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4th & 5th grade

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Words from Our Young Authors at Thornhill Elementary, Grades 2-3

This winter we utilized our taste buds and sank our teeth into the food curriculum where we wrote poems and stories about our favorite cuisines. Check out some of our favorite excerpts from the session below!

From an exercise about writing odes to favorite foods:

Oh, Sushi, Oh, Sushi. You're a wild animal. You taste like a flash of light. You look like you're going to hop like a cheetah into my mouth. You're going to stop everyone in world wars because you taste so good. Sushi makes freedom come out the door with feeling. Sushi jumps into my mouth!

- Jack

 

From an exercise about writing odes to favorite foods:       

Oh, Chocolate Cake, you are the taste everyone calls gold. You smell like a rose swaying in the sunlight. You feel like a cloud moving slowly in my mouth. When I see chocolate cake my eyes burst into flames! You have the taste of my life.

- Sidney

 

From an exercise about writing odes to favorite foods:

Oh, Chip, My Love. How fresh you are! You crunch in my mouth as my white blades chomp into you. Oh, how you shatter into little bits. I taste your salty coat. My mouth starts to water.

- Amanda

 

From an exercise about writing odes to favorite foods:

Oh, Chicken Curry. You look like fish in the ocean. You feel like a slippery monkey bar. You smell of my home… India

- Maya

 

From a personification exercise in which students were asked to write from the point of view of fruit:

They Call Me the Lime. I'm green with envy because lemon gets all the credit. When you make limeade from me I get revenge and turn myself sour! And you know what? You can't listen any more. Why? …Because it's over.

- Miles

 

From an exercise about writing odes to favorite foods:

Oh, Chocolate Cake, how you make my mouth explode with flavor like a cloud bursting with rain. Your color looks like mud on the ground…

But you make my stomach feel so good.

 - Lauren

 

From a poetry exercise using alliterative food descriptions:

Sleeping ice cream sandwich is slimy with a silky taste. Sleeping ice cream sandwich is stalking some stockings and silly socks while looking at his snakes doing the splits.

- Sophia

 

From an exercise about writing odes to favorite foods:

Ice cream is sweet. Ice cream is filling. Ice cream is paradise. Ice cream is in my mouth. Ice cream is gone. I am ice cream. Eat me if you would.

- Aidan

 

From an exercise about writing odes to favorite foods:

Chocolate Cake that crumbles in my mouth, slice after slice. That yummy little cake wouldn't mind if I take another slice… Soon it'll be gone, like an iguanadon. But I wouldn't cry… or even say goodbye!

- Josh

 

From a personification exercise in which students were asked to write from the point of view of fruit:      

I love my life living in a shell. Shake, Shake, Boom! I just fell from the tree! Anyway, there will be no more interruptions Hey! Someone just picked me up! Now anyway, my name is Coco the Coconut. Sometimes I do wish I was a person, not a brown ball with juice inside. Wait a minute… they're cutting me open for a snack! I'm still around, but not for long…

- Aisling

 

From a personification exercise in which students were asked to write from the point of view of fruit:      

I'm Angela the Apple, and I'd like to stay on this tree forever and play and eat popcorn. It feels like I'm dying when they pick me off the tree But if they don't I can plant a seed. That's a ball for apples!

- Adriana

 

From an exercise in which the kids wrote about their favorite personal qualities as recipe ingredients:

1 teaspoon of laughter 1 cup of reading mix while pouring in a pound of family Add a tablespoon of kindness 3 ounces of smartness slowly pour into a bowl and bake for an hour and a half Spring a pinch of soccer on top of it all Your Elijah is done!

- Elijah

 

As a break from the food curriculum, kids were given the beginnings of well-known proverbs and asked to write their own endings:

Never underestimate the power of... stars. You can lead a horse to water but... not food. Don’t bite the hand that... hurts. No news is... today. If you lie down with dogs you’ll... get better. Love all, trust... all. The pen is mightier than the... paper. Happy the bride who... is good.

- Isabelle

 

As a break from the food curriculum, kids were given the beginnings of well-known proverbs and asked to write their own endings:

Laugh and the whole world laughs with you. Cry and the whole world... frowns. Love all, trust... another. Better late than... sorry. Where there’s smoke there’s... frowns. A penny saved is... lucky. children should be seen and not... yelled at.

- Ava

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What have "Take My Word For It!" kids been up to? Check out Walt Disney Elementary 4th & 5th grade:

Students in our after-school and community classes are exploring all the different ways writers generate ideas, and put captivating words on the page.

