Parents of fifth graders re: writing

[yellowperch]

My oldest son is terribly behind in writing. We are working hard on it now, but I am looking for new ideas.

 

I just saw a post (older, I was searching 'remedial writing") in which people posted writing samples from their logic stage students. Most of the children were considerably further along than my guy. I was hoping to start a similar thread here with writing from the slightly younger set.

 

Here's what I'm hoping to see:

1. a sample of a 9-11 yos writing,

2. an indication of how polished it was (child edited, parent edited w/ a student rewrite, etc.)

3. a description of the original assignment.

4. a brief description of how you teach writing

5. the program you use, if you use one.

 

Please don't worry that I'm going to draw any overarching conclusions here. I'm just looking to gain a better sense of the range of skill levels, and how people helped their kids acheive them. We're in trouble here, and would appreciate the help.

 

Thank you very much.

[yellowperch]

bumperoo

[HeidiKC]

I'll post something later. I also would love to see some samples since writing is the one area that makes me pretty nervous about teaching. There are not always black/white answers as far as right and wrong. I think he's a pretty good writer, but I have nothing to compare it to and it always makes me a bit nervous.

 

Thanks for this thread. Will get something up, hopefully tomorrow! He doesn't type his papers, so I'll have to type it in!

[redsquirrel]

Well, my son is 10 and is turning 11 in the spring. He would be considered a 5th grader in ps. I use WWE and he is in year 4. I started when it came out, he was in 3rd grade, and I put him in year 2. It has been wonderful.

 

I don't really give him other assignments as writing exercises. Well, he does all his own history and we follow TWTM logic pattern for that. So, that is mostly outlining. I don't have him writing papers or anything like that. In fact, as recently as a year ago I was writing his narrations for him due to hand fatigue. He is an amazing narrator and can express himself clearly so I am not worried about his writing. When he does write his own narrations they are just fine.

 

I cannot recommend SWB's audio lectures on writing enough. I would suggest both the writing in the elementary years and the writing in the middle years.

[LisaKinVA]

My son is 11yo, would be in the 5th grade in PS.

 

We've been using K12 Language Arts since 2nd grade. This year, he has had to write a biographical essay, a letter to the editor (which was published in our local newspaper...) He is writing a research report (minimum of 3 sources, he's writing an informational paper about Tessla). He has done two literary essays (compare/contrast), two history essays (compare/contrast), and writing to a prompt.

 

The K12 writing curriculum is decent. It's a bit much, imo, and there isn't a lot of instruction as to how long something should be, what is grade level/above grade level/needs improvement. I had his writing evaluated at BJU a couple of years ago, he came back "average," but I do think his writing has improved a bit. Most of his grades come back "above average" for his writing. If I had to grade him, he's probably a B+ or maybe an A-

 

There is a huge difference between the way my dd (9) writes and my ds (11). My dd is very chatty (lots of filler). My ds is more "to the point."

 

We are leaving the K12 program in 12 weeks (only 12 more weeks!!!). Next year, we'll be doing MCT. I have also purchased the Killgallon books and will start Island with him this spring (just getting the technique down), then rapidly move through Town and onto Voyage. After Voyage, I will probably do Killgallon Grammar for Middle School. I also have a diagramming book, an Abeka Language Workbook ©, Punctuation Puzzler CDs and Editor In Chief CDs for reinforcement of concepts.

 

Write Source is another resource that has piqued my interest...I just haven't comitted to it.

[Bloggermom]

My son turns 10 in May and I just started him on WWE (Writing with Ease) level 3. I am doing it with him 5 days a week so he will get through it in less than a school year.

[TKDmom]

My dd is 9yo--she is a very young 4th grader. I'm feeling terribly behind on writing, too. She is currently using WWE3 and MCT Paragraph Town. She's made a lot of improvement in WWE. Dictation is coming along nicely. Narration is harder for her b/c she is a perfectionist and does not want to include the "wrong" things in her narrations. I'm trying to loosen up (and get her to loosen up) by having her do more free-writing.

