Thursday, April 30, 2009

Poetry Resources

Our poetry project is due tomorrow! Remember, you should be copying (neatly, of course) and analyzing five different poems.

Here are some excellent websites with online children's poetry:
Poetry for Kids
Giggle Poetry
Jack Prelutsky's site
Shel Silverstein's site

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

How do I write a limerick?

A limerick is a silly, five-line poem. It has the rhyme pattern (scheme) AABBA. It usually starts with the pattern "There once was a ______________ named/called __________."

Here is an example of a limerick I wrote in class today:

There once was a pizza named Pie
Who fell down out of the sky
He landed on the ground
Without making a sound
Until he started to cry

Please publish some of your original limericks here!

Monday, April 27, 2009

Attention Percy Jackson fans!

Author Rick Riordan (writer of the Percy Jackson series, including the book The Lightning Thief) will be visiting the St. Louis County Library headquarters on Friday, May 15th. If you are interested in attending, please click here!

Read St. Louis is hosting this event, and will be holding events all through the month of May related to Rick Riordan's writing and the release of the final book in his Percy Jackson series. To find out more information, visit http://www.readstlouis.org.

If you attend any of these events, please comment on this blog post for extra credit in reading!

Thursday, April 23, 2009

How do I write a diamante poem?

A diamante poem has 7 lines, and looks like a diamond. It follows this pattern:

Topic
Two adjectives about the topic
Three verbs that end with -ing about the topic
Four nouns or a four-word phrase about the topic
Three verbs that end with -ing about the second topic
Two adjectives about the second topic
Topic (either a synonym or antonym of the first topic)

Here is an example of a synonym diamante I wrote in class today:
Puli
Shaggy, playful
Chasing, running, jumping
Loves tormenting my cat
Wagging, bounding, playing
Energetic, smelly
Dog
Here is an example of an antonym diamante:
Puli
Shaggy, playful
Chasing, running, jumping
Always tormenting my cat
Hiding, hissing, howling
Scared, timid
Oreo
(Puli is my dog and Oreo is my cat)
Please share your original diamante poems by commenting here!

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

How do I write a haiku?

A haiku is a 3-line poem with 17 syllables. It is usually about nature. The pattern of syllables is:
  • first line = 5 syllables
  • second line = 7 syllables
  • third line = 5 syllables

Here is an example I wrote in class today:

Mole is underground (5 syllables)
Tearing up my dirt and grass (7 syllables)
Won't he go away? (5 syllables)

Please share one of your original haiku poems!

Monday, April 20, 2009

Excavating Rocks and Minerals
















This afternoon we worked hard to excavate "rocks" and "minerals" from "earth" like geologists. How many were you able to excavate?

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Poems!

Need some great poetry ideas? Want to read some poems by fourth graders you know? Log on to Ms. Balzer's blog by clicking here to read poems written by her class. Don't forget to leave some nice comments!

How do I write a cinquain?

Cinquains are five-line poems about objects or living things. They follow this pattern:
Line 1: Name the object
Line 2: Describe it in two words
Line 3: Write three action words about it that end with -ing
Line 4: Write 4 words that tell how you feel about it
Line 5: Name a one-word synonym for it

Here is an example I wrote today:
Volcano
Exploding mountain
Burning, flowing, destroying
Changing the Earth's surface
Eruption

Please share one of your original cinquains here!

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

The Rock Cycle

Check out this cool game about the rock cycle:

http://www.kineticcity.com/mindgames/warper/

Please respond to tell what you learned about the rock cycle!