Classroom Shot 5

Here are more writing excerpts and photos of our young authors working with instructor, Marissa Bell Toffili at Walt Disney Elementary in San Ramon:

 

4th & 5th Grade:

By Alex

It was a dark, heavy wind. I was about to play baseball in the heavy wind. When I got outside, I could smell the heavy earth. So I went inside. I saw the dark clouds coming in. It started to rain. I could see yellow strikes of lightning. When the rain hit the ground, I could hear splats. The sky felt like it was getting mad at something. I could see the huge wind breaking the branches off of huge trees. I was very happy I was inside and not out.

Walt Disney_Alex

By Andrew 

Walt Disney_Andrew When I wake up during midnight,

I feel tired. I feel cranky,

I feel annoyed. I feel hungry.

Being woken up during midnight

is like being tortured.

Being awake during midnight

is like being in the middle of nowhere.

Being awake during midnight

is like being shocked.

 

By Christopher

 

Walt Disney_Christopher I am from Black Ops

I am from Halo Reach

I am from baseball

I am from reading books

I am from the Gold Rush

I am from desserts

I am from the smell of Diritos

I am from the sound of splashing water

I am from the world of money

I am from Modern Warfare 2

I am from Call of Duty 4

I am from Xbox 360

I am from a sense of math

I am from the scents of sports

I am from video games

I am from the world of computers

I am from the wild

 

By Isaiah

The noise in the cafeteria was so loud it sounded like a basketball game when you hit the winning shot. WOOOOOOO! HAAA! Beeeee Quiet! is all that I heard. I just knew Steff was going to blow the whistle. I saw food gliding across the air. I could smell different food every second. I felt little pieces of food hit me. Beep. Beep, Beep, Beep. It was my annoying alarm clock! “Wait!” I woke up and glanced at my alarm clock. “I’m late!” I rushed to my parent’s. It’s 12:00. Now get up. No, it’s 12:00 at night. Then why did my alarm clock go off? I looked at my brother and he had a mysterious look on his face. “You’re so dead!” I chased him until he was cornered. My parents said, “Stop. Now. You both go back to bed.” The day after my alarm clock went off at 12:00, so I just slept in and it was 12:00 in the morning.

 

Walt Disney_Isaiah

Walt Disney_Megan By Megan

 

I See the World

 

I see the lemon yellow sun

cracking from the door

 

I see the cherry blossoms

growing in the leaves

 

Walt Disney_Megan-fun I see people playing

on the playground

 

I see groaning people

in the rain

 

I know the kids in class

are looking at me

 

I crave the strawberries

growing in the ground

 

I smell warm cookies

cooking in the night

 

I love blueberries

growing in the bushes

 

I know that my cat

is licking at night

 

 

By Nate

The rain came down hard like bombs were dropping. Outside looked like you were in a scary, creepy ghost tow. The rain felt like you were pushed and blown by the gods with their powerful muscular fists. Tastes like fresh water from god, coming fast like a bullet. It smells like nothing was there but water—H2O. It is not nice. Wide drops came down, making it look like small tears coming out of my green eyes. I don’t know how it’s sad by May. Is it the flowing rain or just me? When a kid, life is cheerful, happy, sunny, smiles, and joy, but when you’re older life falls off the sun and follows into the darkness of olderness, like you slip and something grabs you and you have no choice but to go down. Now the rain falls when sad things happen, even if it happened a year or more you still have that same thing in your lifetime, and death, no matter how small or big, that’s it.

 

Walt Disney_Nate H
Walt Disney_Nate H-fun

 

By Shirin

The noise in the cafeteria blasted at my unprepared eardrums. I brushed the tables. Ow! The table vibrated so hard my hand vibrated too. I attempted to pick up my milk but a voice blasted at my ear, and Splash! My milk splashed on the bully. Ha! Serves her right after all these years. Finally the bell rings and it’s recess.

 

Walt Disney_Shirin Walt Disney_Shirin-fun
By Zoe

Walt Disney_Zoe In the TV Screen


I look ahead and see my reflection

covered in black. It’s the darkest section.

I see a mirroring image of the room

with scratchy carpet swept with a broom.

My heart pumps, so concentrated.

We feel sort of trapped, like we’re gated.

Walt Disney_Zoe-fun In the shiny, dark image

I see myself, soft and timid.

Colored posters on the wall,

each are different from them all.

The lights are round on the screen

but rectangular above me.

It’s like a clone of our world

showing every boy and girl.

I see the room, I see me.

I am looking in the TV screen.

When it’s off it’s like a mirror,

but not as simple, not as clear.

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