Beginning writing 1 part 9

Write a letter to match each spelling demon in the first column with a related word in the second column.. CHECKING YOUR WRITING: DOUBLE TROUBLE You’ll make a beter impression on your re

CREATIVE WRITING: HAIKU

The ancient Japanese invented a short form of poetry called haiku (hi KOO)

These poems describe life’s brief but meaningful moments The following haiku was written more than 300 years ago Read the haiku aloud Notice that the

syllables have been marked off to help you recognize the simple verse pattern

A / fal/ling flow/er, / thought / I,

Flut/ter/ing / back / to / the / branch—

Was / a / but/ter/fly

Moritake

A. Read aloud the following haiku by the Japanese

poet Issa Then mark off the syllables with

slashes as in the poem above

The dew drops falling

By ones and twos, rapidly,—

It is a good world

B. The following statements describe the haiku by Issa Circle the word

that best completes each sentence

1 The subject of haiku is

often ( love / nature )

2 The haiku has ( two / three )

lines

3 The first line has ( five / ten )

syllables

4 The second line has ( ten / seven ) syllables

5 The third line has the same number of syllables as the ( first / second ) line

6 The poem ( does / does not ) rhyme

C. One line is missing from each haiku below Circle a letter to identify the missing line (You will have to count syllables to recognize it.)

1 Ducks beside the pond

Heads tucked under

feathered wings

a Settled in for a winter’s nap

b Quacking beaks silenced

c I wish I were a duck

2 Summer night fireflies

a Flitter like gold strands of straw

b Dance like miniature globes of white light

c Remind me that I was once a child

And bring back old dreams.

CHALLENGE: On the back of this sheet, list five images in nature that would make good subjects for haiku Then write a haiku about one of the subjects

CREATIVE WRITING: WRITING ABOUT PICTURES

A photograph freezes a moment in time It captures details of a scene in the

present and saves it for the viewer A writer’s words can also freeze a

moment to share with the reader

A. Study the picture below Then write two or three detail sentences to

make the experience clearer Ask yourself who, what, when, where, and

why as you try to put a story to the picture.

_ _ _ _ _ _

Look for ways they are

similar Look for ways they

are different

1 Write a sentence or two

describing picture #1

2 Find words in your description of picture #1 that could also apply

to picture #2 Write those words on the lines below

3 Find words in your description of picture #1 that do not apply to

picture #2 Write those words on the lines below

CHALLENGE: Find two pictures in a magazine or newspaper that have

something in common Tape the pictures to the back of this sheet

Below the pictures, list words that apply to both scenes

CREATIVE WRITING: WRITING ABOUT PEOPLE

Use specific details and vivid words to “bring characters to life” for your readers

A. Read each sentence Circle the word that creates a mental picture

of a self-confident, carefree, handsome young man

1 Ruben ( swaggered / stumbled ) into the party room

2 He ( folded / tossed ) his leather jacket on the nearest chair

3 Ruben stared at me with his ( piercing / watery ) blue eyes

4 His ( smile / smirk ) made me shiver

5 Ruben moved like a ( cat / dog ) across the dance floor

6 “My name is Ruben,” he ( whimpered / whispered )

B. Think of an interesting or unusual person you know

1 Write the person’s name on the line

Then circle the adjectives that best

stylish clever serious energetic lazy wild lighthearted mellow intense cautious attractive shy funny sensitive serious lonely artistic cheerful plain bold outgoing

2 Write five adjectives of your own that describe the person.

_ _ _ _ _

3 Write five verbs that describe the way the person does things For

example, if you were describing a talkative person, you might write

the verb chattered.

_ _ _ _ _

4 Describe the person in a sentence that appeals to a sense other

than sight For example, you might write: I had to lean close to hear

Clara’s soft whisper or Pedro’s wool coat smelled like a wet dog.

CHALLENGE: On the back of this sheet, write a paragraph describing the

person you named in Part B

LAUGH OUT LOUD! WHAT’S IN A NAME?

What’s in a name? Sometimes a name can say a lot about a character

It can also make a reader chuckle!

