"Pet Poetry Project based on "Hate That Cat"

This is a Prezi Mr. Hansen made about the wonderful dog he had when he was a boy. The poems are based on poems found in "Hate That Cat" by Sharon Creech. The class is goind to be writing their own poetry based on these poems, so you can see how it is done here. The class will be learning and using Glogster to present their poems, not Prezi, but you can enjoy this presentation anyhow. You can laugh at the old photos of Mr. Hansen, but don't dare laugh at his dog!

Darkness Fell: Compound Sentences with Personification

We did more sentence building starting with "The darkness fell" and developed compound sentences that included personification and similes.

The whispering darkness fell like a firework shooting up into the stars, and the cruising police cars patrolled the city streets like a 5th grader observing a piece of candy at the candy store. by Austin

The shadowy darkness fell like a shooting star over the sleepy city, and the rude bloodhounds ran out of hiding like an alley cat looking for food. by Ben

The silent darkness descended like the sleepy sky jumping into bed, and the wandering owl scared the skunk like an elephant attacking a mouse for a piece of cheese. by Andrew

The gloomy darkness descended over the horizon like the Sky Tower at Canobie Lake Park, and the dancing starlight touched my face like a baby discovering something new for the very first time. by Heather B.

The dusky darkness fell over the snoozing city, and the creepy cats destroyed the flower garden like a toddler at the beach. by Amanda

The starless darkness fell like a eagle swooping down for a snack in the overtired village, and the hungry butterfly fluttered like a racing rabbit to the flowers. by Molly

The starless darkness fell like a magician’s hands over the whispering ocean, and the lantern-like jelly fish danced like a ballerina skipping across the stage. by Zak

The tormenting darkness fell over the crowded city like an eagle diving down for it’s prey, but the fascinated city people did not care for they were interested in the city lights. by Aaron

The abyss-like darkness fell over the drowsy city like a wave descending down onto the beach, and the reckless raccoon, knocked over trash barrels like a rouge driver in the night. by Cameron

The faded darkness fell over the city like a couple of old ladies passing out after a tea party, and the dizzy raccoon dug in the trash can like a pregnant woman screaming at her kid. by Alison

The shadowy darkness fell like someone pulling down shades over the lazy neighborhood, and the silent owl dived down to catch a chipmunk like a right fielder in baseball plunging to catch a baseball. by Adam

The jet black darkness fell as the smiling moon came out over the sleeping city, and the noisy loud cars honked their horns like it was the end of the world. by Heather M.

The powerful darkness descended around the sage and umber earth, but the glowing bright light kept the earth company in the night like a guardian angel to a child. by Kayla

The dusky darkness fainted over the sleepy city, and the disgusting skunk squirted everything it could see like a crazy painter squeezing an orange spray paint can. by Brianna

Adding and Subtracting Integers

Here are some gaines to help you practice your skills at addition and subtraction with positice and negative numbers.

Fun Brain Line Jumper (you should be able to do the Super Brain game!)

XP Math: timed practice with simpler numbers (-9 to +9)

Integer Football: The football player advances either towards the positive or the negative yard lines.

Space Coupe to the Rescue: By choosing a positive or negative number, the player controls the vertical position of a spaceship. If the spaceship reaches the same vertical position as a virus pod, the pod is destroyed.

"I am from..." poems Part 2

by Cady
 

By Heather B.
 

by Alison


by Tori


by Adam



by Cameron

"I am from..." poems based on "The Irish Dancer

We wrote some poems based on the 14th century poem "The Irish Dancer" as seen here. Then we put them into animoto videos.






by Austin
 

by Brianna
 

by Molly
 

by Aaron;


by Nick


by Amanda
 

by Heather M.
 

by Ben
 

by Kayla
 

by Richie
 

by Zak

Compound Sentences with Personification

We have spent more time practicing how to build sentences to be more effective writers. This time were learned how to join two independent clauses (sentences) together with a comma and a conjunction to create a compound sentence, We also learned how to add personification (giving human qualities to nonhuman entities) to our sentences. We started with two different simple sentences:
and things just grew from there!

The rain fell.
The lights twinkled.

The smiling sun’s rays glistened like a disco ball through an oak tree, and the exhausted children sipped their lemonade like pumps taking out water from a pool. by Cameron

The dancing disco lights glistened like a gleaming lake on a bright sunny day, and the jumpy teenaged party people danced like never before on the dance floor.    by Brianna

The winking strobe lights glistened like firecrackers blowing up in the night sky, and the wannabe camp ranger sprinted back to his house like a cheetah running from a newborn grizzly bear.  by Andrew

The fireworks jumped in the night sky like monkeys fighting over a banana in a forest, and the sunlight winked on a very hot day.  by Alison

The jumping disco lights flickered over the dance floor, and the energetic teenagers danced like hot potatoes were under their feet.  by Heather B.

 The colored paper lanterns glittered in the black sky with light, but a special lantern greeted the water like a delicate flower.   by Kayla

The bright Northern Lights danced across the sky like a jumping toddler, and the snow covered Eskimos gawked like a woman seeing a chicken cross the street.  by Cady

The blinking stars sparkled like faraway headlamps in a dark forest, and the energetic runners jogged to the finish line like wasps flying back to their nest. by Adam

The dancing stars sparkled like tiny glow worms in the woods, and the sleepy campers slept like hibernating bears in a cave.  by Ben

The distant lanterns winked like a lighthouse in a storm, and the snowshoe racers sprinted back to their campsites.  by Codey

The twinkling Aurora Borealis jumped like a kangaroo springing into a bush, and the excited Eskimos smiled like gassy elephants in the zoo.  by Zak

The dancing campfire sparked like fireworks on a starless night, and the weary campers prepared their dinner on the dancing campfire like  grizzly bears foraging for food before hibernation.  by Austin

The dancing northern lights glowed like the hot sun on a sunny day, and the delighted woman was anxious to see them like a little girl at a birthday party looking at her presents.  by Heather M.

The blinking headlights beamed down like a bright and steaming stage light, but the scared hobos jumped like elephants scared of a little mouse at a spark of lightning.  by Tori

The sapphire rain swan-dived onto the ground like an Olympic swimmer, and the once clear rain drops sunk like an animal in quicksand. by Nick

The never ending marching downpour swept the ground, and the oversized farm animals jumped as high as a rabbit playing with a ball.  by Molly

The singing churches of rain hugged the pavement, and the young children danced around in the rain as joyfully as a monkey eating a banana. by Aaron

The wiping raindrops belly-flopped into the river like teenagers on a summer day, and the enormous river exploded onto the street like fireworks. by Amanda

The yelling raindrops exploded like grenades on the pavement, and the raindrops were so heavy and loud that it awakened all of the kids on the block. by Richie

Donors Choose: We are Smarter than a 4th Grader!

UPDATE: 3/3 This project has been fully funded and DonorsChoose has ordered the game cartridges for the class. How cool is that? We are on our way to beating Watson!

I have put a class project up for funding on DonorsChoose.org. We have recieved half of the funding through the Horace Mann Insurance Company. If you know of a business or individual who would like to contribute you can see the listing here. I would like to get the grade 5 cartridges for our Classroom Jeopardy game console. We are smarter than the fourth grade cartridges that we currently use!