Sentence Contest – Final Week

Many, many thanks to everyone who has taken the time each week to vote on my students’ sentences. I’ve loved reading the sentences they’ve written, but I’ve loved watching them strive to do better each week even more.

Hmmm…I wonder if they’d like to continue this contest throughout the summer. No?

Anyway…since this is our last week of school, it will also be our last sentence contest. Appropriately, it will also be the theme of our last sentence contest. I gave students the sentence starter, “It was the last day of school and…” and asked them to finish it. They came up with some great ideas, several of which had me crying in a corner somewhere. Tears of joy, my friends, tears of joy!

Voting this week will close Wednesday, June 3rd, at 11:59 p.m. Our last day of school is Thursday!

The winning sentence from last week was:

I walked through the door and found the unlikely site of my brother working tirelessly over a feast of golden caramelized turkey, soft steamed vegetables, and an unknown desert that hid behind a cloud of powdered sugar.

Written by Laura

Sentence Contest – Week Two

Thank you to all those who voted in our sentence contest last week! I did let my students know the winning sentence on Friday but forgot to post it here. My apologies! Last week’s winning sentence was:

The gooey, pearly white marshmallow melted on my tongue, sweet and creamy, reminding me of warm summer nights spent around the fire making s’mores.

Written by Katie C.

This morning I provided my seventh graders with the sentence “The sunset was pretty,” and asked them to paint me a sunset with words. It was not easy choosing only five to share with you, but I’m hoping you’ll be able to choose just one as this week’s winning sentence. Good luck!

We have a short week this week, so voting will close Wednesday so I can inform the kids on Thursday.

Sentence Contest – Week One

Since we have such wonderful writers in my current class, I thought it would be fun to have a sentence writing contest each week. So yesterday I gave the class an incredibly boring sentence (The marshmallow was good) and asked them to create a much more descriptive sentence, one that we could practically taste. It was a bad day to forget my lunch, let me tell you. By the time I’d finished reading all of their sentences, my stomach was growling so loudly that it frightened the cat.

We could use your help in deciding the winning sentence. If you have a moment, would you please complete this form by Thursday, March 26th, and I’ll announce the winner on Friday. Thank you!

Photo Caption Contest

One of my favorite writing activities to do with students is to provide them with a photo and ask them to write a caption for it. Yesterday, I shared a photo of a squirrel that I found on Pinterest (of course!) and asked them to write away. Not only did they love the activity, we all loved the captions they came up with.

I told my students that I would choose a few of their captions and ask the world to vote for a winner. Unfortunately, there were just too many to narrow down the choices to even a top five. So, dear reader, I need your help. Would you be so kind as to select your two favorite captions in the form below? If there is no clear winner, then I’ll create a second form with fewer choices.

Thanks so much for your help!

And the Winners Are…

First of all, I’d like to thank everyone who took the time to vote in our Goodbye to Cliches Contest. I can’t tell you how much my students and I appreciated every vote…all 198 of them! I especially loved seeing votes coming in from three different continents, places like Colombia, Saskatchewan, and Australia!

But, without further ado…here is the presentation I created to share with the seventh graders which sentences were voted by you as being Smarties worthy. Enjoy!

Goodbye to Cliches Contest

Do you have one or two minutes to help me determine the winners in our Goodbye to Cliches contest? Last week I had my seventh graders rewrite some tired old lines and now we need your help to determine who gets the Smarties. I would really appreciate it if you, dear reader, could take just a moment and complete this form: Goodbye to Cliches Contest. And feel free to pass this along to all your friends and family members!

Please note: This contest ends Thursday at midnight (PST). Winners will be announced on this blog on Friday, January 17th.

Thanks for your help!