Friday, March 1, 2013

Run-Ons Are Hereditary

Well, as I sit here and type, the wind is blowing, the temperature is cold, and snow is falling.  Again. 

March is roarin' in like a big old lion.  Not a nice Simba lion either.  More like Scar.  Not nice.  Not nice at all.

Hopefully that means it will go out like a whole flippin' field full of lambs.  And I don't mean that literally.  )Although, my brother does have 20 pregnant sheep who will be giving birth in March.  Regardless of the weather, March will definitely go out like a lamb for his family.)

This morning, Turken asked if he could make a book.  I said, "Sure!" because I had a lot of cleaning to do today and needed an activity to keep them occupied. 

First, I sat down with him and had him tell me the story he wanted in his book.  I then made a simple book made of folded printer paper with a construction paper cover.  I put a sentence on each page, then gave him some colored pencils to illustrate it. 

Of course, if Turken got to make a book, Cuckoo had to make one, too. 

If you ever want to know what is going through your children's heads at any given time, ask them to tell you a story. From Turken and Cuckoo's stories, it would seem that my little ones did not have enough to eat at breakfast.


 
I'm Full!
By Turken
 
Once upon a time there was a little boy named John.
 
I do belive Turken was distracted when he drew John.  Perhaps he was daydreaming about a giraffe?



He ate everything! 
 
Then he got too much to eat


Can you see the kiwi, green beans, banana, strawberries, taco, banana bread, carrot, clementine, and mango?  Notice John.  It will be important later.
and wouldn't be able to eat any more until a different day because he was full.
 
 
My boy loves details.  Same red shirt and black pants, but they are no longer able to contain the giant belly created from the overeating.
 
And then he wanted to do some climbing.
 
That would be John climbing a ladder.  Naturally.  Because everyone wants to climb a ladder after stuffing himself like a sausage.
 
The End
 
*******************
 
A Boy Named Andrew
By Cuckoo
 
Someone named Andrew ate his sandwich and his fruit and then he ate candy.
 
For some reason Andrew is sideways.  The red blob is one honkin' big sandwich.  Bet you can guess what those blue circles with M's in the middle are.  I guess he misses M&Ms, too.
Then he ate one more thing, and it was a juicy pear.
 
See that circle in the middle of the Andrew drawing?  It's his belly button.  You will see one in every single drawing Cuckoo does of a person.  (I know you are now scrolling to the previous picture.  There's a belly button there, too.)
 
Then he played with his pillow pets and came downstairs and Eva and Andrew were playing with them.
 
While eating more M&Ms apparently. 
The end.
 
Clearly, run-on sentences are ingrained.  Now I just need to teach them the fine art of parentheses over-usage.
 
Have a lovely day!




12 comments:

  1. Those stories are gorgeous (and I daresay they'll get the hang of parentheses over-use any day now(especially if you role-model it to them frequently (which I bet you do (Hope so, anyways))))

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    1. Hahaha! If I fall short, promise me you will teach them.

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    2. Certainly, though I claim no credit for myself - the man who taught me all I love about parenthesis is native of your country - Lewis Thomas. It was in his book The Medusa and The Snail (which I picked up in a charity shop for the sheer bizarreness of its title and promptly fell in love with) but the chapter is here - http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jlawler/punctuation.html

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  2. Loving both the stories and the illustrations! I need to dig out a picture one of my students made several years ago of her mom. It had details only a four year old would include in a picture!

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  3. Love your commentary on their books. My 3 year old is adding belly buttons and nipples to her people drawings lately. And they all have 3 legs. I think that's a 3rd leg.

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  4. Stick figure belly buttons! That may just be the best thing I've seen all day!

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  5. Ohhh, this is soooo good!! Sometimes I get out my kids school folders and just look through their past work so that I can re-read all of it and laugh/smile/cry. We are BIG run on sentence crafters - and, and, and, and, and.....Great post!!

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    1. Thank you! I have a box for each of the kids and enjoy going through them, too.
      Sometimes, a run-on just does the job.

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