 

This was her first free-write from a few weeks ago. I'm going to have her do several of these, then let her pick one to revise. The assignment was "You walk on the beach and while examining the sand crabs and seashells, you stumble upon a green glass bottle with an aged white letter inside. What does it say?"

 

Her response (with no editing or revising):

 

Recipe for Magic mouse maker

 

hello fellow witches! put in

1 cup of baking soda

3cups of viagar

1 1/100 snozzcumber

1 tum-tum tree fruit

1 drop mercury

 

that is how u can make

nasty little children turn to

mice from the grand high

witch of the world.

[jksponz]

We started HS'ing this year and so my 5th grade ds has had most of his writing instruction in ps. He has been using CW Homer and Harvey's grammar and not so much grammar in ps. Here is one of his earlier rewrites: (Week 8)

 

Parable of the Prodigal Son

 

 

There was a man who had two sons. The younger son asked his father for his share of the money that he was going to inherit. The father divided his money between his two sons equally. After receiving the money the younger son set off to a far country. There he spent all his money living like royalty.

When all his money was gone a huge hunger came to the land. He went to work for a citizen of the land because he was desparate for food. The citizen then sent him into the fields to feed his pigs. The son was so hungry that he would have gladly filled his belly with the food the pigs ate.

When the son came to his senses he made plans to go back to his father because he realized that his father’s hired servants had more food then he did. He believed that he was no longer worthy to be his father’s son and maybe he could be hired as a servant. And no sooner than he had made the plans to leave, he was off.

When he was still a far ways off, his father saw him and ran to kiss him out of the love that he had returned. Before the son could tell his father that he was no longer worthy to be his son, the father instructed his servants to get ready for a big party to celebrate the return of his son.

The elder son, hearing the party, asked what was going on. The servant replied, “Your brother has returned and was thrown a party.†The father saw the elder son and invited him in. The elder son did not enter and asked, "Why would you not throw me a party, for I have worked for you all my life and never complained, but my brother has returned after wasting all his money and you throw him a party." The father replied, "My son was lost and is found, he was dead and now alive. Come and make merry for he has returned."

 

He edited it, no re-writing, and he still missed quite a few commas! This thread will help me also, as I am not really sure where he is at...

Katie

[kokotg]

I'll go. DS will be 10 in June, so he'd be a fairly young 4th grader this year. He did WWE up until mid way through level 3; now he does MCT Town level, along with dictation sentences from his reading, and summaries for history. Here's a summary he wrote from the SOTW chapter on the founding of Rome:

 

Numitor had two grandsons named Romulus and Remus. But Numitor's evil brother sent a servant to put Romulus and Remus in the Tiber River. But the servant put the babies in a basket, and they floated down the river, where a wolf found them. She took care of the babies. One day, a shepeard came into the place where the babies were. He brought the babies back to where he lived and raised them until they were men.

 

Romulus and Remus were grown now, and they went to where there basket had washed up such a long time ago. They saw seven hills and said that theese hills would be a good place to build a town. Romulus said he would be a ruler of the town and would build a big wall around it. One day, Remus got jealous of his brother for being able to rule the town and easily walked over the wall and said that Romulus's wall was no good. Romulus got furious and killed Remus. Romulus named his city Rome after himself.

 

This is unedited. The assignment was just to re-read the chapter and write a 2 paragraph summary of it.

[mnllj7]

Writing is Tough for alot of students, They have been told to write about something, but the words are not there. I Love the teaching of IEW. It is great, Mr Puduwa on the Student Writing Intensive DVD's, makes it so much easier. he starts with teaching key word outlines from Aesop's Fables, and such. Then from the key word outline rewriting them in their own words. However, he goes through banned words, writes down Quality Adjectives, Strong Verbs and so on to use. So kids have the words in front of them they can choose from, It starts them to thinking, and using words then they continue to work at a harder level. It is the greatest writing program I have found. nancyt.

