Caught Ya!

It's confirmed! We all need practice with our writing conventions (spelling, capitalization, grammar usage, and punctuation). 

In class, we have implemented good old fashioned start-ups where the students come in and make some corrections first thing. Then I go around and see if I can catch them making a single mistake that I'm looking for.

If the correction hasn't been made, I yell, "Caught ya!" And the students have to figure out what got left out. The level of excitement seems to be high. Students want to be not caught. :-)

These daily exercises will help my students be better-prepared writers. They will be able to identify errors in their own and each other's writing. They will successfully answer editing questions on the SBAAC test in May. They will be better prepared for high school and college.

Ten minutes a day. I'm invested and so are they. Yay!

Here is an example of some of the errors:

hey felicia how come your not garbed in black as you were all last year asks a boy whos puckish expression mirrored his waggish personality

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GUEST BLOGGERS

Question of the week

Where is your favorite place to travel? Why?

Mom: “My favorite place to travel is Florida. I love to travel there because that’s where my best friend Renee lives, and there are also lots of fun things to do there. When I visit Florida, I love to visit the beach and the Florida Keys. What I like about the Keys is that it’s so so beautiful and there are lots of things to walk around and look at. The sad thing is that is that I haven’t visited Renee in 24 years and hope to visit my best friend soon.”

Dad: “ My favorite place to travel is the mountains. I like to travel to the mountains because it’s quiet and peaceful. When I go to the mountains my favorite things to do is hunt and camp. I love to hunt deer because I like the sport and eating them. My favorite thing to roast over the campfire is marshmallows to make s'mores, especially the chocolate! Gotta have the chocolate.”

Savannah T.          

Two Truths and One Lie

1. I am a Chico Junior Wrestler and have been wrestling for Chico Junior for 3 seasons. I have won some medals and am not that bad at the sport. I have met new people while playing the sport and made nice friends. The sport is really cool because it is one on one and if you win it is because the effort you put into it. If you lose it is because you lost and not anyone else.
2. I have an English bulldog that is the best dog anyone can have. My dog acts like a human but is still a great part of our family. She has little brown splotches and is mostly white. Her name is Brown Sugar. She likes to be a cuddle bug and loves to be loved by anyone.
3. I have broken my arm three times. I have broken it twice over summer and once in second grade. The two times over summer were when I was on a trampoline and I feel off. The other time was when I was helping my brothers lifting a closet up and it feel on my arm.The time I broke it in second grade was when I feel off a slide during recess.

Julian Q.

Movie Review: The Greatest Showman

This movie was astounding. It almost brought me to tears. It has some of the most loved actors of all time in this movie, including Hugh Jackman, Zac Efron, and even Disney actress Zendaya Coleman. This beautiful film is appropriate for girls and boys of all ages. This is an empowering movie about a boy born into a poor family. Both parents die when he's very young. He marries the girl of his dreams after a long time of trying to create a fortune, with very little success. He creates a family of two little girls and a loving supportive wife. Wanting more for his family than poverty, he starts to search for a job that could change his life. After losing sight of what is really important, he hands his career down to his second in command/ partner. Due to not wanting to spoil this movie, this is all I'm going to say. I hope you get the chance to see this awe-inspiring movie.

Ellie C

Two Truths and a Lie

1. I have been riding horses since I was nine years old. I was trained on our friend Ann’s pony, Splash. Most of the days Splash was in a good mood, but when he wasn’t, those were the days I got rubbed against the fence and bucked off. But of course, I stayed on and never fell off. Then I got too big for Splash, and that’s when I got Nikki. 
2. I am the tallest girl in eighth grade. I am so tall that when my friends and I are in the library and they want a book on the top shelf, they ask me to get it. I love being tall because I have a lot of advantages. For example, in basketball, I can dunk and can shoot half-court shots no problem.
3. Before I got into horses and barrel racing, I did ballet for two years. Those two years of ballet definitely helped with my calf muscles. When you’re barrel racing, you need those calf muscles to stay on and keep your speed up.

Savannah T.