A. Write a letter to match each name with an appropriate occupation

1 _ Hersinkis D Ripping

2 _ Minnie Stroney

3 _ Matt M Matix

4 _ B S Ting

5 _ Erin D Runner

6 _ Moe Larpane

7 _ Mei Siu Hiu

8 _ Xavier Cash

9 _ Justin Case

10 _ Harry Cutter

11 _ Hans R Dirty

12 _ C U Sunday

a barber

b dentist

c savings bank teller

d plumber

e Italian chef

f insurance agent

g preacher

h math teacher

i attorney

j garbage collector

k bee keeper

l delivery truck driver

B. Make up a first and last name for a person who does each kind of work

Try to think of a name that in some way suggests the occupation

1 basketball player

4 race car driver

5 weather forecaster

CHALLENGE: Different names suggest different images What do the people

with the following names look like? On the back of this sheet, write

sentences describing three of them

Ray Exclamato Egbert Mumford Brad Washington Sidney Clodfelter

CREATIVE WRITING: REVIEW

A. To complete the puzzle, match the clues with the answer words in the box

ACROSS

1 an imaginary person an

author writes about

4 word meaning clear

or distinct

5 the sense you use

when describing

something as soft

7 with five of these, we

experience the world

around us

9 a mental picture

DOWN

2 a three-line poem developed in Japan

3 the sense you use when describing

something as sweet

6 the sense you use when describing

something as loud

7 the sense you use when describing something as fragrant

8 the sense you use when describing something as yellow

B. Practice your poetry by completing each haiku

_ _ _ _

_ _ _ _

C. On the back of this sheet, draw a picture illustrating one haiku from Part B Then use your creative writing skills to write another descriptive piece

about the picture It might be a few sentences, a whole paragraph, or

another poem

V

I

1

6 5

4

3 2

9

8 7

CHECKING YOUR WRITING: SPELLING DEMONS

Writers call certain words “demons” because they can be so troublesome

to spell Sometimes, a word’s pronunciation makes its spelling unclear

For example, the word medicine sounds as if it could be spelled meda-,

medi-, or mede- Try this trick: Think of another word that has the same

word part—such as medic In medic, the i is more clearly pronounced

A. Say each word in the first column aloud Notice that the vowel in

italics is unclear Write a letter to match each spelling demon in the

first column with a related word in the second column Notice how

much clearer the vowel is when you pronounce the second word

1 _ invitation

2 _ combination

3 _ competition

4 _ declaration

5 _ relative

6 _ perspiration

7 _ author

8 _ burglar

a compete

b declare

c relate

d combine

e invite

f perspire

g burglary

h authority

B. Use the correct vowel to complete the words in the selection below

Practice was in 15 minutes, but Jesse had a problem His basketball

shoes were in his locker—and he’d forgotten the comb nation!

“Jessie, if you’re late to one more practice,” Coach Morgan had warned,

“you’re off the team I don’t care if the principal is your rel tive! I don’t care

if you have an inv tation to meet the president! We are in comp tition for the state championship We need plenty of prep ration for the next game.” Jesse remembered Coach Morgan’s decl ration: “Be on time, or you’re out!” Beads of persp ration formed on his forehead as he twisted the lock Click! The locker door opening was the most beautiful sound Jesse

had ever heard If he were an auth r, he’d have written a poem about

that beautiful sound! For now Jesse was off to practice.

CHALLENGE: On the back of this sheet, write five original sentences In each sentence, use a spelling demon from the first column of Part A

CHECKING YOUR WRITING: DOUBLE TROUBLE

You’ll make a beter impression on your readers if you spell all words correctly! WAIT A MINUTE! Did you notice anything wrong in that last sentence? The word

in italics is misspelled! This writer has forgotten to double the final consonant

before adding the word ending The word is correctly spelled better

A spelling rule to remember: When a short vowel comes before the final

consonant, double the consonant before adding the ending (bet + er = better)

A. Circle the correctly spelled word in each pair

1 The Warthogs were ( hoping / hopping ) to win their first game

2 Lefty McGee slid into home, ( scraping / scrapping ) his knee

3 In spite of his injury, Lefty ( hoped / hopped ) up and waved to the fans

4 As the Warthogs cheered their win, their opponents ( moped / mopped ) over their loss

5 “We were ( robed / robbed )!” cried one player “Lefty should have been out!”

B. Rewrite each word, adding the ending indicated

1 big 3 beg 5 big 7 bet _

2 thin _ 4 tag 6 mad _ 8 hit _

C. Read the definitions To play this word game, double one of the letters in the first word to make the second word The first one has been done for you