[Momling]

Here are nice examples of real life ps 5th grade writing at a variety of skill levels. http://www.ode.state.or.us/search/page/?id=529

 

If organization of thoughts is your son's biggest issue, I'd use The Paragraph Book by EPS

 

If sentence variety is a problem, try Sentence Composing for Elementary.

 

If mechanics and spelling are a problem, just do a quick search - there are hundreds of popular books and I'm sure you'll find something that works.

[Create Your Ritual]

Here are a few of my dd9s writing from this year (4th grade). We have used a variety of curriculums this year to see what she liked.

 

The first is from a writing assignment in MCT Grammar Island (one of the Sentence Island writing assignments). She was asked to compose a story where the number of words in the subject portion of each sentence is the same as the number in the predicate portion.

 

THE DAY I SAW A DRAGON

 

The red spotted dragon breathed fire into seas. The dragon looked quickly. The dragon's wings were gleaming torches. His huge mouth was on fire. He snorted! He bucked! At last, he disappeared. The red spotted dragon was never seen again.

 

RE-POEM (from Building Language with MCT Island Level)

 

May I stay and replay the day

Repeat the fun in every way.

Recall about my every play.

Resume the night and every gray day.

Release my head to all the dreams,

and redo my day, all the weeks,

while I sleep.

 

A DE-POEM

 

I defend in a ball game.

Defeat them like a dame.

De throne them from the top,

and destroy them like a bad crop.

 

THE CROW AND THE PITCHER (Writing Tales 1)

 

One day a crow was following a piece of shiny string. "Oh, I better run faster or it will get away!" he thought. He was not looking were he was going and bumped into a pitcher half full of water. "Boy am I thirsty," he said. But he could not reach the water. Then he had an idea. He ran back across the road and got some rocks. When he came back he began to drop them in. Suddenly he say a shiny rock and said, "Wow, I'm going to add that to my collection." "Well, I guess every rock counts though," as he dropped it in. Finnaly, the water rose high enough for him to drink. "Yippi!" he shouted.

 

*** I did not correct some of the mistakes above, to show you where she is at with her spelling, punctuation, etc.

 

A writing lesson from Matilda, by Roald Dahl. I asked her to come up with a poem about some other character in Matilda the way that she had done in the book. She chose Ms. Trunchbull.

 

Ms. Trunchbull was a giant

Strong and defiant.

She might give you a glare,

or an evil stare.

To answer her no one would dare.

 

*** my dd loves to write poems and can come up with them in just a few minutes. Hopefully writing longer stories will begin to come more naturally too, as we progress in our writing.

 

JULIUS CAESAR - Writing Tales 1

 

A long time ago in Rome there lived a man names Julius Caesar. He was called a brave warrior, and he had conquered many countries for Rome. One day Julius came upon a village of people. Their mayor was strutting at the head of the group. Julius said he would rather be mayor of that village instead of second man of Rome. He went on a boat and the boat got tangled in a storm. The captain threw himself on his knees and cried, "All is lost! All is lost!" Julius yelled, "Get up, for your boat will not be lost while Julius Caesar is on board!"

 

We also have been doing writing assignments in MC 4 this year, as well as narrations in WWE2, SOTW 1 and Science.

 

*** I think next year I will continue into MCT Town because the kids thoroughly enjoy his version of learning Grammar. We also do R&S English, so MCT is a nice break. I will also continue with WWE, and I am still deciding whether to continue into WT 2 or possibly go to IEW SWI A because of the DVDs. dd will need to begin writing longer stories and multi paragraphs and outlining so I will be needing some help enforcing that. I would actually love to use IEWs Medieval based writing to go with our Middle Ages HO (mixed with K12 Human Odyssey texts) because I think the writing assignments would work well together, but having not used IEW I am unsure of whether to try a Theme Based right off the bat. I will also be adding in Killgallon's Elementary Sentence Composing workbooks.

