Unfortunately, the kittens scratched everyone and ruined their clothes.

Fortunately, they had a bunch of rooms and clothes and went into the new clothes.

Unfortunately, the man also turned into a cat.

Fortunately, he was able to speak human.

Unfortunately, there was no way to turn him back.

Fortunately, there were so many kittens on the roof that it broke (which was unfortunate), but then everyone was able to get a free kitten.

Unfortunately, a meteor came down and destroyed all the kittens. 

Fortunately, the kittens came back to life as angels.

Unfortunately, it started raining acid.

Fortunately, it was only in one spot, and they had a pool that was made to have acid in it.

Unfortunately, it wouldn't stop raining and the ground got super full and couldn't absorb any more water.

Fortunately, Maleficent comes and fixes everything, and everyone is back to human again. 



image credit: thedissolve.com
One day, there was an avalanche.

Unfortunately, there was also a bunch of lava and the snow and the lava turned into acid.

Fortunately, there was a way to stop it.

Unfortunately, Godzilla destroyed everything. 

Fortunately, people could pick up the acid into buckets.

Unfortunately, they thought that it was juice and drank it.

Fortunately, Godzilla doesn't destroy anything else because the people were all dead.



photo credit: Pinterest
One day, it was raining and a man went to the store to get valentines.

Unfortunately, on the way, the guy's car broke down. 

Fortunately, a famous star in a limo came along and picked him up. 

Unfortunately, when he got the store, he picked out all the cards for the people he was going to give them to, and the cards tried to eat him. 

Fortunately, he ran away from the cards and told the cashier to lock the shop up.

Unfortunately, none of them were wearing masks, including the cards, and they got sick.

Fortunately, he made his own cards at home. 

Unfortunately, the paper cards turned into origami monsters and tried to eat him.

Fortunately, the limo star came to visit and the limo ran over all the cards. 

Unfortunately, there was a flood that washed everything away.

Fortunately, the flood stopped because everyone kept picking up the water in buckets and throwing it off a cliff. They ended up making a lake.

Unfortunately, it started raining lava. 

Fortunately, his wife turned into a giant monster and defeated the lava. He also turned into a monster, and they had a nice Valentine's Day. 



And from A.C. at the very end: 

One day a man was on his way home.

Unfortunately, it started snowing.

Fortunately, the snow stopped.

Unfortunately, when he got home, there was a bunch of snow that was blocking the door. 

Fortunately, he found something that could heat it up. 

Unfortunately, when he got inside, snow had broken through some windows, and there was broken glass and water all over the floor. 

Fortunately, he had a heater in his house to make everything go away.

Unfortunately, all the warmth got cold from the snow.

Fortunately, he found some more things that were still hot, and he had a microwave to heat everything up. 

Unfortunately, the roof was piling up so much, that the roof started to break. 

Fortunately, a superhero stopped the house from breaking. 

Unfortunately, it was too much, and the roof broke, and everything was hard for them again. 


Wednesday, February 10, 2021

In Other Words ... with Grade 4

Fourth graders are practicing their paraphrasing skills. First we worked together to come up with synonyms and ways to recast a sentence.


source: https://thesaurus.plus/synonyms/in_other_words
ORIGINAL: The automobile that went by very quickly was maroon. It went through a big puddle and splashed us.

NEW: A car went zooming by a puddle and soaked us
NEW: Swish! The car slammed through the puddle and soaked us with water.


 

ORIGINAL: The educator removed the unruly student from the learning environment because of the sounds he was making

NEW: The student got pulled out of class because he was making noises.
NEW: The rude student was making noises, and the teacher kicked them out.

 

ORIGINAL: I remained awake until the wee hours, absorbing broadcast entertainment. At the present time, I am lacking energy.

NEW: I stayed up late watching TV, and now I'm tired.

NEW: He stayed up all night bingeing movies, so in the morning he was exhausted.


Then they worked on an individual assignment, putting the following sentences into their own words:

During my earlier years, I experienced much conflict with my male and female siblings who were born before me. Now that we are more mature, we have overcome some of our differences and have the ability to interact pleasantly.

Here are some of the new sentences the students came up with:

When I was a kid, my siblings and me would fight a lot. Now that we're older we don't fight as much as we used to. - A.D.

 

When I was younger, I didn't get along with my siblings, but now that we are older I get along with them. - A.L. 


I've learned to love my brother and sister. When we were kids, we didn't get along, but now we do. - D.H.


When I was small, I used to argue with my older brother. Now that were both older we get along a lot better. - K.J.


When I was younger, I had a lot of problems with my older sisters and brothers. Now that we've grown up, we understand our differences and we get along better. - L.O.


When I was young, I fought a lot with my older brother and sister. As we got older, we started to get along a lot better. - L.J.


My older brother and sister and I fought a lot when I was younger. Now that we are older, we get along much better. - X.G.