1 wager = _

a vegetable = _

2 sacred = _

a prickly tree = _

3 dry, sandy region =

pie, cake, ice cream = _

4 having great heat = _

owl sound =

5 spoke with anger = dressed in

tattered clothes =

6 abbreviation for advertisement = _ put together = _

7 wishing = _ jumping on

one foot = _

bet beet

CHECKING YOUR WRITING: LETTERS OFTEN LEFT OUT

A word’s pronunciation does not always match its spelling

•When a word has a quiet letter that is hard to hear, the letter may be left out

EXAMPLES: cand idate, Febr uary, govern ment

•Other words are often pronounced with slurred sounds When speakers turn

a three-syllable word into a two-syllable word, spelling can get confusing

EXAMPLES: Boun/da/ry can be incorrectly pronounced boun/dry

His/to/ry can be incorrectly pronounced his/try

A. Circle the correctly spelled word

1 The ( bakry / bakery ) case was filled with ( chocolate / choclate ) delights

2 A ( fedral / federal ) holiday honors war ( veterans / vetrans )

3 All ( sophmores / sophomores ) study U.S ( histry / history )

4 The ( avrage / average ) ( salary / salry ) of a ( government / goverment ) employee has been climbing each year

5 Automobile exhaust is one of ( several / sevral ) things that pollute the ( eviroment / environment )

B. Circle the misspelled word in each sentence of the paragraph

You should find 6 misspelled words in all

A leap year has 366 days, one day more than an ordnary year The extra day is added to Febuary The month has a 29th

day only once evry four years People born on that extra day

have an intresting problem Do they only celbrate their birthday

every fourth year? Do they substatute March 1 as their birthday?

CHALLENGE: Write the correct spellings of

the words you circled in Part B Then find

and circle each word in the puzzle Words

may go up, down, across, or diagonally

T I N T E R E S T I N G

C R M I B E A U C H O D

O E V T R F O B O L I S

R E L I F U H S I L E P

D R N E E R N T A A R J

I S T O B T D I M E S U

N N C T R R K T R Q U I

A U M E U T A U D I N H

R R G B A H I T E O R I

Y Y E I R N A E E T G C

E V E R Y T Z T X G E H

CHECKING YOUR WRITING: CAPITALIZATION I

Remember that a proper noun names a specific person, place, or thing

Begin all proper nouns with a capital letter

PROPER NOUNS: Mike Mahoney, Chestnut Valley High School, New York City

Days of the week, months of the year, and holidays are proper nouns and are

capitalized Seasons of the year are not proper nouns and are not capitalized The proper nouns in the following sentences need to be capitalized

Rewrite each proper noun on the lines following each sentence

Be sure to capitalize the first letter of each word you write

(The figure in parentheses is the number of words to capitalize.)

1 We usually buy a pumpkin on september 21, the first day of autumn

(1) _

2 My sister angela and I start planning our halloween costumes

(2) _

3 Last year I dressed up as captain hook and angela dressed as peter pan

(5) _

4 I like it when holidays fall on a monday because it means a long weekend

(1) _

5 We bought chocolates from julio’s sweets shoppe on beach boulevard

(5) _

6 I ate so much candy that I felt sick and ended up at dr richard’s office

(2) _

7 I’ll eat lots again on thursday, november 24, because that’s thanksgiving!

(3) _

CHALLENGE: On the back of this sheet,

write a paragraph describing a holiday

celebration Be sure to capitalize the

first word in each sentence and all

proper nouns

CHECKING YOUR WRITING: CAPITALIZATION II

Certain types of proper nouns can be capitalization demons! Writers may have trouble deciding when they should begin with a capital letter and when they should not The following chart can help you with these capitalization demons

A. Circle the noun that is written correctly

1 A well-known ( scientist / Scientist ), ( professor / Professor ) V Ermin, has spent his life studying tree crickets

2 He set up a (laboratory / Laboratory) in ( mount / Mount ) Baldy State ( park / Park ) where he forecasted weather by counting cricket chirps

3 “The ( park / Park ) crickets are much livelier when the weather is

warm,” explained ( doctor / Doctor ) Ermin

B. Look for proper nouns in the following sentences Rewrite each proper

noun on the lines Be sure to capitalize the first letter of each word you

write (You should find no proper nouns in two of the sentences!)

1 A new york city man was arrested for

squeezing bread in the city’s supermarkets _

2 The suspect, a dentist, was

captured near the hudson river

3 The judge let the criminal

go with only a warning

4 My uncle ted, a police sergeant in

kansas city, has heard other amazing tales _

5 My uncle heard about a convict who escaped

on the day he was scheduled to be released _

CHALLENGE: On the back of this sheet, write two sentences for each of

the following words: beach, aunt, library, doctor, senator In the first

sentence, use the word as a common noun In the second sentence,

use the word as a proper noun

COMMON NOUN

NOT PART OF THE NAME :

the neighborhood park

PRECEDED BY WORDS SUCH

AS THE , MY , THEIR :

my mother, their dentist, the governor

PROPER NOUN

PART OF THE NAME OF

A SPECIFIC PLACE :

Atlantic Ocean

PART OF THE NAME OR USED

IN PLACE OF THE NAME :

Aunt Sue, General Collins, Hey, Dad!

CAPITALIZATION DEMONS

PLACE NAMES :

street, hospital,

school, ocean

FAMILY RELATIONS :

aunt, dad, mother; AND

NOUNS SHOWING RANK OR WORK :

doctor, mayor