Edited February 16, 2011 by SaDonna

[Storm Bay]

My ds is gr 5 and behind in writing. This is, in great part, due to the fact that I don't do a lot of writing from K-4. I work on mechanics, usage, grammar and only a little writing in K-4, but lots of reading (although not so much with ds who just started liking some fiction in the last year--before that he looked at airplane books, etc, and read the facts more than the text). Both of my dd's write well, and I expect ds will, too. This year we're doing Paragraph Town and writing assignments that come with R&S English. Next year I plan to have him take a group creative writing class. My 12 yo is taking that now, and I don't want them in the same class for a number of reasons.

 

My eldest one fought writing for years, although she's fully capable of doing it. She is proving that now that I put her in ps this year (her sophomore year.)

 

Things we have used that have worked well for us:

R&S English (not that it alone is usually enough)

WordSmith

group writing classes

MCT

 

Things that didn't go over well here:

Writing Srands

WriteShop (not that it's a bad program, just didn't get done here)

[Crimson Wife]

If organization of thoughts is your son's biggest issue, I'd use The Paragraph Book by EPS

 

If sentence variety is a problem, try Sentence Composing for Elementary.

 

I like both of these series, too.

[Capt_Uhura]

Momling - Thanks for the link!

[coffeefreak]

I don't have time to post a sample, but I will tell you we started using Writing Tales this year (in 5th grade) and it has REALLY REALLY helped. I did try WWE last year, but she struggles with Narration (summarizing), so it was just frustrating to her. I would look at the samples at the Writing Tales website and see if it might encourage your son.

 

The other thing that has really helped with her writing is learning to outline. We're using the SOTW Activity book with MFW this year and all the outlining exercises are really pulling the Narration/summarizing skill together for her. I'm a little nervous about next year because we're going to use Sonlight's Core 5 LA. However, the samples I've seen have been excellent so we'll see how it goes.

 

HTH!

Dorinda

PS I've also looked into Classical Writing for next year. Have you looked at their samples and thought about doing Aesop?

[jengjohnson]

My current fifth grader has not done very much formal writing. She did Writing Strands 3 last year, and this year we're using IEW's Ancient History-Based Writing Lessons. She's not very enthusiastic about writing, but I think she does a decent job. Below is a sample, she's edited it with a little input from me. I don't always think she uses the IEW "dress-ups" gracefully, but they have improved her writing overall.

 

The Israelites were slaves in Egypt. They worked day after day, waiting for freedom, and the land they had been promised by God. After 400 years, God finally sent their savior. His name was Moses. Strangely, Moses was a meek man, but God used him amazingly. Moses went to Pharaoh to demand freedom for the Israelites, but Pharaoh refused. God plagued Egypt and caused famine for the Egyptians. At last, after the final plague, which killed many children, Pharaoh let the Israelites go. Happily Moses led the freed people out of Egypt. They headed toward the land of Canaan.

Before long, Pharaoh changed his mind. The baffled Israelites looked back and saw the immense Egyptian army charging behind them. Powerfully, the Egyptians thundered after them. To make matters worse, the vast Red Sea stretched out in front of them. The Israelites cried out to the Lord and railed against Moses saying,“Hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? It would be better to serve the Egyptians, who are steadily gaining on us, than to die in the desert.†However, Moses was strong and answered, “Fear not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord.â€

Boldly, Moses stretched out his rod and miraculous things began happening. With determination, the angel of the Lord and a pillar of cloud zoomed behind the Israelites and darkened the way to confuse the Egyptians. Next, the Lord sent a powerful wind all night and blew the waters of the sea until a solid path appeared. The Israelites walked through the sea. Towering walls of water wobbled on either side of the path, but did not fall. When Pharaoh, who was astonished, and his army tried to follow, the Lord made their chariot wheels collapse. Moses stretched out his rod once more and the massive walls cascaded and swallowed Pharaoh and his army. Everyone saw the greatness of God and believed in the Lord.

