Earth Day 2009

It's Earth Day and time to talk about what we can do to help our Earth. There are lots of different ways in which you can celebrate Earth Day and one is to do something that will have a positive effect on our wonderful planet. Here are just a few ways in which you can make a difference: reduce, reuse, recycle, wear hand-me-downs, open a window, make a poster, take a cool shower, write a poem, plant a tree or flowers, ride your bike, pick up a park, say "paper" and not plastic at the grocery store, turn off lights when you are not in the room, and many, many more. For today, post what you are going to do are already are doing to help our planet Earth. You could also post a poem about the precious planet. We look forward to your comments! Make today a memorable Earth Day!

P.O.D.

Welcome to the Problem Of the Day! In our morning math class, we often begin with a math problem we call the Problem Of the Day (a.k.a. the P.O.D.). I thought we could try this on the blog today to change things up. I will post the correct answer in the comments section tomorrow morning (as well as any posted comments from bloggers thinking they know the correct answer). As I won't do this until the morning, people won't be able to see other bloggers comments and be able to borrow their ideas. I think you get the point. So, have at it and we'll see who can figure this out. Best of luck and thanks for your efforts.

P.O.D.

I bought the plates for the MCA snacks at 70 % off the price listed. The price on the yellow sales tag reads $4.99. How much did I pay for two sets of 16 plates? Post your work in the comments section and check back tomorrow after 9:30 a.m. to see if you were right. Enjoy your day!

Cinquain Poetry

"Training"

Training

Dedication, Persistence

 Planning, Stretching, Running

Enjoying nature while logging numerous miles.

Living

I've found a new form for creating Cinquains. It's a bit easier than the one we used in class that really focused on having the correct amount of syllables in some of the lines.  Try it out and see what you think. Here is the form. 

Line 1: One word (subject or noun)

Line 2: Two words (adjectives that describe line 1)

Line 3: Three words (action verbs that relate to line 1)

Line 4: Four words (Feelings or observations about line 1)

Line 5: One word (synonym of line one or word that sums up poem)

I hope this makes creating Cinquains a bit easier for you. Thanks to those who have been posting lately as you really are the force that keeps this blog going. Make today a great one! 

Saturday!!!

It's Saturday! What are you going to do today?

I'm heading out for a run and maybe even a haircut. When I return home, I hope to get the Cinquain post ready and also update the Scrabble section on the blog. I hope you enjoy your day!

Quatrains

As we continue to celebrate Poetry Month, the type of poem for today's post is the Quatrain. Quatrains are four-line poems that may follow any one of four different rhyme patterns (AABB, ABAB, ABBA, & ABCB). Having a certain "flow" to your poem will set it apart from others as rhythm plays an important part in poetry. Please try your best to create this by repeating to yourself (and maybe even making some changes to your first draft) many times before posting. Yesterday we almost reached our goals of 10 Haikus. Today we'll shoot for 10 Quatrains from the blog readers. Post away!

Haiku

Today in class we learned how to create a type of Japanese poem called a Haiku. It was fairly simple as it is only a three lined poem. Although some students shared their poems in school, I'm hoping more can post theirs on the blog. My goal for tonight is to have more than 10 posted poems of the Haiku variety. Just in case you forgot the format, here's a little reminder.

Line 1 = 5 syllables
Line 2 = 7 syllables
Line 3 = 5 syllables.

I look forward to seeing if we can post more than 10 Haikus! Thanks in advance to those who post!

Writing Notebooks

I hope this post finds you enjoying a wonderful Easter morning. The sun is out. The birds are chirping, and it looks as if Spring is here. With all this going on, I hope you are making time to write in your notebook. Remember you are to write at least 3 times in your book for about 10 minutes each time (you CAN go longer if you wish) over the break. Having a little "writer's block?". Here are some topics that may help you "break through". You could write about: Easter, the signs of Spring, your little 'Spring Break', the book you are reading (Wringer?), your family, what you did on Thursday and Friday, 5th grade, 6th grade, a movie, friends, write from a list, continue a past entry, or anything else you cold think of. If you have ideas that you feel would help others or would like to share what you wrote about, post it on the blog as it may help others. Enjoy your remaining days of break and we'll see you on Tuesday morning.

Where would you go?

Although I'm really loving life in Minnesota, this April snow has got me thinking I'd rather be somewhere else. It would be awesome to see some green grass, trees, and sun on a regular basis. I just was in communication with a friend from Arizona and I was a little jealous on what his weather was like (80 degrees and sunny!). So, I thought it would be really interesting to see where the readers of this blog would rather be. I know we are getting some posts from across the county (thank you to all who have done so!) and the weather may be fine for them, but if you could go anywhere in the word for a few days, where would it be and why? Can't wait to see where you would go to avoid the snow!