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 :-)

Outline: The History of Chocolate

The outline that started it all.

A. It all started with a bean …
1.The beginning
a. First, Aztecs saw monkeys eating the pulps and spitting out the seeds of cocoa beans.
b. Soon the Aztecs were eating and spitting too.
2. A whiff of chocolate
a. The second step to the chocolate bar began with a few Aztec farmers…
b. A couple of Aztec farmers stopped to take a whiff of chocolate rotting under…
3. Banana leaves
a. After this first whiff, the Aztecs did the same thing
b. Pretty soon, the Aztecs came up with a scummy drink called…
B. Cocoa
1. I claim this land in the name of…
a. The Spanish then came, saw, and conquered
b. The Spanish then went back to their land with loads of cocoa beans.
2. Muy delicioso!
a. The explorers introduced the drink to their king.
b. The king liked it, though he thought it needed more flavoring.
3. The era of Cocoa
a. After the flavoring was added, it became a very popular drink in Spain.
b. For many years the Spaniards kept it their secret.
C. Finally, the bar!
1. The British find out!
a. Eventually, the Spanish hold it anymore.
b. The British got hold of the secret!
2.Mmmmmmmm!
a. The British loved the new drink, but decided not to keep it a secret.
b. Soon the whole world knew.
3. It’s crunchy!
a. Years after Cocoa, the bar had still not been made.
b. Henri Nestlé finally made the world’s favorite treat.

Bill's History of Chocolate

ML's research project last year (yes, last year; bear with me) was "The History of Chocolate." I don't think it fell within the parameters of the suggested topics from his Language Arts curriculum, but it sounded more interesting (both to him and to me), and he could still apply the principles of research he was learning, so we went with it.

Rather, we went partway with it. We never actually got to the point of writing the paper.

I figured we'd do better this year. Hopefully. (He's just begun the research, and I have high hopes for the project, especially given the monumental scope of the topic: the State of Texas.)

However, he came upon an assignment the other day in this year's Language Arts, which was to outline a paper on a topic and then write from it (once again, I think this was outside the parameters of the options he was given, but I'm just not a stickler for such boundaries, as you may be deducing). He had the idea to use the information from his History of Chocolate research and below you see the result. (I'll post the original outline separately.)



Hi, my name is Bill the Monkey. I’m here to tell you the History of Chocolate from my perspective. It all started when I was climbing a tree to find some cocoa pods.

No sooner than I had broken one open and was sucking the pulp out when I realized some Aztecs were staring at me. Didn’t they know it’s rude to stare? The Aztecs then got a couple of cocoa pods down and started sucking on them too! It was like a game of Monkey See, Monkey Do!

This went on for a couple of days until they found some cocoa pods rotting under banana leaves. I must say, they smelled good, and the Aztecs thought so too. Later, I found them laying banana leaves over rotting cocoa beans, and making a drink out of it.

And then some guys with tin hats and metal poles came and started raiding our cocoa stash. I figured that they wore the hats to avoid being hit. What wimps! They also put me on a giant tree surrounded by water. Then the tree started moving, and I stayed there out of curiosity. I am now currently in a place filled with more tin hat people with too many clothes on.

A small girl came and put a loincloth around my neck. This had never happened to me before, but I didn’t like it. I ripped the loincloth and jumped onto a big hut. While on top of it, I realized that Tin Hat Land had tons of them. The hut I was standing on was the biggest hut I could see, and when I looked in, I saw people drinking that same stuff the Aztecs were making out of cocoa beans.

I stayed here for a couple of years and the people gave me metal circles for wearing clothes and drinking “cocoa”.
This was a good life, and one afternoon, I had been enjoying another cup of cocoa when I found out they had turned this cocoa into sweet solid stuff. It was delicious, and very creamy.

Well, there you have it, the History of Chocolate from my perspective. Bye, Bye, for now! I’m off to find a Mars bar!