[Create Your Ritual]

Jen in NC was your Ancient History based writing lessons your first experience with IEW. I wondered how to implement IEW and whether to go with Theme based (my first choice) or SWI A (because Pudewa teaches on DVDs directly to us). Was it easy to use?

[rootsnwings]

These are from my 4th grade DS. He just turned 10 Jan 31st. I actually had to go back about 4 chapters to find this narration--it's fairly decent but most of them are NOT at this point. He's just learning to type so tons of errors and bad punctuation/capitalization, etc...

 

Chapter 30 Narration 1.20.11

 

India Under the Moghuls

 

When the the great Babur died his eldest son took over.Then like a week later he was overcome by invaders. He finally got it back,but by then he had lost half of his empier.Then after a year or him being back he fell on the steps of the royal library,bumpt his head and died.Then his oldest son took over.His name was Akbar.He set out on a caimpain to take over the land that his father lost.Once he got that under conrol he added even more land.By that time he hade more than half of india under his control.

 

This is his science paper from last week. Still not finished (imo) but it has been edited from the original version (completely by him--I just try to give hints at what I see needs improvement, but have him figure out how to correct it. I may be asking too much at this point. :o

 

Animals & Adaptations

 

I have been learning about adaptations in animals. An adaptation is what makes an animal speacial and helps it survive in it's environment. I have been studying the rare and endangerd siberian tiger. Siberian tigers live in Russia, China, and Korea.

 

The tiger lives in the coldest parts of these countries. The siberian tiger barely has any fur. The only way the siberian tiger can survive is by eating atleast 20 pounds of meat a day. The tiger can eat up to 300 pounds at one meal. Its teeth & claws are longer than regular tiger's and used for griping its prey. These physical and behavioral adaptation are essential for survival.

 

It's diet includes monkey, fish, elk, deer, and hog. Another interesting fact Is that It can jump up to 25 feet. One of it's cousins is the white siberian tiger. It is also rare and endangered. The white siberian tiger being white is a phisical adaptation.

 

Definitely a work in progress here!!!! :D

[ondreeuh]

My son is 9.5. His writing is .... I will use the term "emerging." His freewriting consists of long, rambling run-on sentences and most words misspelled. No character development, hard to figure the point of his writing.

 

He was a very late reader, is very dyslexic, and so most approaches just confused him or he wasn't ready for them. We are having incredible success with Apples and Pears for spelling. Book A dives right into the most common words and patterns, and there has been an immediate improvement in his basic spelling (he has trouble with of, was, are, this ... I mean he is really at the beginning!).

 

We are using Writing Skills A, and it does a very good job of giving lots of practice building sentences using the principles of grammar. It the moves on to organizing paragraphs. It breaks the process down into small increments with lots of practice, which is what my son needs. So if your having a tough time as you say, this is a viable option.

[kamom]

I have two 5th graders who just finished research papers. Ds10 wrote the following using CLE's 506 Lightunit for instructions, not so much in writing as in researching. Very little help from me. Very little formal writing instruction.

 

Elephants: King of the Desert

A huge elephant is lumbering through the African desert. You stare at the monster and begin to wonder. What is that long rubber pole protruding in front of its head? What are those large, gummy flaps at the sides of its head? With that thick skin how does it stay cool?

Well, the long rubber pole protruding out of the front of its head is the trunk. The trunk is the nose and the upper lip of the elephant. The elephant uses it for eating by picking up food with its trunk and putting it in its mouth. It drinks similar to how it eats. The elephant also throws dust on its back with its trunk to cool itself.

As I said before, the elephant throws dust on its back. The gummy flaps are large ears, which the elephant waves back and forth to cool itself. The elephant also makes less body heat than some small animals. And the elephant also has thin ears to lose body heat. All these ways God created the elephant to keep from sweltering in the hot climate.

