And the winners are ...

The winner of the "Stepping Out and Writing a New Form of Poetry" award is Faith with her poem The Hungry Fox . Faith chose a limerick format for her poem and did a great job using rhyme and action words. Faith's copy of her poem was also illustrated! Enjoy!

The Hungry Fox

The fox jumped to catch a mouse,
he jumps as high as a grouse,
he lands his face in the snow,
the hungry fox was too slow,
the red fox went to his house.

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The winner of "The Poem with the Most Character" award is Jeffrey. His poem, A Brat and His Tiger, is filled with tons of personality and makes you smile. Jeffrey has a neat rhythm and rhyme happening throughout his poem. Enjoy!


A Brat And His Tiger

Calvin is a child.
Hobbes is a tiger.
Calvin is wild.
Hobbes is a biter.

Calvin and Hobbes fight,
even if its not right .
They bite on sight.
It makes them look a fright.

They get in trouble a lot.
When they get caught,
they think they're in a tight spot.
But maaybeee they're not.

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The winner of "The Best Revised and Edited Poem" award is Abby. After Abby completed her editing and revising processes, her poem, My Sweet Cat, took on a life of it's own. Her poem will make you smile and has excellent rhythm and rhyme. Enjoy!

My Sweet Cat

My cat likes to purr
All day and all night
She's a very sweet cat
But she goes left and right!

She knocks into things
Cause she can't see just right
But a super smart cat
When she turns on the light!

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The final winner is Kara with her poem My Frosty Winter Dream . Kara's poem is awarded "The Poem with the Best Imagery" award. When consulting with a couple of colleagues, it was agreed upon that Kara's poem had a poetic edge and is deserving of a "Grand Prize". Her poem incorporates excellent description and imagery and has a nice flow of rhyming couplets. Enjoy!


My Frosty Winter Dream

The snow is gently sprinkling
Out in the cold winter night.


The glittery trees are twinkling
Because of the bright moonlight.


The cool breeze is blowing
I can feel its frosty bite.


The stars are softly glowing —
My dream is perfectly white.

End of Quarter Packages - Standard (DLS) Families

What to Include in an End of Quarter Package for Grades 1-3:

* All completed pace tests

* All completed supplement assignments - Quarters 2 and 3 supplement assignments include:
Reading Response
Math Supplement Activities
Science Supplement Activities
Social Studies Supplement Activities
Nutrition and Friendship Activities

* Reading Log

* PE Log - Please complete the PE Monthly Challenge Form on the backside of the PE Log.

* Work Habits Form - This form is a parent assessment of your child's work habits. As well there are areas to include scripture memory information and the contact information for your child's music or dance instructor.

* 3 Visual Art samples (for those using Visual Arts as their Fine Arts focus)

***Please note: Grade 2 and 3 students should not include their hard covered journal that was sent to them at the beginning of the year. This journal will be requested at the end of the 4th quarter.

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What to Include in an End of Quarter Package for Kindergarten:

* The last completed pace in all subject areas (Word Building, English, Math, Science and Social Studies)

* All completed supplement assignments - Quarters 2 and 3 supplement assignments include:
Student Assessment for Quarters 2 and 3
Printing Practice worksheets (optional)
Nutrition and Friendship Activities

* PE Log - Please complete the PE Monthly Challenge Form on the backside of the PE Log.

* Work Habits Form - This form is a parent assessment of your child's work habits. As well there are areas to include scripture memory information and the contact information for your child's music or dance instructor.

Since Spring Break takes up half of the month of March, I thought that I would deter a little from my usual Journal Writing Wednesdays and make a writing suggestion that I am looking forward to doing with my own daughter once she becomes a more capable writer.:)

My suggestion is for you as a parent to write the first sentence of a story on a page in your child's journal. Then place the journal on your child's bedside table and ask him/her to continue the story with another sentence, or two, or three. When your child finishes his/her part, he/she will put the journal on your bedside table. Now it's your turn to write a few sentences of the story. Continue this process as long as there is interest. You may be surprised at the saga you and your child can write!

Happy Writing this March!

The following encouragement is some writing ideas that I recently emailed to a parent. I thought that there may be other parents who need some encouragement with their "reluctant" writers too. The following encouragement was taken from a Marilyn Hahn workshop on "Awesome Writing Strategies for the Reluctant Student". Enjoy!


P – Purpose
When was the last time we as adults wrote without a purpose? Probably when we were in school! As adults we usually write with a purpose. We write grocery lists, e-mails, journals, letters or cards, “To do” lists, reminder notes, stories or poetry if we’re feeling creative, blogs, etc. These are the reasons that Marilyn suggested why we all write:

T – to Tell something
R – to Request something
I – to Inform about something
P – to Persuade about something
E – to Explain something or to Encourage someone

All of these reasons to write require another person’s interaction.


P – People who care about kid’s writing
Find an audience. Marilyn suggests that 80% of your child’s writing should have some sort of audience – meaning that it should be sent outside of the home. Even a spelling test can have purpose if you have your child write at the top: “Dear Grandma, I’m writing this spelling test for YOU!” Then mark it, put it in an envelope, and mail it to Grandma.

When your child has an audience, editing starts to matter. Your child will want to write neatly, spell words correctly and reread and revise his/her own work.

Audiences can include: family members (make sure you train them to praise your kid’s writing and NOT point out the spelling errors) (smile), people who work in the church or the community, a friend or cousin or Sunday School teacher, the fireman, the police officer, the doctor, a favourite author or illustrator, the Prime Minister or the Queen (she always writes back!)

Use the yellow pages and let you child find people that he/she would like to write too. The people to write to are ENDLESS!

Here is the link with the queen’s address and some sample letters:
Writing to the Queen


P – Process and the Product
It is easy to get caught up in the rut of presenting children with a piece of 8 1/2” by 11” lined paper and asking them to write something. Marilyn says “Boring!”. Here are some of her ideas on how to spur writing on:

- Write on brown paper bags. Hole punch and then tie them together with a ribbon to create a paper bag book.
- Make the paper smaller. A post-it note looks a lot less intimidating than a piece of binder paper.
- For young writers use a piece of blank white paper rather than lined paper.
- Create an Author’s Gear Box - This is an investment but well worth it. Buy a compartment kit with the little drawers and shelves etc. Take your child shopping to Staples or Wal-Mart or the Dollar Store and let him/ her choose writing items to put in their Author’s Gear Box. Items may include: erasers, gel pens, colored pencils, stickers, binder rings, paper clips, paint, scissors, sticky notes, rad tacks, etc. The materials in the Author’s Gear Box are ONLY to be used when your child is writing.
- Use “Roget’s College Thesaurus” – (Grade 3 and onward) – Let your child look through the thesaurus and find words to create a really cool sentence, This can gradually increase to paragraphs and stories.
- Writing Poetry – Use “Scholastic Rhyming Dictionary” and use Shift F7 on the keyboard to provide a thesaurus. Look through old National Geographic magazines. Pull out a great picture. Have your child highlight up to 50 phrases (max. 4 words in length) in the written text about the picture. Cut the phrases out, arrange in a poetic order, glue onto the picture from the magazine – this is called a Found poem.
- Store your child’s writing in a plastic sheet protector. Immediately, the writing looks polished!


P- Passion
Capitalize on your child’s passion. Write about personal interests.


P – Partnership
This “P” is one of the most important but also one of the hardest. Marilyn suggests sitting shoulder to shoulder with your child and doing a similar writing assignment at the same time. In order to find time to do this, you can schedule “family writing time” into your week.