November Writing Folder

“Autumn Activities”

Due ______________________

As you complete each activity, draw a line through the number.

1. Cover Activity: Be creative!

! On the outside cover, illustrate the things you are thankful for.

The following activities are to be completed on notebook paper (unless other wise stated) and placed in your writing folder. Be sure to number the activity!

2. Paragraph

! Write a paragraph with at least 6 sentences explaining your cover illustration. Underline your topic sentence. Be sure your detail sentences support the topic sentence.

3. Personal Narrative: Write ½ to 1 page on the topic below.

Write about a memorable Thanksgiving—one that stands out in your mind because of a particularly funny, sad, embarrassing, surprising, or joyous incident.

! PRE-WRITE: Web/cluster or list words, feelings/thoughts, activities, sights, sounds, tastes you associate with this topic.

! ROUGH DRAFT: Look at your pre-writing and begin to put these ideas into sentences and paragraphs.

! REVISE: Reread your rough draft—Does your writing make sense? Does your writing have interesting details and showing sentences? Make additions and changes where necessary.

! EDIT: Proofread your writing looking for spelling/punctuation mistakes and correct them.

! FINAL DRAFT: Neatly rewrite your personal narrative.

! Place your pre-writing, rough draft, and final draft in your folder.

3. Writing Technique: Sentence Combining.

Having a variety of sentence lengths makes writing more interesting. Practice making longer sentences by combining the following groups of short sentences into one sentence.

EX. Mom sliced pumpkin pie. Mom sliced apple pie. Dad carved the turkey.

Combined: While Dad carved the turkey, mom sliced the pumpkin and apple pies.

a) It was Thanksgiving dinner. Aunt Abby arrived. She was late. Uncle Bert was late, too.

Continued on Next Page

b) The turkey saw him. Farmer John had a hatchet. The turkey ran. Farmer John came out of the barn.

c) The bear curled up into a ball. She sniffed the cold winter air. She hibernated. She went into her den.

4. Poetry: Autumn Couplets

! Look at the explanation and example of couplets on the attached sheet.

! Write a couplet poem with at least 5 stanzas about something to do with November, like, autumn, Thanksgiving, or football.

! Web or cluster words and ideas associated with your topic before trying to write the poem.

5. Any thing but . . . :Word Usage:

! List 12 words you could use instead of “good”

7. Mad Libs: Parts of Speech

! Complete the attached Football Broadcast Mad Lib sheet. Have fun and don’t cheat!

8. Listing: Mayflower Matters

! List 10 questions you would ask the pilgrims if you sat with them at the first Thanksgiving feast.

9. Persuade Me!

Pretend you are a bold, adventurous pilgrim ready to sail across the ocean to a new land and start a new life. You have a friend that is not quite so brave as you.

! Give your friend a name.

! Write your friend a letter persuading her/him to join you on your voyage.

! Be sure to correctly date your letter.

10. Ask Ms. Manners

! Write detailed instructions on how to set the table for Thanksgiving dinner.

! Draw a diagram of the table and its settings.

11. Pardon Me

! Pretend you are Tom Turkey and write a note to Farmer John explaining why you shouldn’t be Thanksgiving dinner.

12. Author’s Point of View: Scary Snacks

Do you like to snack while watching football games or other sports events on cool autumn days?

! Read and complete the attached Scary Snacks cartoon.