Elephant also have thick padding on their feet. Did you know that when an elephant is standing it is actually on tiptoes? Yep, that's how God designed them. They also weigh about 6,000-14,000 (I see he forgot the lbs;)

Elephants live in different places. Some such as the African Savanna Elephant live in Africa, but the smaller Asian elephant lives in these countries: India,Thailand,and Sri Lanka. There is another type of elephant that lives in Africa, but the Asian Elephant and the African Savannah Elephant are the main types.

These large animals eat grass, bark, roots,leaves and fruit.

Elephants have some normal and some unusual habits. These social animals are in groups called herds. The leader is an older more mature female. The gestation period is actually 22 months! Sounds to me like you would need to be very patient! When born , a baby elephant is covered with fuzz. It also will be just under three feet at the shoulder and weigh around 250 lbs.

Did you know that when an elephant dies, other elephants sort of mourn for it? Yes, elephants will come to the bones and stand around them. They will seem sad and feel the bones with their trunks. They may even carry then away.

The elephant has begun to stare at you. It may advance,thinking you are dangerous. Let's run back to the Jeep in case it charges. Oh no, here it comes! You run to the Jeep,pile in your camera, notepad,and pen in the passenger side and drive away fast. Finally you calm down. Anyway hasn't God created these monsters in just the right way?

[ELaurie]

Here is his first draft; as you will see, he included extraneous details to add interest to his narration, but they weren't essential to the story line. This made for some very long, wordy sentences :tongue_smilie:

 

In this assignment, I wrote the narration for him; his task was to remember the first sentence or two, and write them down.

 

Benjamin Franklin and his friends loved to go and fish in a pond, but to get to the best fishing spot they had to stand in the pond with water up to their knees. One day, when they were fishing, Benjamin Franklin went and stood upon a pile of rocks that had been dropped off to build a foundation for a new house, and he told all the other boys his idea to build a wharf with the stones so they didn't have to stand in water, and they did so. Now the chief mason, when he found out, was mad, at the boys, so he went to the magistrate and the magistrate told him that he could do whatever he wanted with the boys. The mason let the boys off easy because he saw the spirit of the whole thing, but when Benjamin Franklin came home, he had a talk with his father. Benjamin explained that the only reason they did it was because it was for everyone's benefit. Benjamin's father told him that evil can only make evil, but to make something good, it has to be wrought from good.

 

Here is his final draft:

 

Benjamin Franklin and his friends liked to fish in a pond, but to get to the best fishing spot, they had to stand in water. Benjamin Franklin suggested that they build a wharf with a pile of rocks that had been delivered to build a foundation for a house. The mason who was going to build the foundation was mad, and went to the magistrate; the magistrate said he could do whatever he wanted with the boys. The mason let the boys off easy, but when Benjamin Franklin came home, he had a talk with his father. Benjamin's father told him that evil can only make evil, but to make something good, it has to be wrought from good.

 

From my vantage point, there's still room for improvement, but he did what I asked him to do, which was to create more concise sentences, while still communicating the essential details that would move the narration forward.

[Joyofsixreboot]

Very interested in this thread. My 4th grader will be 10 at the end of March. He hates writing. The physical act and the coming up with something to say. We did WWE 1 but he hated, hated, hated it so I've just been having him do copywork. It's not helping, LOL, neither for form or function. I have him do a written narration weekly for history and outline his science. We are doing a report in CLE tomorrow so I'll post it after he is done.

[Embassy]

Here is a re poem from MCT Island from my almost 9 year old. It was slightly edited and he received a little help from me.

 

Out to Battle

 

I recalled my troops.

Repaired my helmet.

And treat my troops with respect.

Should I repeat?

[yellowperch]

Just wanted to post and say thank you. I can't tell you how helpful this is. Will post more later (mainly questions) but I couldn't turn off the computer without extending my thanks.

[ELaurie]

where we can discuss these kinds of issues :party:

[oldskool]

We are using WWE and are on book 4. We started with WWE 2 about 2 1/2 years ago. I have also listened to the audio lectures by SWB many, many times. They have helped tremendously.

