Compound Sentences

Simple to Complex with Badger Claws

Writer's use many different techniques to improve their writing. We have been working hard at two different strategies. One thing writer's do is use extensive vocabulary. Using high or strong vocabulary words add detail and can draw your reader's into your writing. 

Today, we brainstormed a few words to describe how Badger Claws must have been feeling and some character traits. Here is an example.

 Badger claws was feeling melancholic. He missed his dad. 

This sentence is a great example of using vocabulary. However, it is also an example of a simple sentence.

What is a simple sentence you ask? 

Badger Claws was feeling melancholic.

Badger Claws is the subject and was feeling melancholic is the predicate.

Another way a writer can improve their writing is by changing simple sentences into complex sentences. These sentences elaborate on ideas by answering where? why? what? when? or how?

Here is an example.

Badger Claws felt melancholic when the memory of his father came to him. 

Not only am I combining two shorter sentences, but I am elaborating by adding why and when he felt melancholic.

Writers can also enhance their writing by making simple sentences into complex sentences by adding a conjunction.

Badger claws was feeling melancholic when the memory of his father came to him.

Badger claws was feeling melancholic is the independent clause. That simply means it is a complete sentence. 

 Badger claws was feeling melancholic when the memory of his father came to him.

when the memory of his father came to him is not a complete sentence. It is considered a dependent clause because it "depends" on the independent clause to be a complete sentence.

What conjunction did I use in the sentence? 

 Badger claws was feeling melancholic when the memory of his father came to him.

Some other conjunctions writers use are:
because, since, if, so, although, and, but, when, unless, even though,  and after.


Find two simple sentences in chapter 1-4 of Badger Claws. Copy them into your comment. Then, enhance the sentences by adding vocabulary or making a complex sentence. Be sure to use a conjunction. Look at the examples for help.

Classy Quotations

Dialogue, or a conversation between people, is a phenomenal way to enhance our writing. We have been working on writing personal narratives about events in our own lives. We converse, or talk, to people everyday, so it is important to include dialogue in our writing.

When adding dialogue to our stories it is important we punctuate correctly. Otherwise our stories and sentences can be confusing. How we punctuate is all based on where the tag, or person's name is.

If the speaker is named at the end of the sentence it can end with a comma an exclamation mark or a questions mark. The punctuation goes inside the quotes. A period ends the sentence. 

"Brutus, don't even think about eating my decadent chocolate cake!" exclaimed Mrs. Broussard.

 A speaker can be named before the quotation marks as well. That would mean the punctuation is at the end of the sentence inside the quotes. You must also place a comma before the quotes start. 

Mrs. Broussard shrieked, "Tank, why did you eat my delicious dinner?"

Sometimes the speaker can be named in the middle of the sentence. In that case, commas are placed at the end of the first quotation and after you name the speaker. 

"You two behave so awfully," Mrs. Broussard said wagging her finger, "I can never leave you alone."  

 

Can you write a blog comment using dialogue and compound sentences? Tell me about an entertaining conversation you may have had with a friend, your parents, or even a teacher. You must use proper punctuation!

Let's Go Shopping

Let's Go Shopping!

Have you ever taken a trip to Costco, the supermarket or even Target?  

Have you ever bought a pack of items like pencils, notebooks, t-shirts or socks? 

Did you ever try to determine the cost of each item in the pack? 

That is division! 

Today in class we went shopping. The price for these spectacular classroom items was per pack. Consequently, we did not know the cost of each individual item? 

How can we figure our the price of each item in the pack?

First, we took the items out of the bags and spread them out across the tables.

Then, we divided the amount of money equally for each item. 

Then we counted the amount of money for each item! That told us the cost of each item.

In some cases we had to work around a challenge. Some items had to be paid for with a mix of $5 and $1 bills. We quickly realized that it is best to divide up the larger bills first.

Here is a real life example that illustrates how important division is.
 Kimia is obsessed with the movie Frozen. When she went to Target with her brother, she was ecstatic to see a pack of Elsa themed notebooks that would be perfect for her goody bags. 

Kimia found  a pack of 4 glistening notebooks costing a total of $12. She quickly grabbed them from the shelf and pleased her brother to purchase them for her. Kiano curiously asked her how much each notebook would cost. 

Can you help Kimia find the cost for each individual notebook? 

Write a story problem as a comment. Tell us where, when and what you were purchasing in a pack. How much did the entire pack cost? How many items were in each pack? 

Ask a friend to solve your problem! Be sure to write expanded sentences using adjectives or even adverbs!

Cause and Effect

Cause and Effect

 

This week's comprehension skill is "Cause and Effect".

While reading it's good practice to ask yourself "why did this happen?" or "what is going to happen?"

