Writing in room in room 306

What goes into a GREAT paragraph?  Details!  Interesting word choices!  Varying length of sentences!  Today we talked about paragraph writing.  We have been working on our letters a LOT lately and writing a solid paragraph is an essential part of this process.  The paragraphs we looked at were about Presley and the kids easily identified the better paragraph and had a variety of reasons for why it was better.  Here’s what they noticed about the first paragraph:  Not a lot of details.  Used the words A LOT, a lot.  J 

1

Presley is my dog.  She’s super cute.  I love her a lot and she makes me laugh a lot.  She does crazy stuff.  Presley is a spaniel with long ears.  She is brown and white.  Presley loves the water and is a great swimmer.  I like swimming with her.   She likes getting presents.  Sometimes she barfs.  It’s not fun when she does. 

2

Presley Marie O’Malley McGee is a dork.  Don’t get me wrong, she’s a loveable, funny, adorable, goofy dork, but a dork none the less.  Presley is almost 8.  Her birthday is February 3 and she LOVES to open any kind of present.  She even opens presents that aren’t for her.  She rips off the paper and spits it out, tossing it aside.  It’s messy, but really funny to watch.  Presley brings us a lot of joy.  And barf.  She’s barfs a lot.  Where does she barf?  She will not barf on the tile floor, if that’s what you’re thinking.  No sir, she will ONLY barf on the carpet in our bedroom.  If she’s downstairs, ON THE TILE, she will go UPSTAIRS TO THE CARPETING in order to barf.  Who does that!?  Presley.  Presley is a water dog.  She doesn’t have webbed feet, but she acts like she does.  She swims laps in Lake Huron and boards the Ellen or Doogie dock when she gets tired.   Her “dock” is one of us standing in the water, holding our arms out so she can come aboard.  She rests for a few minutes and then goes on her merry way…swimming and swimming and swimming.  If there were a dog Olympics, she’d qualify for sure.  Presley Marie O’Malley McGee is one of the best things in my life.  The world is a better place because she is a part of it.  I love that goofy dog. 

Here’s what they noticed about the second paragraph:

Great details.  She barfs a lot.  In this paragraph there was more information about the same topics – like how much she likes the water.  Interesting words were used. 

Writing is a tough subject to learn.  It takes a lot of hard work and rewriting.  We will continue to practice our writing skills every single day this year.  We write lists, paragraphs, notes, letters, ideas, webs, and so much more.  While we are reading a book as a class, we take a lot of time to talk about what we are reading.  These notes are posted around the room to remind us what’s happening and things we may want to write about in future letters.  This is an amazing part of the writing and reading process.  Our conversations are magnificent.  They are eager to talk about every aspect of the book and I’m convinced they love the book even MORE because of this process.  They learn a lot about the book and what the people around them think too.  It’s truly a spectacular part of the learning process.  I LOVE every single moment and am always thrilled to hear them discover new things as we talk about our books together.