 

This is my 5th graders five sentence response to a passage about platinum:

 

Platinum is dense but soft. It is considered more valuable than gold because it is more expensive to produce. Many things in cars are made of platinum, such as, airbags and spark plugs. It is also used to make glass and coat computer hard drives. People like using platinum because it's very malleable.

 

 

Lesley

[Joyofsixreboot]

Here's what my 4th grader came up with today. The wording needs changed and the last bit of info can be turned into three sentences. It is a report in CLE 300 (he's behind in LA) following their research directions.

 

About Caribou

 

Sometimes Caribou are named reindeer. The caribou are almost similar to a deer. Caribou are four to five feet tall. The caribou’s hooves are wide because it helps them to walk in snow. The male has the biggest antlers.

There are two kinds of caribou, the barren ground and woodland. Barren-ground caribou live during the summer in the arctic tundra. The berren-ground caribou live during the winter in evergreen forests.

The Eskimos use the caribou for clothing, cloth,tents and meat.

[katemary63]

My DD is almost 10 and in 4th grade. She hates writing. (That's what she says!) We are using The Stack the Deck series. It is not a "classical" method. We like it a lot. Here are some things she has written in the last few months. We edit for grammar and punctuation together before publishing the piece, so those things are mostly fixed. When we edit, we read the piece out loud and she tries to catch things herself. I will point out commas and such that she misses but she does pretty well with punctuation and grammar because we used Rod and Staff! LOL She also loves to use the online thesaurus so some words she got from there, but she chose them. For the Ponies report, she took notes out of a couple of sources and I did help her decide what info was important and what stuff she should not bother with because her report would have been way too long otherwise! She wrote the notes though, and then wrote her report from those.

 

 

 

 

Ponies and Their Care 1/24/2011

 

 

By ClaireAnna Marie Harmon

 

 

 

 

What do you really know about ponies? Most people think that a pony is just a small horse, but there is a lot more too it then that. Ponies have thicker manes and tails, shorter legs, and are usually heavier boned then horses. They also have thicker necks and shorter heads. Ponies live longer than horses do. Actually, the longest living pony lived for 56 years! Another thing people think is that a baby horse is a pony. That’s just crazy! A baby horse or pony is called a foal and a horse foal is NOT a pony! But a pony foal is! Ponies are very intelligent and friendly and only sometimes just a little bit stubborn. Ponies are great for children but larger ponies can be ridden by adults too. Ponies are less than 14.2 hands high (52”). They are very strong in relation to their size and very tough, sure footed, and can live on very little food.

Ponies, unlike horses, almost never need grain. In fact, it can be bad for them and cause them to founder. The good things to feed ponies are hay, grass, and of course, water. They also should have their hooves trimmed regularly, get shots once a year and medicines for worms 4-6 times per year depending on their age. A safe fence is great because you don’t want your pony getting hurt do you? If they are out in the open, they should always have a good shelter for when it rains. I mean, YOU wouldn’t want to stand out in the rain, would you? I don’t think so!

There are many different breeds of ponies but I am just going to tell you about five of them. The first breed I will tell you about is the American Shetland Pony. They are often used for pulling carts and just a little bit of jumping but I don’t really think they can jump too high because they only grow to be about 42”. Isn’t that crazy?! Shetlands were first imported here in the 1880s. They can be any, and I mean absolutely any, color.

Next I will tell you about the Connemara pony. They can be many colors and may be the best performance pony. They also pull carts just like the American Shetland does but they are much bigger and almost go over the height limit of 14.2 hh.

The Welsh Mountain ponies, often used for English riding and jumping, can be any solid color. They don’t exceed 13 hh and are originally from Wales. Welsh Mountain Ponies are lighter boned then most ponies and have a very pretty dish faced head.

