How do we get students excited to write a sentence?

I’d start the lesson with this whopping fact:

Every year more than a SEPTILLION snowflakes fall on Earth.  Hundreds of inches of snow falls on the Sierra Nevadas here in California alone! Septillion is a cardinal number—a “quantity”—that’s represented by the numeral 1 followed by 24 zeros. One septillion is a very BIG number!

I’d follow this with some smaller, yet still amazing facts:

Snow is made up mostly of air:

Fresh snow contains a bunch of trapped air, which is why it feels light and fluffy. 

Snow is frozen water:

Snow is simply water vapor that has frozen into tiny ice crystals in the clouds. 

Snow can fall even when it’s not very cold:

As long as there is enough moisture in the air, snow can fall even at temperatures slightly above freezing. 

Snowflakes are six-sided and unique:

Depending on the temperature and humidity, and because each falls through the air differently, they have unique patterns and six-sided shapes—needles, columns, and plates.

Close the lesson with another BIG fact:

The biggest snowflake, recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records back in 1987, was found in Montana. The snowflake was 15 inches in diameter and 5 inches thick! That’s one BIG snowflake! I’d likely mock up a way to help them see this fact:

Next, I would read some wintry books. Here are some favorites:

The woodland animals were all getting ready for the winter. Geese flew south, rabbits and deer grew thick warm coats, and the raccoons and chipmunks lay down for a long winter nap. Come Christmastime, the wise owls were the first to see the rainbow around the moon. It was a sure sign that the big snow was on its way.

Here we’d think about winter taking place in the natural world. We’d explore the four seasons, focusing in on winter.  As the animals watch fall slipping away and prepare for winter, students will follow, learning important information along the way.

No one thinks one or two snowflakes will amount to anything. Not the man with the hat or the lady with the umbrella. Not even the television or the radio forecasters. But one boy and his dog have faith that the snow will amount to something spectacular, and when flakes start to swirl down on the city, they are also the only ones who know how to truly enjoy it.

Now it would be time to write: “This wonderful book begins with three short sentences.”

The skies are gray.

The rooftops are gray.

The whole city is gray.

These sentences have one word in common: gray.

 We have set the stage, ignited curiosity, and offered some really intriguing fodder. Now I’d get into the lesson:

There are four types of sentences:

Declarative sentences give, or declare, information.

Imperative sentences give commands, make requests, or implore.

Interrogative sentences ask questions.

Exclamatory sentences express strong emotions.

Here I’d pull out another book. This one is a book of poetry, but not just any poetry,  these poems are focused on the tenacious birds who stay put in wintry conditions.

We will read several poems together, learn about specific birds, then we will focus in on the blue jay. We will read about the blue jay in the appendix at the back of the book before focusing in on the poem. We will learn that these birds store up to 100 seeds and nuts per day in preparation for winter. We will learn about its tricky ability to hide the store and locate it easily when needed. We will learn about courtship and nest building and the raising of baby jays. This and more. And then we will read the poem.

First we will notice that the poem is two stanzas. Then we will notice something wonderful: All four types of sentences are woven here! We read aloud. As we read we hear the tight rhythm, we hear the perfect rhyme. Isn’t poetry grand?

But now it’s time to craft some snowy sentences, and before the magic slips away, I’d remind my students: Sentences are POETRY!

I would help my students get started (you can too!):

I’d write on the board: In winter…

I’d ask: “What next?”

The student might write:

In winter, animals are hungry.

I ask: Which animals?

In winter, chipmunks and owls and deer are hungry.

I ask: What will they do?

In winter, chipmunks and owls and deer are hungry, so they collect and store food away for the coming snowy days.

Now that is a sentence,” I say to them! That is a sentence that is like a poem:

In winter

     chipmunks and

          owls and

               deer are hungry,

so they collect

and store food away

for the coming

snowy days.

 

 

~Kimberly

Did you know you can see 20 quadrillion miles away? That’s how far it is to the very brightest star in the sky, Cygnus. And, did you know every single star you see in the night sky is bigger and brighter than the sun? Our sun, after all, is a dwarf star. That’s right a dwarf!

So what has this got to do with poetry?

Everything! That’s what!

Learning to write well does not happen by learning the rules. No! Learning to write well is rooted in wonder. And what is more worthy of our wonder than the 200 billion trillion stars in the universe?   That is an unfathomable number, right? On any given clear night, we humans can only see around 2,000 stars.  So let’s press into curiosity and consider what 200 billion trillion actually means. Seeing only 2,000 of the 200 billion trillion stars is like looking at a single speck of sand compared to all the grains of sand on the beach! This should make us marvel.

Now, back to crafting haiku, it all begins with a single 16 to 18 syllable sentence. This one is 17 syllables:

Words are like stars spilling a symphony from the night’s indigo stage.

Next, break the sentence into three lines:

Words are like stars spilling / a symphony from the night’s / indigo stage.

Finally, polish the sentence into haiku form:

Words are like stars spilling

a symphony from the night’s

indigo stage.

Enjoy the following singular sentences shaped into haiku form:

Looking up into

the sky, a twinkling star was

winking down on me.

~Ayela

Looking up in the

sky, dazzling stars illuminate

the darkness of night.

~Elias

I wonder if there

are different types of vibrant

stars in other cosmos?

~Jude

Looking up in the

night sky, you will see small stars

but they are fiery.

~Jackson

Little star in the night

glowing light, floating high

in a cobalt sky.

~Aylen

Looking up into

the sky, something brilliant,

something like a giant star.

~Claire

Little star in the sky,

your shimmering glow

was shinning so bright.

~Emma

Far away Cygnus, bright

star, radiant pearl in the night

sky illuminates ’till it dies.

~Rowan

Looking up to the dark sky,

I began to see the glowing

bright Big Dipper.

~Kate

When I see the stars

at night, I wonder at the

brilliance of the sky.

~Brynnan

Thank you Mrs. Kontos (Walla Walla Homeschool consulting, WA) and your terrific students. Wonder-FULL. Simply wonderful. Congratulations to these student writers who courageously brought shape to an idea with pencil on paper.

~Kimberly