Identifying the cause and effect can help you better understand the text or story!

Often sentences will have signal words that can help you identify the cause and effect.

Some words include:

so 

as a result

because

therefore

consequently

since

Can you write a sentence and ask a friend to identify the cause and the effect. Remember our strategy! Break the sentence apart. 

When Raana sneakily stole her tasty popcorn Mrs. Broussard began to cry . 

Ask yourself "What makes most sense?"

Raana stole her popcorn BECAUSE Mrs. Broussard began to cry. 

or

Mrs. Broussard began to cry BECAUSE Raana stole her popcorn.

Whichever part of the sentence follows the "because" can be identified as the cause! 

Whichever part precedes, or comes before the "because" is the effect!

Can you write a cause and effect comment? Identify which part of the sentence is the cause and which is the effect. 

Challenge yourself by writing a sentence that does not use because as a signal word! 

Dissecting Division

Dissecting Division

Over the last two weeks we have been dissecting, or studying, what division really means. Below you will find many productions our students made to help us better comprehend division. 

 It is important that we understand division is the sharing of objects equally into groups. 

We practiced this skill in many ways. Here a student is dividing 10 delicious chocolate cookies among 2 famished, or very hungry students.

How many cookies would each student get? 

In this problem the number of cookies is our dividend. It is what is being divided. Two students is the divisor, or how many groups it is being divided into. Our answer or quotient is 5. The quotient is how many are in each group. 

Here another student is writing a division sentence to match a different word problem. Can you write a word problem to match the picture and number sentence shown in the picture? 

Can you name the dividend, divisor and quotient in this picture?


Pat Hutchins wrote a book called The Doorbell Rang. You can listen to the book by clicking on the video below. How many different division sentences are in this story? 

Please write a comment asking a friend to solve your division problem. Remember division asks how many are in each group, not how many are there in all!  

Your comment must include adjectives, strong vocabulary and expanded sentences.

Si Può Parlare Italiano?

 This week's story, The Mysterious Giant of Barletta takes place in Barletta, Italy.

                      The town of Barletta currently has a 

population of about 90,000. 

The statue, Colossus of Barletta, measures around 16 feet and 7 inches. 

Can you find any other facts about the statue?  

One thing we adored about the story written by Tomie dePaola is it includes many Italian phrases. Not only were we able to learn about the giant statue, but we also improved our Italian!

Some include: 

Buona notte which means good night,

Grazi meaning thank you,

and Bella meaning beautiful. 

What other words would you like to learn in Italian?  

Follow these directions to learn how to translate words from English to Italian using Google Translate. 

1. Before you can begin translating, please open a new tab. Go to "File"and click on "New Tab". 

2. Then, in the new tab please open up my website so that you can have easy access to Google Translate and resources like Word Book Online. 

3. Look for "Helpful Links" on the left side of the page. Click on Google Translate. 

4. Next, in the box on the left, write a word in English that you would like to learn to say in Italian. 

5. Before you begin typing, make sure you click on the tab that says "detect language" so Google knows your entry language is English. 

6. You might have noticed that as you were typing in the left box, some words started showing up in the box on the right. 

However, you must select the language. 

7.  Just above the right box to the left of the blue "translate" bottom, click on the down arrow to reveal all the languages you can translate into.

8. For this blog, please click on "Italian" and presto! Your English word should have turned into Italian! 

9. Next, use your mouse to highlight the Italian word. Then copy and paste it into your comment. 

10. For an additional challenge, try typing in a phrase such as "How are you doing?" or "What are we eating for dinner?" 

Your comment must include at least one Italian word and must be at least 3 sentences long. Don't forget superb comments engage other bloggers by asking questions!
Here are some things you can tell us about:
- Barletta
- Colusso the statue
- Italy 
- Tomie dePaola

Our New Year's Resolution

 Our New Year's Resolution

A resolution is a decision people make to do or not do something. Many people take time on New Year's to make resolutions for the upcoming year. They ponder, or think, about things they would like to learn, activities they would like to do, or new habits they would like to create. 

 Eating 3 servings of fruits a day or exercising twice a week may be a good resolution for someone who is committed to having a healthier year. 

What is your New Year's resolution?

Many people intend to keep their resolutions, but after a few months begin to forget. Be sure to make  a resolution you can accomplish!

How can you ensure you keep your resolution for the year? 

Please answer BOTH questions in complete sentences. Challenge yourself by using compound sentences.  

What is a compound sentence?

1. A sentence that combines two shorter sentences (so has TWO subjects) 

2. It joins the two sentences with a conjunction (and, or, but, so, since) 

3. The comma goes BEFORE the conjunction.