The Pony of the Americas not only is a very stocky pony but has the markings of the Appaloosa and can be 11.2 – 14.2 hh. They are usually used as ranch horses to do a lot of hard work. They are also good barrel racing ponies. That sounds like a pretty strong pony, doesn’t it?

The Halflinger pony is a very strong pony with a beautiful chestnut color and amazing flaxen mane and tail. It was named after the village of Halfling in southern Tirol. They are very popular in Germany and Switzerland and are often used for pulling carts. Halflingers are much like draft horses. They stand 14 hh tall and is so beautiful!

Now that you know more about ponies and how different they are from horses, maybe, just maybe, you will buy one for yourself. And guess what? I have four of them! I just love ponies!

 

 

In this assignment, she was to describe her favorite place so as to give the reader a sence of what it feels like to be there. She was required to use a simile.

 

 

 

My Barn Yard 02/16/2011

 

 

By ClaireAnna Marie Harmon

 

 

 

 

My barn yard might be a little messy, but it is a positively fun place to be. Inside the barn there are stalls, hay bales, halters, ropes, and even mama goats getting ready to have their goat kids. We have already had one mama goat have triplets! Their names are Crystal, Oreo, and Icarus. By the time all of our mama goats have their kids, we should have almost 20 babies!

The outside of the barn is very grassy and there is a dog chained up because she is naughty and won’t stay in the goat pen. Her name is Shani and she is a very sweet puppy dog, even though she’s naughty. On the right side of the barn, there is a duck pen and a “rabbit area” tucked away under the overhang. The duck pen is awfully muddy and loud because of all those ducks. Unlike the duck pen, the “rabbit area” is almost perfectly clean besides some hay on the ground.

On the left side of the barn, there is a rather large goat pen that has even more mama goats, almost ready to have their goat kids. In the very back of the barn, is a horse pasture with a few horses in it: Chexy, Grinch, Lindsley, and Ditto. We also have a couple more horses named, Cindy, Missy, Glori, and Woodrow. Watching all of our horses run and play makes me feel very excited because they can run so fast and it’s just so thrilling.

My favorite place to be is probably my barn or with my horses, of course. In the barn, because it’s just so peaceful and calm and quiet. Sometimes, when the animals are quiet, it is as peaceful as a little creek, flowing by silently. Now that I have told you more about my barn, maybe you will go and visit one sometime.

 

 

 

(This is a memo she had to write to a pretend new writing class student giving advice about writing. )

 

Date: 12-14-10

To: Caroline Walker

From: ClaireAnna Harmon

 

Hi! My name is ClaireAnna . You are going to have a lot of fun in writing class. I promise! I am just going to give you a few tips on how to be a good writer.

For example, if you are writing your first story or memo, you will want to use a “Think Sheet.” It is really helpful. If you need ideas for writing something look at samples of similar writing assignments. To organize a paper use compound sentences. It really makes sentences sound a lot better.

For your first draft (sloppy copy) it does not matter about spelling. Just use a pencil and skip lines so you can edit it later. Make sure you use correct punctuation and capitals. If you are going to edit your writing yourself, read it out loud, but if you have a partner, read it out loud to them so they can help you.

When you are writing a story make sure that it is interesting so the reader won`t get bored. Also be creative and add colorful words. Be sure that you put in lots of details because “a story with no details is not a story at all.”

 

 

Good Luck!

 

 

ClaireAnna Marie Harmon

 

 

 

Edited February 17, 2011 by katemary63

[Capt_Uhura]

WOOHOO you guys, please check out the new Writer's Workshop Subforum!!!!

[jengjohnson]

Yes, this was our first experience with IEW. I just decided to wing it and have felt pretty good about things. I do think that I'll eventually get the whole seminar or whatever it's called, but we've done fine with just the theme book this year. I know that now they have a student and teacher book, but we just have one combined. It must be an older edition; I picked it up at a used curriculum sale.

 

We've enjoyed it so much that I'm sure we'll use the Medieval book for next year.