I Couldn't Believe My Ears!

JW's assignment this week was to use the subject he'd written about last week (The Thing, aka his little brother, JA) and write a story incorporating the phrase "I Couldn't Believe My Eyes!" He was then to go back during the editing process and add some adverbs to several of the verbs to make the story more interesting. I allowed him to change the phrase to "I Couldn't Believe My Ears," and this is what we got.



Around 11:00 AM, I was walking quickly in New York City, because I had to catch a 747. In the airport, I saw Jeremiah crawling around. I stopped and looked surprisedly* at him. He started talking loudly. I couldn’t believe my ears! I fainted. Later, I woke up. I checked my watch. It was 1:00 PM. I had passed out for two whole hours! I grabbed Jeremiah and hurried to catch the plane, but it wasn’t there. I checked the airport schedules. I had to wait impatiently to catch a plane. Half an hour later, I went to the gate and caught the plane.

*It was explained to me by a certain grammar expert in the house exactly why "surprisedly" could not be a real word. I decided to let it go. Just this once.

Courage

MS's assignment was as essay on courage, including the dictionary definition.

The definition of courage is “to do something without fear.” Several synonyms are: boldness, bravery, and bravado. What I think courage means is to do whatever you set out to do, despite the dangers, to face any obstacle, even death.

Lots of famous people have done this, and being courageous can mean anything from being a war hero, to fighting for civil or women’s rights. Two famous examples are George Washington, who was a famous war hero, and Martin Luther King, who fought for civil rights.

All in all, courage is something that should be practiced by everyone, no matter how young or old they are.

Similes

MA's writing assignment was to write three similes based on last week's writing assignment about dirt.

- It's as brown as chocolate.
- It's as grainy as sand paper.
- It smells as smoky as sausage.

My Observation: Jeremiah

My language arts assignment was to describe something, so I chose my little brother Jeremiah. Here’s what I found out: If you smile, he smiles back. He isvery happy most of the time. The little guy doesn’t like being interrupted during his meals. He likes his dad when he’s happy and his mom when he’s not. Jeremiah looks cute and happy. ‘JAK’ smells like formula. He sounds either very happy or very sad, and he feels soft and warm. And so, this concludes my observation of Jeremiah.

The Thing

JW's writing assignment this week was to describe an object (sensing a trend here? it really was fun for them to discuss their "five senses" projects together). JW chose to describe JA (another theme). (The title of the post was the title of the assignment. I thought it was funny, given what he chose to describe.)

Jeremiah is my new little brother. He has a little hair. He's pretty small. I mostly hear him crying, coughing, sometimes hiccuping. Jeremiah's a little smelly, but that's okay. He's pretty soft. He's a little cold, but that's okay, also. He tastes bitter, and he's a little hairy (Mommy let me lick him). I like Jeremiah (even though he's a little bitter). He's always been my little brother, ever since two months ago. And he'll always be.

A Piece of Dirt

MA was given the assignment of using her five senses to describe a piece of dirt.

I'm describing a piece of dirt right now. And I'm describing it with my five senses. It feels grainy, looks rocky. It smells smoky. It sounds windy. It takes yucky (don't worry; I didn't really taste it; I just imagined what it tasted like). I'm off now to describe a piece of sand.

She actually told me, "In parentheses, put..." :-P


(No, the picture doesn't have anything to do with the post other than being of the author, but I thought she deserved a picture with her writing, too, and we forgot to take one of her dirt...although I could still get one of what's left on the stairs from where she spilled it.)

A (Cold, Soggy) Morning

JW was given the following quote (from A Lion to Guard Us) and asked to add some descriptive adjectives to make it more interesting:

On a morning in 1609, a man made his way over a bridge. He wore a jacket and a cap. His clothes were splashed with mud, and mud sucked at his shoes. He could hardly see for the rain in his face.


This was what JW came up with:

On a cold, soggy morning in 1609, an old man made his way over a rotting wood bridge. He wore a torn jacket and a dusty cap. His old clothes were splashed with cold mud, and wet mud sucked at his worn shoes. He could hardly see for the muddy rain in his old face.

An adjective for every noun! That's JW's motto today :-)